Last week we had the Queen, this week Obama. Forget all the economic and tourism boosts. The visits, along with the Leinster victory and Jedward's performance in the Eurovision, did something much better. In a nation that over the past three years has been so negative and gloomy, a nation without hope, a nation obsessed with banks and bondholders, these past few weeks, we had something else to talk about. It took our minds off the negativity and let us enjoy some rare positivity.
Today Obama came to College Green and gave a speech. This visit probably won't yield as many ecomonic benefits as Enda Kenny would tell us but it was the first time in a while we heard a politician speak of hope and we could believe it in.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Why the super injunction backfired
How many people care if a celebrity is cheating on their partner. Normally only the readers of the gossip pages of the Sun or readers of Hello or OK! Beyond that, I would argue that most people don't really give a s...econd thought to it. That is, until the celebrity goes out of their way to make it one of the number one stories this week.
And so we come to a certain footballer who we shall refer to as Brian Biggs. Brian allegedly cheated with some other minor celebrity and the story got out. So Brian's lawyer went off and got a judge to gag the media which is all well and good but he also tried to gag social media. The problem is social media isn't like old media. Its a bit more wild and those who use social media like it that way. These people like the freedom of expression and when this freedom is threatened they get annoyed.
You see Brian, had you left it the way it was this would have died down, no one would remember in a week. But by angerying the world of twitter you've made this a bigger story, one that won't simple go away. Because now this isn't just being talked about by celebrity gossip lovers, its been talked about by anyone who cares about internet freedom of speech and that's alot more people. And these people know how to make a story spread. Social media moves a hundred times faster than old media and you sir, are now trending.
And so we come to a certain footballer who we shall refer to as Brian Biggs. Brian allegedly cheated with some other minor celebrity and the story got out. So Brian's lawyer went off and got a judge to gag the media which is all well and good but he also tried to gag social media. The problem is social media isn't like old media. Its a bit more wild and those who use social media like it that way. These people like the freedom of expression and when this freedom is threatened they get annoyed.
You see Brian, had you left it the way it was this would have died down, no one would remember in a week. But by angerying the world of twitter you've made this a bigger story, one that won't simple go away. Because now this isn't just being talked about by celebrity gossip lovers, its been talked about by anyone who cares about internet freedom of speech and that's alot more people. And these people know how to make a story spread. Social media moves a hundred times faster than old media and you sir, are now trending.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Upcoming work
I'm going to be quiet busy of the next couple of weeks. I've a number of projects lined up. Next week and the week after I'll be doing the CISCO CCENT and CCNA courses as well as going to the Dot Conf.
I also hope to do some more android development including working on finishing Pothole Mapper, the automated pothole reporting app that i was developing for my final year project. I've a few other ideas including some work with QR codes and the twitter/foursquare APIs.
I'm also going over some tutorials on using Flash and GIMP and also revising java, PHP/MySQL and linux terminal commands. All of this will be done while drinking copious amounts of tea and a lot of tweeting.
Updates of what I'm doing can by found on the blog, my website or on my twitter account
I also hope to do some more android development including working on finishing Pothole Mapper, the automated pothole reporting app that i was developing for my final year project. I've a few other ideas including some work with QR codes and the twitter/foursquare APIs.
I'm also going over some tutorials on using Flash and GIMP and also revising java, PHP/MySQL and linux terminal commands. All of this will be done while drinking copious amounts of tea and a lot of tweeting.
Updates of what I'm doing can by found on the blog, my website or on my twitter account
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