Cork Blogger Tweetup!

Are you a blogger or a tweeter in Cork? Then check out Joe's blog as he is organising a little getogether next Thursday or Friday in the Thirsty Scholar.

Do come along!

Aged 16-18? Win a trip to Africa!

Thanks to Eoin Ryan MEP for highlighting this on twitter. Vist www.dyp2008.org/ to see how you could win a trip to Africa. One person from Ireland has to win! Check it out! Best of luck if you enter!

More Politicians tweeting and one not...

So since I did my post about Fine Gaelers on twitter I have come across some more on Twitter!

One is a Senator and the other two are councillors. Fist up is the Senator Jerry Buttimer who is FG's spokesperson on Community, Rural and Gaeltach Affairs. Cork City Councillor Laura McGonigle is also on twitter, she represent the Cork South West Ward in the city. The other Councillor is Cavan County Councillor (and FG National Executive member) Seán McKiernan (his tweets are protected but he might let you follow).

The Polictcian not tweet is Graham Watson an English MEP who Tom Harris MP tells us does not twitter! But in fact his wife does!!! Should we unfollow politicians who do this? Well really those admit to doing this?

Do you know more Irish Politicians on twitter??? Let me know! Either in the comments or on twitter or via email stephen(dot)spillane(at)gmail(dot)com

I shall leave you with a Video from a Local Election Candidate who is embracing social media (sic??) and whom I mentioned in the previous post...

I've Lost followers

Yesterday I had 17 followers on this blog, today I have 15 :(

What did I do to offend two people? I dont know, but I dont think they unfollowed because Gamma recently asked in a comment why I unfollowed him (I didnt) and when I went to check I wasnt a follower but the only option there was to unfollow him! Hmm When I checked the blogger twitter account I found the reason, they are integrating it with friend connect and things have been hidden for privacy reasons. Hopefully it will all sort out soon.

Twitter hand signal

Phil Jupitus gives us twitterers our own hand signal! Thanks phil!

h/t:@mcawilliams

Fine Gaeler's on Twitter

Image via CrunchBase

I was recently asked about official Fine Gael stuff on Facebook and twitter (I seam to be the go to person) and I must say there isn't any that I knew of! That remineded of my FineGaelNews bot on twitter and I checked out its followers and I found three Senators and a TD who use it properly as well as a Local Election Candidate.

The Senators are Senator Fidelma Healy Eames from Galway, Fine Gaels spokesperson on Education in the Seanad; Senator JP Phelan from Kilkenny and Fine Gaels spokesman on Enterprise, Trade & Employment in the Seanad; and Paschal Donohoe fromn Dublin who is persumed FG Candidate for Dublin South byelection.

The TD is Lucinda Creighton, she is Fine Gaels spokesperson on Europe and she is T.D. for Dublin South East.

The Local Election Candiate is Simon Harris who is running in Greystones, Co Wicklow for the local council.

Also to be fair I did find a Fianna Failer on twitter too it's Eoin Ryan MEP for Dublin. Ciaran Cuffe of the Green Party is also on twitter, also Green Party Senator and Dublin Euro candidate Deirdre De Burca is on twitter!

Do you know of more Irish Politicians on twitter? Let me know!

A review of TeenCamp Ireland - Featuring Links, Pics and Videos!

Well it wasnt all fun yesterday, there was lots of learning too at TeenCamp!

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

After a welcome from Alan and Enda, the day started off with Tommy Collison giving a talk about blogging and his famlily blogging and tweeting. A really interesting talk.

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

Next up was Klara who gave a fascinating tlak on Manga and Anime. I learned alot from that talk! Have friends into it, so now can talk about it a bit more!

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

Then David Doran gave a talk on getting started. How to approach problems, jobs and ideas online. I learned alot from this talk!

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

The we had Chris D gave a talk on Gamers and gaming. It was highly entertaining and oh so true!

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

His talk ended with a bear of course! The ceiling bit was unplanned!

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

Next came the bit I enjoyed the most, everyone had to get up and introduce themselves! It was a great idea. As each person talked, their twitter was shown behind them. That was grand for most people, until it came to me and a tweet I sent from the George the previous night. Which did set someone off giggling!

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

After the introductions and food, came a conversation hosted by Darragh Doyle and myself about why you blog!

After that came a talk from Ben Kenealy about online hook-ups. See the video by Damien! Its hilari1ous!

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

After that Cian Mac Mahon gave a fascinating talk about podcasting and whats involved in it! I learned alot from that talk.

From TeenCamp Ireland Jan 17th

The day ended and I had to get the train home after a draw (it was a fix btw! :P).

It was great to put many names to faces and actually get to know people. Really looking forward to the blog awards now!

All the pictures that I took of the day are here

Also if those who gave talks are willing to put them on Slideshare, I think it would be a great idea! Let me know if you do!

Other round-ups? TheChrisD has one, as does Tommy and Daniel have ones too! If anyone else does let me know and I will update this

UPDATE: David's roundup is here

UPDATE 2: Klara has done her round up

UPDATE 3: Girlsthoughts, Will Knott and Alan also have round ups!

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• Vote for John

Vote for John

Image via CrunchBaseI had a post last month asking you to nominate @mcawilliams for a Shorty Award, well he is in the final for the personal category and needs your votes!

The format is the same. Tweet the following:

@shortyawards I vote for @mcawilliams in the Shorty Awards Finals for #personal because…he’s very personal

Also there is another Irish twitterer up for an award, @dongenland who is up for a green award. So while you are at it, tweet:

@shortyawards I vote for @doneganland in the Shorty Awards Finals for #green because…he’s green

I am not alone is asking you to do this, Darragh Doyle, Joe Scanlon and adland ireland along with many others ask you to do the same! So please do! Lets put Ireland on the twitter map! Get Voting

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I'm Giving up Alcohol (Again)

Image by brosner via FlickrSo if you followed me on twitter, you would have seen tweets giving out about drama on Friday night. After talking with the person involved on MSN last night, he still doesn't know how really pissed off me and an another friend are with him. So to set a good example, I am giving up alcohol for a bit.

I do this every son often anyway and have a great time out! See my problem is, I get hyper on 7up (and coca-cola), so therefore can normally be seen dancing the night away and not really giving a toss.

Last night was one of those nights. I went out and met with friends and had a great night. So hopefully I will stick to it.

Of course I have a good track record of giving up alcohol. The last time I did, I met my boyfriend, so it was a good decision then and hopefully a good decision now.

Now I'm normally bad at setting a time for when I go back drinking, but I know I will be drinking when I go to Dublin next week, and Brussels the week after, because I will be, kinda, on holidays!

So hopefully it will all work out!

An interview with Alan and Enda - Organisers of TeenCamp Ireland

Alan (@alancostello) and Enda (@Endac) are the two young 'techies' that are organising this months TeenCamp Ireland in the FilmBase in Dublin. They are both 17 years old and have taken on a task of organising an event for teenagers (and people 20+ I am assured) who are interested in tech.

So who are these young 'techies'? I had an opportunity to find out more so I took it!

Alan is according to his online bio "blogger, Twaddict (Twitter addict!), TeenCamp co-creator, and general tall guy". He is 17 from Leixlip, Co. Kildare, and in 6th year in Coláiste Chiarián. He has a blog too, at Alancostello.com.

Enda is also 17 and is from Cork. He is a 6th year in Ashton. He also is a blogger, he blogs at Contrar.ie

So how did they get into tech? Enda says he started off on Windows 95 and by mainly teaching himself. He found Windows 95 to be quite "child friendly" he then worked up from there. Alan says tech was "always been something I've wanted to know all about" from his "first V-Tech 'laptop'" to the tape deck computers at his mothers work and right up to now with his iPhone.

So how did these two meet? Well Enda can't remember and it falls to Alan to fill us in. He explains that his "cousin is best friends with one of his friends, and we just became good friends", they met in Cork last summer (or Was it Dublin, asks Enda, Alan confirms it was Cork)

So where the idea for TeenCamp come from? A conversation on twitter. According to Alan "talk of the Irish Web Awards led to talk of BarCamp, which led to us talking about an event for teenagers and people like us" which led to "some blog posts on it, the feedback was fantastic" adds Enda.

Alan continues "The feedback has been great, loads of teens all over the country (and world) have asked if we needed help, and with less than two weeks to go we think we will have to take some of them up on their offers". Enda also said that they will be "asking for more help along the way" from the volunteers. Which to me is a sign of good organisation!

The event is being held in the FilmBase and I asked how easy was it to come up with a venue, "actually" replies Enda "Pretty hard", "Easy to find, hard to book" added Alan. In aiming for "a more relaxed atmosphere" that meant staying away from "hotel meeting center/conference kind-of place" explained Enda. Alan stated that "Temple Bar was the main idea, just seemed like our scene" ("Temple Bar is not my scene" Enda was quick to add that one!) "Filmbase was perfect" continued Enda "but I don't know if we'd have many alternatives after that."

Sponsorship for these types of events are always important so I asked them how they were getting on with that and what feedback they were getting. Enda said it was mainly "positive responses, until talk of money", but they do have sponsors they assure me!

The day itself looks to be an interesting and the lads promise as much. "People have volunteered through the registration form to give talks on a wide variety of topics" according to Alan and Alan himself is giving a talk at the event on integration but there will also be talks on subjects such as coding, gaming, culture and many more, but according to Enda their is a more important aspect to TeenCamp then the talks, Networking. He explains "I think we want to provide as many opportunities for people to network. That's what I noticed at the meet-ups, IWA and *Camps is in-between the talks. The conversation is just a huge part. If everyone in the room came away knowing one other person they didn't already know - that would be fantastic, because they'll keep the relationships up and (hopefully) more events and things will come from it". "And that's also the other point behind TeenCamp, we wanted something for us, the youth of Ireland" adds Alan "But the talks, giving a chance to learn about something you didn't necessarily know about before, will be an important part".

So with two weeks to go and School back this week are the lads feeling the pressure? "I thought about setting fire to Ashton last night. Don't know if you could call that pressure though" replied Enda. And Alan? "Well, I've got mocks the first two weeks of February, so I'm stressing out a bit"

So what have friends and family thought of this? Enda explains that most things involving him and tech lead to a "meh" response and his with his friends? " I get as far as the word "teen" with my friends and they're on the floor" Alan's mother "doesn't really understand it, to her it'll just be another day in town with friends" and to his friends not going to it "don't get the point either". But the reaction from people in Tech as made it all worthwhile. "We've had great reactions, people from the tech world have been entirely for the event," said Alan "many of them said it was needed too".

Do they see TeenCamp becoming an annual event? "We haven't really given much thought into the future of the event," replied Alan "after we see how this first one goes we will definitely think about it, maybe even making it more than annual. But I would assume as we get old we could pass the organising torch onto someone else". "If the demand and turnout (on the day) is big enough" according to Enda "I'd certainly be up for another one"

The event is open to all from 13 to 20+ ("its all about inner-child Stephen!" - Enda), it takes place on January 17th and the lads promise it will be "lovely" and "It's gonna rock" and "tell your friends."

So do what they say! Tell your friends and check it out yourself! I'll be there, will you?

Israel–Gaza conflict

Image by ShadoWalker Photography via FlickrSo last night I, along with many others, found out via Twitter that Israel had launched a ground offensive in Gaza.

How this will work out for Israel is a different matter, but I am slowly changing my mind on the conflict. It is hard to see a way out of the issue for Israel without resorting to some sort of military action to protect itself?

The more I read, both anti-Israel and Pro-Israel the more I seam to agree with Israels military actions (I am very much against their Economic Blockade which is collective punishment). How long could you live in a country consistently under bombardment with reacting. You cannot always turn the other cheek.

As in all conflicts there is collateral (ie Civilian) casualties. The Israeli Defence Forces will take a lot of casualties as well due to the fact that Gaza is small area and has highly urbanised areas which always lead to high death tolls on all sides.

The Observer calls the military operation a return "the failed strategies of the past" and that "While Hamas's offensive capacities will be blunted for a while, the likelihood, as with Hezbollah after Lebanon in 2006, is that it will quickly rebuild its military strength."

I'm not so sure that Hamas will be able to rebuild as fast as Hezbollah have as the Economic Blockade and the destruction of the supply tunnels will limit how quickly Hamas can rearm.

I can see why a large percentage of Israeli's are supporting the current action, but I do hope to a quick end to this as the longer it takes the more casualties on both sides.

Vote @Mcawilliams no. 1

I've done it, Damien's done it, even Grandad has done it! Have you?

It's simple. Just tweet @shortyawards I nominate @mcawilliams for a Shorty Award in #personal because... and give a reason.

Go on You know you want too.

Voting can also be done on the Shorty Awards site

@Mcawilliams rocks and is a sound engineer from Dublin. He runs ttqtd on twitter

Track Santa

Every year NORAD, who are responsible for North American Air Defence, track Santa's journey around the Globe. They have a website which is fantasic (and tells me that he is leaving in 13hrs!) and they have integrated with Google Earth so you can track Santa via that or via video, which is probably what I will be doing! Bitz, one Santa's elfs, has discovered Twitter and is helping Norad track santa using that!

You can embed a map tracking santa on your site here like I have done below!



Merry Christmas and I hope Santa is good to you when he reaches you and you are well tucked up in bed like I will be!!

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Christmas Eve Eve

This morning I posted on Facebook and Twitter that today was Christmas Eve Eve and it did confuse someone. I am not sure where myself and my sister came up with this one (I think it was mainly her) but instead of calling today the Eve of Christmas Eve, we called it Christmas Eve Eve! I was talking to Russell today on the phone and he had not seen Facebook or twitter and called today Christmas Eve Eve! I know its a strange name for a day but why not! Do you have any strange names for days around Christmas?

I am a Fan!

Image by elston via FlickrAlexia Golez is a fan of a few things and her post has given me the idea for this post!

So what am I a fan of?

# Damien Mulley: He was the person that (unbeknowst to him) inspired me to start blogging. One of the first blogs I check every day.
# Short.ie: This is one of my favourite web apps and they recently revamped the website and its better then ever! I love the way you can share what you have shortened!
# Google Reader: If it wasnt for google reader I would be forever searching the internet for blogs, I love its recommendations even if I do worry that it checks my emails..
# Cork OpenCoffee Club: This has opened me up to a whole new set of contacts who have spured me on and have helped with through informal conversations or tweeting later on!
# Twitter: Twitter rocks as do the people I interact on it who help out with problems and point me in the direction of interesting news among other things.

So what are you a fan of?

Light Blogging

Blogging and tweeting will be light coming up to christmas due to the fact I am working till 9pm most evenings and am wrecked tired after work. Also during time off I have to sort out the last of my Christmas shopping. The weekend will see himself arrive up so I hopefully will get some posts prepared on Sunday night!

I am Twitter Elite

Well in Cork anyway! Thats according to Twitter Grader which rates me as number 13 in Cork! Below is my current grading.



In other twitter news, I was interviewed over on tweetabix.com, so check out my interview

I think thats enough twitter stuff...

PS Dont forget you can follow me on twitter!

Twitter and Me

Yes, yet another post about twitter but this about some cool stuff! So firstly I am addicted since I have discovered how to use twitter via my mobile phone and so keeps me entertained on the way to work and home from work if Claire is off. Below is a graph from tweetstats.com of tweeting and this month it has exploded!



I went from 1 tweet in September to 370 in October to a wopping 870 in November!

The number of people I follow on Twitter has alos increased, and so therefore I am interacting with more people on it! I have had some fascinating converstaion, with some fastinating people. You may have noticed a little counter appear under my twitter feed on the right, this is my twittercounter. Its hear as well in case you are blind or using an RSS Feed



What you might not know is that I have created two Twitter bots. One for this blog StevemyOpinion which has and FineGaelNews which has

Then there is a cool Yahoo! Pipes Twitter Freinds yoke that makes map of where you twitter feeds are coming from. Below are two of mine that are already out of date!

World Map:


UK & Ireland


I also found this cool site called Tweetabix which looks at people who use twitter and ask them all sorts of interesting questions!

Do check out twitter and if you join follow me!

Bye Plurk, Hello Twitter (again)

So I kind of gave up on Plurk and have gone back to using Twitter again, mainly cause of the fact I know more people on Twitter! Now lots of people ask me what is Twitter and I am normally useless at explaining things so thanks to topgold on delicious.com I found this which should help explain it all.

Twitter Explained

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: networks social)

Plurking about

Those of you who read this blog and were on my twitter knew I was fairly good at updating that in Germany but since I got back I'm useless! There is a reason for this. My tweets fell off after they had problems with the IM use. Thats how I used it so I havent used it really since then. Tough I went mad on it last night!

On Friendfeed tough I discovered a new (well new to me) site and its like twitter in the fact that its micro blogging. Those with eagle eyes will have noticed the new box on the sidebar but, for those who haven't check out my plurk and have a poke around and maybe join it?

I prefer it to twitter as to me its more fluid and interactive. its great that it keeps track of conversations so there is no searching through pages looking for stuff. Its all neat and tidy and there is plenty of customisable stuff on the site too as long as you keep your karma up, which is interesting in its own way!

So take a look and join me?