Hurling on CSI: NY and Captain Planet in Belfast

A couple of videos to enjoy. I hadn't actually come across the former until I noticed it mentioned in Gerry Lynch's Facebook feed, but when I watched it, it reminded me of the latter...

NVTV Blogtalk NI Episode 3

Blogtalk (Episode 3) from Northern Visions on Vimeo.

I was delighted this week to be able to participate in an episode of NVTV's Blogtalk NI programme in Belfast. They've a good set up down there at NVTV and Carl Boyle does a great job pulling the show together.

This episode focuses on big news stories that have been across blogs lately. My fellow panelists were Conall McDevitt and Owen Polley. The issues we discussed included the Ulster Unionist/ Conservative alliance, the 'No Pope Here' campaign on Facebook and 'Gatelygate'- the furore over the Jan Moir Daily Mail article on the demise of Stephen Gately.

Feedback welcome!

General Election 2010- Interesting Times Ahead

In recent years, pretty much since 2001 in fact, the results of general elections have been fairly predictable in Northern Ireland. The DUP and Sinn Féin dominate with the SDLP maintaining its seats in its strongholds (with the surprise addition of South Belfast in 2005) and the UUP playing second-fiddle in the unionist camp (quite spectacularly in 2005).

A year ago, it would have been fair to predict that the status quo would be maintained in the next election, but since then things have changed considerably, particularly in the unionist camp. With the DUP going into government with Sinn Féin, a considerable flank of their position has been left open to attack from traditionalists such as Jim Allister. At one point there was talk of the DUP running two candidates in the European elections, but thanks to the TUV they came in under quota to take their third seat with a sole candidate.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionists have resurrected their link with a resurgent Tory party. While the story of the European election was the problems faced by the DUP rather than the UUP/ Conservatives maintaining Jim Nicholson's position, the next general election will be a much bigger experiment by the 'New Force'.

In recent weeks the DUP has made several suggestions about unionist pacts in South Belfast and Fermanagh/ South Tyrone. However, with the Ulster Unionists arguing that the DUP has no right to be bargaining on these constituencies given that it has never held either seat, and with intra-unionist bad blood apparently still as toxic as ever, it appears that no deal is on the horizon.

Elsewhere, Jim Allister has indicated that he will run in North Antrim, seeking to take a seat held by the DUP since 1970. Will Ian Paisley run again, or will his son or perhaps Education Committee Chair Mervyn Storey fancy a shot at it?

Within nationalism, a soon-to-be-retired SDLP leader Mark Durkan will be seeking to cement his place as the Foyle MP, and South Down stalwart Eddie McGrady is running again. Alasdair McDonnell will hope that a continued unionist split and the benefits of incumbency will see him home again in South Belfast. Elsewhere, Sinn Féin will be aiming for business as usual.

Regardless of the results, the run up to the forthcoming general election alone will be intriguing. How things pan out as the ballot papers are counted will be another issue entirely.

Got £1.1 million dollars handy?

If you do, you could get your mitts on a Microsoft Xbox 360 signed by none other than former Alaskan governor and failed vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Apparently someone successfully bid this amount previously, but PayPal couldn't handle such a large transaction, so it fell through. It would be worrying though if someone did lay down such a large amount of cash this time around for a basic piece of electronic gadgetry, as I would hope that a family member would step in if someone had lost their faculties to the extent that they would fork out such an enormous sum for what is frankly a piece of rubbish.

Lisbon and Cóir: When Parody becomes Reality

Given that much of the publicity material being put out in the south by anti-Lisbon group Cóir is little more than a joke, it was only a metter of time before someone actually did make a joke of it.

Now an eagle-eyed David Cochrane of Politics.ie fame has spotted a mishap by the Evening Herald whereby they ran a parody of a Cóir poster as if it was an actual piece of literature produced by the group.

As David says: "Funny, yes, but also a lesson in that Cóir posters are so easy to parody, it’s difficult to tell which posters belong to them, and which are a piss-take."

However, it does raise a potential issue that there may be many voters don't realise how ridulous Cóir's actual claims are.

Derren Brown Video: Very Funny

Does Twitter make you a twit?

According to research carried out by Dr Tracy Alloway from the University of Sterling, Sudoku stretches the working memory, as does keeping up with friends on Facebook.

However, the instantaneous nature of texting, Twitter and YouTube is not healthy for working memory, according to findings.

As the Daily Telegraph reports: ''On Twitter you receive an endless stream of information, but it's also very succinct. You don't have to process that information.

''Your attention span is being reduced and you're not engaging your brain and improving nerve connections."

If people constantly just skim Twitter, I can see her point. However, I’d imagine it’s the way in which it's used that matters. For example, often tweets carry urls which link through to more in-depth news articles and the like which obviously require more concentration to read.

Likewise, if you just glance through your Facebook homepage to have a nose at what your friends are up to in a very superficial and non-engaging way, you’re not going to indulge your brain in any great amount of deep thought.

As a result, it’s the nature of the user rather than the platform which I’d guess dictates the effect the latter has on the former.

Is Allergy to Wi-Fi Pie in the Sky?

Apologies for the lack of blogging lately, due in part to holidays and my laptop deciding to go on strike.

There’s an interesting article in today’s Sun newspaper about a chap who claims he’s allergic to Wi-Fi. Now I tend to get the sniffles over the summer due to hayfever, but I must admit that I’m not aware of any adverse effects from wireless internet. And thankfully so, as I’d guess there isn’t a build-up area anywhere in Northern Ireland that isn’t within some sort of electromagneticwaveshot of a wi-fi hub.

The Sun claims that two percent of the population is allergic to Wi-Fi, although I’m not quite sure how they came to this figure when it doesn’t seem that the existence of such an ailment has even been established.

Supposing of course such a problem with Wi-Fi was actually proven, I can only guess at the drama it would cause. We’d have people protesting outside about half the homes in the UK calling for the Wi-Fi ‘masts’ inside to be taken down. Forget about mobile phone masts! Given the ubiquity of Wi-Fi, it would also cause a massive headache (pun intended) for just about every business and government office with Wi-Fi facilities, as they could find themselves under threat from lawsuits for breaching health and safety.

Let’s hope that Wi-Fi gets a clean bill of health or it’ll be back to those pesky cables plugging your computer into a socket.

Iran Election Live Twitter Blog (#iranelection hashtag)

Given that things seem to be escalating in Iran, with violent crack-downs on protestors, in the absence of any detailed mainstream media coverage this far, I'm setting up a live blog here which will pull in and display as tweets with the Twitter hashtag #iranelection. It updates automatically, or you can click the refresh button on the panel to expedite the process.

Blur: Midlife Medley

Less than a month to go until I experience the joys of Blur at Hyde Park. In the meantime, their record company Parlophone has released this medley with some of their best tracks.

Christian Solidarity Party

I can't believe this chap only got 0.7% of the vote in the Dublin Central bye-election last week. People of Dublin, what were you thinking?!

Northern Ireland European Election 2009 Live Blog

I've created a live blog for the European Election here in Northern Ireland. It'll pull in tweets with the hashtag #euni. Obviously I'm not responsible for comments that appear as a result of being posted on other people's Twitter accounts!

European Election Predictor

Sorry for the lack of posting lately- I didn't realise it had been so long! Things have been pretty busy lately, but tomorrow's the big day.

I came across this interesting site on my travels. According to their spiel:

Predict09.eu is a prediction of the outcome of the June 2009 European Parliament elections and the resulting make-up of the next European Parliament.

The prediction is based on a statistical model of the performance of national parties in European Parliament elections, developed by three leading political scientists: Simon Hix (London School of Economics), Michael Marsh (Trinity College Dublin), and Nick Vivyan (London School of Economics).

These updated predictions (after the launch on 7 April 2009) use new polling data and up-to-date information about which parties and coalitions will be standing in the elections. A new section has also been added to the website, on the overall analysis page, on the possible effect of low voter turnout on the predictions. The predictions will be updated every two weeks until the elections on 4-7 June.

They're predicting that the DUP, UCUNF and Sinn Féin will win seats in the north this year. Meanwhile in the south, they're saying that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will drop a seat apiece, Labour will gain two, Mary-Lou McDonald will hold onto her seat, and Kathy Sinnott will lose out in Munster.

Jesus at the Assembly?

The Northern Ireland Assembly posted this interesting photo on Flickr of some of the marble up at Stormont.

Recognise anyone?

Compare the Market/ Compare the Meerkat: Good Cross-Media Marketing

Car insurance isn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, especially when you have to fork out several hundred quid a year for something that may never happen, but price comparison site comparethemarket.com has lightened the mood with its cross-platform meerkat theme.

The basic premise is that a parallel site is being run by small mammals allowing visitors to compare meerkats rather than insurance quotes. On the rival site, visitors can download videos, desktop themes and ringtones. Indeed, you can also follow the furry chap who 'runs' the site on Twitter- over 14,000 already do this.

Although on the face of it, comparethemeerkat.com is completely pointless, it's actually a very clever device to build brand awareness around a product that would normally be quite boring in a market where there is a lot of competition. The TV ads for comparethemarket.com/ comparethemeerkat.com create curiosity about what comparethemeerkat.com is, leading people to check out the site, where they can download items and spread the word about the 'alternative' brand.

Of course, at all times the real price comparison site at comparethemarket.com is cross-referenced, reminding people of the true point of the whole enterprise. This engages internet users who effectively do the company's marketing for them through online advocacy with a few fun tools provided on the meerkat microsite. Not only does this put them ahead of rivals in terms of brand awareness, but the engagement of mostly unwitting brand champions also raises the credibility of the product.

Also, encouraging people to go on the internet is precisely what a company which operates online wants to do.

Intelligent marketers are increasingly looking at ways to supplement high-cost, low-engagement platforms such as television advertising with low-cost, high-engagement platforms such as social networks and viral videos. This is changing the face of brand promotion, as it becomes more two-way than previously. The key is to combine the use of media in a way which is complementary and enhances the brand with target audiences.