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If you’re like me, passionate about everything web related but can’t justify spending €100′s on conferences like FOWA or Build then you probably love barcamps as much as I do.

You’ll also love the free web technology conference – the dot conf - being hosted by the National College of Ireland on July 22nd. It’s a fantastic opportunity to go and listen to some industry experts and a great way for NCI to promote their new MSc in Web Technologies course.

There is a diverse list of speakers, from journalists, educators, web professionals and technology advocates – all experts in their fields. As well as some “deep dive” sessions (hands-on workshops).

Personally I’m really looking forward to checking out the National E-learning Laboratory, who recently published some pretty interesting data on what Irish people pay attention to when using Facebook.

Conferences like these are a great networking opportunity (especially if you are self employed or “between projects” at the moment). Bring you business cards and wear your hottest geek tshirt, you just never know who you might bump into.

NCI is based in the IFSC – possibly one of the easiest places to get to in Dublin, so there’s no excuse not to attend.

Rather than breaking with tradition, having attended and very much enjoyed 3Dcamp in both 2008 and 2009, I will be attending again this year. Luckily the venue is a bit closer to home. The Institute of Technology, Tallaght to be exact. So I’ll be jumping on a relatively quick Luas (instead of the usual two hour train to Limerick) on Saturday (29th of May 2010) and attending some of the great talks on offer.

Though my direction may have changed recently I still have a personal interest in 3D, augmented reality and Location based Services. Also, it’s good business sense to keep up to date with these emerging technology trends.

Talks of Interest to me?

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Having very much enjoyed this same event last year, myself and some fellow Cyberpsychology students will be road tripping it down to Limerick again for the barcamp unconference 3Dcamp “the internet beyond the 2D browser”. This event is taking place on Saturday the 6th of June and you can register to attend and/or present here. One of the most interesting components of the M.Sc. Cyberpsychology course is the study of the psychological effects of virtual environments, hence our interest. However, 3Dcamp also covers a variety of other technologies and has a wonderful ability to showcase current research and development.

Talks of interest to a Cyberpsychologist?

Mark Campbell from eMedia will be showcasing 3D Medical animations employed as elearning tools for life sciences.

Ronan Skehill from YourPinPoints shall discuss the business, societal and privacy issues surrounding location based services.

PhD Researcher David McKeown will be discussing the shortcomings of 2D mice and keyboards being used to interface with 3D environments, and demonstrating the use of wiimotes with 3D PC applications and robots.

Artist Miriam Lohan will introduce Sound Mapping – how to read a map by listening, perceiving presence and filtering information for navigation or pleasure.

PhD Student Fabiano Pinatti will explore how technology can support the nomadic/mobile aspects of modern work and life.

In two weeks time I’m off to Limerick to attend the Congress of Psychology Students – this is an annual event where undergraduate and postgraduate psychology students (and sometimes their supervisors) present the research that they have conducted, usually in the last year or two. At this event two years ago I presented my own research, and plan on doing so once again at next year’s congress.

The congress is a wonderful opportunity to gather information about the current direction of Irish psychological research and based on the information from the timetable for presentations it appears that the majority of the research to be presented is coming from the traditional mainstream topics of scientific psychology. From almost 200 presentations taking place only about 10 of these are related to I.T in some way, which personally is a big disappointment, especially considering the ubiquity of communications technologies in Ireland and the number of I.T companies based here.

Applying psychological studies to technology has always been a niche in this country, which is surprising because it has so many positive and negative impacts upon Irish working life, home life, education etc. It is something that I feel passionately about, especially the importance of applying scientific methods to research in I.T – rather than the current climate of unreliable surveys and the media shaping public knowledge and ideas about how we use and interact with one another through technology.

I did however note an increase in the areas of research related to gay men and lesbians (though it is still a tiny percentage of the 200 presentations). There are of course many other areas of research that I have an interest in and below is a list of the selected presentations which I will aiming to attend.

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