#ge11, Online in Dublin South Central

Oh dear! If this is tweet is really true than the FG spokesperson needs a reality check. I for one most certainly do not have too much time on my hands.  I don’t have time to read a newspaper from cover to cover every day, I don’t listen to radio (the joys of not driving to and from work), and living in an apartment I don’t have canvassers called. I am limited to flyers-through-the-door, television and internet to inform myself about who to vote for on Friday.  At that, very few candidates will feature prominently on television.

I live in the Dublin South Central electoral area. Let’s see what the candidates are revealing about themselves and their policies:

Who?	www.thejournal.ie	Ranking for visibility on the web http://td2011.com/	Social Media usage
Neville Bradley, Independent	Profile views: 838  Likes: 5 Dislikes: 6	Overall: 531st  Constituency: 16th	Twitter: @votebradley  Facebook: Yes Blog:
Colm Brophy,  Fine Gael	Profile views: 402  Likes: 5 Dislikes: 3	Overall: 465th  Constituency:13th	Twitter: @brophytalks  Facebook: Yes Blog/Web: http://www.colmbrophy.ie/
Catherine Byrne,  Fine Gael	Profile views: 376  Likes: 5 Dislikes: 11	Overall: 172nd  Constituency: 3rd	Twitter:  Facebook: Yes Blog:
Eric Byrne, Labour	Profile views: 415  Likes: 7 Dislikes: 4	Overall: 289th  Constituency: 6th	Twitter: @CllrEricByrne  Facebook: Blog/Web: http://www.ericbyrne.ie/
Colm Callanan,  Christian Solidarity Party	Profile views: 473  Likes: 7 Dislikes: 21	Overall: 409th  Constituency: 8th	Twitter:  Facebook: Blog:
Joan Collins,  People Before Profit	Profile views: 556  Likes: 23 Dislikes: 11	Overall: 68th  Constituency: 2nd	Twitter: @CllrJoanCollins  Facebook: Yes Blog: http://joan-collins.org/
Michael Conaghan,  Labour	Profile views: 403  Likes: 7 Dislikes: 1	Overall: 186th  Constituency: 4th	Twitter:  Facebook: Blog:
Seán Connolly Farrell,  Independent	Profile views: 591  Likes: 2 Dislikes: 4	Overall: 528th  Constituency:15th	Twitter:  Facebook: Blog:
Noel Francis Bennett,  Independent	Profile views: 585  Likes: 6 Dislikes: 4	Overall: 563rd  Constituency: 18th	Twitter:  Facebook: Blog:
Gerry Kelly,  Independent	Profile views: 1130  Likes:11 Dislikes: 0	Overall: 457th  Constituency:12th	Twitter: @VoteGerryKelly  Facebook: Blog: http://votegerrykelly.wordpress.com/
Paul King,   Independent	Profile views: 649  Likes: 4 Dislikes: 5	Overall: 515th  Constituency: 14th	Twitter:  Facebook: Blog:
Ruairi McGinley,  Fine Gael	Profile views: 376  Likes: 4 Dislikes: 4	Overall: 447th  Constituency: 11th	Twitter: @ruairimcginley  Facebook: Yes Blog/web: http://ruairimcginley.cllr.ie/
Dominic Mooney,  Independent	Profile views: 599  Likes: 3 Dislikes: 8	Overall: 553rd  Constituency: 17th	Twitter:  Facebook: Blog:
Michael Mulcahy,  Fianna Fáil	Profile views: 269  Likes: 6 Dislikes: 20	Overall: 203rd  Constituency: 5th	Twitter:  Facebook: Yes Blog:
Oisín Ó hAlmhain,   Green Party	Profile views: 620  Likes: 13 Dislikes: 4	Overall: 434th  Constituency: 9th	Twitter: @oisinohalmhain  Facebook: yes Blog: http://www.real-dublin.ie/
Aengus Ó Snodaigh,  Sinn Féin	Profile views: 533  Likes: 12 Dislikes: 17	Overall: 26th  Constituency: 1st	Twitter:  Facebook: Yes Blog:
Peter O’Neill,  Independent	Profile views: 574  Likes: 6 Dislike: 0	Overall: 436th  Constituency:10th	Twitter: @ONeillPeter  Facebook: says he has Blog:
Henry Upton,  Labour	Profile views: 412  Likes: 7 Dislikes: 4	Overall: 292nd  Constituency: 7th	Twitter: @henryupton  Facebook: Yes Blog:

If I don’t know much about the candidates, then how can I possibly vote for them?  Of the 18 candidates above, I have ruled out 6 purely and totally based on the fact that I have no information on them.  The Internet is a vast resource, many of the social tools are free, many are easy to set up and use.  Twitter is the best example here.  It takes precious little to set up a Twitter account and posting tweets is far from difficult. Several of those who have signed up on various social media platforms have not made enough of them.   Joan Collins has tweeted a grand total of 8 times, Neville Brady’s facebook page is practically empty.

So where does that leave me:

• 5 candidates ruled out because of lack of information on them
• 4 candidates ruled out immediately because I have issues with either their personalities or their policies
• 6 candidates that I am not sure about and need to study further
• 3 candidates that I have almost decided to vote for, though I haven’t decided the particular order

 

Useful stuff on Twitter

Whoever said Twitter was boring?  Yes, the “I’m bored” or “I’m having porridge for dinner” is boring.  And three mentions of the word Boring (or variations of the word Boring) in the first two lines of this post is boring.

Before you lose interest, Twitter is really useful source of interesting resources. Here’s what I’ve found in just three minutes of flicking through the musings of my followings:

• First up: 100 ways to teach with Twitter: but I’m still not convinced.  For example: “Twitter promotes a sense of community through its sharing of personal information” – but does it really do this?
• Another Twitter resources list: a work-in-progress showing that Twitter itself is a work-in-progress and it’s place in education is still evolving
• A teacher’s guide to using audio and podcasting in the classroom: I’m really surprised at the number of these tools that don’t let you edit your clips. Embedded youtube vids of the various techs also.
• Free edtech papers: on a variety of topics, covers some non-tech ed items also. It’s nice to know that others have difficulties getting students to read. I am not alone.
• An adventuress in elearning tells of her experiences in LMS: yes, a LMS that incorporates all the quality features that you want just isn’t out there – yet!
• 100 mobile tools for teachers: the first line reads “teaching is a labor of love for most educators”.  I don’t need to say more.
• Institution and Agency in the Age of Social Networks: There are some interesting content items in here, for example;  “Communities form when individual agency is applied to the creation of institutional structure”.  What happens when multiple individual agencies clash in the pursuit of a common institutional structure?
• http://www.dataliberation.org/home: an important site for Google users who aren’t entirely comfortable with Google’s mountain on personal information that we leave behind on Google sites  every day.

Now I’ve a huge list of tabs open on the screen – and I promised myself I wouldn’t do that anymore.

Twitter is just too good.