Having run the Annual Commercialisation Showcase in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland’s ICT Commercialisation unit for successive years Zircol.com (aka investnet ltd) became conscious of the need to bring industry and high quality research projects together the year round.

So we setup a Social network for it.

We hope this social network is the answer and whilst the ICT Commercialisation Social Network project is in BETA format we're open to the suggestions of members on ways to improve. We also have an API should you wish to design an additional application or two.

The idea is that research teams can upload their personal profiles and any public "domain" project content or project descriptors the year round and use this social utility to get;

1. The ability to connect and learn of the work being carried out by academic peers and research colleagues (leading to potential new and exciting collaborations).
2. Access to networking and discussion items such as community based blog posting and boards
3. A useful marketing tool for their: spin out, licensing business or start-up
4. The ability to attract executives from the ICT sector to join their product or technology teams by searching for the desired expertise
5. Connections with industry and search browser visibility for your domain expertise

In return industry exec's get to network with the academic community and learn what new products are there for commercial exploitation.

Also available in the "Create Content Section" are a range of other tools; such as a turnkey events management system for college based seminars and the ability to create branded personalized networks (create a network tab) in only 5 minutes by uploading your own logos and choosing a colour scheme. Add to this to ability to make your content private public or protected and you have a publishing tool which allows high search visibility for your domain of expertise.

All in all we're delighted to be finally bringing this project together after so many years of discussion and we hope that this online community will provide a solid point of contact for its members the year round.

Regards,
marc butterly
founder
zircol.com