Inside View from Ireland

Bloggers in The Clarence

AS 15 THIRD LEVEL students clicked through various Irish blog sites, seven Irish bloggers met in The Octagon Bar where a visiting contingent of Brits drowned out most meaningful discussion.

But we had time to chat about the meaning of trackback, vintage typewriters, Typepadding, Userland configurations, Irish animation, new phones, print for PR, late night product launches and quad-band Motorola phones. Diego resolved to create a "meet-up" section that also answers questions. More details will probably percolate out from fellow attendees because David Stewart and Diego Doval are writing synopses.

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David Stewart -- "Bloggers together"
Diego Duval -- "dublin bloggers meeting"
Caroline McNamara -- "Table of Irish Bloggers"
Damien Morrissey, Stephanie O'Shea and Eddie Whelan -- "Quick links to blogging at work"
Fiona Ni Cheirin -- "Irish blogs"
Mary Nugent -- "Irish bloggers"

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Old leaves make most noise

DUBLIN -- Red leaves mark walls and trees all around Dublin as frosty mornings have become the norm. While out and about during early mornings, I've listened to the old red leaves rustling at daybreak. Hearing them reminds me that some of the loudest proclamations come from the oldest written material. Leaves from old established books continue making their impact on our culture, often more emphatically than newer material coming from bloggers.

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Sent mail2blog from The Front Lounge, Dublin.
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Bespoke sw for writing

FINAL DRAFT -- As we are discovering in our multimedia diploma programme, there are some forms of writing in which bespoke software is imperative. You need Final Draft for filmscripts and Final Draft AV for TV documentaries. It's hard to get the layout right in Word because you need a Video column and on the right an Audio column. The director can see side-by-side what the camera and the characters are doing. The writer can fill in the gaps because the program is set up to display the AV channels in simple side-by-side formatting.

Excellent Bloggers Meeting

UNDERWAY -- It's another glorious sunrise over the Slievenamon Range as Bus Eireann trundles towards The Big Smoke for another meeting of Irish bloggerheads. I'm interested in specifying the contest rules concerning the race between restoring my TransNote power supply and Karlin Lillington housebreaking her dog. I'm also interested in meeting Vicky Lee Wai Kay because I need to know how the word "excellence" looks in Chinese.

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Sent mail2blog using Nokia Communicator Vodafone TypePad service.
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In conversation with Kathy Foley

I BELIEVE STUDENTS students give academic programmes their meaning and merit. Mature students like Kathy Foley provide an essential sanity check to third level programmes I teach.

After talking with Kathy about using blogs as a starting point for discussion and feedback, I realised she wasn't going to type anything online without due consideration. Rather than peck away and publish, Kathy would go away and think. "That's something I can do at home, isn't it?" More better if the home is the quiet zone of productivity. In a natural environment you control, rather than in a computer lab filled with the spastic energy of twentysomethings.

Kathy's reaction to my push for instantism reminded me thst we must be wary of easy publishing methods. As I teach in a Computers in Mass Communications module, computers and software are cultural artefacts and while they can sometimes be inspirations in themselves, we must not permit them to dominate cultural production. I will learn things in conversation with Kathy Foley, including lessons in managing IT as part of the writing process.

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Sent mail2blog by Nokia Communicator Vodafone TypePad service while awaiting Bus Eireann.

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Housebreaking a power supply

TECHNO-CULTURE -- Several months ago, I raced Karlin Lillington when she was installing Windows XP. I thought I could housebreak my dog just as quickly. My dog had some relapses, so the official results show Karlin installed XP faster than I trained Holly, the Samoyed-Spaniel. Now Karlin wonders if she can housebreak her new Spaniel faster than I can complete a tech task. So I think I will try to restore power to my IBM TransNote faster than Karlin can housebreak her dog. I have a long hill to climb as the parts are not in Ireland. Holly wasn't easy to train. Some who know her think she's unmanageable. Karlin's dog looks much more malleable.

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Karlin Lillington -- puppy tech comments
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Elizabeth Castro HTML

CLONMEL HOTSPOT -- I've purchased two books by Elizabeth Castro in the past five years and used both of them long and hard. Now I use HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS on both a Writing Skills and Web Development course. I haven't found an author who makes such effective use of side-by-side text and screenshot presentations.
Recommended.

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Elizabeth Castro -- "HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS"
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Citizen Bloggers

ADVANCE net -- Combine participatory journalism and blogging and you have citizen blogging. The online division of Advance Publications may herald a new trend for online journalism. But as my experience over the past three years suggest, semi-professional bloggers need a team of three to ensure a site stays fresh. It's too much for one to handle a range of evolving issues.

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Steve Outing -- "Citizen Bloggers" via Ralph Averbuch
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Losing local voice

KILKENNY -- There's a poster hanging across High Street in Kilkenny, calling passersby to support local radio. The station closes at the end of November, to be replaced by another with a larger two-county reach. Based on the strength of the submission made by the competing radio consortium, I think the new station will be just a strong a voice for community interests.

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Michael Clifford -- "Radio Kilkenny's final months" in The Sunday Tribune, 12 October 2003
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Smart Homes in Hockerton

HOCKERTON -- Until I read about the Hockerton Housing Project, I didn't think a home could user less than 10 kw of power a day. A terrace of homes is doing just that. Their big secret is using lots of insulation. The Hockerton homes use thick reinforced concrete and block walls and then put insulation outside the walls. The fronts of the homes are triple-glazed glass to collect as much free solar energy as possible. There is also a double glazed porch to help isolate the front door. And the rear of the homes are banked up fully with earth, with grass right up across the roof.

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Dick Ahlstrom -- "Smart homes run on solar power and body warmth"
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