Inside View

Tracking the slow lane of cycling

I GOT A BICYCLE a few months ago and after moving to a flat area of town, I now feel able to ride the four km to work several times a week.

It's been decades since I rode to work. As a young copilot in California, I had a seven mile journey into a strong headwind. Four years later, I would jump on my bike and ride six miles to the flight line in Oklahoma. The journey happened before sunrise on many occasions. 

Flash foward to 2019 and now it's the easiest run on the biggest bicycle. My current ride came courtesy of Ireland's bike to work scheme which means I got a great machine at a 20% reduced price. Plus I can burn calories while paying for the 21 speed bike.

I tell friends what I have and they agree that I'm equipped for the trek. The Thule panniers can hold my laptop (although I'm often keeping the laptop safely locked up at work). Having to plan my baggage means I carve back my load to things I need for the day.

I've discovered my Samsung Health app tells Strava what I'm doing when I toggle into "workout" mode. This means people farther up the fitness chain can see my progress. Several have offered me high fives for resetting my fitness journey. Sometimes they get to see the sort of screen grabs and trophies that accompany this blog post.

I think I will start sharing a weekly report on my blog because my progress is worth measuring. And I also think I'm going to start hitting the cycle lanes as the sun rises because here in Tipperary we have some brilliant dawn choruses with radiant bursts of light.

[Bernie Goldbach teaches creative media for business on the Clonmel Digital Campus and hope to build an entire photo album  that documents the joys of cycling.]

Writing this for my great great grandson #ancestry

IMAGINING THAT one of my descendants in the late 2090s might be interested in what I was thinking near the start of the 21st century, I wonder what my great great grandparents, like Elizabeth Anders McKelvey (above), might have told me about living in 18th century Ireland.

I wish I knew what my forebears in 19th century Ireland thought about the future. I doubt they thought one of their great great grandsons would return to the auld sod because so many of their friends and relatives were sailing away from famine conditions.

First Impressions of Promoting #ictedu by Tweeting

AFTER ONE WEEK looking to Twitter to spread the word about "Ideas in Education" and getting over 2500 impressions that generated more than 1000 media plays, we have achieved only two percent conversion. But I have learned that short videos that show stories about people doing things perform much better. That is what my own Twitter analytics show during the current month of more than 90,000 Twitter impressions.

I used Wizibel on iOS to create this short promoted Tweet:

This sort of content performed weakly, when compared directly to the performance of tweets featuring people explaining how they create things on camera.

So we're off to produce more compelling content that can convert better than five per cent of the viewing audience to register at http://bit.ly/ictedu19reg.

[Bernie Goldbach teaches this concept to creative media students on the Clonmel Digital Campus. If you're interested in hearing the inside story of tweeting to promote education, register to attend #ictedu in LIT-Thurles on Saturday, May 11, 2019. ]

There's more than 448 pages #MuellerReport

I'VE DISCOVERED fascinating cross-talk beyond the 448 page Mueller Report. Local radio host Fran Curry counted on me to digest the large document so I printed it for him and then went on air to localise its content for Tipperary listeners.

Tipp Today Mueller Report

Streaming Drone Video from Clonmel Pastureland

AS PART OF A CLOUD COMPUTING meet-up in the Questum Centre, videographer Jack Allen will attempt to fly the Clonmel Digital Campus drone on a survey mission along the proposed route of the Clonmel outer ring road. If high winds scrub the flight, we will be inside a Zoom Conference room that you're welcome to join between 1115 and 1145 Irish time on Saturday, April 13, 2019.

Listen to "Planning a Drone Flight And Zoom Hangout E80" on Spreaker.

Learning to Trust @FlyLitchi #drones

ALONG WITH JACK ALLEN, our first class videographer, I'm learning to trust Litchi as the pilot of our campus DJI drone.

With the requisite amount of planning, @FlyLitchi takes our drone on missions faster and more efficiently than we're able to maneuver ourselves. Now I'm looking at ways of improving in-flight video performance through the use of a larger screen or by sitting in a shaded location while the drone does its pre-programmed work.

Screening with help from @otter_ai

WE HAVE BEEN diving into The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly for the past three years and if you're interested in following the conversations, you can simply ask your podcatcher for "Emerging Trends Kun Keen" or have the recordings drop directly by subscribing to the podcast. In today's episode, Amie O'Mahony got a little help from Otter.ai around 8:12 into Episode 22.

Listen to "Screening with Amie O'Mahony E22" on Spreaker.

25 Years of Paddy's Day in Ireland #stpatricksday

AFTER 25 YEARS watching St Patrick's Day unfold in Ireland, I believe I have a refined perspective of what makes a Paddy's Day Parade authentic. It depends upon the place where the parade unfolds.

10 Sunday News Items

I HAVE STARTED talking about major news items with my 11 yo daughter. This week, 10 items from the Sunday Times and Sunday Business Post caught my attention. Two of them concern job opportunities for creative graduates.