Archive for the ‘irishblogs’ Category

IrelandMetrix launches, offers bloggers in-depth webstats tool

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

470927 is prime
Photo owned by procsilas (cc)

IrelandMetrix are launching later today and as part of their launch offer, bloggers will be able to avail of their analysis and web stats service which is normally a monthly subscription. They’re billing it as a competitor to the JNLRs and the stats that they give. If I’m led to believe is correct then you should be able to get in-depth stats about your readers which, if you want to do advertising, will be dead handy. Check out their website, when it goes live…

HSE sternly reminds woman about how much her ill son cost the state

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Chicago hospital intern, 1942
Photo owned by bobster1985 (cc)

You can’t make this up. Utterly sickening. Woman complains her son isn’t getting speech therapy and HSE responds in a nasty email telling her how much the kid has cost the state so far as if that was justification. Everyone has a price on their head with HSE managers like that. The blog post was written in August but it’s worth highlighting still.

I found a missive so full of spite and veiled threats, that I was left reeling for days. Even now as I type, I can feel my heart rate increase. A local manager, who is charged with overseeing services of the caring profession to the weakest and most vulnerable in our community, saw fit to write in response to us having the temerity to contact Our Lord The Most High Brendan Drum. She reminded us of how she was well aware of our son, and proceeded to detail exactly how much our son had cost her over the years we spent on jolly jaunts to Dublin 3 days a week for dialysis. We were given the breakdown of nursing care, the enormous cost, and most importantly, lest we forget, the fact that all of this was in the form of a ‘grant’. Yes readers, a grant, not a right to travel to Dublin for life saving treatment, folks this was a grant, that was within her gift to bestow or take away. We had displeased this all powerful manager by going to her boss with an insolent inquiry about a minor issue like Speech Therapy.

The whole blog is about her son and husband, her husband donated a kidney to her son. Well worth a read. Found via a comment on Red Mum’s blog.

Obama koolaid flows in Ireland

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Already we’re getting everyone and anyone talking about Obama style campaigns here in Ireland. This however was a fascinating read. Uplifting too. That lad Tubridy already seems to be trying to do that with his Rock the Vote run campaign. I’ve noted press releases from those going in the local elections referencing change and even aligning themselves with Obama. Most of it pure guff. I’m just waiting for one of these morons to try and claim some kind of African ancestry.

Day 108/365 [Year 2]
Photo owned by thp365 (cc)

Last week Mick Fealty wrote a buzzword-laden piece for the Irish Times about the web and politics in Ireland and attributed the voting down of the Lisbon Treaty as being due to Libertas and their web “campaign”. By that he meant the pro-Libertas bent on Politics.ie:

It’s a classic example of using smart, quick internet conversation to shortcircuit the 24-hour news cycle. In the process Libertas ran every single mainstream party in the Dáil ragged, through what the US writer Tom Watson calls an “investment in conversations”.

I think it might have been way more due to the fact that Libertas and others had a goal and a focus. Most of the existing parties had 1. No clue and 2. No respect for the voters and their views. “Just go out and vote cos we say so” being the attitude from most of the parties. Libertas understood people and their views on various things and helped exploit anger, annoyance, misconceptions and ignorance. Lisbon didn’t fail because of the web in Ireland.

Pat Leahy has a view like this in the Business Post:

The Lisbon referendum wasn’t lost because Libertas had a strong online presence; it was lost because the Yes campaign only asked 9 per cent of voters for their votes.

Piaras Kelly makes some very good points about politics in Ireland in his post here. Many of the current party people in Ireland are talking about doing an Obama for the locals and I note Fianna Fáil said they’d look at his techniques. Piaras is right though, it won’t work here because it’s still the same hacks trying to do that Internet thing. Look at how many of them got blogs before the last election and right away got their assistants to write them. Adding go-faster stripes to a horse and carriage does not make you Steve McQueen in Bullit. Obama brought about change because the core of his campaign was fundamentally different to the rest and it expanded out to every aspect of the campaign, including using the Internet.

Election Party at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Photo owned by JP Puerta (cc)

This quote from a Newsweek piece explains that the Web wasn’t used for shiny purposes:

“I don’t care about online energy and enthusiasm just for the sake of online energy and enthusiasm,” said Chris Hughes, head of New Media’s social networking. “It’s about making money, making phone calls, embedding video or having video forwarded to friends.” There was nothing starry-eyed about Hughes, who had been the Harvard roommate and later partner of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and made his first millions before he was 24. His goal was to make old techniques—like call centers and getting polling information to voters—more efficient. “When computer applications really take off, they take something people have always done and just make it easier for them to do it,” he said. “And maybe bigger.”

Obama style net-campaigning might work for a new party that uses some of the core ideals of the Obama campaign but it won’t work for the current ones unless their is an attitude change. I doubt that will happen with any of the parties that are corrupt at their core. By corrupt I’m not talking just about taking planning bribes, all the parties will fuck over people in order to survive and defend their people no matter the vile things they do such as Kathleen Lynch doing work for a child rapist or the fact that nobody for any party speaks out when the annual expenses list comes out. (Ah sure everyone does it). Strangely I think the Lad Turbridy might actually do it, even if he’s nicking most of his ideas from Sean Tevis, he’s creating a brand that’s not very tied to Fianna Fáil at all and that is probably an advantage right there. The clever way of looking for votes and counting them will help matters too. But for a party as a whole, I can’t see much of what Obama did being done by the parties here, they like their horse and carriages.

210k ex vat to run Enterprise Ireland’s email list and newsletter from 2007 to 2010

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Via the eTenders site:

Enterprise Ireland invites expressions of interest from suitably competent firms for the Publication of eBusiness Electronic Newsletter – eBusiness Live and management of eBusiness Discussion Forum 2007-2010 for the www.openup.ie web site.

Value:

II.2.1)

Total final value of the contract(s)
Value:210450Currency:EUR Excluding VAT

This would be Richard’s fav mailing list.

Fluffy Links – Tuesday November 11th 2008

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Congrats on the Swords Express for kicking Noel Dempsey’s ass, it seems.

Congrats to Pinstripe too who won Best Internet & ICT Award at their Chambers awards.

Bennigans, Mahon Point, Cork
. Pat Phelan has worst meal of his life there.

We’ve had BarCamps, now one more focused on business – Bizcamp.

This might have legs:

Enda Kenny as Eddie Hobbs. Seriously. Can you imagine if Enda did a sort of Hobbs voiceover to Oireachtas Report? I’m Enda Kenny, and today I’m meeting Brian Lenihan, who works as a government minister. Brian’s having trouble with his budget and I’m going to help him by showing him where to cut back. Later in the year, I’ll go back to visit Brian, to see how he’s getting on.

Close the border quick!

Movies on YouTube, soon.

The most downloaded (legal) song in history is this? And all because of a TV show. What does that mean dear sociologists?

Wind turbines and lasers!

Crikey, this teenager is one brave soul.

How many guys in Spider-Man suits can fit inside Jamba Juice

Dan Ariely goes to Google to discuss his book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions:

Dark is the night – Dark Days documentary

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Dark Days is a fascinating documentary that won multiple awards a few years back.

Near Penn Station, next to the Amtrak tracks, squatters have been living for years. Marc Singer goes underground to live with them, and films this “family.” A dozen or so men and one woman talk about their lives: horrors of childhood, jail time, losing children, being coke-heads.

It’s now on Google video:

Twitter and LiveBlog.ie as a digital sitting room?

Monday, November 10th, 2008

So you heard about that election thing the other day yeah? Disney won. Happily ever after.

From American Hell:
Twittering the election

I participated in Blogging the election at the Irish General Election with Suzy and Cian where we monitored the Interwebs and used Twitter to fire out results as they came in. Back then (last year) those on twitter listened more than they interacted but for the American Election last week, it was totally different. It ws a massive information stream, it was a source and it was a shared experience.

When CNN unveiled their holograms, Twitter exploded with commentary. Most of it hilarious and referencing Star Wars and Star Trek. People in so many corners of the world, not just Ireland were exchanging banter with each other about it. This is what some of the Irish said:

Twitter and holograms

The banter and back and forth and “retweeting” kept the momentum going. By retweeting, I mean people who were subbed to a few people would do chinese whispers style “pass it on” messages but because it is digital, the core message remained 100% intact. Here was one retweet for example:

Retweeting

Around 2:57 AM I asked:

How many here would be in bed were it not for the interactions about this election on Twitter? *raises hand*

And I got a load of people confirming my suspicions. I would probably have headed back to my hotel or at least have gone earlier if it wasn’t for so many people being there, sharing their experience of their moment:

Feedback from those on Twitter

And it isn’t just for the election either. People who still watch TV are sharing their experiences of it. Most notably people are watching The Apprentice on TV3 and commenting on it live on Twitter. The peer pressure from all the twittering about it got me to start watching it and shouting at the TV in the sitting room and on Twitter. The Times on Twitter and the election.

Of late too there’s been movement away or in-step with live-twittering with Simon McGarr championing live-blogging (using a special webapp) of TV shows such as The Apprentice (again), Questions and Answers and there was a massive crowd live-blogging the election. Cleverly Simon also snapped up LiveBlog.ie where the live-blogging is now happening.

You may have heard of the term “social object” before but what seems to have happened without any influence at all from anywhere else is us Irish that were on Twitter or that blog have now started using technology applications to socialise events that may have been private due to geographic restraints. Tv watching is one of them. I actually think it also has gotten those who now live online to watch a bit more TV too. From a sociological perspective, this is fascinating. From a promotional/marketing/business perspective it is equally so. You have to wonder if one of the futures of successful TV is making TV watching into even more of a shared experience not just with those who are in the room with you but with those you are digitally connected to. People are already having boxset marathon weekends but this is something different and maybe more.

Maybe TV stations should allow people to create “chat rooms” where you can invite your friends or the world into and you can watch various TV programmes together. Actually I think some already do this. Google has previously mentioned search as a shared experience. Facebook is making our lives slightly shared too with the way we stream our lives there.

But with all of this chatter around events, is it like someone giving a running commentary as you kiss them? Should you shut up and just enjoy the moment?

Fluffy Links – Monday November 10th 2008

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Nooked now allow you to subscribe to Twitter feeds for bargains on Ryanair routes. Neato.

Win a cookbook over on Gastronom.ie

Fianna Fáil TD Mattie McGrath. Interesting character isn’t he?

The Japanese Film Festival.

in Cineworld Dublin on 15th and 16th November before travelling on to the Kino in Cork on 22nd and 23rd and reaching the Storm Cinema in Limerick on 26th and 27th….

There will be four films showing at the festival; two animated features – The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) and Mind Game (2004), and two live action – Hotel Hibiscus (2003) and Go (2001). Ranging from the whimsical to the positively head-spinning, these four titles take the measure of Japanese national cinema as it is today.

Via Boards.ie is a Bargain Alert: A Series of Unfortunate Events – 13 Books in a Box for €35.99.

Speaking of Boards.ie, they now have a 2008 Photography Year book for sale.

Irish Times Business blog briefly mentions Twitter.

Scary. Using just photos, scientists can make copies of your house/car keys.

The elements of a good speech, Obama style. Oddly this page doesn’t load from this link but if you go to the main page it does.

Girl Talk does the “I’m a PC” ads. With Microsoft and the way they destroy anyone when it comes to software patents, it seems ironic they’re paying this guy who works soley by sampling the works of others.

Via Paul. Just keep watching, keep at it:

Green Party TD Paul Gogarty cares

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

Watch this first before reading down. Please.

Found via David Cochrane is coverage of the antics of Paul Gogarty by Miriam Lord:

Sen Fitzgerald approached the microphone and made a number of points, many questioning Minister for the Environment John Gormley’s views on incineration and the Green Party’s bona fides in opposing the Rathcoole project.

As she spoke, Gogo suddenly jumped to his feet and collapsed on the ground, flailing his arms and rolling about before lying still for a few minutes. Then he picked himself up and sat back down.

Ah now. It wasn’t like he was wearing a chicken suit. Though that’s maybe because he doesn’t like meat, animal meat.

Put it this way. If somebody asked me to cook a kitten in a microwave, the thought would cross my mind. But I’m an animal-loving vegetarian, so I wouldn’t do it.”

Dave goes on to mention on politics.ie a press release from Fine Gael’s Brian (some of his best friends are of the coloured persuasion dontchaknow) Hayes attributing Paul’s spirited caring about local and national issues as being down to mental health issues:

Everyone knows Paul Gogarty is the original rebel without a clue but I’m seriously beginning to worry for his mental health as he continues to lead a double life.

That’s a bit unfair to to those that suffer mental health really. Paul just gives a shit, it seems. Maybe that’s why Fine Gael think he’s got something wrong in his brain.

Paul has promised a repeat. I hear it might be like this:

This is my second post about you Paul but you can probably guess I like Eamon more. 🙂

That SEO competition – How are they doing so far?

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

Not going to mention the terms. Not going to link to the Google search for it:

SEO Search term

Here’s what it looks like as of Friday this week. Few weeks to go yet though:

SEO results