Major i18n conference hampered by lack of adequate internet service in Ireland

Yoda

The 21st International Unicode Conference will be here in Dublin next week (http://www.unicode.org). People from around the world will be attending this conference; I will be presenting a paper on Friday.

Today the presenters at the conference received the following message from the conference manager:

Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 10:50:47 -0700
From: Barbara Jarzyna
Subject: IUC21 - Internet connectivity

Dear Presenter,

After almost 2 months of trying to secure T1 or wireless Internet connectivity for the conference, I have found that it is just not available in Dublin.

We have had to resort to ISDN connectivity, already installed in the hotel. I have just had word from them this morning, hence the lateness of this note.

In order for you to have access, you will need to have an ISDN modem in your computer. If you are unable to secure one, we have purchased 3 modems for your use.

Barbara Jarzyna
Conference Manager.

dahamsta

'Nother one for the website Dave. You should start a new section, something like "Averse Affects"? "Damaging Ireland"?

("Eircom Bites"?)

adam

aidan_dunne

Hello government? Hello politicians? Anybody listening?

This is another good example of the mess we're in and how we are going to be further seen as a totally backward country when it comes to internet access by other countries. They're looking at this now and laughing and sn!ggering behind our backs.

If any politician, government official or eircom employee is reading this, please take note. This is the mess we are in. Pull your f**king fingers out of your ar$e$ and do something about it NOW!

sceptre

And that's the last major conference that'll be held in Dublin when word gets around

(of course looking at Eircoms site about leased lines, they do promise the sun moon and er, stars)

Take note government, TDs, civil servants and major telcos - word gets around about this kind of thing fast - and a loss of goodwill costs jobs.

Xian

http://www.unicode.org/iuc/iuc21/index.html
Conference attendees will include managers, software engineers, systems analysts, and product marketing personnel responsible for the development of software supporting Unicode as well as those involved in all aspects of the globalization of software and the Internet.

Those responsible should be ashamed of themselves for the damage they are doing to our international reputation. No excuses.

Boston

somebody contact the times

Dangger

Consider it done!

colinsky

I was at the conference in Tokyo, but it was convenient that I lived rather close and my employer paid for it. Didn't realize it was in Dublin this time 'round.

I was under the impression that we did have T1 here at our office though. Hmm.

rardagh

Leap Broadband offered her a 1MB symmetric Broadband Wireless connection, from the system we will be launching shortly, that we could have had installed last Monday for her.

However the Burlington opted to make available their eircom 'hi-speed' broadband service.

"They are currently reviewing their communications systems for guests."

I believe in future the hospitality industry will realise that times have changed with regard to the minimum Internet service required by conference participants.

skrobe

i know there trying to push isdn, but come on lads. At least confernce goers will be assured of super fast speeds at low low prices!!:rolleyes:

dahamsta

Yoda,

There have been a number of comments on this topic, most notably rardagh's, plus rardagh's comment has been referred to by (someone from) the ODTR. Someone has suggested that IrelandOffline ask the Burlington for comment, however there is a question as to whether the organisers were aware of LEAP's offer, and if they were, why they decided against it.

There is no doubt that an international conference centre should have better than ISDN connectivity, and the Jury's Hotel Group should be questioned about this, but it would be advantageous to have more facts. IrelandOffline would need to know all the circumstances involved before releasing anything to the press.

If we /did/ have the facts, however, it leaves IrelandOffline an opening to provide more hard evidence of the lack of competitiveness in Ireland. I've been saying for some time that we should be soliciting responses from organisations such as Jury's to demonstrate this, and this would appear to be a perfect example to start our archive.

On a related note, people may be interested to know that the Apache Group - the developers of the Open Source Apache webserver - attempted to hold a conference here last year - ApacheCon Europe - however it was cancelled because of "difficulties". I assume that connectivity was one of those difficulties, but I will contact Ken Coar (Rodent of Unusual Size) later today to find out if this was in fact the case.

adam

(sceptre: edited name of person from the ODTR out at their request: "Please remove my name from the email from this post. I do not want my personal details appearing on the board" Seemed like a reasonable request)

Yoda

I will do what I can. You need to send me your mobile number in a private message so I can put you in touch with Barbara.

timod

Probably unrelated... (but I supose, this whole thread about E1 lines and the like doesn't have much to do with consumer and small business net access)

The W3C are holding a conference in Dublin at the end of may:
http://www.w3c.rl.ac.uk/FutureEvents/Dublin_event_announce.html

(FYI, W3C "own" html/xml etc etc)

It's on the the Best Western Central Hotel. Might be interesting to see if they too are reduced to ISDN also...

dahamsta

I will do what I can. You need to send me your mobile number in a private message so I can put you in touch with Barbara.

Well, all I really need is a rundown of the situation, and email would suffice, but if she needs to talk to someone I suppose that can be arranged.

Jeez, I'll never be a recluse at this rate.

adam

Dangger

Adam I don't mind dealing with this if you like. Tony O'Reilly is after all paying me in gold bricks to keep up the work with IrelandOffline!

Yoda

Barbara Jarzyna tells me that yes, Leap did try, together with another company, to get something set up but at the last minute the Burlington decided to go with ISDN. I saw some participants try to use the ISDN modems today without much success. Ring the Burlington and leave a number for Barbara so she can ring you back if you want to talk to her.

dahamsta

Thanks Yoda, and Dave.

adam