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.

I took a shining to Dublin-based Amulet Devices after a chat and a demo in Dublin last week. Many will remember my days with Dragon Systems/L&H and thereafter a handful of other speech-related companies, so it’s no surprise when presented with a slick voice remote that controls your Windows Media Center, my ears might just perk up. 

Dublin-based, five people are based on home turf and one person is based in of all places, Boise, Idaho. The company has been showing prototypes at the last two CES’s although they just started shipping this past September.

They are currently being funded by Enterprise Ireland and some angel investors. Co-founder Eddy Carroll tells me more in an interview I did with him in a Dublin conference room, which unlike an American west coast one, had tons of mahogany, Victorian-colored carpets, drapes and leather couches.

Today, they’re both a hardware and software company, although for anyone who has been in the hardware business, they know its much harder and more expensive than a software download or a SaaS solution.

They’ve been working on building a reseller network in the states and it looks like from their State Dealer Index, that they’re well on their way to some serious distribution.

Interestingly enough, they’re not using Nuance, the dominating speech recognition leader who has been gobbling up voice companies for years.

The engine behind the voice commands is from Microsoft, which frankly, given its limited vocabulary and the fact that it only needs to tap into a database of 200-300 base control commands, it doesn’t have to be the most robust solution on the market. The main questions for consumers will be: is it accurate, respond to me quickly and easy-to-use?

While the full vocabulary may include anywhere from 5,000-10,000 individual matches, most people will end up using the same commands to control their entertainment center again and again.

Furthermore, the system learns from your voice over time, improving the accuracy and tweaking the acoustic model every time you use it.  

You can record and watch TV, listen to your favorite music, and view DVDs, videos and photos, all using simple voice commands. For example, you could simply say “Watch Channel NBC” to change the TV channel to NBC. To view an episode of Mad Men recorded last night, say “Watch Program Mad Men”. If you want to listen to music, could simply say “Play Artist U2”.  

 They’re exploring the set-top market and cloud computing space to see what kind of opportunities lie there in the future. For now, it’s about distribution and getting new customers. Below, Eddy talks about some of the features and shows us how easy it is to get set up and use. Initial price point is $259.

The below video captures Clara Shih’s talk on the Facebook Era at BizTechDay in San Francisco this past weekend. She says, “understand your target market and do your social graph homework.” Key takeaways:

• She dives into connections online and what they mean, how to understand how Facebook and Twitter are changing people’s behavior, expectations, and relationships – and what that means for your business.

 Her insights unveil how real companies are succeeding at sourcing leads and engaging customers on Facebook.

She also addresses how you can do more with less, and how to better leverage the power of your networks to improve your productivity on and offline.

Ben Parr of Mashable stressed the need to engage in the social web if you hope to succeed as a small or large brand at this weekend’s BizTechDay in San Francisco. Key takeaways include:

1. Go to where your customers are….and more and more people are hanging out in social networks….on the social web.

2. Don’t let someone else tell your story. The key thing to social is that YOU can tell your story directly.

3. Great ideas solve two problems: a problem that affects people – “if you think that you can just build it and they will come, it’s BULL,” Ben says. The second problem you can solve is distribution and social media is a distribution channel, an ultimate one.

4. Lastly, he says, “if you think of social media as tools, then you are a tool. Social media is about people. Social media is about communication. Social media is about engagement.”

Bottom line, in order to build a remarkable brand, you have to build a channel first and engage that channel in interesting ways and often. A video clip of the last part of his talk below.