Educasting from Ireland

On Technoculture

Part of today's podcast [Educast 62 27.4 MB MP3 file] deals with The Long Tail as inches out of its niche and rises closer to a Top 10 placement on the NYT best-sellers list. It doesn't hurt that Tipperary Institute has purchased 10 copies. We talk about the Long Tail along with 38 minutes of other topics. We use the Sony ICD MX-20 without a mic for two segments and our big fat iPod mic for the rest of the show. That's Robin Blandford's snap of the book cover, using his Sony Walkman phone.

Bernie is Here

ON 090109, WE marked the day by carving out a new space online for the Broadband Edutainment Resource Network. As the spring 2009 academic term unfolds, this website will sprout content in four main areas. Readers will find links to online courses, to audio segments, to video clips and to teaching topics. For now, we are marking the arrival of Bern.ie and expressing appreciation to Blacknight Solutions for explaining how we could hook Broadband Edutainment into Irish web space.

Google Is a Medium

FACT: Google is a medium. An increasing number of articles published by Poynter now emphatically underscore the fact that Google is indeed a media company, or a technology-enabled media company with deep pockets.

Imperial Eureka Moment

TEN YEARS FROM now, a graduate of Tipperary Institute will recall some conversations that unfolded along the South Mall in Cork, Ireland. The conversations, sparked by a eureka moment inside the Imperial Hotel, happened unscripted and unexpectedly, as happens in some of the most inspirational events. We snapped some images in a Flickr photostream from Cork today that capture the time around the moment. And we pass around good karma to Rick Segal for sharing his time and ideas.

Flex and ActionScript 3

WE TEACH BOTH Adobe Flash and Adobe Actionscript in the multimedia degree programme at Tipperary Institute. I'm keen to integrate the Abobe Flex™ 2 product line and Adobe Flash® Player 9 into the four year multimedia degree programme, especially since Flex development uses tools based on Eclipse™ alongsinde the free Adobe Flex 2 Software Development Kit (SDK). The end result should be a class of students able to built a new class of rich Internet applications with improved usability and effectiveness.

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John Dowdell -- "Flex 2 Adoption"

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Seven Mistakes in Handling Crises

AS DISCUSSED in several educasts, common mistakes in handling crises include the following:

Hesitation. This leads to public perception of confusion, callousness, incompetence or lack of preparation.

Obfuscation. This leads to the perception of dishonesty and insensitivity.

Retaliation. This increases tension and intensifies emotion rather than reducing them.

Prevarication or equivocation. This creates the biggest problem, because nothing substitutes for truth.

Pontification. This creates vulnerability by taking a high-handed approach without really dealing with the issue at hand.

Confrontation. This provides others visibility by keeping the issue alive, giving them a platform, and giving them more to respond to.

Litigation. This guarantees even greater visibility and may eliminate more reasonable solutions.

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Scott Cutlip and Allen Center -- Effective Public Relations, "Planning and Programming"

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News Release Turns 100

BUSINESSWIRE observes the 100th anniverary of the first press release today. The American offices will hold a panel discussion in New York entitled "Centennial Celebration of the Press Release: Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Public Relations." Most people accept that Ivy Lee put out his first press release in 1906. Research suggests the PR industry itself is older, perhaps emerging in the late 1890s when American railways made the first reference to the term "public relations" in its external documents. Stuart Bruce says, "The outlaw Jesse James used the media to bolster his reputation as a brave ex-Confederate guerilla, rather than a desperate outlaw - on several occasions he left 'press releases' behind at the scenes of his robberies." Bruce always considered Edward Bernays as the founder of modern public relations, rather than Ivy Lee.

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Stuart Bruce -- "Businesswire commemorates 100th anniversary of Public Relations Industry"
Businesswire  original release.

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Moynihan Top Software Developer

At Tipperary Institute’s 2006 graduation ceremony today, Sean Moynihan walked away with more than a third level diploma. He won additional honours for producing the best software development project and for earning the highest results in the software development curriculum. Damien Mulligan, Iona's Tech Services Operations Manager for the EMEA region, attended the graduation events in Thurles and presented Moynihan with his two well-deserved awards. Moynihan’s highly-regarded embedded systems project provided him with a working understanding of web services which helped him qualify for his paid six-month placement in South Tipperary County Council in Clonmel last summer.

Social Media Used Here

WE USE WELL-REGARDED social media tools in the PR module at Tipperary Institute, including Odeo playback engines, Flickr photostreams, Writely documents, del.icio.us shared links and Netvibes mashups.

Wiki Your Wall Art

We will paint some real wall art during our second year Public Relations class. Meanwhile, interesting discussion rages about the value of collaborative online wall art projets.

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Tech Crunch -- "Wiki your wall art"

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Greatest software ever written

CHARLES BABCOCK lists the greatest software ever written:

1. UNIX
2. IBM's System R
3. Gene-sequencing software at the Institute for Genomic Research
4. IBM System 360 OS
5. Java language
6. Mosaic browser
7. Sabre system
8. Macintosh OS
9. Excel spreadsheet
10. Apollo guidance system
11. Google search rank
12. The Morris worm

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Charles Babcock -- "What's the greatest software ever written?"

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