New services from fledging start-ups enable people to build Web applications themselves, which pundits say will unleash creativity.
For the people I work with, journalists, this is good news. As regular newsroom jobs are cut, enterprising reporters will be able to do their own publishing. Discussions about digg and other services and payment for contributors shows that people who have good information (content) will find their skills in demand.
read more | digg story
Monday, July 31, 2006
Compensation and online news
Who is paying for what in the world of online news?MercuryNews.com | 07/30/2006 | New media making deals with `old' news providers
Friday, July 28, 2006
Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits
Amy Gahran for Poynter highlights why Podzinger is an especially useful tool. Podzinger does a rough transcript of your audio feed (Amy reports it is very rough) but that allows Google to search and find your podcast audio without lots of preparation or coding on your part.
For Creating Community Connections, the citizen journalist/community social website project we are working on, this will mean more potential viewer/users and not lots more work.Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Newspapers looking for "gateway drug"
Hook them when they are 13 or 14 and you have them for life...KRT Wire | 07/23/2006 | Study: Youth pages help turn teens into adult newspaper readers
A time-waster with facial recognition
Okay, now this is fun and only takes a minute. Go to this site and load a picture of someone's face. It does a recognition and scan and then matches the face with its "celebrity database."
I got quite a range of interesting matches. I didn't include Sartre's picture, but here are 3 Dr. Barb lookalikes that cracked me up...
Barb and Johnny Depp
Barb and Edsger Dijkstra
Barb and Kim Jong Il
Barb and Edsger Dijkstra
Barb and Kim Jong Il
Digital Divide narrows say local advertising folks
This item comes via Bronzecommand Raynard. The viewing stats for African-Americans are interesting, but also the details about the advertising campaigns that didn't use sports or hip-hop to attract African-American eyeballs.diFerguson: Focus on African-Americans as Digital Divide Narrows
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
NYO - Off the Record
This is a "must read" story for those wondering what it is about Youtube and all the new outlets for old TV and video that make that stuff so "sticky."
"It breaks the synchrony of televsion." I agree and I think this is already one of those disruptive unintended consequences of new technololgy.
NYO - Off the Record: "What it does, then, is break the synchrony of television. It makes television work like text. Last month, on the 20th anniversary of Len Bias’ death, newspaper let me down. The Baltimore Sun had no stories that described the Bias I remembered, the basketball player before he became a cocaine casualty. So I went to YouTube. And there he was, alive if a little blurry, on the court at No. 1 North Carolina, making the greatest sequence of plays I’d ever known: burying a shot, then flashing to steal the inbounds pass, rising up and—with the assurance of a man who did not know what limits were on a basketball court—dunking it, two-handed, in reverse."
Business 2.0 Publishes Its Choices for the Best Business Ideas in the World 2006; Third Annual Roundup of Global Business Ideas That Can Be Applied in
This is a story about Cyworld because it will soon be here (if there is a here in the virtual world...) but I found the format of the Business 2.0 magazine to be quite interesting. It has the full color of print, works quickly though it is based on a Page Turning model. Check it out.Business 2.0 Publishes Its Choices for the Best Business Ideas in the World 2006; Third Annual Roundup of Global Business Ideas That Can Be Applied in the U.S. Marketplace: "'Cyworld Attacks,' by Erick Schonfeld. Cyworld is South Korea's most popular social network, a strange blend of Blogger, Flickr, and videogame-like avatars. There are 18 million Cyworld members, or more than a third of the country's entire population. With 90 percent of all Koreans in their 20s having signed up, Cyworld's per capita penetration in South Korea is greater than that of MySpace in the United States. The bulk of the site's revenue comes from the sale of virtual items worth nearly $300,000 a day, or more than $7 per user per year. By comparison, ad-heavy MySpace makes an estimated $2.17 per user per year. The battle between Cyworld and MySpace is about to begin, as Cyworld is launching a U.S. version in August. 'There are many social-networking services in the U.S.,' says Hyun Oh Yoo, CEO of SK Communications, Cyworld's parent company. 'But their quality is not as high as Cyworld.' -- Page 84"
2006 Knight-Batten Awards Finalists
All of these look like winners to me. These sites are all innovative and worth checking out.2006 Knight-Batten Awards Finalists
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Lifestyle/Scene - Media savvy: All-in-one revolution - sacbee.com
Here is the best detailed description of how the "one man band" or videojournalist process works. From a description of the interview, how he edits (from his car with the airconditioner on, via laptop) to the acknowledgement by a photog that he captured the same shot, here a journalist who realizes this isn't the future, it is now.Lifestyle/Scene - Media savvy: All-in-one revolution - sacbee.com: "He opens the passenger-side door and powers up his Toshiba laptop, connecting a FireWire between the two pieces of equipment.
'I can write the (script) from the interviews, shoot my stand-ups, ingest all that into the computer, cut my audio track, ingest that into the computer, and then edit together the piece,' he says. 'I've got a power converter here in the cigarette lighter, a lithium battery on camera, so I don't need to plug in. I've got an adapter for sound that pumps it right into my car's cassette player. Eventually, we'll be able to feed (to the station) whatever I file over the Internet.'"
Wikis meet open source with Socialtext | CNET News.com
Businesses are adopting wiki and that puts teaching (forcing? coercing?) students into working together and learning how to collaborate electronically is important.
Students often come to class focused on what the question "what do you want?" and today's educators need to change that focus to be on "what can I do, and how can I do it with other people?" The work of learning isn't always a product. Process is often the real work.Wikis meet open source with Socialtext | CNET News.com
Monday, July 24, 2006
Video-on-Demand Services Available on TV
Guess I won't have to get cable after all. If Seoul has it this year, we'll have it in a year or so. Poor backward USA.The Korea Times : Video-on-Demand Services Available on TV: "More than 22,000 high-definition (HD) videos are now available to Korea's 12.5 million homes connected to the high-speed Internet for around 10,000 won ($10.5) a month.
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Today's digest of postings.
Here is an item about the boom in J-schools. Then there's an item on bloggers in bunkers or the bloggers in Israel and in Lebanon. It includes links to a couple of the blogs mentioned in the article. And speaking of blogs and eyewitnesses, my kid's high school friend is down in New Orleans and sending eyewitness posts from there.
It is great that they are booming from my perspective as a j teacher. The discussion of the shifting relation of advertising and journalism is intereting. Inside Higher Ed :: The J-School Boom
Sunday, July 23, 2006
The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper
Cyworld now promises an August rollout of its English version. The interface beats MySpace, and it will be interesting to see how it works for Americans.
Their family friendly strategy may be clever, indeed. If moms and kids start using it, they will probably keep using it as the kids grow up. There are lots of users out there, like moms, who aren't currently using MySpace, but might go for a more protected social networking service.
The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper: ". "
Rupert Murdoch censors political speech about net neutrality via MySpace
Why is net neutrality important? Here is why. No matter what your political position, it shouldn't be up to Murdoch, Fox News, CNN, AT & T, Yahoo or Google or any corporation that is involved in telecommunications to decide what content the public can hear, see, smell, taste, watch or otherwise interact with the Internet. Would you let any of these entities screen your phone calls? Of course not.
Here is an example of how a telecommunications mega-corporation with vested interests in legislation and regulation of our telecomm infrastructure decided to quash political speech that they didn't agree with. It could happen to any kind of communication if net neutrality isn't taken seriously.
After hearing Sen. Ted Stevens' now infamous description of the internet as a "series of tubes," Andrew Raff sang the senator's words over a folksy ditty and anonymously posted it to MySpace.com, where about 2,500 people listened to the tune. On Tuesday, MySpace canceled the TedStevensFanClub account.
Andrew wrote the music for the song. What senators, like Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) say in Congress is not copyrighted speech. The "tedstevensfanclub" site on MySpace was taken down, and then in response to blogosphere reverberations, allegedly put back up again. It is noon on Sunday, July 23, however, and I can't get the site to work. It has a broken DLL or something. Hmmm.
Here is a Wired story about the censorship with links to a Jon Stewart / Daily Show presentation, including Steven's exact words and an animation that "explains" Internet operations according to the tube and clogged tube theory.
tags technorati : netneutrality censorship
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Friday, July 21, 2006
The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper
Cyworld now featuring "netizen" singers, like an American Idol kind of deal, in Korea.The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper
World of Warcraft the reason for failing PC game market?
Interesting speculation by game design guru. Gamasutra - Feature - "Game Law: Contracts 101": "“The game marketplace is currently undergoing a lot of change, with the success of World of Warcraft and other MMOs, the rise of console gaming and what looks like a very long transition to next-generation, the rise of handheld gaming (especially with the DS), and the huge increase in development costs,” Sullivan said. “It is harder than ever to figure out how to be successful in this market.”"
Not safe to show those earbuds, bud.
Ah the creativity of geeks. When muggings in London rise by 8%, geeks come up with ways to hide your pod from potential theives.Crave Talk: Robberies rise, escape with your iPod - Crave at CNET.co.uk: "What can you do to foil the 8.2 per cent rise in people out to steal your iPod? The slow fix is calling for social regeneration to eliminate the state of poverty that motivates people to steal. But if that all sounds a bit communist to you, then here are some suggestions that require very little outlay but could save your iPod from theft"
Center for Media Research - Daily Brief
Center for Media Research - Daily BriefThis is an interesting look at where those eyeballs are glancing. The Tribune.com gets more looks than AP online. Also includes demographics on those eyeballs.![]()
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Like it or not, MySpace is one of the places to be online
Advertising Age - MediaWorks - MySpace Blossoms Into Major Web Portal: "Hitwise named MySpace the most popular site on the web, with 4.46% of all visits during the first week of July -- more than Yahoo's e-mail service (4.42%) or Yahoo's home page (4.25%). "
The Korea Times : Job Recruiters Clicking Around Weblogs
The Korea Times : Job Recruiters Clicking Around Weblogs
Well this seems obvious to me, but in Korea these trends are spotted before we see them in the USA. Job recruiters are looking at applicants 'blogs.
About 60 percent of the total recruiters surveyed said they believe examining the Weblogs could be an effective way to understand the character of a person and evaluate his or her abilities.
Future of news and "networked journalism"
I'm on vacation in Florida, but this one was easy to find and post. I am going to adopt and promote the use of "networked journalism" myself, as I think it is less hierarchical and more descriptive than "citizen journalism."
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
A language adjustment?
Are we going to shift from "citizen media (or journalism or reporter)" to networked journalism. It would be a good idea.citj
This is the big shift: a dialogic approach to the telling of a story, the gathering of facts, the development of an idea. And it applies as much to newspapers as to books, though the upheaval is far more evident right now in the province of news. Like news, certain kinds of books will evolve away from being the product of a single reporter, and become more of a collaborative process of inquiry, with the author as moderator. The reader suddenly is a participant.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Sometimes I talk about my ponds and fish...
High tech be damned. I wait until my fish are hungry. I go to the side of the pond and tap. I drop food in the water. At first, the fish are timid, but hunger and conditioning take over and soon I can "pet" them while they eat if I want to. Wired 14.07: START: "FISH CALL
The Fish Activator underwater speaker uses six digitally mastered sounds to attract prey. Choose from tracks like “Distressed Bait” and “Shad Clicks.” They were all perfected by scientists from Louisiana- based Biosonix Systems and recorded in a 957-gallon tank. The audio was tested in lakes, where fish reaction was monitored via underwater videocams."
Center for Media Research - Daily Brief
Center for Media Research - Daily Brief
Among the details is this: 80% of all US households have at least one computer, but just 58% of those with annual household incomes under $30,000 have a computer at home
Look to programs like Community Technology Centers Network, Chicago and to Neighborhood Technology's Wireles Community Networks initiative.
Worst tech of Q2 2006 - Worst new apps on Download.com - CNET.com
As one who frequently waxes enthusiastic about Web2.0 apps, it is only right to stop and look at some really bad apps. Let's remember that tech is supposed to make things work faster or better in some way. Worst tech of Q2 2006 - Worst new apps on Download.com - CNET.com
Friday, July 07, 2006
Campaigns Wikia - Central Campaign Wikia
What is politics coming to? Maybe something worthwhile.
This website, Campaigns Wikia, has the goal of bringing together people from diverse political perspectives who may not share much else, but who share the idea that they would rather see democratic politics be about engaging with the serious ideas of intelligent opponents, about activating and motivating ordinary people to get involved and really care about politics beyond the television soundbites.Campaigns Wikia - Central Campaign Wikia Want to get involved? First, sign up for the mailing list. Let's start a conversation, let's start teaching each other how to reach out and get the attention of the campaigns. Or drop me a personal email at jwales at wikia.com to talk more. Second, sign up here on the wiki, and let's start building the knowledgebase to make this happen. Third... blog about it, email about it, talk about it, contact your local politicians and help them to get involved. Make a big noise that there is a broad non-partisan effort to making politics smarter, in engaging people at a personal level. Politicians will respond, but they need to hear us demand it, in a big way. For now, just sign up on the mailing list and give a shout out about what you are interested in. We will get this ball rolling.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Me radio with podcasts.
Unless its live, why not listen to what you want, when you want it? BBC NEWS | Entertainment | BBC to offer 'personalised' radio
Pure speculation. Ken Lay, so it goes.
This is a blog, and not news, so I ask, "am I the only one whose imagination kicked into action when I heard of the untimely passing of Mr. Lay?" Anyone thinking "conspiracy" as in let's make sure it really is Mr. Lay? Who is the the coronerin charge? Or who would want him out of the way?
Enron Photo Album
Bench Conference
RSS "push" for newsrooms to get technically challenged in the info loop
From PR Newswire comes this press release about an interesting product. The poor struggling employees stuggling with information overload can be directed to information that the execs think is important with this "top-down" tool. I don't think this is the direction of the future of news, but I might be naive.
Jul 4, 2006 09:00 ET Newsfeed Server Makes Staff Read Crucial Corporate RSS Feeds NEW YORK, July 4/PRNewswire/ -- Today Netpresenter released Newsfeed Server, which automatically shows the essence of RSS feeds on desktops and TV screens, making sure vital business information is read immediately and acted upon by employees. With employees struggling to keep up with RSS feeds and e-mails, Newsfeed Server enables executives, communications staff and IT personnel to get their message across with ease. Netpresenter's software can push the full contents of items like the CEO's blog, intranet news, or stock information onto a user's screensaver and digital signage. It can also deliver instant pop-up messages in case of an emergency. "Newsfeed Server reaches employees without requiring them to trawl through and click on RSS feeds or e-mails. Now, important messages get seen when and where they are needed the most," says Frank Hoen, CEO of Netpresenter. TNT Group, a major global provider of mail and express services, uses Newsfeed Server to display news feeds and the company's stock ticker on screens throughout its headquarters. "It's fun to see our intranet headlines and stock appear on every screen, without having to do anything. Our intranet gets more visitors, because a click on a news item on the screensaver brings employees to the intranet," says Edmond ter Riet, Information Services Manager at TNT Group. Newsfeed Server is a behind-the-firewall enterprise-strength solution that can convert XML and RSS feeds into multimedia slideshows, web pages, and various scripts using Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformations (XSLT's). For playback it uses the compact 350K Netpresenter Player client (Windows) to cache feeds and minimize CPU load and network traffic. About Netpresenter Netpresenter develops end-to-end XML-enabled communication software solutions for organizations, such as screensaver message systems, emergency alert notification and narrowcasting / digital signage. More than a million people use Netpresenter solutions at companies such as Sony, Nokia, Jaguar, Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, Volkswagen, Ford, Pratt & Whitney, Unilever, US Navy and police and government agencies worldwide. Netpresenter has offices in Maastricht (Netherlands), New York, London and Aachen (Germany).rss
Study: Women rate Web skills lower than men
Study: Women rate Web skills lower than men
Though the study results showed the men and women were equally skilled at tasks like finding a museum website or finding a candidate's position on a particular issue, women self-rated as "average" while men rated their own skills as "expert."
There are other studies about how men and women like to learn new software (men, in front of a group; women, by themselves until they gain confidence) that are interesting. I am going to do a little experiment like this in the fall with some students. Any opinions or related studies folks know of?
Monday, July 03, 2006
Tell the truth or pay department.
Former UVM researcher sentenced for falsifying work - Boston.com: "A former University of Vermont College of Medicine professor was ordered Wednesday to serve a year and a day in federal prison for using false data to obtain federal research grants."
A must-read on net neutrality-- the common carrier theme
PBS | I, Cringely . June 29, 2006 - If we build it they will come: "The effect of this move would be beyond amazing. It would be astounding. No more arguments about Net Neutrality, for one thing, because we'd effectively be extending our ownership and control of the wires all the way to the ISP interconnect. Of course you'd still have to buy Internet service, but at NerdTV rates the amount of bandwidth used by a median U.S. broadband customer would be less than $2.00 per month. Though with that GREAT BIG PIPE most of us would be tempted to use a lot more bandwidth, which is exactly the point.
There would be a community-financed Internet revolution and this time, because it would be locally funded and managed, very little money would be stolen. Dark fibers would be lighting up all over America, telco capital costs would plummet, and a truly competitive market for Internet services would emerge. In 2-3 years whatever bandwidth advantage countries like Korea have would be erased and we'd be back on track building even more innovative online industries.
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Internet Calling Pressures Bells to Lower Rates - New York Times
I am biverson at Skype. It works for me.
Internet Calling Pressures Bells to Lower Rates - New York Times
COPYCATTY COULTER PILFERS PROSE: PRO By PHILIP RECCHIA - New York Post Online Edition: News
Cheater, cheater. Ann Coulter seems to write from that neo-con nirvana where belief trumps evidence, and where plagiarism is okay if it helps get her point across. Who ever believed she was a journalist was foolish, anyhow.
Remember what they said about John Dean of Watergate noteriety? "Don't buy books by crooks." I guess that would apply to word thief Coulter now.
COPYCATTY COULTER PILFERS PROSE: PRO By PHILIP RECCHIA - New York Post Online Edition: News
A Blog Mogul Turns Bearish on Blogs - New York Times
Nick Denton, blog publisher of note, discusses the growing competition for eyeballs in blogs as in other media. He opines there is a 1 to 1 ratio of bloggers to readers. He is making money on this blog publishing enterprise, and so are some of his stable of bloggers.
A Blog Mogul Turns Bearish on Blogs - New York Times
Empowering readers: where "civic journalism" and "citizen journalism" merge
Amy Gahran writes about citj for Poynter and on her own blog. The question she brings up in this post is why MSM sites don't link to the actual bill and/or relevant passages in proposed legislation, when they do a story about a bill or a issue that involves legislation. She notes
The reason we report on the legislative process is to empower citizens to more easily follow what their government is doing. That makes it easier for citizens to get involved in the legislative process ... In legislative circles, having correct reference numbers goes a long way toward helping you find the right people to deal with and knowing where to get involved in the process. This makes civic involvement more effective, efficient, and rewarding. Little links and citations in news stories can help make all that happen.As a journalism teacher I am constantly challenged by my students lack of understanding of how to write for an online audience. It seems so obvious to me, that once you put your words online, there is an obligation to the reader to "back up" what you say with links. That is making your work transparent. If I mention a story, a bill, an organization, a person, a concept or jargon word (and this is not an exhaustive list of what items call out for links) I need to link to it for the sake of my own credibility if for no other reason. If I don't do the link, then my reader may try and find the site I refer to, but might get misdirected and that is one kind of easily averted misunderstanding. If I don't link, my viewer/user might question whether I am talking without having done the research or located the site, etc. And if I have written skillfully enough to engage my reader so that they want to act as a result of my writing, I am cheating them by not putting the links into my story. It's obvious, but I think it is one of those things that you need to learn by writing online and reading online frequently. If you aren't engaging in interactive online reading and writing, the links may seem superfluous to you.
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