The Real Free Press!

Looking Forward to 2002!

Welcome to the first issue of The Real Free Press for 2002 and a Happy New Year to all our readers.

At this time of year just at the end of the Christmas holidays, with very little activity in the local media or local politics of note to get stuck into heres a quick review of some of what we reported in 2001 and a look forward to what we can expect in 2002.

Lochgarman.com was first launched in August of last year so is only up and running for five months but already has a mailing list to which over 700 local internet users have subscribed and currently gets approximately 800 individual hits per week. This is due to so many local users making us their homepage. These figures can only go in one direction in the future.....and that is UP!
Especially gratifying is the amount of correspondence we have had from Wexford exiles in the States, Britain, Australia, Italy and even as far away as Japan! Our aim is to get bigger and better in 2002 and provide an information service and forum for Wexford people at home and abroad.

A Look Back

In Issue 1 we took a look at Traffic Management in Wexford as well as analysing Cllr Johnny Roche's comments on the performance of Sinn Féin in the Peace Process.
Issue 2 saw a report on the continuing deplorable condition of the reclaimed no mans land at Ferrybank in Wexford town and posed many questions asking why nothing is being done about this eyesore? Also a commentary on the Taoiseach's decision to allow US military aircraft the facilities at Shannon airport in their continuing war on Afghanistan.
In Issue 3 we reported on the British Governments decision to allow the Mox plant at Sellafield to go into production and published reaction from the Green Party and Sinn Féin. We also noted how Wexford Corporation had handled invitations to their public meeting on traffic management in the town!
The whole of Issue 4 was given over to the historical decision of the IRA in October to begin the process of arms decommissioning and a commentary on the response needed.
Issue 5 took a brief look at the possibilities for change in the forthcoming general election locally as well as introducing the IrelandOffline campaign and a commentary on the controversial issue of the selling of Poppies in Wexford town.
In Issue 6 we revealed the well kept secret plans to replace an 11km stretch of the main Rosslare Harbour road and asked ....why?
The outbreak of the CodeRed worm virus in Wexford dominated Issue 7 We outlined the steps to take in repairing and avoiding this virus. Also we commented on the continuing horror in Afghanistan, the recent Budget, a blueprint for New Ross and the fact that mobile phone users very movements and call records are being stored for up to 6 years! We also questioned the logic of removing the steps accessing St Helens Beach?
The last issue of the year Issue 8 saw commentary on the growing jobs crisis in County Wexford, the baffling opposition to the proposed LIDL's development in Wexford, the commissioning of the Mox plant at Sellafield, waste management in the South East and the pollution of the river Slaney from illegal dumping in Wicklow.

Looking Forward

The New Year will very shortly see General Election campaigning getting into top gear, the election must be called before June at the very latest so expect lots of posturing to begin soon in earnest. As we said in Issue 5 there will be change in Wexford this time round so we'll be keeping an eye on the candidates and reporting on important local issues of which the neglect of Wexford by successive Governments will surely be paramount!
We have been in contact with all the sitting TD's and are making and invite contact from all intending candidates. Incidentally we have to date received some contributions from Labour, the Green Party and Sinn Féin but the two mainstream Party's have been very quiet? Never mind, we're sure that won't last long!
At Lochgarman.com we intend getting a lot bigger and better throughout 2002 and beyond. Don't forget that we invite all Wexford people at home and abroad as well as visitors and 'blow-ins' to contribute your thoughts, ideas and articles for the website. Whether its an item of local news, some other idea or some further content that you'd like to see on the website....just let us know!

Ireland Offline's Chairmans Report

IrelandOffline Chairman's Report
3rd January 2002
First of all, the IOFFL committee would like to wish all you and your family a Happy New Year with the hope that in 2002 we can at last achieve our objectives of improved Internet access in Ireland.
The start of a new year is a traditional time to take stock, so I would like to summarise what we the committee believe we have achieved to date, address a number of problem areas we have encountered and outline our strategy for this year.

1 Achievements To Date
In just over 7 months, we believe that we have achieved a lot. What started off as a group of disgruntled users complaining on ie.comp has grown into a well-organised lobby group of almost 1300 members. We have had meetings with the key players like Eircom, ODTR, Esat, and Mary O'Rourke and have maintained contact with them on a regular basis. As part of this, we have achieved extensive media coverage in the national press, IT magazines, both online and offline, and national and local radio. We are now recognised as the authoritative voice of the "ordinary internet user of Ireland".
It can be argued that we haven't achieved anything practical to change the situation but much of this has been outside our sphere of influence - Broadband, for example, is now very much in the legal arena and there is little we can really do on this specific issue.
What we have done, and in my opinion must continue to do, is bring the whole Internet access issue to the forefront of the media and expose how Eircom are strangling the development of this country, particularly in the run-up to a general election.

2 Problem Areas
There is a number of problem areas that we are currently addressing. Whilst we have had a considerable degree of success in creating a high profile for IOFFL, we have not yet done enough on educating politicians and non-technical media on just how dire the Internet access situation really is in Ireland and how it can seriously impact on the economic growth of our country. We have to gather much better hard factual on how Ireland compares to other countries and present this in a way that is easily understandable.
Due to severe time pressures on the committee, our communications to the general membership has been a bit sporadic. This has not been helped by the fact that a lot of the work we have been doing recently has been 'behind the scenes' in such areas as lobbying politicians. There is nothing secret about this work, it is just that people like politicians can be better dealt with out of the public arena.
As a result of this, we have been heavily dependent on our forum. Unfortunately, a small number of people have caused disruption on the forum by using it as a vehicle to make very personalised attacks on various members of the committee. I would emphasise that we have no problem with justified or constructive criticism; at the same time, we have to recognise that our forum is the public face of IOFFL and we know that it is closely monitored by people outside IOFFL, including Eircom, ODTR, Esat and civil servants - one measure of the success of IOFFL! For this reason, we have had to delete or move a number of abusive posts.
A number of our members also want to get involved more actively in promoting IOFFL. Since our seminar in August and the Blackout in November, there hasn' t been much opportunity for members to get actively involved.
We also have some weaknesses in regard to our web site. Niall O'Keefe has done an excellent job in setting up and maintaining the site but the organisation has grown so much that the site now needs considerable restructuring. There is also some confusion over the 3 url's - irelandoffline.com, irelandoffline.org and irelandoffline.net that we have to resolve.

3 Restructuring In order to deal with the problems outlined above and give us a new momentum, we are proposing the introduction of 3 Working Groups to deal with specific areas. Each of these groups will be chaired (at least initially) by a committee member. The proposed groups are:
Research Working Group
To be chaired by Fergus McDonald (a.k.a. Fergus on our forum)
This group will be responsible for, obviously, research. That involves researching and reporting technical, legal and regulatory matters; but it also covers the retrieval, sorting and storage of relevant documentation for reference, including technical documents, statistics and reports, and even news items that are relevant to the organisation. They will also be responsible for distilling the information to suit different purposes for the other working groups, and the webmaster (and so the membership). The output from this group will greatly help with our lobbying efforts, as it will be easier to retrieve or compile reports, and allow for speedy press releases from the PRO.
Lobbying Working Group
To be chaired martin Harran (a.k.a O_Donnel_Abu on our forum)
There is a definite need for a dedicated group to handle political and representative organisation lobbying. Suggested tasks include research and development of possible lobbying targets; strategy development, preparation of material that will best represent the group and the organisation of meetings and follow-ups in association with the liaison.
Membership Working Group
To be chaired by Mike Megan (a.k.a. SkepticOne on our forum)
This group will also be responsible for communicating with the members, through regular mailings, meetings if necessary, and even support to a degree. They will also handle the organisation and marketing of public meetings and seminars. They should always be pressuring for public meetings, and encouraging the members to come up with new ideas, which can be compiled and handed off to the group responsible.
One particular objective for this group will be to set up regular short briefings for members to avoid long newsletters like this J
We will shortly be seeking volunteers for these three groups - the committee members responsible will contact you shortly to give more details on what we are looking for and how you can volunteer.
Apart from these working groups, we have also set up a sub-committee with Adam Beecher (a.k.a. Dahamsta), David Staunton (a.k.a. 80p) and Fergus McDonald to work with Niall O'Keefe on restructuring our website. This will include such items as resolving the url issue, setting up sections and mailing lists within the site for each Working Group, restructuring the site into more clearly defined areas, broadly in line with the activities of each Working Group. David Long will co-ordinate this sub-committee

4 Forward Strategy
The key objectives of IOFFL remain the same - Unmetered Access, Broadband and Local Loop Unbundling.
We are limited in what we can do in practical terms, particularly in regard to Broadband and LLU which are now in the legal arena. Where we can make a difference, however, is by keeping these issues highlighted in the media, by lobbying our government and TD's, particularly in the run up to the general election, and by getting other groups behind our campaign. This latter one is a case of education - for example, the response of the Small Firms Association (SFA) to our blackout was extremely annoying, but we should realise that organisations like this do not fully understand the Internet access situation and we should take on the task of enlightening them. As suggested by members, we should also seek the active support of organisations to whom the Internet is a vital resource such as the National Council for the Blind

5 Other Items
In order to get up to date with the various parties involved in Internet access and help the work of the Lobbying Working Group, we trying to set up meetings for later this month with Esat, Eircom, ODTR and the Department of Public Enterprise to get their up to date position on the various issues. We will also be having a first meeting UTVInternet and, subject to time availability, with organisations like SFA and IBEC.
Finally, I would like to express my personal thanks to the IOFFL committee who have worked so very hard in getting us to where we are, particularly during over the last few months when business demands have caused me to be mostly an 'absentee chairman'.

Martin Harran Chairman, IrelandOffline

Read Archived Issues: 1 / 2 / 3 /4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

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