Doodle 4 Google Winner

This year's Doodle 4 Google winner was Layla Karpuz from from Mary, Mother of Hope Junior National School, Co. Dublin.

Artist's Commentary: My picture is about things that make me feel happy. In my picture you can see love hearts, curls, shamrocks, people with fancy hats, people going on a bear hunt, grass men (men disguised as grass), plants, shamrock plants for Ireland, Grannies and a caterpillar because I like searching for caterpillars, I used different colurs in my picture because it looks nice. I like my picture!

Here are some other colourful entries that we liked:

Well done to all entrants. Some very colourful and imaginative work there. 

Ireland needs your imagination..!

Le Corb: Formation SketchUp in France

Le Corbusier (Also known affectionately as "Le Corb") commented on the level of takeup of SketchUp in France*.... Again, we apologise for any offence caused by Mr Corb's outbursts. These are his views and not our own... Please note: English translation below.

Le Corb- "Making [his] voice heard above the useless noise"

"Il est clair que les Architectes Français ne sont pas à l'aide SketchUp autant qu'ils ledevraient. Sont-ils stupides? Non, bien sûr que non ... Ils sont tout simplement de vivre dans un univers parallèle où tout est rose et que le monde existe en deux dimensions. Bientôt la réalité 3D les frapper comme une brique 7 Dimensions dans la tête.

Lorsque cela se produit, et enfin la réalisation dont ils ont besoin SketchUp, Adebeo sera là pour ramasser les morceaux."

Translation: 

It's clear that French Architects are not using SketchUp as much as they should. Are they stupid? No, of course not... They are just living in a parallel universe where everything is rosy and the world exists in two dimensions. Soon the 3D reality will hit them like a 7 Dimensional brick into the head.

When this happens, and finally the realisation that they need SketchUp, Adebeo will be there to pick up the pieces.

Adebeo, headed by Denis Bolomier is a Google Authorised Training Centre based in Lyons, France. Mr. Corbusier has given his "advice" freely to the public purely out of an obsessive compulsion to "'elp".

Looking forward to the Computers in Education Society of Ireland Conference

We're giving a short workshop on SketchUp and Google Earth Geomodelling this Saturday 5th September, and really looking forward to it.. Thanks to John Hegarty for the invitation.

In the same vein, (teaching 3D skills in school) here is a really fascinating video about the use of 3D environments for teaching gifted children. This environment called "Mission V" is based on that of Second Life but adapted by James Corbett of Daynuv.com

We're looking forward to meeting James at the CESI conference.

2010: SketchUp Activity in Ireland

Its nearly the end of January 2011. We wanted to tell everyone what we did in 2010.


Well.. we:

• Trained and Certified 45 Architects + 10 Students in SketchUp Essentials 1.
• Successfully partnered with Cathal Breen of Precise Training, Dublin to schedule our SketchUp Courses in Dublin.
• Obtained CPD status with the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland.
• Trained 20 Students in Clongowes Wood College in Kildare how to model in Google Earth. (Ongoing project) Thanks to John Hegarty, IT teacher extraordinairre.
• Attended Google SketchUp Basecamp in Colorado September. (Thanks to Shara Rice.)
• Got airplay (twice) for "Le Corb" videos at Basecamp 2010 for the 300+ delegates (Thanks to Aidan Chopra)
• Were mentioned 4 times in the SketchUpdate official blog. (Thanks to Chris Cronin, Aidan and others.)
• Presented Google Earth in 3D at Saint Johns Central College Cork, Ireland, (Thanks to Pat Clarke)
• Construction Documents produced in SketchUp Pro were presented at the American Institute of Architects Expo in Miami.
• Initiated the Cork 3D Project for local enthusiasts. (results in 2011 hopefully)
• Presented our projects at the Annual Association of Geography Teachers of Ireland Association Meeting in Kilkenny. (Thanks to Peter Lydon of the AGTI and the Kilkenny Hibernian Hotel for assistance.)
• Exhibited/ Demonstrated Google Earth 3D at the Annual Cork "Discovery" Science Fair in City Hall.
• Got over 39,000 Youtube hits to our SketchUp videos.

Just to recap on our most "memorable" achievement, here's Le Corb in full flight talking about CAD, played at Basecamp 2010 in September:

Thats more than we thought we did! Good to write it down... The initiative to do this was inspired by Seth Godin Thanks Seth!

Clongowes Wood College: Pioneers in 3D Ireland project

Clongowes Wood has become the first school in Ireland to receive training in Google Earth geomodelling. We were very impressed by the students of Clongowes earlier this week who showed great tenaciousness to stick with two intense days of SketchUp and Google Earth training. We'll be assisting the students in getting their beautiful college campus onto the Google Earth public layer in 2011. Google Boulder are very interested in, and supportive of this project. More details will be published as the project progresses.. A huge thanks to John Hegarty, Clongowes' ultra-dedicated IT teacher for his great efforts in organising this event!

Clongowes Wood College, Kildare

Clongowes Wood was where James Joyce began his education.

Most popular SketchUp plugins – 2010 Update – by [as]

Alex Schreyer has done a very nice job of putting these plugins together. We will be doing a list of some of our favourites, but in the meantime here they are:

Most popular SketchUp plugins – 2010 Update – by [as]

Streetview comes to Ireland!

¡Olé!

Google made our job of modelling Ireland in 3D a whole lot easier! Now if you guys can get hi-res images of the whole country we would love you even more (we love you a lot already)