Author Archive

A chance for all of us – Rebooting RTÉ Investigates

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

RTÉ News/Investigations to get a revamp. As mentioned everywhere including a very insightful piece by Laura Slattery in the Irish Times.

“They will be broadcast when they are ready, not where everyone is working towards a date in the schedule that they have been given three months in advance,” he said on RTÉ Radio 1’s Drivetime on Tuesday.

Curran’s remarks confirm that the lessons of its libel will go beyond finger-pointing at individuals and “back-to-school” training on journalistic standards for everyone caught in the crossfire. He insists the broadcaster is “not shying away from challenging journalism”.

New training and methods etc. Wouldn’t it be great if all their policies and training material were put online for everyone? Why not push the standard and up the game of everyone in the field? Malcolm Gladwell has pointed out before that everyone upped their game when Tiger Woods came along, good for all. Better quality news may happen. The Government too have a policy of reusing information data/putting it to good use for all. Imagine if RTÉ did that?

One of the issues too with all media in the past few years/decades is not showing people the work that is actually done and the processes involved in putting programmes together. With that happening it is hard for people to value work when they are hopping from channel to channel and going from one cut and paste journalism “article” to the next “Are racists racist?” poll. In particular for RTÉ they get hammered for cheap television and also for spending money on television.

Media orgs need to open themselves up more to the public to explain how they work. If they don’t, they’ll be forgotten about, misrepresented and not respected. RTÉ did well many moons ago inviting us to the launch of their new News Studio but they need to go much further now. I know a lot of people that work in the media and the hours some put in, the work they do to ensure quality and sometimes just for a three minute news segment. We may not have to respect or like their work but we should still be informed before we do the usual: “Meh, dinosaurs that can’t be fired doing lazy journalism”. And I am just as guility.

Live minuted editorial meetings in the Guardian. The BBC editors defending their editorial decisions. I’m looking at you too Irish Times.

Of course even sharing and opening yourselves up won’t keep people happy. When every Friday you have the Late Late show baiting on Twitter with people saying the show is shit and others replying “Then stop watching it”, it shows you will get people that are not impressed. Yet the same audience or some of them watched the Nuala documentary and cried their eyes out. Same station, same organisation. So the argument that Twitter people are always knocking RTÉ isn’t fully true.

And why not listen? Why not take on some suggestions, make some changes, listen, respond and point out why things are they way they are. Vincent Browne got flack for having the same people on the show the whole time, got dug for gender imbalances and sought to rectify it by asking on-air for new contributors. Shockingly obvious.

So, share journalistic skills and knowledge, make yourself more transparent and take and respond to constructive feedback. I’m not sure to survive is ethics training and new editorial policies enough for any media organisation not just RTÉ.

The new oil

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

Is information/data the new oil?

Those that own the rights to extract it and sell it can be worth dynasty-like fortunes. Those that are employed to drill or extract it can make huge money. Those that can predict or find a new source of information with their technology. Those that can build services or products that use this information (think cars or plastics). Those that can improve on those products. Those that lobby legislatures to ensure their safety tech must be used when these products are built, too can make money.

Facebook is the most public owner of rich data with lots of people exploiting and using it. The clubcard companies, the postal services. All data rich “fields”. Oil is made from rotting carbon entities. Data is made from our own usage patterns which we hand over in full knowledge or in full ignorance. Is data a natural resource?

Collusion. Firefox plugin allows you to see all the third parties that are tracking your movements across the Web.

Using data to spot when the iPad 3 lands. Literally.

Seems that second sentence was in a draft post since October so pushing it live now.

And now for something completely…

See William Gibson on data and even rumour and the value of it:

Fluffy Links – April 5th 2012

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

Congrats to NCI as their Digital Marketing Cert is now HETAC certified.

When your agent becomes your publisher. I like this idea if done right. Same way that TV stations shouldn’t just be about TV and newspapers should not just be doing print.

We’re looking for judges for the Social Media Awards.

Invisible book clubs. Are you actually in a book club with friends but don’t know it?

And the above was found via a link from a link from this Bruce Sterling piece on the New Aesthetic.

A Facebook share is worth £2.25.

The Magnum PI theme tune:

The future and being here

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

The future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed said William Gibson. He said it in the past. Saying that, even if he said it right now by the time it hit our ears, was processed in our brain and understood by us, here would already have changed and become a past event.

Something already here that is the future is 3D printing. The idea behind it is not new. Design something on a computer, carve it out using a machine. Fran already does this with foam and lasers for making blocks and shapes. Now however we have 3D printers costing less than $999 that can create small plastic devices. Think of the ability to print the toy part of a kinder egg. Print or create the parts from plastic and then assemble them. All at home.

So the future as I see it is we use a design program to create a 3D model and then we print it off. Plastic, paper, carbon fibre or metal. Kodak is dead and many print companies are dying off, I’m surprised nobody started pushing their companies into 3D printing.

There’s going to be massive issues with piracy too or will it even be piracy? A camera phone will easily see all the dimensions of a product, import it into your modeling software and you press copy. Go to the PirateBay.org and download designs of products and away you go. There is no doubt that movies and music are going to be the minor categories on a future PirateBay. As I said, will it be piracy though?

Look at the ideas behind Open Street Map where organisations map locations and share the data for free. Maybe people will give away their own designs of products for free and route around copyrighted goods? Who’ll be the Napster of 3D printing? Once Napster was out there, it changed everything and this too shall happen for 3D Printing.

The clever companies will have stores where you can buy and look at their products and sites where you go online and buy the design for the product where you print it off at home and of course customise it too. Every pair of shoes customised. Imagine Tumblr or Pinterest and all the amazing styles on that and then crossed with the Pirate Bay. Maybe Etsy will turn into a site that highlights great designs and you press the print button next to them to get a copy?

This post here from Jonathan Macdonald goes through all the possiblities and the disruption 3D printing will cause. Think of all the new supporting industries though. The raw ink or whatever going into them will be as big a utility as water or gas. The printer manufacturers will be like fridge makers today.

I’m just thinking about all the lawsuits right now in the mobile industry and the value of patents. Google bought Motorola for billions and patents was one reason they did this. Old telecoms companies, long since dead are influencing the mobile market now because of patents they created. Imagine patenting not just 3D designs but the processes and tech to create 3D designs. I think you might be able to buy your own bank from that. I’d rather people gave away this IP though. A wise person would look into current patents and see who owns them. You can be there are longterm thinkers already bankrolling R+D in this area.

Robots are coming too. The future today sees us having Robot Pebbles too. But that’s for another day…

Fluffy Links – March 29th 2012

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

It’s March 29th already!

These aren’t so much Fluffy Links as tabs being closed and rammed in here.

Lots of people talked about the South by SouthWest keynote by Bruce Springsteen. It’s worth soaking up every single minute of the 50 odd minutes he spoke and riffed and sang. Shame they took the damned thing off YouTube except for some excerpts. For those not fans of him, you will be after this. For those already fans, you’ve watched it and had your heads pop already. Music insights, creativity insights, life insights. Anyone that wants to know about creativity should watch this. Here’s just one small bit. You can read the keynote here.

“There’s no right way, no pure way of doing it – there’s just doing it.”

You’ve seen the RTÉ Sport 404 page yeah?

Ever wanted to know what the bosses of “charities” in Ireland get as salaries? Most of them are on 100-130k with some on even more. Plus expenses. Remember that when some asshoe chugger bleats at you asking for a hug.

The big fashion brands are starting to sell directly online and not just do the sell to retailers who resell. Not a new concept but new for so many of them.

Issac Newton’s life via Google Earth. Great idea.

Robert Wyatt interview, another amazing and insightful man

Alternatives to Yahoo! Site Explorer.

alt-J

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Via Derek in Phantom

Fluffy Links – Sunday March 18th 2012

Sunday, March 18th, 2012

I’m going to try and tone down the social media links and stats here and have them mostly show up over on Mulley.ie

The Bord Gais Energy Social Media Awards are now open for nominations until March 26th. Get cracking kids!

The Irish Abroad. Special online edition of Morning Ireland.

Tom Nixon is back blogging and talking about social businesses in South America.

The Danish Government have a one-pager on their Ministers and their social media profiles. And in Ireland we have a Minister being schooled on copyright by men wearing plastic bags on their faces.

Twitter Ireland are hiring.

Want to make your Powerpoints pop? Duarte now doing *nice* diagram clip art for Powerpoint and Keynote.

Love this clip from Joss Whedon about the way he writes and him wondering why Jessica Fletcher isn’t going insane when she realises death follows her everywhere. Go directly to min 3.35 for the quote.

Fluffy Links – Monday March 12th 2012

Monday, March 12th, 2012

Great post from Martha Rotter on long-form reading.

Techovate Wexford. (Disc: I am helping them out with coverage) The biggest tech companies in an amazingly beautiful venue – Wexford Opera House.

Some social media facts and links.

Facebook has their own printing press. Of course. Love it.

Great interview with David Hieatt co-founder of the Do Lectures and now running a denim company in Wales.

On the company:

Our aim is to get 400 people their jobs back, so we have a long way to go. We have 396 to go.

On living life:

I think the important thing is to be yourself. That way you don’t have to act, you never get found out, and you don’t have to lie to yourself or anyone else. It is much easier this way.

Rules that chuggers are meant to adhere to. Of course they change their rules to suit them.

TED and Improv Anywhere.

On creativity and where ideas come from.

How the Daily Mail uses SEO wisely.

Breton – Interferene

Fluffy Links – Monday March 5th 2012

Monday, March 5th, 2012

NY Times piece about doing business in China or Russia. Leave all electronics at home as you’ll be snooped on/hacked.

eircom Start Up. Video pitch about your business. Winner gets 2.3k in telecoms credit and gear.

And on eircom. Revealing data on their three strikes rule which they have told the Govt they do not like and doesn’t protect their customers enough.

Great data and insight on how to use Kickstarter exceptionally.

3D Printer prices from various manufacturers. In a few years you’ll be using Pirate Bay to download designs to print on your 3D printers.

What else is needed for startups in Ireland? Dylan Collins weighs in.

Tabs on Facebook are shite and the new changes kind of reflect that.

There’s a whitepaper for the Social Media Awards out. We interviewed winners from the 2011 event and compiled them together. Worth a gawk.

A word that gets you wrecked

Fluffy Links – Friday February 10th 2011

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Teach your child baby sign language whether they are hearing or hard of hearing.

Building companies using the movie studio model. Instead of incubators or VC. Highly interesting. Still, the studio model is also meant to be broken, right?

Realex talk about StartupBootcamp.

via Dylan. DuckDuckGo. A new search engine that is the total opposite to Google and Facebook when it comes to logging data. It doesn’t at all. The anti-filterbubble.

Are Universities (the places that are good at learning) any good at social media and all that lark? No.

Piracy is the new radio. Says Neil Young.

Mobile strategies for retailers.

Django Django – Default (fav song on Phantom at the mo it seems)