Assembly “internet speed” debate (on Twitter)

Just seen the BBC picking up on John O’Dowd’s tweets (Sinn Fein, Upper Bann) regarding the state of the NI Assembly internet connection.

John tweeted: "Between 12.30 & 2pm it is impossible to work through the medium of the Internet in the Assembly. I am told staff etc are on social networks." He did add that “I have no objection to anyone using their lunch break on social networks but surely the Assembly It system should be able to cope!”

He was then reassured everyone by tweeting "I am now reliably informed plans are afoot to deal with the Internet lull @ the Assembly that our friend social networking is not to blame."

In response to @whistlinpaddy who reminded him of his own precarious position vis a vis social networking John admitted "I am guilty as accused, a social network junky. It is the standard of the IT system letting us down not the users.”

A real wee piece of interactivity and conversation in the public domain that needs to be commended, especially in how both handled the conversation. 

I only hope he was not tweeting in the Chamber as Willie Hay, Assembly Speaker may have something to say about that.  On Tuesday he interupted the debating by warning members,

Before I call Dr Stephen Farry, I ask all Members to check that their mobile phones are switched off. A mobile phone, or phones, is causing a major problem to the amplifying system in the Chamber. If Members cannot switch their phones off, can they please put them on silent? As I said, a mobile phone is having a serious effect on the amplifying system.

So what does this tell us?

1. John knows how to use the phenomena of social media. Kudos!
2. John uses a Blackberry. It would be interesting to see the breakdown of devices used by MLAs (blackberry vs iPhone vs other)
3. John responds to other’s tweets. It is so easy to use web 2.0 in a 1.0 way and it really adds to the idea of politicians only being a tweet away. 

Conversational politics is vastly underused by our politicians, though more and more are learning how to use Twitter, Facebook and blogs to interact with their own constituents and the world at large.

I think though the best recent tweet from John was this beauty,

Genius, funny and disturbing all at the same time.

Northern Ireland Executive engages e-democracy

While the Northern Ireland Assembly have taken a fair lead in the online government stakes with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtube, the Northern Ireland Executive is catching up. 

The NI Executive is finally embracing the social media phenomenon and have created their own presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.

Northern Ireland is beginning to really take to the online world with more and more governmental institutions going online and we even have NIDirect as a kind of one stop online shop for the public facing side of government.  They are also on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.  NIDirect is also an excellent place to find the social media capabilities of the rest of government. Check out the Local Councils page to see what I mean.

A lot of local councils are also embracing social media as a conversational tool with constituents such as Belfast City Council who are also on Twitter and Facebook.

One of the best uses of social media for engagement is the PSNI Ards, PSNI Holywood, PSNI Ballymena and PSNI Bangor Facebook accounts. People really engage with what is going on and enjoy a bit of banter from the police accounts.  They especially enjoy hearing about criminals getting caught!

Even some Non Departmental Public Bodies like InvestNI and PBNI are on Twitter.

So the Executive is in good and growing company.

Perhaps we could show the World how online engagement can be done?  

How real living gets in the way of online life

Help! My fingers are superglued to the keyboard

Having an online life is nice, if you have the time.  And inclination.  Many people still look at me in a weird way when i start raving and frothing at the mouth over the wonders of Facebook, Twitter and blogging.  Mind you people have looked at me in that strange 'are you a looper' way for a very long time now anyway.

A lot of people still do not want anything to do with the internet and social networking, or at least the social networking that entails having to switch on a computer first.  Real life social networking is more than enough to be getting on with thank you very much.

There is more and more pressure as well online to be different and catchy.  I enjoy funny blogs, as the heavy stuff bores me to tears after a paragraph or two (not totally true, but funny is easier to read and normally has a barb in the humour).  Tweets almost now need to be insanely insightful or amusing (or from already famous people).  Or of course you need to be controversial in order to get a response from others (and notoriety at times)

However, to be able to be a top notch online social media guru you need to be, well, online.  This can pose a problem.  I live in the real world where i can actually touch friends instead of poking them (stop that sniggering at the back!!)  I also have things to pay for like a mortgage, car, childcare, etc.  To cover these costs i have to get up in the morning and go to work, just like many others.  I have not yet hit it rich enough to spend all day on the web, keeping up with all the information flying around.

So this poses a problem, especially in the evenings which are getting more precious all the time, how often do people, just nipping online to quickly look at their favourite sites, expect change?  How often should a one-man/woman blog be updated? Is it a blanket expectation or does it relate to the subject matter of the blog?

What do you think?

I would encourage anyone unlucky enough to have read this far leave a wee note and add their comments.

Wave goodbye!!

Just hearing it on Mashable that Google is dropping Wave.

Wave, developed and supported by Google, was ........ well, i'm not quite sure exactly what it was.  It kind of was a, well, ....... erm....... a social thing.  To be honest i am not quite sure what it was, as it seemed to try to be a lot of things at once without actually being really good at a core function.  Friends did use it to collaborate with each other, but we are talking hardcore geeks and nerds.

Google described Wave as

Wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.  A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.  A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

I got an invite to Wave and logged on late last year.  

I was totally flabbergasted by it.  It meant nothing to me. 

I am only one part geek/nerd, so the most of Wave was wasted on me as i struggled to come to terms with it.  It lacked an intuitive interface.

And so i gave up quite quickly on Wave.  And now it looks like so is Google.

Better luck next time guys.

Social media brand ambassadors

I just came across this little piece at Dennis Wolff's staffing and recruitment blog.   Although it is focussed on Canada and social media interaction there, it can be reflective of its use in Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and Ireland.  

So what does it say and what does it tell us?

Well the piece is entitled, 'How to use social media participation to turn your employees into ambassadors for your own brand' which kind of gives it all away.

What any organisation really wants is for its employees to become advocates for its services or products. This is as true offline as it is online.

Dennis states that 

The lines between public and private, personal and professional have become more and more blurred; with Generation Y joining the workforce, this trend can only intensify.

Organisations need to learn to love the social media phenomenon or risk alienating their own employees who enjoy social networking.  If done right employees can become enthusiastic brand ambassadors and feel much more connected to their organisation.

Social media is one more platform for interaction and relationship building, one that is growing.  Facebook now has now hit 500 million.  

Facebook, Twitter, google buzz, NING, etc are all ways to help build relationships.  They should not be ignored as a fad.  At one stage telephones, then mobile phones and computers were fads.

Return of the missing blogger

It has been even longer since the last time i blogged a piece.  Even though lots of ideas flow for bits and bobs, I still find little time to actually write the pieces.

And so as an advocate of social media and online networking, i have committed the cardinal sin of, well, not updating (much).

It is the main investment anyone or organisation will make in the realm of online interactivity. To constantly update.

Sounds easy.  In many ways it is, as it can become a process, just like everything else you do at work.  You do not need to be the most creative writer in the world (it can add to the content, but not necessary), or creative at all.  Most content you will want to put up is already in existence. The real issue is time.

Time is the trap that people can fall into using social media.  It is just like networking at an event.  there will be lots of people there but you will only be able to concentrate on maybe 3 to five people to network with and build an initial relationship with.  

Online, you are not just at one networking event, but 3, 4, 6, 10 events with hundred of thousands of other people.  Now quake at the time left in the real world for real things!!

So how do you use cope with it all?  

I have chosen  only a few of these online (and ongoing) 'events', or platforms, to attend.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Lookaly, a few forums and a few NING sites of interest to me.  

As lots of social network sites vie for your attention, and maybe money if you go down the route of promoted content, the first question is of demographics and where those 'publics' you want to target hang out on line.  There is no use building a presence on 'BEBO' if you want to reach people in their 20's or older, take it from me - they will be on Facebook.

Then invest in time to produce results.  Depending on who you are, what you are doing and what you are trying to sell, you will need to invest time online to reflect who you are and what you are doing.

It will not be an overnight success.  You will not go to bed and find 30,000 people following you on Twitter the next day.  Investment in time and effort is required.

It is best to choose a couple of platforms to concentrate on and evaluate how they can add value to what you are trying to do.

You can also ask others how they use their own social media or even invest a bit of money engaging someone to do the research for you [hint, hint :) ].  

Remember, whilst many social media platforms, or events, or sites (whatever you want to call them) are free, your time is not.  And if you are able to dive into social media you may have one of the best sales teams in the world at your finger tips.

A general election on Twitter

Just had a wee run through of as many of the candidates onas I could and found a total of 35 so far.

That's 32% of the 108 candidates are using it.  Some well, some not so well.

You can find them on my ownlist.

18 Constituencies, 4 questions, 1 result

I decided to have a wee experiment with all this social media hoodicky thingymabob and use only electronic contact and social media to ask the candidates for the Westminster elections to take place on 6 May 4 questions.  The answers will be posted up on this blog for all (two friends and my cat) to see.

If you can help spread the word, i would be grateful.  I don't have time to chase every single candidate, but i will do my best.  I have gone very Twitteresque by limiting the answer length any candidate can respnd with to 140 words.  They don't have to use all the words if they can succinctly sum it all up in less than 140 words.

Below is the email i have sent out to the parties i have on my books (Alliance, Greens, DUP, UUP, TUV, SDLP, and Sinn Fein)

Responses to the questions can either be put in as a comment to this post, or emailed to me at itewhitten -at- gmail.com (replace the -at- with @).  I will endeavor to give each response a blogpost to themselves with a picture (they can email me the picture they want me to use or I will try to find a nice one to put up.)

So that's 18 Constituencies, 4 questions, and, come 6 May, 1 result.

Hi,

My name is Ivor Whitten and I run my own blog called Hand of History NI (www.handofhistoryni.blogspot.com).

I am trying out an experiment for this General Election, and I hope your candidates will be able to find enough time to be involved.

I am sending all the parties four questions for their candidates to answer. What answers I receive I will publish (untouched, apart form any typos) up on my blog for the world to see.

The questions are,

• Why are you standing for election?
• What is important to you in life?
• What will you bring to the post of MP that others will not?
• At the end of your term in office as MP what will you have achieved?

The length of answer should be no more than 140 words for each question.

I do hope you can help distribute this amongst your candidates for the Westminster Election.

Thank you for your time, and all the best for the campaign.

If anyone can help spread the word via Facebook and/or Twitter, that would be appreciated. 

So many things to do, so little time...

I promise I will blog more......

Sorry for the lack of posting over the past few days.  I have had so many days worth of posts floating around in my wee head and no time at all to post them up.  Arrrrgh.

Hope to have a few posts up later today, alongside a little pet project I am pursuing regarding our local candidates for the General Election.  Details later.

I have been spending most of my time either out canvassing (my adventure tales later), with family (it takes up more time than I ever imagined, but would not swap it for the world) and doing other social media work (can you guess who for?)

Maybe at some stage I will get time to read.  Ho hum.

I can't vote, I live in America.

...though I can't as I live in the US

The DUP are up and running with their billboard campaign.  And as we will all find over the next few weeks we will be inundated with the things.

However, as with social media, you can get caught out very easily indeed if you are not being as true to your brand as possible.  Which in this case, has happened.  Woops

The billboard reads, 

I want an MP who answers to us - not the Tories.  I'm voting DUP

All well and good until..........you find out that the lovely young lady can not actually vote for the DUP.  She is not even on the electoral register.  In fact, she is not even in the country.  She is an American lady and can be bought, if you so desire, over the old interweb from a stock photo vendor at iStockPhoto.com

Now this is not the first time political parties have used this here.  there was the rather awful Ulster Unionist Party stock photo for its 'Decent People....' campaign a number of years ago.  The genius of Newton Emerson and his acerbic wit did a wonderful rehash of the poster, with a more cutting and probably accurate strapline. 'Decent people.......Leave Ulster'.  And I am not totally sure the people in the picture could take part in voting for any of our political parties, either.

The Labour and Conservative parties are real experts in the 'poke fun at the opposition' game.

Labour have MyDavidCameron and Conservatives have The Department of Government Waste.

Labour also tried to have a go at David and the Tories by photoshopping him onto the body of Detective Gene Hunt from 'Ashes to Ashes' with the strapline 'Don't let him take Britain back to the 1980s'.  A good poster, but it seriously backfired when the Conservative wags got their hands on it they turned a negative spin into a positive spin.

While i am a geek regarding the serious conviction of how politics can be a driver for the good of society, I really do love to see witty, funny and wit filled party campaigns as well.  its good to have a sense of humour, and there is the old saying 'If you couldn't laugh, you would cry'

Has politics done for Twitter??

The Fail Whale 

I have been trying to get on to twitter for a few moments there (around 1.20pm or so) and it kept coming up with the Fail Whale.

I wonder, what with all the hullabaloo about the General Election, has the activity on twitter surrounding the Conservative manifesto been so much that twitter went over capacity? 

Whether it was good or bad, remains to be seen!

Twitter is growing a business model.

Gives your business wings

Firstly, many thanks to @senseilp (Dawn Baird of Sensei) for bringing this to my attention 

Twitter is growing up by growing a business model.  This growth towards creating a revenue stream for the company and its investors can be read fully on its blog.

Twitter will not be charging users, oh no, not at all! It will be using a form of advertising through a system called 'Promoted Tweet'.

Essentially, advertisers will be able to pay for tweets.  These 'Promoted Tweets' are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organisations can pay Twitter for the opportunity to highlight to a wider group of users on the Twittersphere (I am now getting all twittered out!).

Twitter HQ will measure whether the Tweets resonate (whatever that actually means!) with users and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don’t. They will be clearly labeled as “promoted” and will be sent to those who follow a relevant brand. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet.

Twitter has more in the pipeline as well.  After assessing this first stage they plan to allow Promoted Tweets to be shown by third party platforms 

If you are interested you can find out more on their blogpost.  It certainly seems that they have been thinking long and hard about how to maintain a user led resource that is free at the point of use, whilst looking at the long term sustainability of the company.  This can only be a good thing, and begin to ensure that people see Twitter as less of a fad and more of a serious platform for engagement.

social media savvy, or the lack thereof in Northern Ireland

This General Election is getting very interesting indeed.

Not because of the usual shenanigans, but because of the attempts to show how 'switched on , hip and happening' politicians are by engaging with the phenomenon that social media is.

An excellent definition of social media is by Razorfish VP Shiv Singh, who said in his presentation on “social influence marketing”,

The Purpose of a Business is to Create a Customer…who creates customers

In the case of an election it is more about

The Purpose of a political party is to Create a loyal active voter…who creates loyal active voters

The present General Election has seen a plethora of political parties moving into the virtual constituency space, and the exciting potentials also provide opportunities for major gaffes.

Scottish Labour candidate Stuart MacLennan, who was standing in the Moray Constituency was sacked over his Twitter ravings, that while heartfelt were deemed as seriously inappropriate.

Labour has also been found slight wanting in its understanding of social media per se.

Woops.

there are also any number of fake twitter accounts for Northern Ireland such as @SammyWilsonMP, and a ton of fake Iris Robinson accounts (which i will not put links to from here.  If you really want to find them do a google search).

One account of note has been terminated very recently.  It was of Ann Cooper, the TUV candidate selected to fight for the Castlereagh seat vacated by Iris Robinson.  While it is no longer on twitter, google has kindly cached it.  The account was @TUVAnnCooper It was, shall we say, risqué, so be warned, though still tame compared to the fake  Iris accounts.

This is a salutary lesson for everyone, including politicians.  What goes on-line, stays on-line for a very, very long time.  Google, and other search engines, cache pages of information for storage and retrieval.  Even if it is taken down, the information will live as a 'ghost' for a long time on-line, fully searchable by those who wish to dig deep.

For a run down of the social media engagement, or lack thereof, by the local parties, I hope to fill a page with all the links to their on-line presence.

Even the UK Electoral office is using Facebook to alert potential voters about the impending election.

As an aside, I have found a number of Facebook pages that was set up very early in the morning in response to the Real IRA bomb at Palace Barracks.  One is called 'I Survived The Great Northern Ireland Explosion of 12/04/2010' while another is 'RIP JEDWARD - died 12/4/2010 12:24am by Holywood Bomb'.  Funny as they are, mostly because no one was seriously injured and no loss of life happened, it is really an example of the on-line constituency taking control of the publishing media and pushing their own ideas and agendas.  

Previously i have highlighted 'Hands of our Prep Schools' and 'Get Mephedrone of our streets'.

The Northern Ireland constituency are really getting to grips with Social media, maybe our politicians will be able to learn a thing or two about it too.

Mephedrone: just because its legal does not mean it is safe

As ever i was listening to Stephen (with a PH) Nolan on the radio driving in to work - the traffic is abysmal and it is tough getting there before 9.

I am a glutton for radio punishment, which is why i enjoy listening to the show - really gets the blood pumping for the rest of the day.

Yesterday, but most especially today, it almost did the reverse.  My blood ran cold and I really felt uncomfortable listening to interviews he did with mothers and siblings of young people who have been taking a drug compound called mephedrone.

I am a bloke.  Blokes don't get emotional.

I am married.  My wife puts up with me.

I am a dad.  I want to protect my kids

The Stephen Nolan show made me emotional over people i had never met, never heard off, and probably never will.  The interviews mad me irrationally worry about my kids, especially upon hearing that 6 year old kids were getting hooked on this legal high. They have yet to reach Primary School - but i still worry (I did point out it was irrational).  I don't want my wife or myself have to go through what the parents of those kids on this trashy drug went through.

A lot of politicians are on the ball with this one.  The issue was discussed by the Health Committee today in Stormont and the Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, has called for it to be banned too.

Mephedrone it is currently not illegal to possess, but it is against the law to supply or advertise it for human consumption. Mephedrone can cause anxiety and paranoia (feelings of being persecuted), heart palpitations and fits or seizures. If snorted, it can lead to severe nosebleeds. Like many substances regular use can lead to the development of a compulsive habit.

Now from what I have been picking up from Facebook and Twitter is that Mephedrone is a compound drug, and if it were to be made illegal all the dealers would have to do would be to change the chemical make-up of the compound and it would be legal again.

I believe the drug has to be made illegal, as well as any close chemical compound.  Perhaps, Government, in conjunction with medical professionals and experts in this field, can immediately ban the present compound whilst putting together a strategy that will make it very difficult for unscrupulous dealers to continue selling a similar compound.

If you want to help I would suggest at least registering your concerns at the Number 10 e-petition and join the Facebook group.  Raise it with your local MP or MLAs, or Local Councillors.  There needs to be action taken and quickly.

Prep me up..... Part two (updated)

Capturing social media for campaigning

Well my goodness, a lot of activity has been generated around the issue of Prep Schools on the old interweb.


Both Bobballs (here and here) and Jeff Peel (here and here) have posted about the issues around Prep Schools. As I have myself (here).


Then what do i find?


I find grassroot activism by the parents of children who go to Prep Schools, or went to prep schools, or are just concerned about the issue who are using Facebook to voice their concerns. 


 Not only amongst themselves, but using it to engage with politicians, publicise information, and encourage further activism.  One proof that Northern Ireland has begun to haul itself out of the 'What's a computer?' age into the 'Arrrgh, this broadband is too slow' age is that an increasing number of our elected representatives now realise and engage with the online constituency.  A number of politicians, such as George Savage MLA and Jeffrey Donaldson MP MLA, have fanned the Facebook page, and actually, wait for it......., posted on the page, reacted to feedback from the contributors and shared information.


Kudos, my elected representative friends, Kudos.


Jeff Peel has also reported that parents, concerned about the Department of Education’s plans to remove funding from prep schools, have created a campaign blog as well.


______________________________________________________________________
UPDATE (25 Mar 10 17:45): 
Down High Prep Parents Group have also gone all bloggy too.  


Great use of a free social media tool to keep a lot of people informed and up to date on issues as they develop. 
_______________________________________________________________________


It truly is amazing to see people so active in real politics and using the resources to hand to press the point, especially to politicians. A real example of engaged democracy indeed.


Go interweb. Yeah.

Northern Ireland politics: the new electric thingy age

Bob Balls highlights what i believe is just the start of the 'new electric thingy age' for NI politics.

South Belfast Conservative candidate for the General Election, Peter McCann, has put together a facebook group called ‘Peter McCann for Parliament’. And while he seems to be more organised than most, he is not alone in using social media.

One thing though is how our politicians and budding politicians actually use social media.

Peter, like many, is using Facebook to promote themselves to the general public. He has both a private personal profile and the 'open to the public' campaign page.

Both can be used in conjunction to fully engage the public in a conversation.

I would like to pint out though that sometimes there is no point in being a politician on Facebook and just using a personal page. Another issue is the use of the suffix of an elected representative as a username, as during election time politicians are not allowed to use those suffixes (such as MP or MLA).

Some MPs have actively used Facebook to engage with the public, such as Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat MP for Northavon, who held a “drop in surgery” on Facebook.

He advertised the time in advance, to his 3,867 Facebook friends: “Steve will be online on Facebook Chat tomorrow (Thursday) between 11 and 11.30am. Log on and chat if you want to raise anything with me.” Around 200 of his friends – a mixture of constituents, party members and others – were online for the chat session.

In addition, using a political page also allows a politician to send out updates, including direct messages, to their followers. Political pages can be linked up to other platforms, such as Twitter, to cross post.

This is not an electoral 'panacea', but it does help.

There is also Twitter to consider. I have had a few good interactions with elected representatives through this wondrous little platform. During the Irisgate scandal, Twitter was awash with political hacks letting tit bits filter out. The main culprit for this was @Eamonnmalie. He is still pumping out teasers regarding the ongoing Policing and Justice negotiations.

There are lots of tools at a politicians disposal, even blogs (such as blogger), for them to take the social media bull by the horns. In the recent debate on compulsory voting it was noted by many of the contributors to the debate that there is a serious issue with lack of political engagement. Well, politicians could begin to engage more through the digital media.

We have Web 2.0, which is all about conversations. Politics needs to catch up.

Northern Ireland politicians need to embrace the new electric thingy age

'Let him who has no sin, cast the first stone'

There have been a number of scandals rocking the political world in Northern Ireland and the UK in general.

Who will forget the 2009 kick in the teeth MPs got over the expenses issue. Gordon Brown is constantly getting smacked in the face by his own party members.

Closer to home, and in addition to the above, we have had the alleged child abuse case surrounding the Adams family and whether or not Liam was more involved in Sinn Fein than his brother has been telling everyone. Then the Robinsongate/Irisgate hit big time.

As Natahaniel Hawthorne wrote in his novel 'The Scarlet Letter',

"no man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."

My mum always said 'always tell the truth, its easier to remember'.

These episodes in our political echelons have shown the common man that elected representatives are also human. They are not Nietzschian Ubermensch, where to be in politics, and de facto in the public domain, one must see oneself in the vein of "man is something which ought to be overcome". A politician has to be more than just an ordinary man of the street - they have to be more.

This is reflected in the different codes of conduct for elected representatives, and these codes contain the personal attributes every elected representative must embody.

We must all answer for what we do. Actions have consequences. but do we expect too much of our elected representatives?

For all that is coming out about Iris and the inherent conjoined liability with Peter, why are we so shocked? Why are we transfixed with the difficult questions still to be asked and answered in the case of Liam Adams?

We can all look to people within our own families and see plotlines being acted out that would never make Coronation Street or Eastenders as they would be branded too far fetched. Should we be so heavy handed with our criticism? Can our politicians not legitimately turn back on us and say

"If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? "

The most cynical view is that politics is ruthless. There are no friends, only interests. So every politican must lift themselves up from the masses and become more than what they are. yes, they must still talk to the masses. But they must be untouchable, an exemplar of intelligence, cunning, uprightness, moral fibre and fortitude. there must be no weakness, nor any sign of weakness. One politician's downfall is viewed as an opportunity by another.

The troubles of Iris has pulled Peter into the eye of the storm. He has been transported into the likes of 'The man who would be King' and has been shown to the multitude to be able to bleed. Like avaricious hyenas, the media, the public, and all the political parties close in because they have smelt blood. This may help Gerry Adams for a week, but once the carcases have been picked over it will once again be his turn, especially with so many Sinn Fein elected representatives resigning from the party.

Is it fair? Maybe. Maybe not.

So, who can cast the first stone? While everyone philosophises the end result, in my own opinion, is that no one cares. Here are stories that can instigate a change in the political world of Northern Ireland, scores can be settled and attention can be diverted away from personal failings of others. What is more, they are being played out in the print media, broadcasts media, on Twitter, on blogs, Facebook and more social media platforms than you can shake a stick at, like at no time previously. Barak Obama maybe has more to be credited for than previously thought in encouraging us plebeians to participate in political discussion.