Off Yer Duff For The Blackout

ekehoe

I've seen quite a lot of talk on here (positive and negative) about the Blackout, what is the Committee doing, how can I help, etc. Here's your chance.

I will be at the top of Grafton Street in Dublin all day on November 16th. Yep. Wearing black. Holding a sign about the Blackout and passing out flyers about it. Talking to folks, getting them involved. All day. Rain, hail, sleet, wind, whatever.

This is where the membership of the group comes in. You all want some tv coverage. Well, you have to make good tv to get the media there. I figure that an 8 months pregnant woman standing all day at the top of Grafton Street might be okay. If I was surrounded by a group of people *also* all in black, also talking to people and explaining what's going on, now, that's some good tv. Getting the mouse outfit from Eircom...well, that would be beautiful, but that's not going to happen :-).

So, no matter where you live--Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, Sligo, Athlone, WHEREVER--you have a chance to make a big splash. Go to the most populated area of your town, or the nearest big town. Meet up with other folks from IrelandOffline, talk, encourage other people, let the general public know that this is basically an outrage and we're protesting. And that there's over 1000 others of you around the country who are doing the same thing.

Wear black. Print out some flyers to hand out. Hand them out at school, work, post them in your colleges and lunchrooms. Tell people. Add the Blackout to your .sig and black out your webpage. Let them hear us.

And if you can't get away from work or school for the day, come out during lunch. Leave an hour early. Once your classes are done for the day, come to the gathering in your town. We're not going to shout profanities (easiest way to NOT get on tv), we're going to be respectful, honest and open about the situation here in Ireland. And by doing this WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE. And you all know that or you wouldn't have joined IrelandOffline or be reading this forum.

Any questions can be emailed to me, or just post below.

And remember...this is the chance to make IrelandOffline a huge thing. The seminar was great, but this can and will be bigger. Why? Cause EVERYONE can have a hand in it...even if you can't leave your house or you live in another country.

E

Bard

I'll get the day off work so I can be there...

Count me in Elana!

ekehoe

Originally posted by Bard
I'll get the day off work so I can be there...

Count me in Elana!

Wah-ooo! Just remember to wear black...

What about the rest of you? I see all the views of this thread...no replies? Scared of the pregnancy hormones? :-)

E

b20uvkft6m5xwg

"Hormonal Pregnant Woman"
We need to get you into more meetings w/ the Telcos to frighten the living daylights out of them
or
how about into the high court to sort out this logjam:p

Well what else can be said but to pay tribute to your commitment to the cause. When I read your 1st post I was waiting to see something like "Only Kidding", but no! This is a potential publicty coup of mammoth proportions. I think a sign along the lines of...
"And me bringing a child into this country devoid of proper internet access, forget hospitals, schools- WE WANT BROADBAND"

I cant give a cast iron commitment to getting into Grafton St. on the 16th- fridays my busiest day in college, but I seem to remember a lecturer of mine is going to some conference and said we wont have a lecture that day- so I hope it is that day 'cos then I'll be there at some point:)

Just struck me there....
You know the way Blind Date had a "Blind Date Baby"
now IrelandOffline will have an "IrelandOffline Baby"

Any names Yet??

MS

WOW! Hi Elana

Nice to see u in good spirits ( or should i say both of ye ? hehehe... Joke ok )

ok here goes:

Origionally posted by E

Wear black. Print out some flyers to hand out. Hand them out at school, work, post them in your colleges and lunchrooms. Tell people. Add the Blackout to your .sig and black out your webpage. Let them hear us.

I can help a lot with Flyers and i might be the only guy in Athlone to be wearing Black and handing them out.... But! (sorry about this hehe ) we all need a unified Flyer. Can you suggest and agree on what should be said on it and FAST! (to give me time to print them) I might not be able to make it to Dublin but i can do my bit from here. Maby a letter to each member of IOFFL with whats happening and what to put on the Flyer might help ? Or just post it here ? Either way it needs to be done fast to give people a chance to take action.

Also is this Blackout only for 1 day or more ? Please dont paste go here or go there or re-direct me.... ill just get lost ok heheh :P

I dont know about n e one else but CHEERS! E its nice to see a Spark still alive and glowing sooo bright! (geeees no insult ment to n e on ok ) Please get back to me asap ok

Regards,

MS

PS BARD Please dont touch this post ok (JOKE!) Ok maby a lil bit over excited about it all but hehehe what the heck

dahamsta

When I said to Elana that I wasn't really into this kind of thing - very self-concious, me - I got what I firmly believe to be one the dirtiest looks it has ever been my displeasure to recieve. So it looks like I'll be leading the way in Cork. Daunt Square seems to be the traditional spot for this kind of thing in Cork, so who's up for it?

Elana, rest assured that black isn't a problem for me. Now if you'd said "wear something colourful", then I'd be in trouble... Oh, and thanks for making me have to update the bloody website. Again.

adam

Matfinn

Lo Elana, cool idea to go out into the streets. Its what we really need to giove us that lift amongst the public, and I think if we do it, we will have a nice new flood of users. There are so many technical minded people out there I have talked to, all of them Linux users, with a genuine interest in computers, but they have never heard of Irelandoffline. I was talking to one fella today who got booted from SNL earlier this year, and he had never heard of Irelandoffline. Another fella, a well versed debian user, had also never heard of Irelandoffline. Its these kind of people and many others we need to educate. This would also attract a nice bit of media attention from the radio and papers. Hopefully we can get on Dublins FM104 and other local radio stations around the country. Ill try to be there anyway, waering the usual black. I have no black trousers, so would a tee shirt be cool?, or a black jumper??

TTYL

Matt

Macker

I'll be there from about 2 pm for an hour or so

macker

Bios

I will be driving 200 miles from my home in donegal to be there. If any1 needs a lift on my route, post up.

Hope we can get a good few ppl together

Adam Simmons

MS

No offence ment mate but... this is just a question ok ? I am trying to arrange a demonstration (ok for want of a better word) in my home town and rather than u having to travel for hours to get to Dublin.... could you not do the same ?. No only would it save you a lot of expence. But it would help to make this a Country wide issue and it would also help by letting people in your area know exactly whats going on ?

Regards,

MS

Bard

must get DeVore to get involved... I could be wrong but I think he likes this kind of thing ...

thinks... _...ooOO{{{ now if we only had a guy in a mouse suit... }}}OOoo..._

b20uvkft6m5xwg

We could always run over to the Joke Shop @ Sth Kings St. (@ top of Grafton St.). They might have sommit we could pass off as the €ircom mouse.

Any volunteers to wear it??
It could involve being set alight or having the cráp beaten into you. (all for show naturally):p

ekehoe

I'm crap at quoting, so I'm just going to do bits here...

We have someone working on a flyer right now, to be downloaded from the Blackout site as soon as it's ready. I'll let y'all know.

The Blackout is officially for one day, but you can have your own blackout whenever you want. Or organize it with friends. Who knows, maybe this will become a monthly thing?

Imagine me in the High Court saying "Eircom, too high. Drop it, we all know how much it should be. ODTR, good try, but next time yank their license, FFS." Preggers hormones should never be underestimated :-)

Names we have ready, but you'll have to wait another month :-). Just like us... and I'm sure it will be announced on here when Schmoo is born.

And Bios, if you want to do something local, what about helping set up one in Galway? Get some friends together and go down there and scream bloody murder :-). I'll help you any way I can!

E

nahdoic

Well you will definitely not be alone Elana. I'll be there for definite. And I have a lot of web-sites I can put the black-out page on for a day.

Oh and don't forget to bring big black umbrellas too cos I think we'll need them. Umbrellas are great for getting talking to people on wet days too. If you can stop people getting drenched, they'll gladly listen to you for a minute or two. But if it's lashing and you're trying to talk to people, they'll give you dirty, dirty looks and run, run, run.

ekehoe

Originally posted by nahdoic
Well you will definitely not be alone Elana. I'll be there for definite. And I have a lot of web-sites I can put the black-out page on for a day.

Oh and don't forget to bring big black umbrellas too cos I think we'll need them. Umbrellas are great for getting talking to people on wet days too. If you can stop people getting drenched, they'll gladly listen to you for a minute or two. But if it's lashing and you're trying to talk to people, they'll give you dirty, dirty looks and run, run, run.

Great point! I'll bring that and a thermos of hot cocoa :-).

E

Trojan

I'll be there after work (~16.00).

Trying to get some others out too: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&postid=308038&t=5714#post308038

No black trousers, doh! better go buy some

rgds,
Al.

DeVore

I'll be there... is there a set time for a big gathering?

Afterwards I think I'll head to the pub so anyone who's up for it
is welcome.

Elana, I thought I was off my head, yer nuts!

I'll be wearing my Errorcom t-shirt too (its not black but the rest will be )

DeV.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Yeh Good Point DeV.

Is there any specific time that will be the busiest or whatever. I'm still trying to juggle college obligations for that day, but if I knew a best time to try and make it that might help:)

thx

bubbles

Question.....

Why protest on grafton street? Surly outside eircoms headquaters on the green would be a better spot..?

ekehoe

Originally posted by bubbles
Question.....

Why protest on grafton street? Surly outside eircoms headquaters on the green would be a better spot..?

Yes it would, but we want to get to the people more than Eircom. Eircom know we're doing this, great. But Joe Blow on the street may not know that he's paying way too much for net access...time to make sure that he does know :-).

As for what time is a good time, whenever you can show up is great. I'll be there all day from about 9:30a on (depending on what DART I can squeeze me and the Schmoo into) and done around 6 if I can last that long. Hubby says he'll try to be there with me. My mobile number is on the IrelandOffline site if there are any problems I can be reached on that...

E

ekehoe

Almost forgot...spoke with someone at Esat today who said they had heard about the Blackout...they agreed in principle, but wished there was a different practice ;-)

E

bubbles

Only a few people in eircom know you exsist..... let more of them know the public is pissed at them, apply preasure from within.

Still think eircom HQ is a better spot, and still a fairly busy area.

bubbles

Altho, a better idea in my opinion is to start the protest at 8.30 outside eircom HQ, catch them all going to work. Then at 10 move to grafton street, just in time for the shopping rush.

Then at 4.30 move back to eircom HQ to catch them going home.

Best of both worlds

Trojan

Originally posted by bubbles
Altho, a better idea in my opinion is to start the protest at 8.30 outside eircom HQ, catch them all going to work. Then at 10 move to grafton street, just in time for the shopping rush.

Then at 4.30 move back to eircom HQ to catch them going home.

Dunno about the early morning stuff, but it sounds like there may be enough people around from 4pm on to split into 2 groups, have some ppl head up there.

Al.

pencil

The earliest I can get there is 6pm. How the artwork coming along for the handouts?

If someone provides me with copy I'll do some up & put them up for downloading.

Boston

ha sounds good, i can make it from about 4.20- 5.00, just enough time to get on the news

Victor

Ok a couple of questions.

What media will be in attendance? How can you make them attend? And give good coverage? I presume the Irish Times and The Examiner will be in attendance, but what about all the rest?

Handing out leaflets that are then thrown on the ground is a littering offence for the giver and the thrower.

I think you need to make the point to the phone companies as well, not just he public, de facto that means Esat as well.

You need to get attention - perhaps a stunt - but not too cheesy, but at the same time not offensive to the general public.

Seeing a Valentia now own most of Eircom, why not target them aswell (I don't know how).

Be wary of getting the wrong kind of press.

dahamsta

What media will be in attendance? How can you make them attend? And give good coverage? I presume the Irish Times and The Examiner will be in attendance, but what about all the rest?

That's really up to the media, but we'll try and make it attractive for them of course. I don't know who will be in attendance yet. We'll be talking to the press again shortly, and I'll be sure to point it out to them.

Handing out leaflets that are then thrown on the ground is a littering offence for the giver and the thrower.

I presume we can cover that with a request to dispose of it properly on the flyer. Thanks for forewarning us.

I think you need to make the point to the phone companies as well, not just he public, de facto that means Esat as well. You need to get attention - perhaps a stunt - but not too cheesy, but at the same time not offensive to the general public.

I have some ideas to bundle those two things together, but it depends on what "props" I can come up with in the meantime. Although we may do some cheesy stuff - hell, the press love cheesy, look at the papers for gods sake - it needs to be said that we're not there to disrupt or cause offense. I'll disassociate myself from anyone who does, and I would expect everyone else to do the same.

Seeing a Valentia now own most of Eircom, why not target them aswell (I don't know how).

Valentia doesn't really own Eircom yet, and they're pretty much an organisation in name only. They probably have an office somewhere, but I don't know where it is.

Be wary of getting the wrong kind of press.

I reckon we're all aware of the risks, which is why we want it to be peaceful, and more importantly educational. Even if we get little or no press coverage out of this, if we educate just a few passers-by of the situation I will consider it a success.

adam

phaxx

Whaddabout a guy in a mouse suit being chased around by a few people with keyboards?

Just a thought.

"Irish net users fight back!"

"Eircom mouse takes a beating"

*shrug*