Archive for June 3rd, 2007
Report problems in County Cork using this
Posted on June 3, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork.
So after a small amount of fiddling I have put together a simple system to allow people to report problems like water/gas/electricity outages and maybe car crashes and road blockages in Cork (other suggestions welcome).
This is by the residents and for the residents of the region.
Updates are always visible to everyone at The Cork Problems Page.
If you want to send reports then the setup will take you maybe two minutes. From then on you can report problems using a web-page, SMS or Instant Message.
You need to sign up to a U.S. based service called Twitter here. It’s very easy to do. Once you have signed-up, go to the CorkProbs Twitter Page here and add CorkProbs as a friend (simple link on the right hand side of page). Wait until you get an email saying that CorkProbs has also added you as a friend.
From then on, if you want to report a problem or a resolution/update then you can do the following: Go to twitter.com and type the problem into the wee box at the top of the screen. Make sure that the message starts with @CorkProbs followed by a space followed by what you want to say. Click Update.
Within a couple of minutes your message will appear on the Cork Problems Web Page here. You can check this page whenever you want to see what other updates people are posting. Techies can subscribe to the RSS feed.
If you like that, but want more flexibility, then you can set up your Twitter account so you send the problem reports via SMS. Just go to this settings page and tell them about your phone. From then on, you just send SMS messages to +447624801423 in the same style as before i.e. first bit is @CorkProbs
Note that number is a UK one (Twitter does not have an Irish one) so it’s a wee bit more expensive than sending it to an Irish number.
People on Google GTalk can also use that to send messages.
Let me know what you think or if you need any help getting set up. I hope we can create a useful resource for everyone in Cork in the absence of any notification system from Cork CoCo.
Of course there is nothing stopping their employees from signing up and sending updates to it!
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Review of The Tipping Point
Posted on June 3, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon.
Malcolm Gladwell’s book really rocketed him into worldwide fame. Everything he has done since has been eagerly awaited. I only got around to reading The Tipping Point on Thursday and I’m glad I finally did.
The basic idea behind the book is that there are identifiable conditions and actions which cause something to become wildly popular or successful - things that become epidemics (in the wider sense of the word). He describes each of these and then backs them up with a continuous stream of convincing examples.
Some of the examples given include the enormous sudden reduction in crime in New York in the late 90’s, the massive success of certain shoe brands and books, the global phenomena that were Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues and a ton of others.
He picks out common attributes, context and actors in each one. In the case of the actors in any success he identifies The Connector, The Maven and the Saleman. Each of these plays a different role in making something successful.
Some of the concepts he describes include:
- The Law of the Few
- Stickiness
- The Power of Context
- The Magic Number 150
- The New Product Cycle
I found his material on children, learning and kids TV programmes particularly interesting and accurate.
It’s a very light read and he race through it. Something useful or entertaining on every page.
Now I’d better go out and buy Blink.
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How to find about problems like the water situation in Bandon
Posted on June 3, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork.
We lost water around 2am Saturday and it returned dark brown at around 2pm. Does anyone know what the back story is and whether the water is safe to drink?
I would encourage Cork CoCo to immediately fire the arsehole at the end of the “All other emergencies” phone line listed in the Green Pages. My wife rang this cretin at 6am to report the water problem and find out what was wrong. She had already tried and failed to get through to the local engineers office. The bozo claimed that the number was only for reporting road problems. When asked for an alternative number he said she should check the Green Pages! No amount of arguing could convince this criminal waste of taxpayers money that she had rung the relevant listed number.
I headed to SuperValu to get bottled water at approx 11am to discover it was not just Old Chapel but all of Bandon that was out. Given that the incompetent fool at the end of the phone line is the only way we have of finding out the status of a problem like this, how does Cork CoCo propose to keep residents informed of problems, resolutions and warnings?
Maybe someone should tell them about this amazing new system called d’internet. If small Pacific Islands can set up web based warning systems for tsunamis, is it beyond the wit of Cork CoCo to have similar here? Of course they’d probably put the professionally negligent buffoon who mans the phone line in charge of it.
In the interim I am looking into putting together a very simple problem reporting and viewing system using something like Twitter or Jaiku. You would be able to send problems/resolutions using a web browser, SMS or Instant Message. e.g. broken water mains, ESB failures, car crashes etc.
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