Inside View

Streaming to my TV

Recent research conducted by In-Stat, Web-To-TV Video Changes Everything, found that 40% of young adult US households view Internet video on the TV at least once per month. This is such a big change from the day television entered my life. In our home, we can stream cached YouTube clips form our Nokia phones wirelessly via Bluetooth across the room to the TV set. It's powered by smart SCART devices. The under-35 adult population in the US is fueling the adoption of Web-to-TV video consumption. In recessionary times, it's often less expensive to sit at home and watch mindless YouTube videos than it is to spend a day's wages hanging around the pub.

Other highlights from the report include:

Tweeting EdTech 09

IT NORMALLY TAKES ME  a week to distill significant moments arising from industry events so my writing about EdTech 09 when it's still underway in Dublin is not going to be as important as reflecting on the event a week from now. However, one thing needs to be underscored at the end of the first day: EdTech 09 marked the unexpected arrival of a vibrant online back channel during the event. I knew two people (Heather @hjames James and Kevin @kcor1964 O'Rourke) before the event began. As the first day of EdTech 09 unfolded, I discovered five more people in the venue who were tweeting. You can see this cross-talk by viewing a search screen on Twitter. I tried to meet all of the tweeple who were attending and wished there was a spontaneous tweet-up where we could shake hands and exchange 140 character pleasantries in person.

Music Sales Resist Recession

EAGER TO FIND evidence of the 2009 recession at every shop till, I read one one page about the music industry's claims that Pirate Bay was crippling artists. Then on another page, I read that in the last quarter of 2008, album sales in the UK were 0.9% up on the previous year--at a time when the economy contracted by 1.5%. And UK royalties for songwriters rose 8% in 2008. To some observers, the music industry is resisting the recession. On Irish national radio, IRMA spokesmen have said that album sales would drop more than 10% in 2008 but in actuality, they fell only 3.25% while digital album sales rose by 65%. And in 2008, more singles were sold in that one year than in any year on record, when looking across all formats. When I hear IRMA and the doom-sayers moaning on national radio, I wonder if any of the spokesmen use Last.fm (auto-scrobbling detected above) or if any of the complainers have family who enjoy the easy purchasing on iTunes. But then I realise that none of those services are from the recording industry and I resign myself to watching the death dance of an outmoded business.

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Victor Keegan -- "Music industry must change the record" in the Technology Guardian, 21 May 09.

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Sverre Simonsen's Active House

THIS SUMMER, I hope to find an online journal of Sverre and Sophie Simonsen's Active House. It's situated in Lystrup, a suburb of Aarhus, and it takes the Passiv Haus to another level. I work with a Passive House owner and its incredibly effective insulation, heat exchanger and energy management are more than most people want to buy. Instead of a home that lays down markers for ecological practise, the Active House tries to produce more energy than it consumes. So that means huge windows on all sides--glass equivalent to 40% of the floor surface area. Solar panels and photovoltaic cells keep the house warm and powered for most of the year. Smart software controls the interior climate, opening and closing windows according to conditions. I want to read how the Simonsen family of four live within a 4000 KWh annual allowance and hope they write about life in their Active House after moving in on 1 July 2009.

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Andrew Purcell "Light Years Ahead" on the green pages of The Guardian, 21 May 2009. Photo by Morten Fauerby.

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#edtech09 Musings

UPDATED ONE DAY LATER: The EdTech 09 organisers offered me a media pass in exchange for tweeting and writing about the 10th anniversary of the Irish Learning Technology Association. I'm happy for that generous offset of the attendance fee.

AS I MAKE my way to EdTech 09 in Dublin, I'm feeling the pain of making these connections to industry events because I'm carrying a deficit of unpaid expenses related to these worthwhile professional development sessions. In order to get approval for payment to attend many of these conferences, I'm meant to apply months ahead for clearance. Because I rarely do that, I'm now more than €1000 out of pocket for things I did for my job. If the €195 cost of EdTech 09 also goes unpaid, I'm down and out for 2009 because I cannot afford to pay out of my wages to attend events like these unless I can claim them back another way. Some of my financial stress is caused by an atrophy in national finances. Some is caused by me failing to use a brass neck when walking boldly into conference venues. I've taken advice from the Irish Revenue Commissioners and will start my sole trader status alongside my PAYE status. Taken together, I may get some of the tax back that I pay this year.

Walking to Irish EdTech

TODAY IS ONE of those days when my schedule snaps like a rubber band. It's a day when I need to be in two places at once and although both of the venues are located in Dublin, I'm planning to walk past the building at left and head into the Irish Learning Technology Association's annual EdTech Conference to learn about Changing Learning Futures through Technology, using the Conference Schedule that I've bookmarked on my phone. I'll be in the Mayor Street area of Dublin all day at the National College of Ireland. That means I won't go north to the Crowne Plaza Hotel for the IIA National Congress. Both of these events are essential in my calendar. But time pressures have conspired to force me to attend just one of them and then return to base. Every summer I recharge my batteries and plan creative activities for the academic term ahead. This summer those planning sessions have never gone off the boil because we're in a fiscally-challenged time. In my case, that means producing more in less time than ever before. And that means minimising travel and focusing instead on getting things finished closer to home. I'm sure there will be meeting reports from all of the sessions that I wished I'd attended. Those electronic morsels are all I've time to enjoy at the moment.

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The Celtic Tiger Defanged

FORTUNE MAGAZINE MENTIONS Ireland's new troubles on the cover of its current edition and then offers a seven-page explanation of the deep challenges affecting the country. "Ireland's economy is suffering the deepest plunge of virtually any country outside of Iceland," says one caption. Seven photos accompany the story, including a double-truck shot looking up O'Connell Street in Dublin (aerial shot shown at left) just before the morning rush starts. The remaining six photographs tell the story by the selection of images. One shows a dole queue, another a shop with 70% off an empty window, and a third snaps pickets at the gates of Leinster House. An abandoned (incomplete) housing estate in Rathnew features on a half page and the smiling faces of Mary Coughlan and Michael O'Leary complete the pictorial review of the demise of the Celtic Tiger era. Inside the piece, journalist Shawn Tully offers some advice and bitter medicine that those elected to serve should consider as their marching orders. In defanging the Celtic Tiger, Fortune explains how Ireland got into its current mess. The suggestions about getting back on track mean lowering labour costs and preserving the favourable tax regime. Some of those interviewed from the pharmaceutical sector think "Ireland has a big advantage because of the skilled labour force and the high reliability of production." In my job at Tipperary Institute, we graduate students with BSc degrees who go off an manufacture stents. Local costs for Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories just up the road are falling. And the days of easy pay increases are gone for the near future. But there's still a sense of entitlement that has permeated Irish society with a range of comfort services that do not exist in the States and as long as centrist policies remain at the heart of Irish government, it will be difficult to curtail State services.

Five Things Five Years From Now

ON THE HEELS OF A very inspiring Schools Conference at Tipperary Institute, I decided to scribble down five things that I intend to review five years from now. I've used my blog as a journal since 2001 and I'm relatively certain that I'll be able to look back at what I've written today because I'm duplicating these thoughts into an embargoed post, set to publish on 1 June 2014 here on InsideView.ie and also on my emerging edublog. While technology certainly will race ahead and offer more connectivity for those attending the Schools Conference, I wouldn't expect social networking to improve as much as the technology itself. So here are the five thoughts from today that I want to review on the resurgence of the New Celtic Tiger five years from now.

When Lights Go Off

WITH SEVERAL virtual identities competing for limited resources, some of my online properties fall over the side a few times a year. It's no way to build a virtual presence--unless you want to erase part of the Google cache regarding something you've done. Since 1996, I've had something about myself on a domain that I maintained. The earliest stuff is now held hostage by a UK ISP because of a payment dispute. The late 20th century stuff is mothballed in a Dublin ISP and my current stuff is scattered from San Jose to Ireland. By looking at the chart (see left), it's apparent that something occurred a few weeks ago when the numbers of people visiting this blog dropped by thousands during a three-day stretch. Knowing my attention to detail, the same deep decline will happen to me before the end of the decade--it's already happened to my rich media content at Podcasting.ie--and my challenge is to face up to the embarrassment of going dark by preventing it in the first place. A special note to those five people who were alarmed by my dropping off the map--thanks for your text messages and direct email. It's nice to be noticed you've gone missing and it's special to discover that people read the words scribbled on this blog by clicking all the way onto the blog pages instead of taking their information via an RSS reader.

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Connecting Teachers to Irish Networking

ONE OF THE UNTAPPED resources for primary schools in Ireland is a deep mother lode of dedicated talent just a few miles away in the homes and business locations of parents and former students--like Rachael Cooke standing tall at left. Those people, often willing to share their time and talent, normally sit beyond the school gates without any form of connection to their old school grounds. The closest some former students come to the alma mater is when youngsters ring around with raffle tickets, prize competitions or when the kids bag groceries for tips in the local supermarket. With a little thought, many Irish parents could follow the flow of their local primary schools. With a little effort, some school boards could ensure their names, events and needs became relevant news items on Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube and on discussion threads at Boards.ie. Some local newspapers will facilitate comment sections online that continue thoughts arising in letters to the editor. On the heels of a very successful Schools Conference in Tipperary Institute, I am trying to piece together an initiative that coalesces the energy so evident in the hallways of Tipperary Institute last weekend.

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Sent mail2blog using Nokia E90 O2-Typepad service near Fethard, County Tipperary, Ireland. Photo shot of Rachael Cooke interviewing Josie Fraser.

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