September 2016 goodies

Digital skill levels in Ireland continue to fall, with marketing professionals achieving an average test score of just 38% in an international digital skills test, down from 42% in 2014.
 
This is according to the Digital Marketing Institute digital skills report for 2016 which found that digital skills in Ireland were on a par with the UK (37%) and the USA (38%), highlighting an emerging trend of low digital competence across the three economies. A score of at least 60% is needed to achieve entry-level competency in digital marketing.
 
The new report, ‘Missing the Mark: The digital marketing skills gap in Ireland, UK and USA’, was conducted on behalf of the Digital Marketing Institute by independent market research firm Behaviour & Attitudes.
 
The research shows that the most significant drop in skills was in the mobile category with a test result of 40% on average, down from 47% in 2014. There were also reductions in skills in search (37% v 41%), display (35% v 39%), strategy (38% v 40%), email (38% v 40%) and social media (37% v 40%). 
 
Participants in Dublin (42%) fared better than non-Dublin (37%), although there was a sharp drop in the capital, down from 48% in 2014. Overall, self-employed participants fared best of all (43%), compared to those employed full-time (36%) and part-time (34%).
 
A lack of resources is cited as the single greatest challenge to improving digital skills within organisations, according to respondents in Ireland (60%). The issue is only slightly less prevalent in the UK (50%) and the USA (47%).
 
Fifty five per cent of professionals in Ireland say the pace of technological change within their organisations is too slow with the US (49%) and the UK (46%) in agreement.
 
Irish workers (72%) followed by the counterparts in the USA (63%) are also most likely to agree that becoming ‘more digitally focused will be critical to their organisation in the next two years.' Eighty per cent of Irish workers believe they need to improve their digital skills for their careers to progress.

Two principles of highly productive teams One of the major challenges that we’ve gone through in the last year is figuring out how to stay highly productive as our team grew from 5 to 12 people. While...

The enemy of the great is the good. I'm in Las Vegas for the Conor McGregor-Diaz UFC 202 fight and wanted to record this thought that my first mentor taught me

Adventures in Writing, Publishing and Book Marketing

Poetry in all its forms including classic selections from our Literature Department, Haikus, poetry for children, and poetry with special appeal for tweens and teens. Read poets from diverse…

The American poet, who has also won the TS Eliot prize and the Pulitzer, is credited for her ‘outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry’

Poetry in all its forms including classic selections from our Literature Department, Haikus, poetry for children, and poetry with special appeal for tweens and teens. Read poets from diverse…

An audioBoom by jn2n

Chicago Squared • Architecture, Art, and Life in Chicagoland • Twitter:@Lohmus

In November 2014, we released our Klout 50 Retailer list that measured retailers that had the most social influence among consumers. While Amazon,

Nizami Ganjavi (Persian: نظامی گنجوی, Nezāmi Ganjavi‎‎) (1141 to 1209) (6th Hejri century), Nizami Ganje'i,[2] Nizami,[3] or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī,[4] was a 12th-century Persian[2][5][6][7][8][9] Sunni[10] Muslim poet. Nezāmi is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature,[11] who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic.[1][3] His heritage is widely appreciated and shared by Afghanistan,[2] Azerbaijan,[12] Iran,[2] the Kurdistan region[13][14][15] and Tajikistan.[2]

The Opera Platform is the online destination for the promotion and enjoyment of opera. It is designed to appeal equally to those who already love opera and

The European opera season online. Every month, discover a new production alongside a range of background material.

Brian Bilston, the "unofficial poet laureate of Twitter", explains the power of online verse.

Googolplexian: The world's largest number (biggest) with a name. The number One - followed by a googolplex of zeros.

Tony Curtis Irish Poet's offical website this page is the blog page

Challenge accepted.

Enterprise Ireland today announced a new €500,000 Competitive Start Fund (CSF) to support start up activity in all sectors. The Fund which provides €50,000 in equity funding for each successful applicant will open for submissions on 21st September 2016 and will close at 3pm 5th October 2016.

The Democratic Party has become something both JFK and RFK would deplore—the party of war.

"When you're awake, you know you're awake. But when you aren't, you don't know you aren't."

Bringing Composing the Island to an end, tonight at 8pm Paul Herriott presents ‘Out of the Cradle: A Choral Finale’. Having traversed a century of music in I...

We had nobody to help us. It’s a disgusting feeling, the feeling of exile.

“The staggering, joyful artistry of Joyce DiDonato reminds us that in any generation there are a few giants. Joyce is not only a great, brave and inspiring artist – one of the finest singers of our time- but she is also a transformative presence in the arts. Those who know her repertoire are in awe of her gifts, and those who know nothing of it are instantly engaged. Joyce sings and the world is suddenly brighter. She compels us to listen actively, to hear things anew.”

Find out more about Poems That Make Grown Women Cry by Anthony Holden, Ben Holden at Simon & Schuster. Read book reviews & excerpts, watch author videos & more.

Following the success of their anthology Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, father-and-son team Anthony and Ben Holden, working with Amnesty International, have asked the same revealing question of 100 remarkable women. What poem has moved you to tears?  The poems chosen range from the eighth century to today, from Rumi and Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, W.H. Auden to Carol Ann Duffy, Pablo Neruda and Derek Walcott to Imtiaz Dharker and Warsan Shire. Their themes range from love and loss, through mortality and mystery, war and peace, to the beauty and variety of nature. Alongside Dame Judi Dench, Joan Baez, Yoko Ono and 100 other extraordinary women, Joyce DiDonato selects the poem that always makes her cry: Emily Dickinson’s “The World Feels Dusty” to share in this unique collection, that delivers private insights into the minds of women whose writing, acting, and thinking are admired around the world.