Wireless hotzones, social networking, location based services and what it is all good for...

Since I have started blogging myself I have also dedicated an hour or so a day to reading other blogs. There are a surprising amount of good blogs out there discussing innovative ideas. I am very impressed by some of the Irish blogs; Irisheyes, ITnorthwest, IT-law and Piaras Kelly being the better ones (and my sincerest apologies to anyone I've missed).
There are several issues that are mentioned over and over again on most of the blogs; social networking being one of them. Personally I am still amazed by the popularity of sites such as Myspace, bebo, YouTube Flickr and the plethora of sites like that. My interest in them is only fleeting..
However I am not too thick to realize the social impact of sites like this and can also not ignore the mass-appeal of them.

Sites like these combined with the current spate of IM applications all serve the "I am here, please look at me" generation. On a personal level they seem to give people a certain extent of self-worth while looking from a business perspective they serve as a new medium to create awareness of a business or idea while also creating a medium for interactive and to a certain extent personalized marketing and advertising.

Now, as my company is rolling out what will become a pan-European network of WiFi hotzones we put a large emphasis on services and applications that we will offer through our network. We do not see broadband access as the main aim and expect to invest heavily in offering web based applications and communications "tools" through our network. Access to our network is built around a portal site through which we expect to provide access to a number of social & business networking sites. However we are also looking at providing a number of Location based services. We also would like to offer users of our network access to a range of web based (hosted) applications possibly using "web 2.0" technologies.
As there is a lot discussion and development of these technologies in Ireland I would be interested in organising a meeting where people involved with or interested in these technologies and their applications could exchange ideas. I do realise that a huge amount of discussion is already going on via blogs and forums however it sometime helps to center all discussions to one time and location. Such a meeting could be in person (while enjoying some bevvies) or could be in virtual form through a Skypecast or similar medium.

So that's it, that's my idea.
If you're interested please email me or put a comment on this post and I will organise something..