Random Rants

Over at the Dossing Times we have a link to a very comprehensive report on the myth of the Scandinavian social model and why the Irish model of a "active welfare state" with aspects taken from continental Europe and mixed with some Anglo-Saxon liberal economy can create the ongoing boom that we're currently experiencing. The report itself is a bit liberal with its statistical interpretation of the current prevailing economic conditions but they are hard figures if a little coloured to shown their arguement (which in fairness doesn't do justice as to why really Ireland has worked so well) so who am I to argue it missed the core driver of regional innovation by collaborating state and technical communities governed by a decentralised set of state institutions or for the interested (see Sean O'Riain's book, "The Politics of High-Tech Growth - Developmental Network States in the Global Economy"). I'm going to disagree with the lads comments on Irish people not accepting the model culturally as it simply won't be accepted within the ego centric mindset of the average Irish punter given it would mean reaching deep into their pockets to pay for the higher quality of services. I work with three Swedes and one Dane in my group with ages ranging from 25-50 and have gotten a good view of their take on Ireland, given that one can back to UL again to study and brought a friend obviously Limerick has at least as much to offer as Sweden. I think the central reason why the Scandinavian model would fail in Ireland agrees with the lads on the point of our culture but specifically with our acceptance of no or low accountability standards, benchmarking, PPARS, numerous other scandals would cause uproar in many civilised countries but here its just another day on Kildare street...

Piaras Kelly is catching on to the fact that Irish politicans are getting web savy .... hhhmmm I think the first time I implemented a Councillor's website was for the second last local elections ... Really people even Councillor's are aware of the web and ... shock horror .. the Data protection act. One comment on the blog was spot on and talks about poverty and the digital divide. Gridlinked, To Hold Infinity and many other science fantasy books show situations where technology is highly advanced but in the hands of only a few so they in one sense appear as magicians to neanderthals, I agree I'm jumping to the far end of the scale but with IBM now explicitly removing gene screening from its recruitment policies only time will tell. Don't think this is a political issue ... well tune into Changesurfer radio and hear the debates we'll be having in the future here in Ireland.

A new little piece on why we should dump the old press release and start creating search releases where the release is not targeted at journalists (unless they are specifically your audience) but for the real partners/investors/customers, etc. The idea is to design your content but also to include the related metadata and where the presentation and its structure is specifically optimised for its findability. I suppose its a logical progress of applying SEO techniques to your material to improve its dissemination to your desired audiences.

I somehow missed the fact that Tom Raftery has started a podcast series called Thought Leaders and it focuses on blogging, technology and online marketing/communication strategies from some very interesting and capable people so check it out.

The latest ACM Interactions has a nice little article on some experience with paper/low-fidelity prototyping "Interface in Form- Paper and Product Prototyping for Feedback and Fun" (check out Synder's book - Paper Prototyping for more) and a really nice look at HCI where its come from as well as where its at called "Is HCI Homeless? In Search of Inter-Disciplinary Status". On a more scary note, Yoga is back today and I've not done any astanga since ....... d'oh