Interesting stuff I saw online, Dec. 15 to Jan. 2
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Dec. 15 through Jan. 2:
- BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Identity and anonymity - "Anonymity thereby provides a way for a writer who may be personally unpopular to ensure that readers will not prejudge her message simply because they do not like its proponent.” (Justice John Paul) Stevens concluded “Under our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent. Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. “
- Stir it up - News Mixer - Experiment in online commenting - Most news Web sites either don't allow people to participate in conversations, or offer just the simplest option: a comment box. Most people aren't very happy with the quality of the conversation that results.
- Four Online Community News Sites to Expand Coverage - Knight Foundation - The St. Louis Beacon is among the recipients. “As the news industry cuts costs by reducing staff — including local reporters — citizens are receiving less of the news they need to lead informed lives and hold their governments accountable,” said Gary Kebbel, Knight Foundation’s journalism program director.
- Using Tweetbeep you can set-up keyword alerts for Twitter - Journalism.co.uk - "Alerts can be refined by geography, hashtags, user and the tone of the tweet (e.g. whether it's a question or not)."
7 reasons 1-to-1 newsroom training is needed
The anecdote goes something like this: A guy complains that he can’t get any work done when he’s in the office. People are always interrupting him, asking questions, bugging him for help. A co-worker reminds him the interruptions are his work. Epiphany.
I heard that story a long time ago; I bring it to mind frequently. A big part of my job is helping co-workers get comfortable with the tools of the job — tools they had never heard of when they started in journalism, or never thought they’d need.
So, while group training is important, here’s seven reasons why the one-on-one time is likely never going away. Read more
Interesting stuff I saw online from Dec. 8 to Dec. 9
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Dec. 8 through Dec. 9:
- Why not writing a story is innovation - Publishing 2.0 - "(We) need to stop writing stories that don’t deserve to be written."
- The Evolving Newsroom: Two ways to keep track of comments - "Backtype aggregates comments and lets you find yours either by searching against your username or whatever blog/website you include in comment registration forms."
- MediaShift . Dealing with Friend Inflation on Twitter, Digg | PBS - To this list, I'd add: how many @ replies versus substance? What does he/she post about? "Did the person fill out his profile? Did he upload his picture? What's his profession and where does he live? How many followers does he have and how many is he following? How often does he post?"
- HOW TO: Use Google Reader Like A Rockstar - "Knowing that new users are signing up and veterans are looking for some ideas to make their experience even better, we have put together a quick how-to that should offer something for everyone."
Interesting stuff I saw online from Dec. 5 to Dec. 8
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Dec. 5 through Dec. 8:
- Xark!: Twitter: Menace or Threat? - Awesome quote. I plan to steal it and use it regularly! "The strengths and weaknesses of Twitter and other social media tools are far more apparent to the people who use them than the people who don't, so you're not breaking any news to me when you tell me about their 'flaws.'"
- Readership Institute: Get Smart About Your Readers -
- Friday procrastination: the blog gender analyser | Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog - It correctly determined that my blog is written by a man. It was, sadly, only 76 percent sure.
- Justice for exploited journalism students - Interesting item. As newsrooms are downsizing, will we lean harder on interns and students? "We came to the conclusion that the problem is becoming very serious — and it’ll only get worse….So I’m now in the process of putting together a site that will allow student journalists to submit their stories about work experience. I will collate the information on a page, just like on AngryJournalist."
Interesting stuff I saw online from Dec. 3 to Dec. 4
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Dec. 3 through Dec. 4:
- Carnegie Mellon's reCAPTCHA software helps digitize books a word at a time - Am I the last person on earth who knew about this? I think it's really cool. "reCAPTCHA improves the process of digitizing books by sending words that cannot be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher."
- 10 changes in journalists role (and 5 things that remain the same) « O Lago | The Lake - This is a great list. Thanks!
- Why Twitter Turned Down Facebook - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com - Ain't this the truth? "Twitter decided that it had too much left to do, beginning with figuring out how to make money."
- ACBJ leads $4.1M round to ThePort - Birmingham Business Journal: - This is the company that provides the foundation for MySTLtoday.com. "Existing investors included in the new round were Lee Enterprises, a newspaper publisher, Atlanta-based Imlay Investments, angel investor Robert Jetmundsen and ThePort's CEO Bob Cramer.
Interesting stuff I saw online from Oct. 18 to Nov. 25
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Oct. 18 through Nov. 25:
- Report: Journalists turn to social media - Blogs & Content - BizReport - "Comparitively, only 40% of journalists between ages 50 and 64 thought communications tools were important and only 60% felt that bloggers could shape opinions."
- AT&T may limit Web subscribers' data use - CNN.com -
- City of Mesa using Twitter to get word out - Steve Doig, a professor at ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said he sees the move as an interesting idea that may foster more transparency within city government.
- cybersoc.com: 10 tips for live blogging a conference or event - "Here some tips…to help make it easier to track and participate in the back channel at conferences" (or events).
Interesting stuff I saw online from Sep. 12 to Sep. 14
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Sep. 12 through Sep. 14:
- Ideas and Trends - I Got the News Instantaneously, Oh Boy - NYTimes.com - Yes, skeptics of msm, editors are still valuable: "Eliminating the human touch from the process seems to be what wiped out all that value in United’s stock — because any person who follows the company or owns the stock likely would have known to dismiss the bankruptcy report as old news."
- Journalism.co.uk :: Mixed business: should publishers charge for online content? - "Could pay walls drive up journalism quality? Grimshaw seemed to think so, as did fellow conference speaker Hugo Dixon, editor-in-chief of BreakingViews.com – another advocate of driving up non-subscribers with the hope of later converting them with 'quality' content."
- Pew: Nearly 70 pct of online Americans use services such as webmail and Google Docs - Holy cowabunga! I guess I wouldn't have guessed the number of webmail and Google Docs (etc) users was this high. "Some 69% of online Americans use webmail services, store data online, or use software programs such as word processing applications whose functionality is located on the web."
- 21 Easy Hacks to Simplify Your Life | Zen Habits - Funny. I read this on delicious…but one of the tips is: "Go media free. If your life is filled with information overload, and you find little time to do the things you love to do, consider eliminating media from your life, at least temporarily."
- Fact Checking Resources from ONA 2008 - From the Online News Association 2008 conference, stuff assembled by Chrys Wu for the "fact-checking" panel. A good collection of helpful links for getting data out of the web.