Policing Board is not my friend :(

I have just received a Facebook notification from the Northern Ireland Policing Board asking me not to be offended that they no longer want to be my friend. Nothing like un-friending somebody and telling them you are doing so as well!

Though all is not lost, as they still have a Facebook Page that I can ‘like’.

Hmmmmm How can I ‘like’ you if you don’t want to be my friend? ;)

On a more serious note, the Board seems to have taken the decision to work with the terms and conditions of Facebook and decided to delete their profile. It is a tricky one but the general thought on the terms is that profiles are for personal use only and pages are for businesses, organisations, campaigns, etc. There is a lot of 'grey' in this area due to the focus of a business and how people actually interact.  Mind you i do seem to be friends with a few hotels, restaurants and pubs but have not seen any banter from them lately.

Do you have a view on the Profile / Page debate? 

NICVA Live - Issues for the Economy

I will be covering the NICVA Conference "Live issues for the Economy".  This is a conference for voluntary and community organisations to find out more about live issues relating to the economy and debate their impact. The event will give NICVA members the opportunity to find out more about the issues currently being debated in the Assembly and the media and consider their impact on the people and communities they work with.

It starts at 9:30am and goes on to 1:30pm in NICVA.  Current issues that will be covered include the proposals to lower Corporation Tax, the impact of welfare reform proposals in Northern Ireland and a review of economic policy in Northern Ireland as well as proposals for moving forward.


Programme


Political Priorities for Change
Keynote Address - deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MLA


Deja-vu all over again - Economic policy in NI and dealing with the £4billion reduction
Esmond Birnie, Senior Economist, PriceWaterhouseCoopers


Debating Corporation Tax - the silver bullet or fatal bullet?
The case for: Joanne Stuart, Chair of Institute of Directors Northern Ireland
The case against: TBC, NICTU


Another £1billion disappearing? - The impact of Welfare Reform proposals in NI
Prof Eileen Evason, benefits expert and social commentator
Plenary discussion

WikiLeaks hates NI Budget??

The draft Northern Ireland budget was published yesterday after a long debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly and, of course, had a huge amount of media coverage.

However, as the media frenzy focussed on semantically dissecting the Finance Minister's speech and his after speech interviews, along with the inevitable responses from everyone else, a little noticed event virtually happened under everyone's noses.

As Dirk Gently would say, "to solve the whole crime and find the whole person one must make use of the  fundamental interconnectedness of all things". (by the way, I just watched the BBC 4 screen adaption of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and I loved it!)

The interconnectedness of all things on the 15th December flows thusly,

1. The day begins whilst most people are still asleep, a nice way to start.
2. It is 15 December 2010, a Wednesday no less.
3. Its my wife's birthday.
4. I get up, get the kids up, get them ready for the day and take them to daycare.
5. I travel to work as the radio babbles on about what the budget will contain.
6. I go to a Participation Network event in Parliament Buildings while the the Budget Debate is ongoing.
7. Lots of tweets about Wikileaks and Julian Assange
8. Because Julian Assange was being banged up in the old nick, a lot of virtual anarchists were virtually crippling PayPal, MasterCard, Visa and having a right good go at Amazon.
9. The draft Budget is out for consultation.
10. No one can access the consultation because a number of NI Departmental websites are 'unavailable'
11. This has been noticed by fellow twitterers, including @A2BNI "@iwhitten All departmental sites appear to be down!" - around 12.10pm
12. To which i respond "@A2BNI anything to do with #wikileaks? :)"
13. The Consultation documentation finally appeared on the NI Executive and NIDirect sites

The interconnectedness of it all? (Possibly) Julian Assange.  

I have heard a rumour that whilst 'oor Sammie was up on his feet there may have been a malicious DDOS (or  Distributed Denial of Service) attack on all the Northern Ireland departmental websites, as from a few sources I have heard that all of the sites were inaccessible for a period of time.

Quite why the Online Living Consciousness of "Anonymous" would spend any time at all attacking Norn Iron departmental websites in order to strike another blow at the repressive establishment, who they deem are trying to silence Julian Assange, i am not too sure, but there you go.  Maybe it was a vindictive attack from disgruntled hackers who failed to hack Amazon?  In the same way a disgruntled thug puts his kicks a cat in disgust at finding he is, for nay number of reasons, now unable to have a good riot and throw stones at the police.

At least it makes a difference from "you've got ten minutes to clear building".

By the way, you have until 9 February 2011 to make your thoughts known to the relevant authorities on the Northern Ireland Budget. Or, keeping the Douglas Adams theme going, as many public services may be saying come March ".... So long and thanks for all the fish".

My Adventures at the UUP Conference (part 1)

I attended the UUP pre conference dinner on the Friday night and the weather was cold and crisp and even!

Inside the Ramada Hotel it was a bit warmer.  Thankfully.  I arrived early and had a quick look into the room and it looked very nice indeed.  Having a quick look at the table setup I found myself on table two (Bill Manwaring's table).  I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the evening bumping into a lot of old friends and making new ones.  In fact i met up with one Councillor Alex Baird via Facebook on the night.  Very bizarre but quite fun to see how far we have come with all our methods of connecting with each other.  Smartphones and social media really are increasing ways to connect in the real world as well as online. The number of people I am now meeting in the real world that I have created a strong connection with over the virtual world is increasing.  This seems to be more and more the way to connect and interact with decision makers.

The new strapline for the Party is 'Determined to deliver' which reminded me of my dinner.  Which duly arrived and was of course consumed. Nom nom nom.  Well done to all in the Ramada!  The meal started with a Roast Pumpkin & Butternut Squash soup with Cinnamon Cream, the main meal was raditional Co. Down King Turkey, Mourne Honey Roast Ham, Sage and Onion stuffing with Chipolatas Turkey Jus and Cranberry Sauce served with Champ and Roast Potatoes, Carrots and Parsnip.  Next came Devon Toffee Fudge Cheescake with Raspberry Coulis and all topped of with a Coffee and a Chocolate Mint.  I am beginning to feel hungry all over again.

Ross Hussey was compère for the evening with of course speeches from Tom Elliott, Leader of the UUP, and from a representative from the Ulster Chemists Association and the inimitable Glyn Roberts from NIIRTA

And of course what pre-conference dinner would be complete without some after dinner, and 'Da' did not disappoint!  I have to say Tim McGarry is like a comedic wine, he has become better over time. 

As a round up there were about 160 people at the event and there was a fair amount of lightheartedness, some of it at the expense of Lord Trimble's beard.

So at the end of the night I had lots of shmoozing done, was fully fed and was ready for the drive home through a very frosty and snow ridden night ready to tackle a full day at the UUP conference. Huzzah!

Wasssabi for beginners