Inside View from Ireland

Learning Alphabet with Handwrite

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Screenshot from iTouch  

WE CAN REPORT complete mastery of our four-year-old alphabet skills, thanks in a small way to the arrival of Google Handwrite on the iTouch.

While most of my Twitter friends consider Handwrite to be a mere gimmick, I've seen it deliver practical results when watching our preschool daughter write in cursive on the iPod Touch screen.

She needs to know how to spell "Google" because Handwrite works only on Google search screens, not inside the search bar on Safari.

Future of News Isn't Content

Bernie Goldbach in LIT-Clonmel | My Shot of the Examiner  

IN MY LIFETIME, future-proofed media companies have realised their destinies lie not in the the content that they produce and not in the way they distribute their content. 

Media companies that survive beyond this decade will change the way they view traditional metrics and begin analysing the depth and reach they have with those consuming their information. I listened to Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis and Gina Trapani discussing this idea in This Week in Google, episode 156.

This kind of discussion unfolds in the Emerging Trends module taught at the Limerick Institute of Technology. Next semester, we'll ask, "Is Yahoo a media company?" We'll look at how Leo Laporte has beat broadcasters at their own game.  And we'll suggest ways Ireland's national broadcaster might get an easy win with fewer resources.

News Companies Won't Succeed Just With Media

Learning from the Elbow View of Creative Journaling

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Photo from the corner of the kitchen  

I SIT ACROSS the room and watch our resident artist at work. And I learn about journaling from my vantage point at her elbow.

Nearly five years old, Mia (at left) has commandeered the scrapbook she's meant to bring to "big school" for summertime projects. Since she can't write, she creates with coloured pencils, glue sticks and scissors. It's the same creative process I've seen in BMW, Motorola, and animation studios. Just rough out a sketch and flesh out the words later. Do the sketch right and you can demand that your project manager writes the words.

There's a great need to ensure this kind of creative process gets enshrined in third level practical experiences. I've written about the need to set aside studio time with our creative multimedia students when academic credit arises for those who can truly observe and take notes. These are important skills because few creative multimedia students begin their studies with the ability to check out their immediate environments.

Too Senior for Social Media

I MIGHT BE too senior for social media, especially if you believe every social media manager should be under 25.

I'm the inverse of 25, making me well outside of the cohort Cathryn Sloane would trust to manage online conversations.  I encounter urban slang, Cork-speak and German contractions that confuse me in my Twitterstream. I totally miss some of the innuendos shared on my daughters' Facebook timelines. Like Sloane the newly-minted graduate would suggest, it might be time to recognise who is best-suited to put their oars into managing social media for business.

I like the cross-talk Cathryn Sloane has generated on Forbes, Twitter, and Google Plus. Her premise that companies looking to hire Social Media Managers should look to her generation since "they’re naturally better at it because they grew up with it" resonates with me because I'm a generation removed. I'm prone to senior moments on social media. I need a crossing guard before walking into revered spaces in the shadows of those who have marked out social networks as their special allotments. Unfortunately for me (and for those in the Sloane camp), I don't restrict my advice by the age (nationality or gender) of the sage.

Peripherals in my pocket

Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel | Photo of the windowsill  

I AM SPENDING TIME inside a concrete bunker, often outside the range of cell phone coverage. To maintain sanity, I pull some peripherals (at left) out of my pocket.

The bunker is actually a hospital room with no line of sight to a telephone mast. The experience provides me a cautionary tale about the years ahead when I'm confined to a bed with no connection to the cloud. I wonder how many of my virtual friends would manage in such an environment.

Years ago, I made a decision to buy electronic gear with ample on-board storage because I've rented places in Ireland that had no internet access. The strategy has paid off several times and now I've always a terabyte in my bag.

Looking back on my blog, I read strategies that involved "using a scanner to digitise three banker's boxes of stuff ... (and) an external hard drive to catalogue my images, videos and sound clips." I scan most of my stuff nowadays with a steady hand holding a Sony Xperia phone and I record audio snippets of stuff that I need to recycle. Then I find a high speed data connection and save the results onto a Crashplan server.

Ireland on Pause

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Photo shot on Main Street  

I'M AN AMERICAN in Ireland but too long in the country to really have an unblemished perspective about the country. But my personal opinion is that Ireland is on "pause" at the moment.

Some of my perspective perspective comes from looking at the pace of life around me while standing in my corner shop or going on walkabouts in County Tipperary. I get put on "pause" when driving through the centre of town a lot. I see "pause" in the air while watching retail shops just ticking over. The town councils and national government seem to be on "pause" because they just want to keep the lights on. Contractors providing services to the retail sector and to the government feel "pause" in the form of slow payments. To me, it feels like Ireland is on "pause."

Self-Publishing Is More Than Vanity Publishing

Bernie Goldbach in South Tipp General | Photo from Observer  

I BOUGHT THREE SUNDAY PAPERS because I thought we'd be waiting a while. Waiting stretched through the night while I read e-books.

Several of the e-books I have on my Kindle are self-published works. Unless you know the distinction between self-published and vanity publishing, you could tar both with the same brush. To hunker down by yourself and meet the Apple or Amazon standard for a title means you're doing a lot of work. However, in most of Irish mainstream media, having an electronic title won't get you on chat shows. And the detractors are quick off the mark with snide comments about authors who did not follow the normal slog of using an agent, publishing house and publicist. But things are changing in e-publishing and I'd expect public perceptions to change as well.

Hunting for New EL James

Observer Times Post Newsround

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Photo from Spectrum  

YEARS FROM NOW, I'll remember the last Sunday in July 2012 for the start of the Olympics in London and for the fall of the Quinn family in Ireland. Both feature in the three Sunday newspapers I skimmed today.

I enjoy the photo coverage of the Olympics and bought the current Newsweek magazine for its cover shot of Hope Solo, the American goalie. Spectrum Magazine in the Sunday Times covers a collection of images representing the 204 countries participating in the Olympics. They're snapping people from each of the countries, including the shot in my post by Veronique Rolland of Russian-born Szezana Lukka-Biesek on her houseboat near Putney Bridge.

The Quinn family's demise is a work of high drama. Sean Quinn was once the richest man in Ireland and probably the one man made richest during the Celtic Tiger. Today, he's a step away from prison for his contempt of court. [1] His son was imprisoned on Friday and his nephew is evading a warrant for arrest by hiding out in the United Kingdom. [2] The story has enough twists and turns for a television series.

Simple Sunday Newsround