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Reboot Britain

Some thoughts and random quotes from the day:

Watching Gillian Tett from the FT explain the background of the problems with derivatives that led to the current financial mess.

Jenni Russell is giving some good anecdotes about dealing with lazy ass politicians. We need a way to eat away at the bunker mentality. Jenni only heard of Slugger two weeks ago? But does say any hack she has asked has said Slugger is the go to place to learn what is happening in Northern Ireland. Good talk.

Alberto Nardelli talking about the stalemate between traditional media and politics, using social media. Social media can supplement what traditional media does. YouTube does not substitute knocking on doors.

Tools make politicians approachable, personable. Pols on twitter leads to direct engagement.

Mick Fealty speaking on the background of Slugger, how it started and where it’s going. The internet is a bit like the wild west. Engagement leads to engagement.

Weekend ahead

My geekiness appears to know no bounds. This weekend I travel to London to attend several events:

* I hope to get to Open Tech 2009 on Saturday.
* Then the Travelling geeks Tweetup on Sunday.
* And then the Reboot Britain conference on Monday.

And I have my eyes on the Personal Democracy Forum event in Barcelona this November.

You’d swear I worked at this stuff… This trip to London is my summer holiday… 🙂

Iran protests

A 6 minute graphic video with music. Some very graphic scenes. It portrays the first week or so of protests.

It is interesting: all recorded by amateurs, produced and edited and put online for the consumption of the entire world. Total monetary cost: next to nothing. Amazing world we live in.

Irish Central

Like many Irish bloggers, I received an email from Niall O’Dowd’s new venture IrishCentral.com.

Dear Gavin,

As a prominent blogger in the Irish community, we would like you to be among the first to know about the launch of IrishCentral.com, the first-ever global Irish website and social networking community. The site is going live on Sunday, March 15 – just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day!

With its launch, we are hoping to do what has never been done before: use the power of the Internet to create a home for the more than 70 million people around the world who identify themselves as Irish.

Visitors to IrishCentral.com will have the opportunity to:

* Catch up on news from around the Irish world
* Check out Gaelic football and soccer matches
* Follow their Irish idols in the worlds of movies, music, theater, books and TV
* Find the most colorful editorial and video coverage about taking a trip to Ireland
* Look for the lad or lass of their dreams on an all-Irish dating site, or even consult IrishCentral.com’s own matchmaker
* Learn how to speak Gaelic with our English-to-Irish audio translator
* Trace their family roots with Ireland’s best genealogists; and
* Trade jokes, yarns, and videos in “The Pub”

There will be a live streaming webcam from Dublin, special Irish crossword puzzles and Celtic horoscopes, and an online store for everything from books to bagpipes.

And, as it that wasn’t enough, IrishCentral.com is also the online home of the popular Irish America magazine and the Irish Voice newspaper. Readers will be able to discuss, comment on, or rate any article or video on the site. It’s a two-way street – powered by you, and us.

We hope in time to work closely with folks like you, the most passionate and knowledgeable bloggers in the Irish community, so please visit IrishCentral.com and feel free to reply to us with your comments and suggestions.

If you like what you see, please help us spread the word about IrishCentral.com by sharing the site with your readers, friends and family. With your help, we hope to make IrishCentral.com a real success, so please visit our site, and become part of our online community.

Thank you very much for your time. Here’s wishing you a happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Sincerely,

Pam Abbazia

Web Relations Specialist

blogger@irishcentral.com

But the subject of the email was: “Just in time for St. Patty’s Day! The Official Launch of IrishCentral.com”

Is it just me, or does anyone refer to St Patrick’s Day as “St Patty’s Day”?

Perhaps Paddy’s Day, or St Paddy’s Day, but definitely not “St Patty’s Day”. It sounds like a cake. As for the site itself, it holds no attraction for me because I live in Ireland. If I lived abroad I might have a look, although the colour scheme of the site is at best dire. What’s with the lavender, and all the pixelated shamrocks?

Stewart vs Cramer

It’s been confirmed. CNBC pundit Jim Cramer will appear tonight as a guest on Jon Stewart’s show – perhaps to finally put to bed the ongoing feud. The most recent clip detailing the feud is up. Stewart talking to Dora the Explorer was very funny!

And a preview of the battle:

Green Party Ard Fheis 2009

I made it here this morning and am updating on Twitter with the hashtag #gp09. You can also follow over at Scribble.

12.30: Got a good picture of Senator Dan Boyle playing with an iPhone before he takes to the stage shortly.

15.40: Someone in the Green party has apparently let slip that the date of the emergency budget will be April 2. A government spokesman refused to confirm the date. The date might be changed now.

15.55: Uploaded the Patricia McKenna video:

16.00: Eamon Ryan comes into the press room to answer questions. Towards the end of the clip he is asked about the April 2 budget date. Video up:

Mary White tee up:

Gormley as he leaves:

Everyone stops to watch RTE news, including de hacks:

Tubridy and blogging

I had a listen to Damien, Suzy and Val on the Tubridy show earlier. And I have to say, I felt embarrassed for Mr Tubridy.

Last time I checked the year was 2009.

But it was as if Tubridy was in 2004 or 2005 and blogging was still all new and shiny. I was asked similar questions on radio shows four years ago. In fact over the years I’ve been asked to go on the radio and explain what blogging is a few times, and once even on television with Richard and Mick and others.

And the questions were understandable back then, blogging was in its infancy, and it was right to pose some of those questions. But even back then the questions weren’t near as juvenile as Tubridy’s rather uneducated questions. Blogging has moved on since the early days, as has the internet.

Blogging, especially in the US because it really started there, has matured immensely. All of the top political journals and magazines, national daily papers, weeklies… almost everything, uses daily updated blogs to engage with their readers. Because it’s a no brainer. Just like it’s a no brainer for George Hook to engage with listeners on Twitter. And just like it’s a no brainer for Tubridy to engage with his listeners and viewers, if he understood it.

But Tubridy goes back to the usual silly questions despite blogging having evolved and moved on, leaving Tubridy behind. He simply doesn’t get it, it really is that simple. And I have to wonder, if he hasn’t got it by now, will he ever get it? Will he always be scared of the internets?

Damien, Suzy and Val did a good job not rising to what seemed to me to be rather silly attempts at creating controversy where there is none.

Update: Karlin had similar thoughts to myself.


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