So Meteor Ireland launched a competition earlier via a Facebook App to find Ireland’s Social Networking King or Queen. Out of curiosity and hearing a little bit of a kerfuffle about it I decided to have a look. Here’s what I was presented with when I interacted with it:

My initial thought was ‘good job I actually bothered to read the ins and outs of this before hitting go’. I’ve never encountered a Facebook app that would what I would term spam your wall as well as your photos, videos & notes and friend’s news feeds.

Needless to say I clicked ‘Leave application’. Apparently Meteor are taking in and considering feedback on this ‘feature’ of the app. Hopefully they will revise it as I can’t imagine you will get too many people clicking ‘allow’ here or if they do being please about the app’s access to so much of an individual’s profile.

It’s got me wondering about the whole Facebook app development process. Do designers and developers follow the same steps they would if they were developing an iPhone or standalone web app? Is there any user testing? What about prototyping or wireframing? What works/doesn’t work?

Response:

..the access screen on our facebook app is a standard access screen as per Facebook’s rules and regulations. Unfortunately the messaging on this cannot be changed, however we can assure you that we don’t access any user’s personal information other than their name, gender and profile pic, which is completely standard for the majority of facebook applications.

Facebook simply wouldn’t provide the functionality to post a fun comment if it wasn’t allowed, look at Social Interview for example which has 4 million monthly active users! If people don’t want to partake in the app they can do one of many things: they can block an application from their own profile on Facebook, delete the posts the same as you would a comment from a friend, or opt out of this application if they so wish. Our search for Ireland’s social networking king and queen really is only meant to be a bit of fun for people and not mean to be taken too seriously. As mentioned above, people can request to opt out if they are nominated and don’t wish to be involved or can just block the app itself.

“I been cookin’ dough like a chef servin’ killa bytes”.

Ballyvaughan beach in February

The destinations map on the Dublin Airport Destination Map annoyed me the other day when trying to look up routes to Germany. A lovely big interactive map squished into matchbox, effectively. So I pulled out the iFrame link and here it is in fullscreen glory.

Generate your CSS3 border-radius goodness with preview of results and with ease using this handy tool.

Weedle beta kicking off this afternoon.

My native Ballyvaughan and surrounding area of North Clare get featured on No Frontiers this Sunday evening. Curious to see how the place comes across during the hibernation season when pretty much EVERYTHING is closed.

Vimeo Plus Stats for Vimeo Plus users. Looks great, looking forward to a play.

The Southern Smash

So today the boy and I eventually decided to head into town and find some nice grub and have a bit of a wander for ourselves. While considering retreating to the Westbury for a cosy sneaky pint I had the geeky brainwave that the Marble Bar in the Westbury was offering a deal on cocktails via FourSquare.

So I checked in while around the corner, had the good fortune of securing mayorship and thus unlocking their offer – buy 1 cocktail and get 1 free when you check in as mayor.

After settling into the cosyness of said bar I was pretty much sold on the idea of having a yummy cocktail anyway but the prospect of getting two of them for a tenner made it a little cosier.

The Southern Smash is now my favourite cocktail, just delish – Southern Comfort, honey syrup, fresh lime juice and fresh mint with ice and ginger ale.

That was my first time making use of an offer on FourSquare. And it worked. It enticed me into the place, got me spending my dollars while introducing me to a tasty new treat and reminding me how comfy the Marble Bar is. It did feel a bit weird/awkward/geeky presenting my iPhone with this offer at the counter and despite the staff not really getting what it was they went with it and honoured the offer anyway.

Win win win.

Fancy an all expenses paid trip around 16 European countries in 20 days? Have a clue as to what social media is? Want to win some stuff? You should really take a look at the ‘Talk to EU Eurotrip’.

The Seafarer at The Abbey Theatre had me in stitches last night. Don Wycherley is outstanding and almost completely stole the show for me. This is the last week of it so do try and catch it if you can. Never seen a full house at the Abbey on a Monday so that says it all.

Book launched in NUI Galway by John Breslin, Alexandre Passant and Stefan Decker  - ‘The Social and Semantic Web‘.

How Metro News in Canada are hooking up with FourSquare.

Volunteering Ireland are on Twitter – @volunteeringirl.

Tickets for TedFest 4 are currently on sale – demand is so great there’s ’2 sittings’ of it this year.

Happy Tuesday, hope it’s kind to you

Myself and some lovely bloggers I'm glad to have met

Sitting on the train to Graiguenamanagh last Friday evening a memory sparked and has haunted me since.

Picture this: an ordinary college girl happily embracing a course in multimedia in DCU who has lived away from home since the day after her Leaving Cert, very independent and city smart. Her timetable in the latter half of second year means her classes finish at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon. Nice! Four days of the week and time is her own. Week 1 goes by. Week 2 passes, a bit boring but we’ll have project work soon.

Week 3, Wednesday afternoon, I’m at home in my little box room facing another four-day weekend. That’s when I believe I had my first and only panic attack. I couldn’t breathe, I was hysterical. I couldn’t face the thought of another weekend pretty much by myself. Alone. Invisible to the world.

I packed a bag and quickly headed for the train station jumping on the next train home. And that’s what I did for pretty much every week for the rest of that semester. Went home, took up some part-time work for 2 days, had a day off and returned on Sunday night. It got to the stage where I started recognising others who were doing a similar or part of the same commute.

It’s a part of me that drives me nuts, that I detest. Thankfully I have improved somewhat but I still have a long way to go. I’ve got plenty of theories on why I am so and why I find it so terrifying and challenging to meet and make new friends but I also have realised that social networking has been and is fantastic for people like me.

I get annoyed when I hear people bashing social media by calling it a ‘haven for misfits and the socially awkward’ (and so on) – so what?! We’re no more awkward or odd than some of the regulars in the bar I used to work in who used to pop in for a few drinks purely for the social aspect it offered.

I’ve met and made some great friends and acquaintances through Twitter and blogging and the conversations and events that are generated by or through them. And I hope that continues into the future. Why has it been easier this way? I’m not sure if it’s the sense of anonymity, the casual and passing nature of communication online or even the ability to discover common ground and establish some kind of relationship prior to meeting? Or the feeling of being constantly ‘connected’? Or all of the above.

Whatever it is it suits this misfit.

Haiti - despite the media and online coverage, we still have no concept of how awful things are in Haiti at the moment. Help out my donating to Goal online – they’re out there on the ground with The Haven Project.

Via Mashable – the UN have an opening for a Social Media Editor (Internship).

Want to see a screening of Lemonade happen in Dublin? Then stick your name in the comments. What’s it about? Here’s a shpiel:

“What do people who were once paid to be creative for a living do when they’re laid off? They get creative with their own lives. Lemonade is an inspirational film about 16 advertising professionals who lost their jobs and found their calling, encouraging people to listen to that little voice inside their head that asks, “What if?”

Tom Dunne of Newstalk and Something Happens fame is on Twitter since yesterday thanks to encouragement by Graham Linehan. Check out @tomhappens on the interpipes.

Ryan Carson is over at ThinkVitamin wondering what you would like to see in an online conference. Think CSS, Frameworks, Rails, iPhone development etc. Have your say here.

Now the static image is garish enough but imagine the red and yellow dots flashing and images within those changing in rotation also. Not pretty. And certainly the most spammy spam to slip into my inbox in a long time.

What I can’t work out is what the email has to do with Learning Ireland, which is a website concerned with night courses and further education, not an online stationary shop.

I’ve emailed them to see what the heck is going on and who sent this out on their behalf.

To me Michael Jackson has always stood out as one of the most amazing singers ever to grace the charts, particularly in his youth. A gorgeous, raw, spectacular talent the like of which only comes around once in a blue  moon. Few voices have ever made hairs stand on end the way his voice does.

As Darragh wrote on Culch.ie earlier, his passing & how it spread like wildfire across the various online streams is remarkable in it’s own way. Radio shows have all been touching on the story throughout the day & from what I have read and heard the general mood of people seems to be one of sadness & sympathy that he led a life dogged & affected so negatively by media intrusion from such an early age.

The Telegraph online reports that a flashmob organised over Twitter, Facebook and other social media streams is being organised for 6pm on Liverpool St in London. People are gathering to do his trademark “moonwalk” before attending a party to celebrate his life. Richard Galbraith is apparently going to Qik it live here.

RIP MJ, thanks for the music.