Maman Poulet

John Burn’s writes in today’s Sunday Times about blogging in Ireland and asking where have all the blogs gone like there is some sort of crisis afoot, that it really matters in the state of things, or more like he wants us to think that newspapers were always right about the ‘amateurs’ and indeed are making a comeback.  He also has a chance to slag off colleagues in the mainstream who blog including Michael O’Toole for not writing frequently like it’s a crime itself!

Many in the media refuse to accept that there are people who enjoy writing and thinking about issues and don’t want to get paid for it. There are many others who like to read these opinions and statistics from Google show that people search for information on everything from news to sport to receipes to reaching out to other parents of children with disabilities. Bloggers don’t need to write everyday because they don’t want to! Yes we don’t have an editor standing over their back making us do so.  It does not matter how many there are or who is reading them. Or that bloggers give up, start again or decide to do something different instead.  How this makes us any less valid or indeed worthy of the continual jibes and comment from the mainstream media won’t be keeping me awake.

The fact is that blogs still exist and things change as technology and people’s interactions change.   Many express opinions and exchange information on Facebook – indeed I often get more comments on blog posts I write on facebook than on the blog itself. My posts are shared on facebook amongst many others who would never visit the blog.  I don’t know what Burns’ problem with niches is either.

Be it on blogs, facebook, twitter or elsewhere people are talking to each other and they don’t need to hang on to every word typed by a journalist or a columnist who is paid.  They thought Guthenberg was mad – some would like to see all bloggers and online researchers and commentators as eejits, that’s fine by me.

Damien Mulley publishes the email correspondence between himself and John Burns on what seemingly started out as a piece on political blogging in Ireland. It’s a shame he didn’t stick to writing about political blogging and the reasons that it is not as developed as in the USA or elsewhere. The party political system, difficulty in accessing information through FOI’s and control freakery of political parties about what their candidates do online, or the positive experiences parties and candidates have had in interacting with readers would all have been interesting discussions to have.

Burns refers to a ‘tipping point’ in 2008 on my blog re Sarah Palin and how we have not had one since. I’d love to know what his tipping point meter consists of.  In the next week or so I will be reviewing my year online and I think we’ll see different.

Did you read the last sentence?

An important absence in Ireland are leading players from business, the arts, education, politics and property who write honestly and revealingly, giving an insight into their sectors. Instead, the blogosphere has been left free for “amateur” commentators and journalists. While some are entertaining, not one continually demands our attention. No Irish blog is important enough to read every day. Until that changes, you’ll be getting your news and comment on paper.

It made me laugh a lot given I had read the story online and rarely get my news on paper. I know I am not alone. I now less frequently get all my ‘news’ from old school newspapers online either.

Ireland as a nation is still too small to be able to resource internet only professional media. However a joint venture between those paid and unpaid may be possible – the so called and often belittled ‘citizen journalists’ without whom people in the Sunday Times and other places would spend a lot of time not finding things out or being able to write articles about.

Last week the Huffington Post held it’s staff holiday party – the crowd was over twice the size that was at last years party, and easily three times the size present in 2007. Love the jumpers by the way!  I wonder what Murdoch bought his staff for Christmas.

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Tonight watching X Factor and reading my twitter stream I saw a few too many jokes about Susan Boyle’s mental health and intellectual disability.

Some people seem to have found other people’s jokes funny too and retweeted them. Colm O’ Gorman, (Bio: Author, activist, director of Amnesty International Ireland) for one.

And people wonder why some in the disability community view Amnesty Ireland’s campaign on Mental Health issues with more than a bit of cynicism?

Stunned and very disappointed.

Update:

Colm has responded in the comments and has also blogged on the matter on his own blog.

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A free half day session for on Online/Social Media for campaigning groups and NGO’s (especially those running campaigns to empower communities) will be held on December 8th.  Hosted by the European Commission and organised by Damien Mulley the session will look at case studies using Web, Twitter and Facebook and will have inputs from NGO’s already using social media.

Places are limited to two per organisation and are not guaranteed.  And it’s free.

Find out more here and sign up and hopefully see you there!

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The online news evangelist and tweeter extraordinare (@marklittlenews) is heading for the superhighway on a years leave of absence. Best of luck to him!

RTÉ Prime Time presenter, Mark Little, has announced that he is taking a year’s leave of absence from RTÉ in the New Year to pursue a project combining digital media and global journalism.

In a statement today, he said: “During eighteen happy years with RTÉ as a correspondent and presenter, my first love has always been reporting on global affairs. The rise of social media platforms like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook provides an opportunity for journalists to change the way we report the world. I would like to take a more direct role in that transformation. Unfortunately, that means taking a break from my work with Miriam and the Prime Time team who have been like a family to me. In particular, I would like to mention Miriam who has been a great personal friend to me and someone who has taught me an amazing amount about broadcasting. Whilst I will be leaving in the New Year, I look forward to maintaining a long-term relationship with RTÉ.”

Ken O’Shea, Editor of RTÉ Current Affairs, said “We are delighted for Mark who is leaving us temporarily to embark on an exciting new project, but are obviously going to miss him and the enormous contribution he makes to Prime Time and the area of current affairs. He is an outstanding journalist with a natural talent for broadcasting”.

Mark began his journalistic career at the Sunday Business Post before being hired by RTÉ as a TV news reporter in 1991. He launched RTÉ’s first Washington office and as its first correspondent, covered three US presidential election campaigns during his tenure there from 1995 to 2001. He returned to Dublin to take up the post of RTÉ’s Foreign Affairs Correspondent before joining Prime Time in 2002.

Mark specialises in coverage of world affairs and was named TV Journalist of the Year in 2001 for his reporting on the situation in Afghanistan just months prior to the Sept. 11th attacks.

He wrote and presented the documentary series Who’s Afraid of Islam? in 2006 for which he travelled to Muslim communities throughout the Middle East, Europe and America. Mark has also reported from several disaster and conflict areas including Iraq, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

He is the author of three books, Turn Left at Greenland, Zulu Time and last year’s The New America – The Rise of the Obama Generation, which follows the American presidential election and the birth of a new era in U.S. history.

Mark was born in 1968 and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Dublin City University. He is married with two children and lives in Dublin.

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It was announced yesterday that MiCandidate has been acquired in a management buy out for ‘an undisclosed sum’ by one of it’s former directors Paul Healy. Former directors Paddy Cosgrave and Oisin Hanrahan are moving to other projects.  No idea where the fourth director has gone. You may of course remember the focus of this blog and others on MiCandidate and it’s appearance during the Local and European Election this year.  You can find my posts on the subject here and there are also posts by myself and Mark Coughlan on IrishElection.com and by Alexia Golez and of course the videos of the blogger launch of the product.

So back to the buy out

Irish political media start-up, MiCandidate, has been acquired in a management buyout for an undisclosed sum. MiCandidate organises political media into a single platform, compiling information on politicians policies, background and experience. That information is then syndicated to news websites across Europe. MiCandidate launched on the back of the 2009 European Elections.

The back of? No mention in the press release of all the local councilors/candidates who were harassed during the Irish local election to sign up.  No mention either of how many candidates who bought the full package got elected.  Or any mention of the fact that RTE and the Irish Times didn’t enter into business with them either.

Curiously enough Micandi, as I affectionately call them, seem to have missed the German, Norwegian, Portuguese and Greek Elections which have all taken place since June but in the buy out announcement say they are focusing on national elections throughout Europe in the years to come.

Scheduled national elections in Europe in 2010 include the UK, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden, and Latvia. The Irish General Election is scheduled for May 2012.

By the way I still get contacted about MiCandidate even now with former staff contacting me recently about their difficulties with the company.

One of the projects to emerge from the ashes of MiCandidate post ‘buy out’ by a former director is the event previously known as Digital Democracy which claimed to be

‘an international conference on the technologies and trends that are reshaping the worlds of campaigning, governance, democracy and elections. Leading thinkers and practioners [their spelling] from across Europe will discuss the latest changes and challenges, trends and technologies, lessons and opportunities in an interesting and interactive environment. The first annual conference will be held in Ireland, in Trinity College’s new state of the art Science Gallery on Friday 30th October.’

Last week Digital Democracy relaunched as the Dublin Web Summit with a new website, same date, new venue, new partners and lower prices.  Mark Little has also come on board as the MC for the conference – the newest Old Media user of New Media will be a draw to the event of that there is no doubt. I hope he’s done his homework on the history of the event and it’s ancestors!

Gone are the pitches about reshaping the worlds of campaigning, governance, democracy and elections.  The ticket prices have been slashed by at least 66% and now the organisers say that the event is

about helping you learn from the very best in the business. Whether you are starting out or run a large company and have an interest in getting the most out of your online presence then this Summit is for you.…This is the first time that this many top experts have converged on Dublin for a single conference. It’s a very real opportunity for business people, and for organisations in the citizen and public sectors, to question, learn and benefit from a whole range of leading figures in the online space.”

Now given that there have been a whole load of similar conferences, seminars, training days  (many for free) which have discussed these issues for people in business, political parties, NGO’s and none of the above the event is not a first. How a one day event with a whole host of mainly international speakers is going to be able to teach people practically about social media, twitter, facebook, blogging, SEO and analytics in a few hours I don’t know.  But maybe that is what the partner organisations are hoping to do in the business they may pick up on the day?

There are no Irish bloggers (business or political or otherwise) speaking during the day and I don’t see names from any of the leading PR companies or agencies I’m aware of that run online divisions.  Where are the names of any people working with Irish NGO’s or brandnames who have successfully used social media to progress their cause?

There are big names speaking who are involved in some Irish companies, and of course people who head the online divisions of Sky, the European Parliament, the London Independent, an International Twitter Expert (!!!) and of course speaking spots reserved for the people involved in the events partner organisations, The Communications Clinic and Digital Marketing Institute.  Twenty speakers in one day?  Many of these speakers were signed up to come speak at the original event.  Many of whom I’m sure would be very interesting speakers from their perspectives in media, advertsing, business and politics. (Iain Dale the sole blogger (politics and football) from the UK is a great speaker.)   However now the event has changed ….changed utterly.

Cheap tickets were hawked on twitter yesterday to get the ball rolling (and retweeting!) and I’d say they are hoping to have several hundred punters present and will get them also.

Regular readers will know I’m tired of all this magic wand waving stuff around ’social media tools’ where people are not encouraged to learn themselves or from others or just to sit back and read a bit before they jump in.  Big promises are made that money can be made or votes obtained without truly imparting the knowledge because it can’t be handed over at a summit in a day.

Fools and their money are soon parted they say however there is enough snakeoil being sold that will have people queuing out the door thinking they can make a fast buck, get the biggest number of followers on facebook, shout the loudest on twitter and pay someone to write their blogs for them.

When I was told about the relaunch last week the news came at the same time as Markham Nolan’s excellent script and animation on Social Media Guru’s.  It’s heavy on the f words but so worth watching.

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Karen Coleman has released video footage from last Sunday morning’s radio debate on Newstalk between Prionsias De Rossa MEP and Declan Ganley before the off air incident where expletives were exchanged and Richard Boyd Barrett intervened.  Did you ever see a grin like it?

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The Swedish Social Democratic Party invited two leading bloggers from the USA to give a seminar on blogging at the Almedal political conference.

John Aravosis from Americablog and Jane Hamsher from the excellent FireDogLake were brought over to speak and the seminar was captured for Youtube. There is a lovely potted history of blogging in the USA from Jane near the start of it. The whole thing is about 90 minutes long and John gives a breakdown of where to find the highlights.

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• Video of Jane Hamsher’s and my blog seminar in Sweden last week (americablog.com)

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Today’s Questions to An Taoiseach specifically about his Department of the Taoiseach raised the issue of PR companies and the way Government tenders are awarded. The word Twitter was heard in the Dáil and Ciaran Cuffe was not involved. It was time for me to get out my shovel.

Deputy Enda Kenny: The Government information service provides information about Government decisions. Every Minister who makes an announcement makes a Government announcement specific to a Department. What is the relationship between the Government information service and public relations firms contracted to Departments when the end result is much the same?

I would like to bring two cases to the Taoiseach’s attention. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform launched a PR awareness campaign on knife crime in February, and he allocated €200,000 even though it never got off the ground. There has been a 72% increase in knife crime and the use of offensive weapons in five years that have led to proceedings. Three out of ten offenders are aged under 20. The aim of the campaign was to access social networking websites and promote the campaign in tandem with a national campaign in schools. The on-line campaign was a total flop. Only 17 followers made contact on Twitter and there were 39 friends on Facebook. There are 170,000 people between the age of 18 and 20 in Ireland, so this campaign has failed completely to resonate with the group for which it was intended. A PR firm was contracted to promote the campaign, but it stated that it only held six out of 12 planned workshops. That is 12 workshops across 733 secondary schools, which speaks for itself. In 2001, the “Cool Choices” alcohol awareness programme cost €50,000 and was off-line within five months.

Is there a system of monitoring public relations contracts on awareness campaigns approved by the Government? Does any group look at the advertising consultancies involved? What does the Taoiseach think of the Quigley report, produced in 2005? It recommended that the Department of Finance should consider providing advice on the monitoring and the recording of work done under those contracts and in respect of the quality of the work they carry out.

The Taoiseach: If there are any particular public awareness campaigns related to a Department, they should be referred directly to that Department. I do not have any information on those campaigns. As I said already, there is no group that oversees PR contracts. These are matters for individual Ministers and Departments. Arising from the Quigley report, a need was identified to bring forward guidelines. These guidelines were provided and the Secretaries General of all Departments are aware of them, and must utilise them where they are relevant. There is no group looking after that.

The Government information service has no role whatever in the procurement of PR contracts for Ministers and Departments. It is a matter for Departments to work with public procurement rules themselves.

The campaign referred to by Enda Kenny is the How Big Do You Feel Campaign?

This is was a knife crime awareness campaign launched in February which was based on the use of social media.

From their Bebo page – (372 profile views and 226 friends including many 2fm Dj’s and the like.)

The ‘How Big Do You Feel’ Campaign aims to highlight the risks and consequences of carrying a knife. Here, we offer you the chance to have your say.

What do you think about carrying a knife? Is it cool? Do you know anyone who has been stabbed or has stabbed someone? How has this affected their life? Don’t be shy, leave a comment, do our quizzes, interact with our blogs.

Let’s prove to everyone that carrying is knife is just stupid!

So for 39 fans on Facebook and 15 followers on Twitter(to correct Enda they were following 17 others but only had 15 following them back) and a few hundred ‘friends’ on Bebo and a load of workshops that didn’t happen the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform allocated €200,000. (The Gardai said last month that online component of the campaign cost €4,500 )

I knew I had not heard about this before or seen anything on Twitter or Facebook (750k Irish users, over two thirds of who are over 25). While I may not be a young male in the habit of carrying a knife or tempted to, if the Gardai were using social media in such a way I’m sure I and lots of others online would have heard about it. But nobody seems to have told anyone. And yes this might be where FAIL is more than appropriate.

And the PR Company? According to the IE Domain Registry – Carr Communications. (Managing Director of Carr Communications, Tony Hughes wrote recently that ‘Social networking websites provide the opportunity to network on steroids’. As someone who knows a little bit about social media and an awful lot more about steroids I’d be questioning the dosage used!)

So Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform/Garda Siochana, next time you want to run a social media campaign that gets noticed you might talk to a few of the many people in Ireland inside and outside PR that actually know something about it? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s all very well to sell people the buzzwords and set up the sites but you actually need to know what to do with the tools and it might actually work! Money for old rope and a huge disservice to the very positive work with young people online that many are engaging in also comes to mind.

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ah oops wrong sport sorry..

Find out who own’s this Mascot, who’s been putting up Maurice Ahern’s posters in Dublin Central and what Fianna Fáil candidates are experiencing on the ground in the latest round up on Irishelection.com

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Thanks to the tip off I received and a break in the weather I headed up to see Enda Kenny and Fine Gael’s European Parliament Election Candidates unveil their poster for the campaign a few hours ago.

It was interesting to see who turned up and who didn’t.  Gay Mitchell MEP the lone candidate running in Dublin was first to arrive, followed by Enda Kenny who seemed to be minding Senator John Paul Phelan.  Phelan needs a bit of minding given that Mairead McGuinness seems not to want acknowledge him at all in her race to top the poll in the East consituency. Last to arrive was Senator Joe O’Reilly from the North-West Constituency. No sign of Jim Higgins, Sean Kelly, Colm Burke or Mairead herself.

Following a press gaggle where Kenny probably called on the Greens to walk from government and the like, (It was all a bit much for me to muscle in to get to hear) he bounded across the road (nearly jaywalking) and headed for the cherry picker.  You can watch the rest below and no doubt see the pictures on the TV news later on and in tomorrows papers.

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