A sheltered internet technology created by Meath native Ian Clarke (pictured) has opened an anonymous world of electronic communication to Chinese dissidents and child pornographers alike. By Joseph Galvin

The Irish Times website won the Best in Media award at the 2010 Digital Media Awards last night, beating Heineken Music, RTE's Morning Ireland and its live news website, RTE News Now.

The site was praised for its broad appeal, its content and its design. Online editor Hugh Linehan said he was "delighted" with the award and said he hoped to continue to build on the popularity of the website.

Two GAA players have developed an innovative website that fundraises for local sports clubs. By Joseph Galvin.

In the midst of the economic recession last summer, Diarmuid Duggan and Noel Furlong realised that local sports clubs were finding it more difficult than ever to stay afloat. 

The hype leading up to the launch of Apple's new iPad was, even if exciting for a few of Apple's most die-hard fans, alarming to the more reflexive among us.

Apple does have an irrefutable history of launching industry-changing products, starting with the Apple II in 1977, and featuring most importantly, not the iPad or the iPhone or the iPod, but the Macintosh in 1984. This was and still is the only one (apart from possibly the Apple II) that can seriously be called a "tool" because, unlike all the others, you can use it to create as well as consume content.

Ireland's credibility as a 'knowledge economy' is being spoiled by the Irish
 government's ineptitude in matters technological writes Malachy Browne

Central to the success of any business is reputation and projecting an image of a leader in the field. Competitive terms too, of course, but expertise (or competence at least) is pivotal to success.

In October 2008, the Irish government set out its stall. "The themes of knowledge, innovation and connectedness are firmly at the heart of the Irish Government's strategy to position Ireland as a leading knowledge economy," it said in a report entitled "Knowledge and enterprise clusters in Ireland". It continued: "Ireland's competitiveness is not just based on an attractive tax regime... but on knowledge, innovation, flexibility and connectedness."

Dóchas, the umbrella group for Irish development non-governmental organisations (NGOs), has launched a website to provide information on how Irish aid agencies and the Irish government respond to emergencies. The 'How You Can Help' website takes on renewed importance in the wake of the current crisis in Haiti where an earthquake has claimed the lives of up to 50,000 people and left millions more homeless according to the Haitian Red Cross. 

Since, some two weeks ago, I avoided the cold damp miseries of our British winter by moving myself to southern California (and avoided disruption of my daily activities by moving my laptop with me), I have been investigating the world of self publishing by e-book – digital self publishing.

This is quite different from ‘vanity’ publishing; the means by which those who believe that they deserve to be remembered either for their literary merits, or for what they are or have done, pay up front to be published by a publishing house prepared to make such an arrangement, to have a minimum run printed and the book distributed to the retail trade. They take subsequently a pre-agreed share of any revenue earned.

A mobile phone application has been developed which could reduce road crashes worldwide. The technology, named iZUP, uses GPS tracking in smartphones to detect the speed at which the phone is moving in a vehicle. At speeds of over 5 miles per hour, calls are automatically routed to voicemail, text messages are held and only outgoing certain emergency numbers may be used. The app can be temporarily disabled for public transport trips, and Illume Software, who developed the app, told Politico that "a seamless solution in which the phone can automatically detect if you are on public transport is being developed".