The Big Tech Show

This week, Adrian is joined by a vastly experienced Irish media panel in the area of digital media and technology: co-founder of Kinzen and Storyful Mark Little, founder of Maximum Media Niall McGarry and co-founder and editor of The Currency, Ian Kehoe.The panel dives deep into the problems and opportunities for media in a technology-dominated landscape.In his first extensive public commentary since his company’s examinership, Niall McGarry also addresses the issue of the ‘click farm’ incident in 2017 that saw the publisher of Joe.ie and Her.ie lose a substantial amount of revenue from advertisers after an employee was found to have manipulated listenership figures on an AIB-sponsored podcast.“It was so isolated, such a one-off and so unique to a publisher like us that I think a lot of people jumped on it and made it a much bigger story than it was,” he says.“It gave a huge amount of traditional media organisations an opportunity to have a pop at us because we came out of nowhere. We didn't come from the Dublin media set. We had created something new.”Mr McGarry says that he wants to “put the incident behind us and move on”, instead focusing on “some of the amazing work we've done”.“I think our organisation has been incredibly impactful on things like the Eighth Amendment referendum and on marriage equality. We were the first brand to get out there and get behind a yes campaign.”Niall believes that the company is “too big to fail” and has “too important a role” in Ireland not to emerge from its current High Court examinership process.The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian dives into the murky, colourful world of online fraud, scams and cyber security.He and security expert Brian Honan look at the latest threats, occasionally getting side-tracked by the pros and cons of encryption, password managers and just how famous an Irish celebrity you have to be for your face to be illegally attached to diet pills or cryptocurrency scams.They also look at resources in place in Ireland to fight cybercrime and whether more is required.The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zoom is the single biggest breakthrough service of the 2020 global lockdown, in or out of tech. Before February, it was a niche business tech tool. 90 days on, it’s a global household name. Grannies, schoolteachers and friends now use it daily. It has replaced ‘Skype’ and ‘FaceTime’ as our default verb for video-conferencing. And the chief information officer, responsible for making large chunks of it work, is a man from Rathfarnham. Harry Moseley is unlike a typical CIO. He’s relaxed and easygoing with the emeritus demeanor of a board member rather than the guy logging 14-hour days to make sure everything is ticking.Adrian hears from Harry about the “upsetting” moments over security reports in recent weeks. He also touches on his childhood here, including growing up as a Jewish kid in Dublin.Adrian also talks to Vanessa Tierney, CEO and co-founder of Abodoo, an Irish firm set up with a specialty in matching remote workers to employers.In a wide-ranging chat, Adrian and Vanessa go beyond the clichés of remote working to discuss the future of cities and whether there’ll be a generational split in who wants to live in built-up areas.The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian talks to Jonathan Ruane, lecturer in global economics and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), adjunct professor at TCD and a previous co-founder of Eventovate, which he sold in 2016.Do Irish startups deserve a handout from the state? Or should it be considered a handup? After all, aren’t startups supposed to define a bootstrapping and disruptive culture?The two also tackle some much broader contextual issues around the culture behind startups and funding -- from anti-intellectualism to why inheritance tax should be increased to spur more innovation.It’s a fascinating diversion into some of the deeper issues behind the daily debates that normally make up the bulk of discussions on the topic.The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a packed episode this week, Adrian asks whether the gold rush for back-to-work thermal cameras in Ireland is warranted and looks at how startups are coping with live under pandemic conditions.Thermal cameras are being painted as a key tech enabler to get Ireland moving again, from airports and hospitals to ordinary businesses. But TCD’s Dr Seamus O’Shaughnessy explains their limitations to Adrian in plain English.Then the founder and chief executive of one of Ireland’s most successful indigenous software firms, Phorest, tells Adrian about startup struggles during the current lockdown. He also explains how his company’s technology is helping hundreds of hairdressers in Germany to re-open safely.The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian talks to Alison.com founder Mike Feerick, who runs one of Europe’s biggest online learning platforms with 15m registered users. Telling Adrian that April brought 600,000 new registrants to his site, Mike explains why the writing is on the wall for universities which are “too expensive” and “out of date”.“Most employers just want to know that you can do a particular job,” he says from his Galway base. “I loved being at Harvard but it was for the people I met there, not the actual learning material.”The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the world watches governments’ introduction of contact-tracing apps, new research from Trinity College Dublin suggests that the involvement of Google could cause privacy problems in at least one contact-tracing model.Adrian Weckler talks to Professor Dough Leith, chair of Computer Systems at the School of Computer Science and Statistics at TCD, who has taken a close look at Google’s involvement in Singapore’s OpenTrace platform, used for its TraceTogether app.His paper, jointly compiled by TCD research fellow Stephen Farrell, concludes that Google’s Firebase Analytics could mean that supposedly anonymous users might be identified. It also warns about potential ad-targeting associated with the same technology.All of this comes after reports that the Irish contact-tracing app has undergone a recent design change, potentially involving Google in its makeup.And it comes as Google and Apple intensify their joint approach to contact-tracing, offering more data about how their API might work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian brings on veteran tech reporter John Kennedy and former TD Noel Rock to run through some of the stories of the week. Noel gives an insight into the pressures that politicians can face from constituents on issues such as the erection of mobile masts, even when the science behind the arguments seems shaky. (He describes himself as an opponent of vigilante anti-5G groups.)John talks about how he sees tech companies coping with the lockdown and what we might expect to see next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been described as ‘the safety net’ of the pandemic. But how much do we, or should we, rely on GoFundMe?This week, Adrian hosts a Zoom call with Tim Cadogan, GoFundMe’s recently-appointed chief executive.They talk about how much people are committing to GoFundMe campaigns here, including almost €1m to a ‘Feed The Heroes’ campaign in recent weeks.Irish people remain some of the biggest givers per capital on GoFundMe, Tim says.But Adrian asks Tim what it says about society that so many campaigns relate to things like medical bills or domestic emergencies. Are we letting authorities off the hook?And they look more widely at whether tech companies have been a good or a bad influence during the Covid-19 lockdown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're become used to hearing giant web companies described as leeches, health risks and agents of discord.But has the tone changed, now that we're all eagerly using their services to survive while locked in our homes?Are we quietly shelving our pearl-clutching hysteria about the dangers of 'screen time' and notional long-term health fears over using smartphones?Do we care as much if their free, or cheap, platforms slurp data?This week, Adrian Weckler is joined by senior Irish tech investor (and Draper Esprit partner) Brian Caulfield and data protection expert (and Castlebridge research director) Katherine O'Keefe to weave a path through the pros and cons of the scenario we now find ourselves in.The panel also discuss the finer points of working from home, as well as the challenge that brings.And they look at the benefits and pitfalls of Ireland's upcoming contact tracing app.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.