OF ALL THE THOUGHTS about the Irish General election (#ge11 on Twitter and it has trended already), the most relevant Sunday musing I've read comes from Frank McGurk who writes, "This election's subtext, which is being studiously ignored by our political class, is that essentially we have ceased to be a country at all and are merely an increasingly poverty-striken, offshore province of the EU and ECB. Without fiscal or economic independence and with almost all political independence ceded to Europe except for some local matters, the Republic of Ireland is now essentially a sort of glamorised European county council." McGurk wonders, "Should we not be arguing that Ireland's economic survival and the euro's survival are interlinked?" I haven't heard that question answered by politicians who have come calling at my door.
From @jenoconnell: In a thoughtful piece, Jennifer O'Connell explores an issue of online privacy that I believes needs careful discussion in the third level social media module we teach at Tipperary Institute. She wonders whether information on the internet written about us should be editable by us? I don't think so. But I do believe everything we put on the internet should be accompanied by a big eject lever, in case we want an easy delete key.
For @evernote: The Sunday Times App List does not list Evernote. That omission devalues the Sunday Times research. However, the results sit behind a paywall so their standing is diminished.
From @adrianweckler: "The Microsoft Windows Phone 7 deal is an attempt by Nokia to put out the fires on the Finnish mobile giant's 'burning platform', but initial market reaction is far from positive.
From @IrishDebate: "Has Ireland Lost Its Mojo?" It's a question that surfaces every week on mailing lists and around the campus of Tipperary Institute. In a helpful full-page piece, Caroline Allen fingers a variety of State agencies and groups willing to help.
For #collegelives: Fine Gael plans to increase the amount of money available under the Sound and Vision programme.
From @topgold: A number of investigations are under way in Cork to discover the casuses of last Thursday's crash. Weather conditions will be a factor.
For #tippsm: Sogeti Ireland's study "From Crowd to Community" concludes the internet and Web 2.0 technologies have made traditional management structures and bureaucracy obsolete for today's knowledge based industries. Adrian Weckler makes the point that "Twitter is now an essential part of the daily news cycle." Aisling Foley Marketing has a survey that documents the number of Irish software companies using Twittter as a communications tool has doubled over the past year. The Sunday Times comment page believes "more revolutions will be fuelled by Twitter". And in Dublin, Storyful, the online news service run by Mark Little, has secured a new round of funding.
For @ictedu: Fair Society, Healthy Lives, a British-government-commissioned review of health inequalities in England published last week, threw up the fact that almost half of five-year old boys are falling in their development by the first year of primary school. As India Knight reveals, "The report's authors voiced concern about cuts and said parents could help their children by reading to them before they started school." There is also value in blogging. Knight reports, "Heathfield Primary in Bolton, Lancashire, started hosting online lessons during last year's heavy snowfalls, when the children couldn't get to school. A blogging platform was set up on the school's website so that, for instance, the pupils were asked to go into their back gardens and rep[ort on the depth of the snow. They loved it." Blogging is now on the curriculum.
Tom McGurk -- "Meaningless promoses in politics of the absurd" in the Sunday Business Post, February 13, 2011.
Richard Colwell -- "How the parties fare across the country" in the Election 2011 section of the Sunday Business Post, February 13, 2011.
Matt Cooper -- "Will the escapologist please step forward" in the Sunday Times, February 13, 2011.
Jennifer O'Connell -- "OffMessage" in the Agenda magazine, Sunday Business Post, February 13, 2011.
Adrian Weckler -- "Nokia gambles on Microsort" in the Technology section of the Sunday Business Post, February 13, 2011.
Caroline Allen -- "Helping hand for new businesses" in the Out on Your Own section of the Sunday Business Post, February 13, 2011.
Niamh Connolly -- "FG to reduce RTE share of TV licence" on the Sunday Business Post, February 13, 2011.
John Burke -- "Details begin to emerge in Cork tragedy" in the News section of the Sunday Business Post, February 13, 2011. Previously: Cork Airport Crash.
India Knight -- "Illiteracy? Try blogging" in the News Review section of The Sunday Times, February 13, 2011.
