Irish Rose Consulting

Our good friend Connie Loden recently published an article titled “Localism - What’s the Attraction?” on the NewGeography web site.

“So, what is the “local” appeal? It is the character and quality of life that provides a sense of place – a reminiscence feeling of authenticity and knowing the source of where things come from, who made it and how it was grown. There is a desire to make the personal connection and create an experience in the purchase of a product. That experience often equates to wanting to have that sense of place association. The sense of place character is one that has a unique quality, a distinction and flavor that brings out the emotional response which translates to being an experience of culture and belonging.”

The whole thing is well worth a read, check it out.

Congratulations are also due Connie for being awarded the Ron Shaffer Award by the National Rural Development Partnership. Connie is the first Wisconsinite to win the award. Well done Connie, it’s well deserved!

We ventured out into the frozen evening last night to shoot some pictures at Menomonie’s WinterDaze 2008 parade and fireworks. The parade was organized by our good friends at Main Street Menomonie. Congratulations to the whole crew of volunteers who made this event a great outing.

• Our friend JoAnn Stormer, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program and founder of the Wisconsin Nonprofits Association, was featured in an Executive Q&A column in the Wisconsin State Journal. Irish Rose Consulting is proud to help WNA with their web site.
• Mark Lewis was recently named the new Executive Director of the Dunn County Economic Development Corporation. Welcome to Dunn County Mark!

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  Custom laser-etched Moleskine notebooks. Pricey, but very cool!
  (tags: moleskine)

• Photoshop Brushes
  A good collection of Photoshop freebies.
  (tags: photoshop design)
• Presenting with style
  A presentation from the founder of the Presentation Zen blog on better presentations. Lots of good tips here.
  (tags: presentation powerpoint)

• Paul Graham at Startup School 08 | Omnisio
  A good talk on how to create a successful startup - including a surprising plug for benevolence.
  (tags: startup entrepreneurship)

• Freebase: an open, shared database of the world’s knowledge
  Cool stuff.
  (tags: database opensource)

• Census Atlas of the United States
  The first comprehensive atlas of population and housing produced by the Census Bureau since the 1920s. Data from decennial censuses prior to 2000 support nearly 150 maps and figures, providing context and an historical perspective for many of the topics p
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• AfriGadget
  A blog showing ingenious gadgets from Africa. Basic needs-type stuff, but they get the job done.
  (tags: africa technology)
• CodeIgniter - Open source PHP web application framework
  CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications.
  (tags: php framework)

• Yahoo Releases Internet Location Platform
  An interesting API from Yahoo for dealing with real-world locations.
  (tags: geo api location)

• plasq.com - Comic Life for Windows
  Software to make your own comics. I might try this for graphics for my next presentation.
  (tags: comics photo)
• Unique Skins - Custom Vinyl Skins For Mobile Phones, iPod, MP3 Players, Gaming Consoles and More!
  Design a protective vinyl skin for your laptop or MP3 player. Cheap!
  (tags: skins laptop)