O’Reilly Media’s Brady Forrest leads a panel on location-based services at this year’s Web 2.0 Summit. On the panel includes: SimpleGeo’s Matt Galligan, Shopkick’s Cyriac Roeding and Yelp’s Jeremy Stoppelman.

John Battelle interviews LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner, fireside chat style at Web 2.0 Summit this past week in San Francsico – from business models and strategy to LinkedIn’s place in the world of social networking sites and whether it plans to adopt any of Facebook’s features.

Below is a half an hour fireside chat with Ev Williams at yesterday’s Web 2.0 Summit. Have a listen to Ev’s thoughts about Twitter’s future strategic direction and where they’re going and why in an interview with John Battelle on-stage in a boardroom at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.

Camara's John Fitzsimons tells me about their latest work in Africa during a recent trip to Dublin.

We have both spent time in Africa volunteering and teaching so had some common ground; the difference is John is still committed to making a difference there through his day-to-day working as General Manager of Camara.

It has nothing to do with photography despite the a/e slip in the word that could fool you if you read too quickly.

All about giving back, Carama is a volunteer organization dedicated to using technology to deliver education more effectively to disadvantaged communities in Africa and Ireland.

They operate as a social enterprise in two distinct business lines: ‘Education Delivery’ and ‘Computer Reuse’. The connection between these two, seemingly disparate activities is technology.

Essentially they bring in in used computers from Irish companies and individuals, wipe their hard drives of data (in line with US Department of Defense standards), refurbish and load them with educational software before setting them up as Learning Centres in schools in Africa and Ireland. How cool is that?

What's with the name I ask him? It's the Bantu name for one who teachers with experience John says. They currently do most of their work in Lesotho, Zambia, Tanzanaire, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

"Camara is not the typical NGO," John says. "I'm not an international specialist. The return on investment for us is a social return, not a financial return. We want to be a 'social enterprise.'" They train teachers to use these computers as tools to improve the delivery of education to their students. And, they produce computer training and educational multimedia materials for use by teachers and children.

When Camara was established in 2005, they had two core beliefs: 1) Education is the key for people to break the cycle of poverty they find themselves in; and 2) properly used, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be harnessed to revolutionize the way world class education is delivered to disadvantaged communities.

"The Internet is such a great leveler, creating so many equal opportunities with education and distant learning," says John. More on their program and how they operate below.

Below, F.ounders organizer and producer Paddy Cosgrave talks to me about the history behind the event, how it got started, and his vision for the future. The chat took place at a 150 year old house along Dublin’s Kildare Street early this month.

Below, I’m chatting with TweetMeme’s CEO and Founder Nick Halstead in Dublin earlier this month where he shares his latest insights and company developments. Location? The historical 150 year old Royal College of Physicians of Ireland on Dublin’s Kildare Street. The building abounds with historic detail, including an impressive library and exhibition of medical artefacts. Have a listen:

Below the F.ounders closing dinner in Dublin’s Guinness Storehouse, a group of European, American and Irish entrepreneurs give a big hoorah to Paddy Cosgrave for an amazing turnout and ‘show’. On stage are folks such as Michael Birch, Jeff Clavier, Tariq Krim, Divyank Turakhia, Matt Galligan and others. The event brought together thought leaders, technology companies, innovators and investors from Europe, the States and the rest of Ireland under one roof.

Below, the Irish Prime Minister’s Chief Economic Advisor Peter Clinch addresses a group of technology movers and shakers at a private dinner in Dublin earlier this month – the dinner gathered Irish entrepreneurs, European start-ups and illuminaries (folks like Michael Birch), venture capitalists, media, bloggers and American superstars, such as Chad Hurley and Jack Dorsey. The talk was given at the historical Iveagh House in Dublin.

I couldn’t resist….it was too good. Michael Birch at the F.ounders event in Dublin last week serving Guinness. Not only is he a serial entrepreneur but he loves Guinness and dives in wherever there’s interest and demand. 🙂

While social utility Weedle may be based in Dublin, it has a growing user-base in the U.S., says CEO Iain Mac Donald, who I had a chance to chat with at the F.ounders conference last week.

Free to use, Weedle enables a better way for you to get found by people who need your skill and also, to find people who have the skills you need. Think lawyers, shoe repair, accountants, hairdressers, piano teachers, tutors, photographers, web designers and more. Leveraging social media with semantic technologies, they’re combining both with their own search and social graph algorithm, to increase the effectiveness of a match that is right for you — whether you need the skill or you are promoting yours to the world.

Because it’s based on your personal community, you learn about people who have a particular skill inside your network and can see who in that trusted network has used a person and what they think. It’s the kind of service that essentially anyone can benefit from; give it a try as it only takes a couple of minutes to get started. CEO with a personality — Iain Mac Donald — tells us more.