User blogs

As more than 40 heads of state and dignitaries visited Paris on Sunday to show their solidarity with the people of France under the banner of anti-terrorism and freedom of speech, some in Budapest were wondering why Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had been invited.

Diplomacy, like any other profession, has had to move with the times. Diplomats ignore the power of social media at their peril. Whether or not they themselves choose to engage with Twitter or Facebook or blogs, there's a good chance that at some stage in the not too distant future, this choice will be taken from them and such engagement will simply become another way of doing things - as if it hasn't already.

In what had the nation reeling and rolling its collective eyes to heaven as it let out a cry of disbelief last month, an Irish homeowner who set up a website to show his CCTV footage of bad boys caught in the act of burglarising his home was told by the Irish Data Protection Commission that 'he could be prosecuted under the Data Protection Acts if he continued to post the images and face a jail term or maximum fine of €100,000' [Alison Bray, Irish Indepen

'The public is constantly told by the media that climate science can’t be trusted, the models are flawed, and action on climate change is a costly gamble. But when you compare original predictions with what actually happened, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The minutes I spend on Facebook each day take more energy than a 10 km run (were I of fit enough mind and body to undertake such an endeavor). I seem to spend my time dodging calls to action and skimming over worthy posts exhorting me to be a better person. It's not that I have anything against either of these; it's just that there are so many of them.

Occasionally I actually stop and click. Out of curiosity. Today was one of those days. 

There are only 24 hours in a day. Nothing we can do will change that. And for some, 24 hours might seem like an eternity; for me, it's never enough. My to-do list seems to grow instead of shrink and one fleeting moment last week where it had only two items on it lasted for just that... a fleeting moment.

Back in 1981, people were excited about being able to get their newspaper content sent over the phone to their home computers. At a rate of $5 per hour, and taking two hours to transmit, this electronic paper didn't pose much competition for the 20c street price for a real newspaper in San Francisco.

New Media is a broad term that can refer to everything from interactive photo and video displays to social blogging platforms, and those who are able to integrate all types of media into compelling narratives will be the most successful journalists.

Last Monday, in Philadelphia, about 13 000 representatives of law enforcement agencies from around the world met at the 120th Annual International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference and Law Enforcement Education and Technology Exhibition.