Written by I’ve been running into the folks from the Sacramento Press more and more. Wanted to get their co-founder Geoff to talk a bit about what they do. Shout out to Technically Philly near the end of the video.
Add this to my list of interviews.
Posts by
Link and Video RoundUp
Once again hat tip to Publish2.com (where I’m an advisor) for making this super easy for me.
Straight Links
Social Media Marketing 101
PBS Mediashift
There’s a new series of demands being made in company meetings everywhere: “What is our social media strategy? What are we doing on Facebook and Twitter? I want followers and fans, and I want them now!” But before companies large and small — as well as non-profits and charities — jump into social media, they need to take a deep breath and think about it. What are their goals? What kind of return on investment will they get? Even though it’s free to set up fan pages and feeds, there’s a time investment that may or may not pay off.
Status.Net: The WordPress For Microblogs Gets A Hosted Solution
Walt Disney vs. the news industry: How bad management is killing newspapers and their websites
ojr.org
5 Ways to find, mix and mash your data
10000words.net
MediaShift Idea Lab . Changes in Media Over the Past 550 Years | PBS
pbs.org
Why Nonprofits Need Newspapers
journalismnonprofit.blogspot.com
VIDEO LINKS
BBC announces launch of radio player
YouTube
Director, BBC Audio and Music Tim Davie speaking about his announcement of the BBC radioplayer at The Media Festival, Manchester today.
New Times: The Future of Journalism
YouTube
This video is over one hour – but filled with good folks like Paul Steiger from ProPublica and Alberto Ibarguen from the Knight Foundation.
Paul Starr on “public accountability after the age of newspapers” (Part 1 of 3)
YouTube
Paul Starr talks about “public accountabiility after the age of newspapers” at Suffolk University Law School, 1 October 2009
Why Newspapers Go Out of Business
YouTube
I’m not endorsing the Moaist Rebel News but when I came across this, I had to save it.
Ten Angry Reporters Meltingdown & Blowing Up(Compilation)
YouTube
Lately I seem be going from internet argument to internet argument. Feels like this.
Just for laughs.
Mario: Game Over
youtube.com
Don’t Save Journalism – Save Honest Communication
(Funny that my last post was on having bloggers block and tonight this is pouring out of me. I guess I needed to clear my throat. I don’t want to be an annoying pontificator. As I said in my last post – I want to be on the front lines of all this. I’m a grunt, at best a squad leader. But to do so – I often need a clear vision of where and why I’m doing Spot.Us. If anything – this is an invocation to myself).
Clay Shirky is a wise sage in this era. If the revolution we are going through is akin to that of Gutenberg’s Clay Shirky is a Martin Luther.
I bring him up because most of what I will write below has been written by him in Twitter form. “The rallying cry isn’t ‘save newspapers’ but ‘save society.’”
Journalism is a loaded term. Defining it at times feels like counting how many angels can stand on the tip of a needle.
Much easier is articulating the goals of journalism. At its best the aim is “to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” This is one of my favorite quotes on the purpose of journalism. Another is “to speak truth to power.” I’m sure others exist. What’s your favorite?
Journalism as a word is loaded because of the ministry it invokes. The profession that, since Watergate, has laid claim to it. That ministry is now a diaspora. Much like after the Gutenberg revolution the ministry lost its authority in interpreting the bible. Martin Luther showed us how. In reaction many journalists cling even tighter to that word.
But the word needs to be redefined.
I go back to Henry Jenkins who pinpointed why I dislike the term “citizen journalism.”
In some respects I dislike the term “journalism.” (My take on The Rhetoric of Journalism.)
Now before you get your tar and feather – here me out.
I love the idea of speaking truth to power. I love the idea of afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. I love the idea of communities informing themselves so they can make better decisions.
Journalism does this – but if we didn’t call it “Journalism” (with a big J) would it make any difference? What is at stake here isn’t an industry. Yes, it’s sad to lose an industry. We lost the button making industry when plastic button making machines were made. That was sad. We lost the horse shoe making industry when cars replaced horses. We have probably lost countless industries due to technical innovations.
But did we lose clothes? Did we lose the freedom to travel? Has our general progress as a world been forward towards more freedom and democracy? What is bad for newspapers might be good for the word (Yes – putting content online for free has caused economic problems for newspapers – but it has made mankind better).
And while we may be losing something in terms of robustness of newspapers we are gaining something new with citizen media (there’s that term again?!?).
People wonder if citizen journalism can replace professionals. That’s the WRONG QUESTION.
The silliness of that question: If Major League Baseball stopped tomorrow would all the little leagues in the country be able to replace it? If industrial sweater factories shut down tomorrow would knitting hobbyists be able to replace them?
Nobody would ever ask these questions because the goal of little leagues and knitting groups isn’t to replace their professional counterparts. Instead, they are to create a sense of community, a positive activity for children. If these non-professional activities disappeared could they be replaced? Could professional baseball play the role of the local little league?
So I ask: If citizen journalism activities were to stop tomorrow could professional journalists replace them?
Do I really dislike the term “journalism” – of course not. But it is so incredibly loaded. In another post we could discuss how it needs a re-branded (which is doubly-ironic, I know). We discuss this craft but readers don’t care what we call it. They care about whether it “speaks truth to power, afflicts the comfortable, etc.” That newspaper circulation has been going down since 1972 (well before the Internet) should say something to us all.
What we need to preserve isn’t newspapers. I’d argue it isn’t even “journalism” as we understand it. What we need to save is something else. Something more fundamental. The ability for communities to be informed with honest information and then to mobilize based on that information.
And that’s all I really have to say about that….
Breaking the Bloggers Block
I’ve had bloggers block lately.
I received several suggestions on how to break it. So here I am, trying to follow up on all of them.
First: Write about something. Lower your standards and just write.
Perhaps the bloggers block also comes from my new Posterous blog aptly subtitled “Digidave’s Quickies: Not exactly a blog post. Too long for Twitter.”
I used to write personal blog posts here. This is space both for my professional thoughts but it is also my personal journal. Something I can use to remember funny moments and sad memories. From my Thanksgiving in Atlantic City to the passing of my grandparents. Obviously my personal life continues but I haven’t really written about any of it here on Digidave.org. When I started this blog I was 23. I am fast approaching 28 (AHHHH!!!!!). I can never tell what is or isn’t appropriate for this space. I look at Jeff Jarvis blogging his cancer and I’m inspired. At the same time – I’m no Jarvis. Nor do I have a life experience has heavy as cancer to share.
The deepest thoughts I might have are those of somebody who still feels as though he is 17 but is fast approaching 30. Laugh all you want – my peers and I have this conversation all the time. I think it is particularly strong for folks my age who are either the youngest of the Gen Xers or the oldest of the Mellenials. I feel stuck in between.
Suggestion 2: Do a round-up of things that have caught your attention.
By this I think most people meant a link-fest. Anyone that knows me should know that I am a big believer in aggregation as a way to serve the reader. But lately I haven’t had time to keep up with everything. So instead of a link to other articles I’m going to do a round-up of things I’ve been doing.
1. Publish2.com. I’m an advisor and it’s on my mind a lot lately. I’m loving the new interface for WordPress (hat tip Daniel) and I think they are about to hit a nice stride with more tools.
2. NewsInnovation.com: I spent last week in New York. The timing was great because Spot.Us freelance Lindsey Hoshaw had a piece in the NYT. I was out there for the third New Business Models for News Conference. I helped to organize the first two with Jeff Jarvis. I helped with this third one as well – albiet a smaller role. I naturally stepped back to focus on Spot.Us. I could do a whole post on this conference, working with Jeff, etc. But intsead I’ll point to Jeff’s post about what was one of the better take aways.
3. Spot.Us launched November 11th 2008. It has been a year. I want to do an epic blog post about it. But I fear this milestone may go unrecognized if I don’t get past this writers block. But it goes without saying that Spot.Us is on my mind all the time. It is certainly #1 in my mind even if it’s #3 in this list. Also – I’m trying to keep focused on the redesign and not get distracted by all the student quiries.
4. That last bit is a handfull. I LOVE j-students. I want to hug them and encourage them in every way I can. I try to make myself availabe and as open/honest as I can. But lately it’s stating to take a toll. It feels as though I spend one full day a week answering questions for j-students (international or otherwise) ph.d students who are studying the future of journalism or doing Skype calls with students. Again, I love it. I want to encourage everyone to do their own startup. But every now and then I reach a limit and just want to put my head down and work. I view my working on Spot.Us akin to being on the front line of a war. I’m a grunt. I like to work like grunt. A big part of how I got to where I am is that I wanted everyone to consider me the hardest working kid in journalism. While working for Jay Rosen on NewAssignment.Net and at Columbia I got that reputation. I intend to keep it. Talking with students does help (me and them) but it is not my main goal.
5. Broowaha: I bet you didn’t know that I am the editor of a citizen journalims site Broowaha.com. Well, I am! I am not exactly on the front lines of this site – but I am a part of the community. It keeps me rooted and honest when I discuss issues about citizen journalism. So no – I’m not just a talker, I’m a doer. And Broowaha is what gives me my experience in pure play citizen journalism stuff.
6. Life. Life is happening all the time. I suppose that is a bit of a reason for the bloggers block. It seems to be happening so fast this past year. Being in NY this last week reminded me of where I’ve been. This could also be a long post. One where I’d go over my fond memories of NY. Conquering certain things – losing others. All my friends who are in NY, which include a ton of my best friends from childhood, etc. I’ll spare you the sentimental dribble right now but a part of me just wants to let it pour all out.
Despite that last sentence, I’m actually going to cut myself here. As you might have guessed from the title of this post – I’m not sure where I was going with this. Then again, it’s nice not to have a destination.
Lessons in Web Development – Good, Fast and Cheap: Pick Two
Whenever people ask me about the process of building a website, here’s how I explain their choices: “There is good, fast and cheap — you get to pick two.”
By Colin Harman (colinharman.com)
Spot.Us has quietly started development again. I’ll be putting up sketches of a much needed re-design on the Spot.Us blog soon, but you can see a sneak peek at the bottom of this post, courtesy of Lauren Rabaino. Looking back at what has almost been a full year of work, this is the part of building something from the ground up that plays to one of my strengths. It comes down to project management, weighing expectations with reality, and being able to make tough choices. In this post I will share a fundamental lesson you should keep in mind before building any website from scratch. Perhaps it’s also a “life lesson” that can be applied to engaging in any large scale project.
Back reading: other thoughts of mine related to building large scale projects or start-ups:
- Launching a site and being iterative,
- Eliminating the fear of being open and iterative,
- Growing a community and being iterative.
Today’s lesson: There is Good, Fast and Cheap — You Get to Pick Two.
Perhaps this “good, fast, and cheap” philosophy goes for all things in life. First, let’s define the options.
- Good: Of high quality. Something that will last and perform as expected.
- Fast: Something produced quickly. Below par.
- Cheap: Something produced at low cost. Below par.
When building a start-up you get to choose two. Sometimes the choice is made for you (i.e. If you are bootstrapping).
The combinations.
- Good and fast: Means the project is not cheap.
- Fast and cheap: Means the project is not necessarily good.
- Cheap and good: Means that it was most likely not fast.
Do these rules apply 100 percent of the time? Of course not. Nothing is 100 percent. But if I were a betting man, I’d predict the following outcomes for each scenario:
1. Good and fast: If you went for good and fast it most likely means you hired top notch folks. This is a boon to any website project starting out — but it also means you need to watch your cash flow because it won’t be cheap. Unless you are rolling in cash, the cost should be a concern. Still, going this route can save you money in the long run. If you are able to get something to market before you cut off development, you’ll be able to lean on what you’ve produced and it will work reliably. In contrast, I know plenty of projects that went with option number two…
2. Fast and cheap: If it works out then you’ve won the lottery. Again, I’m not saying quality is impossible here. But I personally know projects that went the fast and cheap route and in the long run it hurt them. What they ended up bringing to market failed. Most users are not as forgiving as they are to Twitter. If your site breaks, they won’t come back. It often takes an organization twice as much money and time to build a stable website if the initial site was built fast and cheap. If you are not a tech-minded person, you might wonder why everyone doesn’t outsource or go with the cheapest labor out there (and there are cheap developers on the market). To them I offer the following analogy: you could pay an Amish wood craftsman to build an heirloom cabinet that will last generations, or you can get something from Ikea that will last two to five years and require some assembly and maintenance on your part –but will cost a tenth of the price. There is no right or wrong answer. It often depends on where you are in life. When I was in college it was Ikea all the way, baby! In either case the trade-offs are apparent. That’s the difference between options number one and number two.
3. Good and cheap: The typical scenario here is that you have a great web developer (an Amish craftsman of code) who is ready to donate some of his/her time to your project. This is great. It means you can get quality at a cheap price. But this also usually means the development comes at a pace dictated by the volunteer, not you. Set all the deadlines you want in your mind — the reality is that you’re at their mercy. Again, this isn’t a bad thing. It’s just a trade-off. The good news is that when something does finally get put out, you’ll have quality and it won;t have broken the piggy bank. If you aren’t in a rush this can even be ideal (for example, maybe it’s something you are working on as a volunteer as well).
Final Thoughts
As always, these lessons aren’t prescriptive — they’re descriptive. I don’t think there is a right/wrong option to take. But it is important to know the trade-offs that you or your project manager are making. Journalism is becoming more entrepreneurial. “Entrepreneurial” itself is a buzzword that should be defined, but it either means journalists as innovators (entrepreneur as a person who is pushing boundaries), or journalists as self-employed (entrepreneur as small business owner). In either case, this lesson, which I call “pick two,” applies.
Now, as promised, below is a sneak peak at what a rough re design of Spot.Us. (It’s very rough — see the Spot.Us blog for details).
Recent Comments