Mapping the extended auto service contract firms
Mapping the extended auto warranty companies.
One of my colleagues, Matt Hathaway, has been doing a great job for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covering the industry that provides extended auto service contracts to consumers. The industry has been under fire by state and federal regulators, as well as consumer-protection agencies such as the Better Business Bureau. Certain firms within the industry have been accused by those agencies of unfair or deceptive marketing practices.
I’m Matt’s editor. He’s done a great job covering the story. About 10 days ago, he suggested mapping the companies in our area. Our region is “ground zero” for the industry. There have been more than 40 companies in our area that market the so-called “extended warranties.” You might be familiar with companies that advertise heavily on television such as US Fidelis and Mogi.
I set Matt to work on a Google Docs spreadsheet with a bunch of information about all the firms he could find in the area. I took the data and threw it onto this Google Map, which is a work in progress. Read more
How Google has invaded my life in just 11 years
Yesterday’s Gmail outage inspired a stunning tidal wave of Twitter activity, demonstrating how thoroughly Google’s e-mail service has wedged its way into people’s lives. It reminded me of a post I’ve pondered for awhile: How many times does Google touch my life in a day?
Ultimately, I decided not to write it that way. Google touches my life too many times in a day. It would be a pretty boring narrative to describe a day in the life of Google and me. But I am still compelled by the idea of how many ways Google has become entwined with my life. Just 11 years ago (to the month), Google was incorporated. We’d never heard of it. It was just another search engine. And now, I can’t imagine getting along without it. Read more
Liskula Cohen case reminder: Consider the source
Liskula Cohen
Recent developments in the Liskula Cohen/anonymous blogger/”skank” case have launched a round of comment in traditional and new media sites over the value of anonymous comment, whether the right to be anonymous is under attack and even whether courts should somehow tame the Internet.
Ultimately, I see the case as a reminder that increasingly, the web means readers must be discerning about the source. That doesn’t mean anonymous speech should be dismissed, ignored or banned.
In my own newsroom, at least one reporter has engaged me in discussions over the case, forwarding me “The Moral of the Story” blogger’s take on the case in The New York Times, which calls the kind of vile anonymous commenting we’re all familiar with a malignancy.
The importance of anonymous speech in our democracy has already been widely discussed. That the right to be anonymous would ever be at issue is ridiculous, though I will confess this right now: It’s very easy for me to don the rose-colored glasses on the subject. I’ve never been the victim of an anonymous attack on my character or my livelihood. I’ve not been denied business or opportunity because, unknown to me, someone made a flawed judgment of me based on a scurrilous, anonymous attack.
So anonymity isn’t going away. The fact that anonymous speakers can be help liable for their violations of law isn’t going to change; anonymous speakers always risk being exposed. That’s why John Doe cases are filed.
It seems to me that the biggest value of this case for the rest of us is a reminder to consider the source. When readers are faced with an anonymous comments, they have two choices. Read more
Fish fry map: Great reader-created journalism
I woke up this morning to find the embodiment of what reader-generated journalism can be on the home page of my company’s web site: On the morning of Ash Wednesday, I found a reader’s Google map showing where the church fish fries will be — and inviting other readers to contribute.
If this doesn’t demonstrate the power of the community in the conversation about news, nothing does. Read more
Interesting stuff I saw online, Feb. 21 to Feb. 24
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Feb. 21 through Feb. 24:
- Debate: The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and online media – While I really, really wish "traditional" media would evolve faster, it has and always will evolve. There doesn't need to be an "us vs. them" mentality — especially if news is a conversation and we're all part of it. "Both the old and new media have their own wisdom," Salina Christmas, former newspaper journalist turned web editor, tells Journalism.co.uk.
- Another Way To Look At Terms Of Service Agreements: Wordle Visualizations – TechCrunch says: "Pointless? Very. Cool? Definitely…..This is what you get when you use a slick tool like Wordle (try it!) to run all the words used to make up the Terms of Service agreements of seven notable internet companies: cool visualizations that somewhat capture the essence of their content."
- WordPress Plugin List – Below is a list of WorPress Plugins that can come in handy when building your site.
- How Celebrity Imposters Hurt Twitter's Credibility – Interesting post about imposters on Twitter, though I think its headline doesn't do it justice.
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.