Educating the public.

Orcus

Hello All,

When I talk to people about IrelandOffline, the first thing they say to me is: "but isn't Ireland the e-hub of Europe?".
Most of the general public have been suckered in by this myth. It is only when I compare what we have with what the rest of Europe has (and what it costs) do people start to realise the truth and they usually get really angry about it.

I think we, as a group need to tear down this myth of Ireland being the "e-hub of Europe" and replace it with us being the "e-backwaters of Europe".

We need to make the public aware of what the situation is really like. If the general public are made aware of the truth, I really do think they will support us. People in Ireland do realise how important the net is to our economy.

I think the government is already embarrassed with the whole situation (see their 100% support of regional projects) and they are really annoyed with Eircom.
If we tear down their myth about "e-hub of Europe" and make the general public aware of the real situation, then the government won't have any choice but to intervene, specially in the run up to the elections.

The blackout is one way and I'm 100% in support of that. But I also think we must layout the whole situation in front of the public, in an easy to understand manner and further embarrass the government into action.

In order to do that I think big newspaper ads are necessary, yes I know it would be expensive, but I think it would be worth it.

I envisage something like this:

<start ad>

" Do you think Ireland is the e-hub of Europe?

Ireland - UK - Other Country
ADSL No Yes Yes
Flat rate
Internet No Yes Yes
Cable
Internet No Yes Yes
ISDN Per
second charge ? ? ?
56k Per
second charge ? ? ?

Where Ireland ranks in use of Broadband Internet 30/32
only Belgium and Greece are worse (***need to check***).

How much Eircom want to charge you for ADSL: £90 per month with a 3GB cap.
(but it doesn't exist yet!!!)
What BT in the UK, incl Northern Ireland charge: £40 per month (?) with no cap.
What other country charge: ?

Do you still think we are the e-hub of Europe?
or perhaps the e-backwaters of Europe?

Check out www.irelandoffline.com for more details (if you can afford it!!!) "

</end ad>

Obviously you would have to verify all the figures, I only plucked them from my head.

For the other country I was thinking of one of the Scandinavian countries or New Zealand, basically a country with a similar population size and density (so Eircom couldn't argue that the UK is a bigger market et al).

I know it would be expensive to run such ads, but if we want the general public to support us then we need them to understand the situation first, and at the moment they just don't understand, perhaps we could get sponsorship for it.

IMHO such an ad would have the effect of embarrassing Eircom, educating the public and also embarrassing the government into action.

Well everyone that is my idea, you are more then welcome to rip it apart.

Brian.

R. Daneel Olivaw

Norway is a good comparison. The population is around 4.5 million and is scattered over a massive area, with "pockets" of cities like Ireland (e.g., Bergen, Oslo, etc., ), with very sparse and widely dispersed population in the middle. It's also absolutely massive and if you can picture the whole country flipped 180 degrees vertically from it's base near Denmark, etc., the top of Norway goes down as far as the tow of Italy. It really is just a monstrously huge country with very small population (relatively speaking, far far FAR more sparsely population compared to Ireland)......


.....and they all have ultra fast DSL connections for pittance. And hey, Fairlight were from there so it can't be all bad.

smokin' an'chewin' man

Originally posted by Orcus

We need to make the public aware of what the situation is really like. If the general public are made aware of the truth, I really do think they will support us. People in Ireland do realise how important the net is to our economy.

What happened to the plans the original founding guys suggested for making contact with business park people, general business people, and motivating them to take more decisive action ? also for getting help in sponsoring an education plan for the public ? Is this being done ?

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Would it not be a good idea to get one of the committee members on something like the late late show, pat kenny in the morning (on the radio), tv3 news, etc.??
It could inform a large portion of the population on the situation.

Ask reps from eircom, esat and the like (as ya did for the seminar) to attend. If they refuse, u could always make a point that they refused. I presume it would only be eircom that would refuse BUT if they have nothing to hide there should be no problem. Their PR guy/gal can make an ass of themselves in the eyes of the public. Or will they actually send someone with a bit of knowledge???
Be an interesting show!

ambrose