Gav Reilly

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Written by Gav

February 25th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

Posted in Politics,The Internet

Tagged with ,

13 Responses to 'Transparency, or How To Mess Up Before You Begin'

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  1. [...] Blake the organiser replies , Slugger,    , Green Ink  , Mulley Communications , Gav all weigh [...]

    Irish Election » Fianna Fail launch sitr as Joe Rospars speaks

    25 Feb 09 at 10:09 pm

  2. [...] of the new Fianna Fáil website, to which FF members were invited (see comment #14 here) (update: Gav has the actual text of the internal FF [...]

    Time for another Good Idea - Bad Idea | Keith @ Granite Shavings

    25 Feb 09 at 10:40 pm

  3. [...] Gavin has text of event invite as sent to FF members – hence the [...]

    Maman Poulet » When is a seminar became a launch

    25 Feb 09 at 10:50 pm

  4. [...] More venting at Gav Reilly, Mulley, Green Ink, and Irish Election. Damien Blake explains. Twenty has a screenshot. ▶ [...]

    FF trying to pull a fast one on bloggers? « yellow roman candles

    26 Feb 09 at 12:56 am

  5. To suggest that the event wasn’t supposed to be a plug for the new website, or to showcase what was there, is a fallacy

    Absolutely, completely and totally. What’s worse is that for an event ” particularly suited to bloggers and those interested in technology and politics.” the big message – the whole thrust of it, the big learning from such a well connected man is…

    “Make sure online is an important, integrated part of your campaign”.

    ‘Disappointing’ is only the beginning of my thoughts on this.

    Darragh

    26 Feb 09 at 9:30 am

  6. [...] being bloggers descending on an FF event with a scent of blood it was engaged in with enthusiasm. As Gav highlights on his blog this was a different event depending on who you were. That is the issue at [...]

    Irish Election » Reflectipns on #Rospars and that Fianna Fail launch

    26 Feb 09 at 10:36 am

  7. Gav,

    Sorry I didn’t comment on your blog last night; I was around here but for some reason the comment didn’t take.

    I’ve put up my thoughts on my blog, as to why I organised the event the way I did. Long story short, I wanted to get as wide an audience as possible in there, to avoid it being an FF-only session and to have people in there to ask the difficult questions. I was concerned that if it was advertised as an FF event, we’d only get FF people and the event would be poorer for it.

    The post is at http://www.damienblake.com/2009/02/joe-rospars-dublin-event-new-ff-online-strategy/

    I screwed up; this has clearly back-fired and I acknowledge that it was my fault. I actually thought it would be better this way, shocking as that may seem.

    We (FF) are going to do everything we can in the coming weeks, months and years to engage as strongly as we can online. I appreciate that we now have an opportunity to make up for what happened, and the annoyance that is out there about this.

    Damien B

    26 Feb 09 at 11:08 am

  8. @ Darragh – the contradictions are one thing but the main thing I can’t get my head around is why FF simply didn’t see the positive vibes that were there to be had if it was publically known that THEY’d gotten Rospars to talk, and were running his event. There was a guaranteed feelgood factor on offer that it seems nuts to turn down.

    @ Damien – First of all, thanks for the comment, and a sincere ‘fair play’ for doing the rounds addressing peoples’ problems. My real question is what I addressed to Darragh above – while I understand you wanted to make sure that a wide enough crowd came so that tougher questions could be asked, would you accept that the simple reality is that when Fianna Fáil run so few public meetings of the sort, an FF-branded Q&A where people could ask whatever they liked (as opposed to a number of pre-selected questions being asked, where I believe it was yourself in charge of the mic) would have been perceived as a far more open, transparent and consultative exercise?

    Gav

    26 Feb 09 at 11:13 am

  9. Gav,

    Yes and yes!! I’ve posted a few comments on this across the board so I’ll keep this one brief. I’m a blogger and an FF activist, (in fact recently promoted to candidate). I’m an admitted obamaphile and spend far too long online for my own good. So in a sense this was the ultimate gig for me! In fact I tweeted something out on Tues night about FF, Obama, BlueStates (Red States) and my own private Idaho or words to that effect. But whilst plenty folk seemed miffed on discovering this was an FF hosted event I am equally miffed it was not shouted from the rooftops as such!!! It was an incredibly positive engagement and lets tell all!! For my limited part, and I was on the end of the chain, I forwarded my FF invite to as many bloggers and friends as I could think of. No secrecy, no lack of transparency, no coverup. Jeez why on earth would you want to?!? Obviously the principal organiser involved wears two hats and sometimes that just doesn’t work. Credit to the guy for all his efforts in bringing this thing together and trying to reach many audiences but he’s said it himself he got it wrong. But it aint just one side of the house that’s irked on this one. Anyway rant over better get back to the day job..

    James

    James Lawless

    26 Feb 09 at 2:10 pm

  10. [...] story short an online backlash ensued here here here and here for starters. Some wailing, some gnashing, some grumbling and some grievences. Some gems [...]

    View from the Tracks » Blog Archive » A series of unfortunate events.. (and a new website!)

    26 Feb 09 at 4:38 pm

  11. [...] it also seems that an internal release by Fianna Fail to its people DID mention that it was to  launch the web [...]

    F u t u r e - F o c u s » Fianna Fail Mess Up Web Site Launch?

    27 Feb 09 at 8:10 pm

  12. [...] people became very confused at what event they were actually at. "The plot thickens, with Gav publishing the content of a Fianna Fáil internal message which appears to reveal that the event was being [...]

    Fianna Fáil Joe Rospars event causes Twitter storm - People of NI - Norn Iron

    16 Apr 09 at 7:48 am

  13. [...] More venting at Gav Reilly, Mulley, Green Ink, and Irish Election. Damien Blake explains. Twenty has a screenshot. « [...]

    FF trying to pull a fast one on bloggers? | Yellow Roman Candles

    17 Apr 09 at 10:50 am

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