Interesting stuff I saw online, Aug. 26 to Sep. 9
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Aug. 26 through Sep. 9:
- The newsroom view of user content revealed – Well, this isn't really a surprise. Most journalists find user-generated content a distraction.
- Social Media: Fighting the Fear – Good piece reinforcing the ways individuals (and, particularly, businesses) can get past the fear of social media.
- Measuring the Value of Social Marketing and Media – "While social marketing was originally developed from the desire companies had to capitalize on commercial marketing techniques, it has evolved into a more integrative and comprehensive discipline that draws on a wide array of technology, from the traditional media to new media referred to as 'social media.'"
- ‘Skanky’ Blogging, Anonymity and What’s Right – More helpful fodder for those of us who are constantly fending off attacks on the ability for readers to post anonymously. I was particularly fond of your point, “People who’d ban anonymity don’t seem to realize that it’s technically impossible unless we’re willing to turn over all of our communications in every venue to a central authority — a system that would herald the end of liberty.”
It’s a point I’ve made often to anyone who will listen. Even Facebook, which prides itself on “requiring” real names, can live up to that requirement.
Guest Post: Are you also addicted to ‘FarmVille’?
FarmVille!
My son Matthew and I were on separate computers a moment ago, minding our own business, when he turned to me to say, “I’m addicted to FarmVille.” He described the Facebook game, which is apparently now the No. 1 application on Facebook, with 13.4 million daily users. “I find myself sitting here waiting for my strawberries to be ready to harvest,” he confessed.
My confession: I’d never seen FarmVille. So I asked Matthew (who turns 14 next week) to write me a little something about it for my blog — what it is, why he likes it and what he finds addictive about it. Read more
Interesting stuff I saw online, Aug. 22 to Aug. 25
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Aug. 22 through Aug. 25:
- Is It O.K. to Blog About This Woman Anonymously? – The Moral of the Story Blog – Interesting take on the idea of anonymous comment. The writer comes down against it.
- The Risks, and Rewards, of Social Media for Newspapers – Nice rundown on policies and pitfalls in newsrooms over the use of social media — professionally and personally.
- Teaching Online Journalism Updated tutorials for Audacity (audio editing) – "I finally revised and updated the three tutorials I use to teach journalism students and professionals how to edit audio using Audacity, a free program that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux."
- Out of the Frying Pan and into the Mildly Uncomfortable Sauna: The Not-So-Bad-But-Still-Unconstitutional Social Networking Ban – Wow. "A week ago, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill, HB 1314, making it illegal for convicted sex offenders to access a 'social networking website.'"
Musings on the start of the college hunt
A mailer from Roosevelt University, featuring the 'Cloud Gate' in Chicago's Millennium Park.
My wife and I recently realized we wouldn’t be talking about anything else for the next eight months but college admissions and financial aid. Those of you who are parents: Remember when the kids were born and you couldn’t talk about anything but poop and sleep? This is the next self-absorbed stage of our lives, now that our daughter is starting the college search in earnest.
- I am flabbergasted at the amount of money colleges spend on marketing. They don’t even know if my daughter is interested in their program. They don’t even know if she’s academically qualified for admission. We have received extraordinary, glossy, four-color publications from universities that, frankly, I don’t think would accept my daughter.
- How do you like that mailer from Roosevelt University? See the name in the clouds, and (improbably) reflected in the Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park? Well, that’s my daughter’s first name. Amazing.
- Thanks to my friend Scott Anderson, here’s a link to Mashable’s 10 Ways to Use Social Media to Pick a College. So far, we’ve just started to scratch the surface.
- Facebook, of course, is the go-to site for my daughter. She’s found and quizzed current students and alumni at several schools she’s considering.
- I’ve registered on Scholarships.com and filled out all the information about my daughter. So far, I’m not impressed with the results.
The interesting stuff I saw online, Aug. 19
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet on Aug. 19 from 7:46 pm to 8:37 pm:
- Let It Be 26True. Beatles And iTunes Come Together Again In Rumors – I'm gonna have to buy all these Beatles CDs again, for the third time.
- You’re Doing It Wrong Part 348: Complete And Utter PR FAIL – Great post. I was hit by this PR firm spam blizzard today and didn't get a chance to blog about it myself. Thanks, TechCrunch, for taking care of it for me.
- The Limits of Control – "With journalists and their employers increasingly active on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, news organizations are struggling to respond to a host of new ethics challenges."
- MediaShift . Journalism Students Need to Develop Their Personal Brand | PBS – "As a journalism professor, I have found there is one thing guaranteed to set off a flurry of frenzied activity in the classroom. It has nothing to do with exams or story deadlines. Rather, it is prompted by a simple question to students: How many own your name as a domain name?"
- Lost Remote: The Business of Journalism – "When a source told WCCO-TV’s Mark Rosen that Brett Favre would join the Minnesota Vikings, he sent out a tweet. Moments later, other reporters re-tweeted the news, and it was piped out to Facebook. Soon, WCCO was one of the top three trending topics on Twitter, reports MinnPost, sending a big traffic burst to WCCO.com. The tweet beat WCCO’s TV coverage, but not by much."
Kurt's Tweets- Funny. SW airlines magazine bothers to mention that pacemakers are always authorized electronic devices. #fb
- A disgrace, St. Louis. People still litter? http://post.ly/OUsk
- Redemption for Lindsey Jacobellis in snowboardcross? Only click if you really wanna know. http://bit.ly/99OgbM
- West Countians: If you're in the market for a pancake supper tonight, there's one here: http://stmartinschurch.org.
- The fiddling continues, even as Rome burns.