The Ideas Campaign has received ideas from as far afield as Afghanistan, China, Canada, Ethiopia, and Montserrat in the Caribbean.
The campaign also has a worldwide Twitter following, from California and Vancouver to the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Athens and the UK.
One tweet came in Spanish from a person in the Canary Islands saying that they could do with an Ideas Campaign there. It was followed by an email with the subject line “Fantastic Campaign and can we borrow it in Scotland?”
The latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Agriculture and food
A new organisation with a proposed name of PLANT. Standing for: Plant Land And New Trees.
A “can do” voluntary organisation for three categories: Ordinary environmentally concerned citizens, the same in land owners, and the same in tree nursery growers.
The latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Culture
It is great that Ireland can copy the “core competencies” of other developed nations (e.g. excel in “manufacturing” like Japan or the USA). However, this adds economic vulnerability, as recent times have shown, as manufacturers constantly seek lower cost countries for their new base.
Ireland should develop its own competency which cannot be outsourced. Ultimately, when everyone is done with the working day worldwide, they then seek leisure and the arts. Ireland should keep its economic diversity, but should focus on a national core competency.
The deadline for ideas submissions closed on 31 March 2009.
If you missed our deadline but still have a good idea to share, don’t forget that there are several other ongoing initiatives that broadly share the same aim as us - tapping into the people’s ideas for rebuilding the Irish economy.
These sites that are currently gathering ideas online include:
A total of 5,284 ideas were logged on the Ideas Campaign’s website between the campaign launch on 5 March and 31 March, the deadline for this phase of the campaign. One of the ideas in particular was covered on yesterday’s Six One News on RTÉ 1.
Phase two of the Ideas Campaign was launched this morning following a huge response by citizens to create ideas for Irish economic renewal and recovery.
A total of 5,284 ideas were submitted on our website between the campaign’s launch on 5 March and last night (31 March), the deadline for this phase of the campaign.
Traffic to the website approached almost 48,000 visits during the same period, with a typical visitor spending approximately 4.5 minutes on the site.
International interest in the campaign is also now considerable and represents 17% of traffic.
Policy, education, environmental initiatives and tourism were the top categories for ideas submitted. Three out of four ideas logged from overseas came from people born in Ireland.
Action is the theme of phase two of the campaign, which involves:
“This is the start, not the end of the Ideas Campaign, which is independent and non-political,” said Campaign Director Aileen O’Toole.
“The response we have received shows that Irish people are creative, resourceful and want to focus on solutions to the economic problems.”
An expert Advisory Group has started the process of evaluating the ideas received, while four accountancy firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC) are assisting the campaign team to review and evaluate the ideas submitted.
Patrick Collison
Technology entrepreneur Patrick Collison (20) from Limerick has joined the Advisory Group of the Ideas Campaign.
Patrick and his brother John made headlines a year ago when they sold their company Auctomatic, which provides software for eBay users, to Canadian firm Live Current Media for around $5 million.
Patrick is currently raising capital for a start-up venture and has been involved in a number of innovative coding projects, such as the development of an application to allow iPhone users to browse an offline copy of Wikipedia.
A former student at MIT and BT Young Scientist of the Year, Patrick currently divides his time between the US and Ireland.
Read more about the Advisory Group
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