There’s hardly a person in Ireland who hasn’t heard of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Such is the popularity of hurling and Gaelic football that almost every parish has its own club. It’s an important part of what it means to be Irish and the games are now played around the globe. Despite its iconic status, the story of the founder of the GAA remains largely untold... until now.

MMID was commissioned earlier this year to design & develop a multimedia experience which would bring to life the fascinating story of Michael Cusack.

Set in the very cottage Cusack grew-up in, the exhibition spans across three rooms. In the first area, 'The living Quarters', the visitor is welcomed by Michael Cusack sitting by the fire. Cusack tells us how it was like to grow-up in the Burren in the mid-nineteenth century before prompting the visitor to bring some turf to the classroom next door just as he would have done as a pupil in Carron National School.

In the classroom, Cusack remembers his life as a pupil and tells us about how he became a teacher and went on to found his own academy. Here we discover his passion for Gaelic Games and follow the captivating journey which would lead him to the founding of the GAA in Hayes' Hotel, Thurles in 1884.

The visitor is invited to witness the historical meeting in the third room which has been redecorated as Hayes's Commercial Hotel & Posting Establishment for the occasion. The meeting is followed by an old newsreel projection retracing the GAA's history until today's Croke Park - a testimony to the founder's vision.

Featuring professional acting talents powered by cutting-edge holographic glass and computer control technology, the project was delivered in just under three months and is now open to the public. A unique mid-air holographic projection, never seen before in Ireland, will soon be completing the installation with a floating ghost-like video of Cusack.

Visit the Michael Cusack Centre's website at www.michaelcusack.ie and plan your trip to Carron now.

Waterford County Council recently launched its official tourism portal for County Waterford. Designed by MMID, the portal is an integral part of the new Waterford County Council website which is managed in-house by the County Council team through TerminalFour content management system. The tourism site is visually attractive and has its own visual identity whilst remaining true to the rest of the County Council site. A unique template system allows the site administrators to quickly create micro-sites with a professional look and feel for current tourism initiatives. The Sean Kelly Tour and the Waterford Festival of Food were the first two such initiatives to avail of the facility.

Bausch & Lomb Ireland is launching its new corporate intranet this week. Developed in the first quarter of this year by MMID the new Intranet is a platform which encourages the creation of content by the workforce for the workforce. Following initial training sessions in April and May, Bausch & Lomb employees started adding their own content to the site.

Essential documents and information can now be found in a central location but the company is also making the most of this innovative system - broadcasting internal news via B&L Web TV, Bausch & Lomb's own news channel. International news feeds, weather forecasts, special staff offers, competitions, live site calendar and time zones are displayed along with the user-created information in a dashboard-type layout which every user can customise to his/ her needs.

Only one month has gone by since the launch of this year's series of DES approved EPV on-line summer courses by CPD College (MMID's on-line college platform) and the take-up has been phenomenal. The Jolly Phonics course is leading the way, representing over 60% of the total enrolments.

Jolly Phonics was created by a UK primary teacher, Sue Lloyd, in 1977, after the realisation that the whole language approach used in her classroom was not reaching a small group of children. As part of an experiment, these children were taught structured blending of words. They were taught to listen carefully to the sounds in the words, identify the sounds and relate them to the letters. As a result, these students who were previously demonstrating difficulty in reading and writing made significant progress. After many years of research, Lloyd was encouraged to compile 'The Phonics Handbook', which was published in 1992. It was immediately embraced by teachers worldwide.

Of course CPD College offers other EPV courses that spread right across the curriculum. Visit www.cpdcollege.com for more about our range of on-line Continuous Professional Development courses.

It's no secret that DELL is amongst the most innovative companies around. DELL's training portal (EMEA Learning & Development Framework) designed by MMID is a great example of how DELL embraces technology to develop their people.

From the outset, DELL was eager to use leading-edge design with an exciting multi-layer 3D navigation system so it was no surprise when DELL looked at how they could leverage a global mine of information -Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia - to increase their employees' knowledge. Earlier this month, MMID implemented an innovative dual search engine system on the training portal. Not only can the user search for any words contained in the site (as you would expect a traditional search engine would do), but now he/she can get Wikipedia search results & definitions all within the same page. For instance, if a user want's to know how to deal with stressful situations, typing "stress" brings back all courses relating to Stress Management available to him/her as well as a list of stress-related topics contained within Wikipedia. Moving the mouse over a topic displays a short outline of what is contained in the Wikipedia entry. Who said the knowledge economy was only a buzz word?

CPD College, a MMID subsidiary, has recently received FETAC approval As the national awarding body for further education and training in Ireland, the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC) gives people the opportunity to gain recognition for learning in education or training centres, in the work place and in the community. Being a FETAC registered provider means that CPD College is now in a position to offer an extensive range of accredited courses which are widely recognised and respected in the workplace.

Following the highly successful Building Energy Rating (BER) Assessor course, MMID is in the process of developing a series of summer courses aimed at Primary Teachers which will be made available through CPD College. CPD College's aim is to bring Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses to professionals in a convenient manner. The on-line format of the courses is ideal for people who can't travel or just can't take the time off. Courses for more professions will be developed over the course of this year.

MMID was recently awarded the contract of designing a new tourism portal for Waterford County. The portal will be an integral part of the new Waterford County Council website which is currently being re-developed in-house by the County Council team using TerminalFour content management system. More on this project in the next edition...

A Leading south-east based global Medical Devices Manufacturer has recently selected MMID to re-develop its corporate intranet. Commissioned by the company's corporate communications department, the company decided to embrace cutting-edge tools to enhance and facilitate communication amongst its 1500 strong workforce.

The site, which is currently being rolled-out in the plant, is MMID's first true 'Web 2.0' delivery. Web 2.0 is a knowledge-oriented environment where human interactions generate content that is published, managed and used through network applications in a service-oriented architecture (as defined by Wikipedia). In short, the new Intranet is a platform which encourages the creation of content by the workforce for the workforce. International news feeds, weather forecasts, special staff offers, competitions, live site calendar, time zones and integrated internal television network meet with second generation (Web 2.0) user-created and automatically generated content to create a 'living & breathing' site with a real sense of community.

MMID competed before Christmas the new FastForm Research website. FastForm Research is a life science company focusing on development, licensing and commercialisation of patented “Smart Polymer” technologies. These platform technologies are integral elements in an innovative range of orthopaedic casts, splints and brace products. The site had to appeal to four specific audiences - patients, practitioners, investors and job seekers. MMID designed a site which would appeal to these audiences without alienating 'outsiders'. Easy cross-browsing of the site also allows the visitor to look at FastForm from different perspectives. A special section of the site has been develop to securely host training and promotional videos (videos also produced by MMID) which, due to the commercially sensitive nature of the product, can be made available for a short period of time on request to select individuals using an expiring password system.

Here is a little Christmas message produced for ESB by MMID for all of you who just haven't had enough Turkey and Ham. For the others, it might just bring back some magic and get you in the mood for next year. Watch it now here.

Currently in production at MMID are two new e-Learning modules for Down Syndrome Ireland. The first module will concentrate on using a popular entertainment site while the second will focus on creating one's own web page. The two courses complement a series of 5 existing courses developed by MMID to teach teenagers with Down Syndrome how to use the Internet and e-mail. Although slightly more advanced in terms of learning content, the new modules will be based on the same usability principles as the previous courses. The courses are due for delivery before Christmas and will be freely available from the Down Syndrome Ireland website.

Usability is not just another trendy word and when it comes to shop floor control systems, usability can mean better productivity through faster and more intuitive operation. This is why a leading global Medical Devices Manufacturer called upon MMID to design the new face of their global manufacturing software. A series of icons and visuals were designed in partnership with software developer Dataworks to integrate seamlessly with existing code. Since the system is rolled-out globally, the interface had to 'speak many visual languages' - helping the operator to take actions without having to read and enforcing visual consistency across the world.

Just in: Leading south-east based global Medical Devices Manufacturer selects MMID to develop it's corporate intranet. Commissioned by the company's corporate communications department, the company will be using cutting-edge tools to enhance and facilitate communication amongst its 1500 strong workforce.

This months, MMID travels to Nicosia, Cyprus where the company has been invited to speak at the International Council for Educational Media 2007 conference. The presentation focuses on an EU project on virtual classes applied in the construction industry. MMID has been involved in several European research projects in association with partners in the UK, France, Germany, Turkey and Germany.