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What will â??the newsâ? look like once things have finally stabilized, following the disruptions caused by Internet and Cable TV news? Will the existing leading institutions like newspapers (particularly the New York Times and Washington Post), TV networ
Monthly archives for March, 2008
links for 2008-03-24
Today’s Quote: Susan Mernit
I had tea this morning with Susan Mernit. I caught her before she was off to lunch with Tara Hunt, another person I’m a big fan of.
I’m still humbled that I can grab someone like Susan Mernit, sit down with them – and they are nice enough to have a good brain-jog with me. Anyone who has their own wikipedia page is all around rocking in my book – and I feel lucky to get any of their time.
One part of the conversation stuck out (among many things) was how Susan characterized the difference between successful and unsuccessful community sites. There are a lot of factors, of course, but one that she harbored on was if there was "pent up need" for it.
The best examples: Bayosphere (and the larger Backfence initiative) versus OhMyNews in South Korea. One was unsuccessful and the other has changed South Korea dramatically. The difference wasn’t in the technological breakthroughs of OhMyNews – it was that one community had a pent up need for those communication tools, while the community in Palo Alto for various reasons, didn’t.
All this might seem very obvious once it’s stated. Sounds like the ‘duh’ statement of the century, right? But I don’t think the message has really hit home. We are still in this Cambrian period of internet evolution (where there is an explosion in species variation) but we seldom ask ourselves (especially big media organizations that want to stratify) "who are we serving and are we giving them something new."
Increasingly it will only be media organizations that serve that ‘pent up need’ which will find any community to serve at all.
links for 2008-03-21
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S.F. Activists Use Twitter, Pirate Radio to Manage Anti-War Protesters | Threat Level from Wired.comSan Francisco anti-war protesters marking the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq are using the micro-blogging service Twitter to coordinate their movements throughout the day.
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Check the picture on the right of this post: It’s “the dream team.” Blog networks are only as good as their writers. In the end – they are big media. Whoever can dish out the most money to buy the writer wins. Don’t give me this big media versus small med
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Of course, in most cases the answer will be “both.” The real debate will be over the details.
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Across America, nonprofit Web sites are trying to keep public interest journalism alive at the local level. But to provide what print newspapers increasingly do not, these digitized nonprofits must overcome the challenge facing every startup: Eventually,
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Chris Brogan, one of the web’s leading thinkers on social media, writes “We Still Need Better Filters.”
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Our challenge isn’t to save newspapers, it is to save newspaper journalism and the values that are at its foundation.
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More emphasis on SEO than I prefer, but I like the format: What it is, what it’s good for, what it’s bad for.
Stop Talking, Start Doing – My Conversation with Gazette Communications
Yesterday I had a nice chat with Annette Schulte, who is working on starting a community based site in Ceder Rapids Iowa.
The gist of that conversation can be found here.
One thing I would add, which was talked about on the phone: Don’t launch a community site and expect the community to appear on day one. Most citizen journalism sites take at least a year, if not more (emphasis on more) to really gain traction. I think this is a good thing: as far as filters go – it makes community sites unattractive for anyone looking to make a quick buck.
One more thing I’d add: Annette contacted me out of the blue. I love being contacted by people out of the blue who are truly interested in playing in this space. I’m not claiming that I’m some social media genius, but I’ve become confident in my little neck of the woods – and I love talking about it (and I can probably talk most people’s ear off). More than that – I’ve been very lucky in that I’m becoming well networked. This has afforded me the opportunity to assess ideas and startups quickly and perhaps connect people. I am as altruistic as possible in wanting to help – although I admit, I will benefit indirectly.
Update: My father particularly liked the following quote in my conversation linked above. Looking at it again, so do I: "Journalism will find a way to be sustained, but that’s not
a product. That’s a process. Newspapers might [survive], but they’ll be
completely different."
links for 2008-03-20
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Boss Jarvis got a book deal: “What Would Google Do”? I propose a follow up: WWAD: What Would Apple Design?
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There needs to be another layer of filtering such that I can choose to read your promoted posts, but I should then get the opportunity to bubble my best (and by â??best,â? I mean most closely informationally aligned) sharing sources to the top of the hea
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