Interesting post by Jon Worth (of EU fame) on the breakdown or gradual bio-degradation of FaceBook.
I think the fundamental premise is very true, that FB communications have become degraded due to the sheer volume of often unimportant traffic. How to sort the wheat from the chaff?
Worth a read:
Irish Blog Awards 2010 (aka #iba10 to Dan Boyle and the like) is here again. Delighted to see that for the third year in a row I have been nominated for an award.
This year I feature in two categories, this blog is in under ‘Best blog by a politician’ which I quite like as before I was lumped in with ‘political blogs’ which was good company sure, but difficult on a competitive level where the categories differed subtly. Some were dedicated commentators and analysts (including some professional journalists) and others were trying to knock out a few words when time permitted to give a local heads up. So the new category makes sense and is better suited here.
During the past year I also joined the team at IrishElection.com which is a previous multi-award winner and I would like to think their new recruit’s alternate analysis and keen counterpoint to the anti-establishment bias gives them a more complete portfolio and may even nudge the award back into the IE camp again. This time with me joining them in the winners’ enclosure of course 
Full list of nominations and categories here:
http://awards.ie/blogawards/2010/02/20/2010-irish-blog-awards-nominations/
Hello everybody. I’ve been blogging since late 2007 and have received a nomination in each year for the ‘Blog Awards’, the 2010 instalment of which is almost upon us. Each year I’ve received a citation and made the long list which is nice in itself but I haven’t yet reached the critical mass which would propel me onto a shortlist or get people to take notice. Partly I write because it’s therapeutic, partly because I often have strong views which I feel the need to release upon the world, but in a large part I write for feedback. I want to know what people think, do people agree or disagree, am I on the money or off the wall. Comments (feedback) are the lifeblood of blogging. I would like to know that someone is out there. A blog needs to have dialogue for it to be real. Otherwise I might as well write a closed book diary.
So I’m making an appeal. If you like this blog or if it provokes you in any way please say so. Just try leaving a comment after you read a post. Tell your friends, spread the word. Lionise or lacerate, your choice. But either way I’d love to hear your views..
PS To those of you who already comment thankyou it is much appreciated.
Working in IT, (and admittedly a bit of an anorak at times), technology is never far from my mind. So it didn’t take much prompting for me to include broadband provision as a campaign pledge when I set out my stall a while back.
Having been around the ward a bit at this stage I now have the details on where exactly does and doesn’t have the service. It all depends on the local exchange, whether or not it is enabled, and then on your own connection and your distance to the exchange. Some houses require a localised upgrade while most will benefit immediately from an exchange upgrade, providing however that the distance from exchange does not exceed 5 KM.
It can be inconsistent at times. There are parts of Caragh where one side of the road has it (high speed broadband) and the other doesn’t. Two Mile House don’t have but are in line when the Athgarvan exchange comes on stream later this year – however it will still depend on distance along the wire.
When I met people in Eadestown a month or so back it came across as the number one issue. I used some of my contacts to track down senior management in Eircom and put it to them. A local techie had also raised it at a First Tuesday meeting recently and a local petition was gathering momentum. I always say credit where its due and I have to say Eircom were very responsive and reacted very positively to the concerns. Originally they told me June but they actually upgraded ahead of schedule last month with the result that the area now has a fully enabled exchange and hence high speed broadband. Result.
One down, two to go (Caragh, Two Mile House). I’ll keep on it.