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Looks interesting! Need more than a day's notice though...maybe you should put up a diary William of forthcoming events/talks/blah blah so we have enough time to organise ourselves! Just something to add to your 'enormous output' (to borrow a phrase!). :-)

re: media - having resisted social networking sites for donkeys I have recently relented and joined the standard facebook and twitter and find that I am enjoying the experience thus far. Have had plenty of good info from both sites that have brought different things to my attention re courses etc and some good humour and laughter along the way. Bit new to twitter though so just finding my feet as it were and getting the hang of tweeting to the ether! Will give it a go for a while and see how it transpires....always thought I would never go on it....but hey my life is full of never say nevers! (like I would never 'do' God etc etc!)

So in that way I have become more digital and am using social networking sites more than I thought I would. It provides an easy way to 'connect' with people across the globe or round the corner....but can use up too much time! Also would prefer the eyeball to eyeball connection myself!

I think things like Facebook and Twitter can be a mixed blessing
- they do allow people to keep in touch with friends and relatives from across the globe, as well as those closer to home. To some extent they do remove the personal touch. Especially with Twitter, which encourages people to 'follow' celebrities, which can create a false sense of intimacy. If I follow Gok Wan, for example (I don't) I might feel that I 'know' him, although if he bumped into me on the street he would have no idea who I was. There are a huge amount of gossip magazines as well which can create the same effect. I wonder if these magazines create a market of their own rather than actually meeting an existing need.
Meeting someone in person, rather than talking to them online, makes me feel connected with humanity in a way that email doesn't. We are social creatures, and I think when we remove that we lose part of ourselves in the process. So I would like to see development in the media that helps to make our lives more efficient, without losing that personal element. Older people can sometimes feel out of touch with new technological advances, so ensuring that they are involved too would be really important.

It seems interesting, will the Republican terrorists who are planting bombs find it interesting?

I hope that there will be some criticism of the fact that Radio Ulster broadcasts far too many middle-of-the-road music programmes and far too few factual programmes about history, science, social trends, economics, local wildlife, etc. The music programmes are merely duplicating what is already available on Radio 2 and a host of commercial radio stations. No doubt such programmes are cheap to produce, but they are a waste of airtime and of licence-payers' money. They make very little contribution to local culture, compared to the positive influence that a schedule of good, well-researched documentaries could have. Why shouldn't Radio Ulster emulate Radio 4, instead of Radios 1 and 2?

Phil,

I could not disagree more, it is the highlight of my day to switch Hugo Duncan off and I can guarantee that thon &^^*^*^*&7 is not available anywhere else on ´óÏó´«Ã½ output.

If it emulated Radio 4 would you not complain that it was too like radio 4.

Anyway I like Sean Coyle's music choices and him an Gerry have a bit o banter. Nolan could do with a permanent holiday with Wendy doing a consumer slot instead and Will would be the best choice for Talkback,

In a recent survey by Ofcom, it turns out that take up of DAB (Digital audio broadcasting) digital radio, Northern Ireland had apparently the loweest take up of this new medium within the UK. Why ? I weould suggest that this is due to the deplorable situation that exists in the province due to the ROI still using VHF (i.e. band III) for it's TV broadcasts.

While many parts of the UK have in the region of 40-50 stations broadcasting on DAB, Norn Iron has only 21, including the ´óÏó´«Ã½ multiplex. Still no Digital One (the UK's national commercial multiplex) and no Absolute Radio either. I do hope this situation is raised at this conference.

Personally, I think the internet will be the future, both for radio and TV. I'd say, in the not too distant future, high definition TV will be delivered by high speed fibre optic broadband. How far away are internet radios (both for the car and home)that will run off the 3G network subscription free ? Thousands of stations throughout the British Isles and beyond in real Digital quality. My internet radio receives ´óÏó´«Ã½ stations from all over the UK, and it's interesting to see what ´óÏó´«Ã½ local radio sounds like in other regions compared to our own offerings from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle.

Still, exciting times ahead for digital broadcasting. I just hope the internet isn't ruined by copyright issues.