Archive for March, 2007

Date: March 31st, 2007
Cate: Uncategorized
1 msg

A Geek Date with Myself

Roommates are gone for the weekend. And for the first time in a long time, I’ve decided not to work on a Saturday night.

What to do?

A geek date with myself. I’ve rented all three Matrix movies, downloaded MYSQL and PHP BBEdit (tools I don’t know how to use yet, but intend to learn with time) and am generally relaxing.

Ahhh — the equivalent of a nice warm geek bubble bath.

Why the actions? Over at AssignmentZero my teammates are beginning to call me by my alias Digidave. Even Jay Rosen has asked "what do you think digital dave"?

I can’t hack — but I am the most comfortable on the team with the backend of Drupal. And in truth, I’ve had a lot of fun learning it. I wish I could do more. I see a lot of potential with the tool we’ve made, and I would like to learn how to replicate and improve on it myself.

At AssignmentZero we’ve begun hiring editors. And when I explain my role I often use the Matrix as an analogy. They are the sci-fi heroes testing this out this punk journalism experiment. But in the Matrix the sci-fi heroes always need an "operator" someone they can call who can help guide them over the phone around the matrix, or upload guns, or download them out of trouble…. That’s me.

 

This "punk rock journalism" as I continually call it is somewhat similar to the cyber punk movement. It’s still young, has a different aesthetic and nature, but the underpinnings are there.

The more time I have to brood over what we are doing, the more excited I get.

Date: March 29th, 2007
Cate: Books, Quote, Web/Tech

Rise of the Blogosphere

Barlow
I received a book in the mail today. "Rise of the Blogosphere" by my Internet acquaintance Aaron Barlow.

Aaron and I started e-mailing back and forth soon after I began working on NewAssignment.Net. A lot has happened since then. I’ve become a Netscape Navigator, learned how to build a Web site from the ground up and take editorial control, and Aaron has published a book!

About two months ago Aaron sent me the manuscript so I could write a back-of-the-book blurb.

I was happy to do it. Rise of the blogosphere provides a new lens through which to view American history and gives context to the modern phenomena of blogging…. or so I say on the back cover. The blurb goes on from there.

Point is. After reading the manuscript I began to think of bloggging in a new light. In many ways Benjamin Franklin really was the first blogger. He wrote what he thought. The American tradition of free speech isn’t changed by bloggging, simply empowered through a new tool.

I’m looking forward to meeting Aaron in the coming week(s).

As it turns out, he is a CUNY media/journalism professor and I’m going to visit his class to talk about participatory journalism. Not that he needs a guest lecturer on this subject — in fact, he is on the board of ePluribus Media, an early example of collaborative journalism (and inspiration for NewAssignment.Net).

Still, as I continue to work on these collaborative journalism projects, I find there are two types of people. Those who understand its power and potential and those who shudder and only see the destruction of traditional journalism as we know it.

I enjoy meeting both, but the former are much more amiable.

Date: March 20th, 2007
Cate: Current Affairs, Environment/Geography, Journalism Practice, My Work, Straight Geek, Weblogs

Assignment Zero Meetup

It’s time for an Assignment Zero meetup.

I’m in San Francisco this week! On Thursday I’m going to stop in at Wired Magazine’s office to try and drag as many people from the editorial staff as possible to a bar: 21st Amendment at 563 2nd Street San Francisco, CA 94107. I’ll be on the second floor starting at 4pm and I’ll hang around until 8pm — so there will be plenty of time to come and chat about what you want to cover for Assignment Zero, what crowdsourcing means for the future, how journalism can adapt to an evolving age and geek out in general.

As Steve Fox will surely tell you — a pub is where journalists get the real work done.

It’s amazing what can be accomplished over the Internet.

But it’s even more amazing when people who collaborate over the Web meet in person to talk about how we can move forward. If you are a member of Assignment Zero or are just curious about it — please come. I’d love to chat.

Date: March 14th, 2007
Cate: Future, Journalism Practice, Journalism Theory/Analysis, My Work, Open Source and Community, Straight Geek, Web/Tech, Weblogs
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Pro-Am Journalism Opens on the Web

Bloggerad
It has been a long time since I’ve put my whole heart behind a project.

And with that I point you to Assignment Zero.

There is not a link, graphic or word on the site that I have not touched, scrutinized or thought about deleting and starting from scratch. Looking at the final product — I couldn’t be more proud of myself and the amazing team of people I’ve worked with (see below).

In college I helped start an undergraduate philosophy journal, Harvest Moon. It became a creative outlet of some sort — I was producing something that added the flow of information.

I think my drive in journalism is from a desire to be Hunter s. Thompson. I am not an artistic writer who ponders over prose. But I do believe in being a part of the flow of information, the broader goal of journalism — to be a conduit through which the public gets informed. And in many ways Assignment Zero, which is the first national attempt of doing networked journalism, is a new height in this pursuit for me.

Instead of newspapers or journalism being the destination through which people become informed — behind the gate of a journalist who covets their sources. They will become hubs where the public can inform each other, where journalists will act as guides, not gatekeepers.

I could write for pages about Assignment Zero. What its theoretical model is. How the tools work, why teaming with Wired (my old employers) is a perfect match for this story, and how it can be done for future stories with different organizations.

But right now. I’m overworked and under-slept. Tomorrow Assignment Zero launches. On Friday I’m giving my first talk about it at the Innovation in College Media conference. And lucky for me, now I have something to talk about.

I will say this before I sign off — just like Harvest Moon, it is the team that has made this project happen, and I have been very lucky with an amazing group of people through which Assignment Zero has come about. For the last few months I’ve worked very closely with Lauren Sandler, Steve Fox, Amanda Michel, Zack Rosen, the team from Unified Design, Jeff Howe and of course — Jay Rosen has been pulling strings from the sideline.

I have learned a lot from them, and I hope they feel the same. Cheers guys!

Date: March 3rd, 2007
Cate: Current Affairs, Journalism Practice, Links and People, My Work, Open Source and Community, Social News, Straight Geek
6 msgs

What is “Do No Evil” — An Open Conversation

Netscape has various channels so readers can find the news they want to read, submitted and voted on by the community itself.

If you’re interested in politics, then go to the "Politics Chanel" where you’ll find small nuggets of golden news and information that the community digs up, dumps into the political channel and votes on, to highlight the most important/relevant stories. In the process a greater purpose is served — the effective distribution of information.

But what about the "Do No Evil" section?

I ask because I have recently become the Netscape Navigator committed to the "Do No Evil" channel.

First: There is some confusion about the role of a Navigator that I want to address. We are not here to promote Netscape at all costs and bash Digg, Reditt or Newsvine. We are not hired to give other users a hard time. Nor is our goal to promote a political ideology. We perform a service. It’s the new service of social bookmarking. We want to find those gold url-nuggets and submit them to Netscape for you guys. We are at your disposal to some extent — I want to submit bookmarks that you will find, appreciate, enjoy, etc. I want to help form a community feel. And since "Do No Evil" is my beat, that’s where I want to begin.

But I need your help first.

more))