While working on a story concerning President Obama’s State of the Union address, we had urgent communication from Babel’s Member of Parliament. It seems that the young gentleman has claimed the honour of being among one of the first parliamentarians to have cross-platform (software that works on different devices with different operating systems) instant communication with his constituents and twits who follow him. Not content with just Facebook and Twitter and similar social media, Babel’s MP can now instantly harass his faithful and, maybe, respond to their pleas for assistance.
If you are not too sure just how something like this can work on both Apple and Rim products at the same time, it is best you have a smart 12-year old explain it.
The information on the breakthrough was not communicated via our iPod but through the pages of the Babel Backward. This is the twice-weekly grocery ad wrap published in Babel by an offshoot of the Toronto Star. The golly-gee-whiz story featured a nicely contrasted black and white photograph of the Babel MP’s special assistant. (This might be because the MP is somewhere else. It also might be because the special assistant is better looking, speaks more eloquently and is probably smarter than the MP.)
As exciting as this information might be, it is not complete. The reporter forgot to ask some quite critical questions. Or, maybe she asked them and forgot to include them in her story. Excited fans of the Babel MP deserve to know where they can also buy this remarkable bit of software for their own followers. And where can they get someone to do the layout of the application with appropriate pictures and logos. Considering that it needs to work on two different operating systems, it probably involves at least eight lines of well-written code.
The reporter thoughtfully included some of the advertising copy supplied by the special assistant. This included information such as the number of followers the MP has on Twitter: 2803 and ‘friends’ on Facebook: 4944—some of whom live in Babel.
But to make up for possible limitations in her article, the reporter closes on the promotional line: Pass on the news about how Patrick is making a difference in Ottawa. We would, if we could just stop laughing at the idea.
The important difference will be when he stops spending so much of our taxes on self-promotion.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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