I have really enjoyed my experience of being 'back in school' thus far. I've always had a curious mind and enjoyed learning new things. My biggest reason for going back were twofold. One, I wanted to learn if what I thought I already new about e-business and social media was applied in the right way to my business (Walking Holiday Ireland) and secondly I really looked forward (and enjoy) discussing these topics with lecturers and fellow students.
I am hoping to see more debates in the second semester. I feel I learn most from other students and discussing (conflicting) viewpoints than from a book or powerpoint presentation.
I am dreading the exams as I am not someone who enjoys or does well in the classical exam scenario. But hey, we will give it our best shot. I am looking forward to semester II already!
Up to quite recently one of the topics that we would talk about as regularly as the weather and football results would be the incredible developments in technology. In my relatively short lifetime we have gone from; using a typewriter and licking a stamp to Twitter and from getting up from the sofa to change the t.v. channel to streaming on-demand video from our phone to our 52" led t.v. or indeed watching HD cinema on our tablet.
When we were young
I remember raising my eyebrows and grunting, like only an 13 year old can, because my grandparents could not grasp the concept of recording one of three channels on their VHS video recorder. And now I am equally frustrated when my 11 yr old son asks for a youtube account and I have to google whether (and how) I can set one up safely.
What technology has done between, let's say, 1960 and now, media has done in just the last 10 years. I believe the first real milestone was the iPod. And when you wonder why it took so long for the walkman to be replaced you have to look at the progression of the data storage used and the road from analogue to digital. Once we decided that we wanted to carry music around with us again we started looking at what other digital media we could store on mobile devices. This hunger for data to be portable and easily accessible cumulated into the smartphone of today.
The smartphone however added another dimension, that of communication of course, but not only the communication between people in the traditional sense of the phone, more importantly the transfer of data between portable devices. This meant that we no longer have to synchronise our iPod or smartphone at home but we could refresh and get the latest information on the go, wherever we are.
From Kilobytes to Terabytes
As a matter of fact behind a lot of these examples you need to understand the revolution of data storage in general. It is the economy of scale behind data storage that is driving the current trends. For example; today a 2TB drive the size of a pocket book would cost you 66 euro. In 1995 the same amount of data would have to be stored on 2 million 3.5" floppy disks at, let's say, 1 euro each.
While getting incredibly more successful in cramming huge amount of data in tiny devices we also revolutionised the amount of data we can send over the airwaves at a very low cost.
We feed our own hunger
It is the industries ability to both increase our data efficiency and our drive to do so at an ever decreasing cost that we as consumers continue to grow hungrier and greedier for more. Besides the major changes in the technology itself we have also seen a seismic shift in the sociological aspects of how we use it. Where we used to rely on established media conglomerates to provide us with the information we received we now increasingly create and shape that media ourselves. Indeed we do this as part of our everyday lives by 'Liking', commenting, Plus 1'ing and tweeting.
Let's slow down and look up
We now use consume, create and share media in more ways than we could ever have predicted only a short few years ago. On a daily basis we continually re-invent our uses of media and technology and this has happened at such an (alarming) pace that, as a global community, we have not had the time to think or review how we feel about this revolution of sorts. I nearly wish we could slow ourselves down for a while so that we can review the good and the bad and create a roadmap for the future which is not only safe for our children but makes this digital age a better place for all of us.
When Sarah a 14-year-old Dutch girl (aka @queendementriax_ on Twitter). tweeted a bomb threat to American Airlines a few weeks ago she didn't realise the consequences of her actions.
Her twitter account was disconnected on Sunday night the 20th of April 2014 (so there is no point in checking her account) shortly after she gained 20,000 followers, and 15 minutes of internet fame.
Here is a quick recap of what happened...
Sarah: “@AmericanAir hello my name’s Ibrahim and I’m from Afghanistan. I’m part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I’m gonna do something really big bye.”
American Airlines: “@queendemetriax_ Sarah, we take these threats very seriously. Your IP Address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI.”
Sarah: “@AmericanAir pls pls pls can I do something to make it good pls I’m so scared I’m just a 14 year old white girl I’m not a terrorist pls.”
she later tweeted that she was very "sorry" and her desire to be famous was for different reasons; “but I meant like Demi Lovato famous, not Osama bin laden famous”.
She was later arrested and her mugshot taken by the police in Rotterdam.
Parenting the online generation
My first reaction to this was that she was a very silly girl but I soon started to feel sorry for her and more so her parents. In recent times I have given a lot of thought about my responsibilities as a parent of a twelve and 8 year old to educate and guide them in an online world. I am still struggling with what path to take and how to approach this as it is a parenting mine field.
We are getting weekly if not daily requests for accounts to be set up on Youtube, Facebook, twitter, snapchat etc. etc. etc. The list is literally endless and changes as regularly and quickly as the weather here in Ireland and is driven by what is the flavour of the week on the school playground.
How can we keep our children safe and prevent them from making these guffaws, we no longer just need to consider how to keep them safe in our house, on our streets and in the schoolyard but we now need to protect them from a global online community and it's police force.
Anyway my parental journey on the treacherous path as the guardian of an online child is worth an entirely new blog perhaps.
I didn't give Sarah and her story much more thought until a few days later when the news channels reported that Twitter was 'on fire' with hundreds of your twitterers tweeting to her defence and protesting by posting similar bomb-threats. I thought this was quite amusing and at the same time quite ingenious. I mean are the police / FBI and Interpol now going to have to arrest all these teen-twitter-anarchists? Surely not!
It also makes you think about why law enforcement agencies are so Gung-ho about going after these cyber threats? I mean, what is the harm of a Dutch 14yr old girl saying something 'silly' on twitter? Do we really have to believe that the FBI etc are looking at twitter for the next terrorist threat and rely on social media to be forewarned and take preemptive action? And if so is going after the Sarahs of this world with prison sentences justified to keep Twitter 'clean' from jokers and only allow real terrorists to make real threats!?
Are we, as an online community and people, to be policed in that way?
What's the harm?
We all know and understand (i hope) that Law Enforcement agencies use supercomputers to crawl the interweb for keywords that are associated with threatening and / or terrorist behaviour. So tweets like Sarah's are picked up quickly and actioned by the police. But what if we all tweeted such threats on a daily basis? Would these supercomputers start overheating and combust with digital excitement? Would the world be a better place for not having the NSA looking over our digital shoulder? Or would we jeapordise innocent lives because the next tweet from an actual terrorist is now hidden amongst those from Demi Lovato fans?
I don't really know why I call this 'Dutch Meatloaf', as far as I know there is no such thing. At least it isn't a dutch traditional recipe. A dutch friend asked me why it was called dutch meatloaf after seeing the picture i posted on facebook and my answer was that it was because I made it. There are some references online about a Pennsylvania Dutch Meatloaf recipe but mine is quite different. I made this with reference to a 'dutch' meatball dinner we used to have in holland and my inspiration from Texan Barbecue and other Southern (US) style food. I cooked the meatloaf in the oven but would definitely recommend trying this during the summer on the (kettle) barbecue. This is also great as a coldcut on sandwiches or as a burger and once cooked can be stored in the fridge or freezer, hence why the measurements are generous and would feed 10-12 people quite easily, which also makes it really good value. Anyway please try and enjoy!
Ingredients:
900 gr / 1kg (2 lbs) Mince meat
150 gr Bacon Lardons (Smoked)
150 gr Button mushrooms, chopped (any mushroom will do, use what is in season and your own taste)
200 gr Carrots, finely chopped
2 medium white onions, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
2 eggs
150 gr breadcrumbs
2 tsp Black pepper
2 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Salt
Oregano (or Italian seasoning)
1 tsp Paprika powder (Smoked / Spicy)
2 tbsp Tomato sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Soya Sauce (dark)
Method
pre-heat oven to 160C
Gently fry bacon with a little bit of oil until slightly browned and add the onions. Continue to gently cook until onions are soft and translucent.
Add all the other vegetables (carrot / celery / mushrooms / red pepper) and sweat them for another 5 minutes.
add seasoning (dry); Pepper, salt, cumin, oregano, paprika powder and stir well. Cook for another 3 minutes and take of heat.
Put the raw mince in a large bowl and add the 2 eggs, soya sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and breadcrumbs and mix well
Now add cooled and cooked vegetables and again mix well. Once mixed turn the mixture out on a greased baking tray and shape into loaf. Make sure you press this quite tight as otherwise cracks might appear.
Cover loaf with a generous helping of tomato sauce or your favourite barbecue sauce. I actually used a combination of both and brushed it all over. This gives a really nice sticky glaze once cooked.
Cook for 1.5 hours on the middle shelf
Prepare all vegetables for the meatloaf in advance by chopping them finely
First fry bacon in a little olive oil and add onions before sweating them for 5 minutes on a gentle heat.
Add all the other vegetables and continue to cook for 5 more minutes
Add seasoning and stir them in and after an additional 3 minutes take of the heat and cool.
Once all the ingredients are mixed shape into loaf shape on greased oven tray.
Liberally spread tomato ketchup on top of the loaf and sides with brush.
Here is a quick demonstration on how to add a youtube video to your blog
Step 1
Put the cursor on the position in your blog where you want to add a video
Step 2
Go to youtube and find the video you want to add to your blog (preferably in a separate browser tab/window). It should look something like this;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm7kjM-BdWs
Step 3
Go back to the blog editing window and click on the video button on your blog editing toolbar:
Step 4
Select Youtube from the menu on the left and paste the url you copied from youtube in the searchfield and click on the blue search button to the right:
Step 5
You should now see the video listed below the search field, if so click on it to select it
Step 6
Click on the Select button at the bottom of the window and hey presto....
I encountered the mobile phone for the very first time in 1991 when our sales manager walked into our office with the biggest grin you can imagine after having the new device installed at a specialist carphone installation company in Amsterdam. The entire office staff gathered around the meeting table where he had placed the newest technology in the centre so everyone could have a good look at the device. It was the size of a shoebox took 10 hours to charge for 30 minutes talk time. The only reason our boss had made this, significant, investment was because he could now call the sales rep whenever he was on the road and didn't have to wait for him to call the office from client- or public pay phones (remember those?). Although we were all in awe of the technology and indeed the price tag associated with it I could not imagine this big and heavy device becoming an integral part of our lives so quickly and in such a significant way.
1980s Motorola DynaTAC Promotional Video
My first mobile phone
I cannot remember exactly when i got my first mobile phone and I certainly cannot remember why I got one either. It was probably 1997/1998 and it was an Ericsson GA628. I didn't really need a mobile phone either for work or personal reasons and I rarely used it as hardly any of my friends / family had a phone and I certainly couldn't afford to make calls or send texts. Calls with Esat Digicom (now O2) cost from 20p a minute to 80p a minute. So why did i get it? Well simply because I am a trendsetter although that sounds a little pompous and I certainly couldn't call myself that nowadays! I am more comfortable with the term 'early adopter' and would only apply that to the tech purchases in my life rather than anything else like fashion, music or cars.
Mobile phone growth
In 2008 it was estimated that one in two owned a mobile phone and between 1990 to 2011, mobile phone subscriptions increased from 12.4 million to over 6 billion. That is staggering really isn't it, I mean, can you think of any other product or technology for that matter that has grown the same amount in a similar period?
Game changer
And then the iPhone was released. I was very fortunate to have been close to the centre of the product launch as I was working for Apple in Cork, Ireland at the time. Those were exciting days! Not only following the development of the iMac and iBooks but also the iPod. It was, and is, astonishing for me to look back and see the impact of those products on the consumer market and the development of the mobile phone market.
Not only from a technology perspective but more so on how we as people interact with technology and through it with each other as people.
When we look at the amount of time we spent on mobile devices (phones / tablets / e-readers and laptops) on a daily basis and how much information we consume it is staggering. Compare this with the amount of time we spend communicating directly with people we have to wonder whether the information we consume is not in fact making us 'media-obese'. It is like we have just discovered fast food and just cannot get enough regardless of the substandard quality of what we consume.
It is kind of ironic in that regard to Coca Cola came up with this ad
This blog will be mainly used for my coursework for the Digital Media / eBusiness and Marketing course I am currently undertaking at DkIT (Dundalk Institute of Technology). I am hoping some of it will make sense! #digitaldkit14
I cannot remember exactly when i got my first mobile phone and I certainly cannot remember why I got one either. It was probably 1997/1998 and it was an Ericsson GA628. I didn't really need a mobile phone either for work or personal reasons and I rarely used it as hardly any of my friends / family had a phone and I certainly couldn't afford to make calls or send texts. Calls with Esat Digicom (now O2) cost from 20p a minute to 80p a minute. So why did i get it? Well simply because I am a trendsetter although that sounds a little pompous and I certainly couldn't call myself that nowadays! I am more comfortable with the term 'early adopter' and would only apply that to the tech purchases in my life rather than anything else like fashion, music or cars. 
