Yep, I’m moving the works to Flying Flashlight. Newsroomnext-ish posts will go into their own category; the feed for that category is here. The feed for the new site.
I had a much longer description of this prepared, but a server error ate it.
Yep, I’m moving the works to Flying Flashlight. Newsroomnext-ish posts will go into their own category; the feed for that category is here. The feed for the new site.
I had a much longer description of this prepared, but a server error ate it.
Microsoft Tag (via eHub) allows individuals to create and print images that, when photographed by cell phones, provide more information.
So make some pretty stickers and you can turn real-world objects into links.
If I were a company that sold travel information or organized tours, I would start claiming my [...]
Out of curiosity, I went to mostemailednews.com and reviewed the number one most e-mailed story across 14 news sites. I grabbed the headline and lede of each story (because I love seeing the different ways writers start their race), and categorized it; this is difficult because many stories fit [...]
Inspiration for the idea: ShiftSpace.
Imagine:
Go to any Web site. Click the “Filter this information for me” button that instantly scours the site and presents tidbits that will excite or enrage me. Go to 1.It’s instant, machine-driven punditry, with a touch of human.
[...]Daydream summary: The increasingly massive amounts of information on the Web make it more and more difficult to determine the quality and accuracy of whatever data you’re consuming, so demand will rise for an efficient, affordable and reliable service that provides infovores a sense of trust in their meal of [...]
Problem
Often, the who-what-where-when-why-how (and “what’s next”) get blended together in a way that is aesthetically pleasing (in terms of logic, musicality and pacing), but fail to offer easy scannability that Web reading behavior calls for. As a reader, I have to run my eyes up and down a story to find [...]Highlights from A New Model for News | Studying the Deep Structure of Young-Adult News Consumption, an ethnography/report by The Associated Press and Context-Based Research Group (PDF of the report):
p. 53: Youngsters’ (18-34) news diet is made up four dishes on 2 sides of the news, eh, [...]
Purpose of this post:
To demonstrate the way distribution works on the Web. Though it’s nothing new, to show how embeddability of content can greatly increase its reach. To raise questions about how to monetize content as it moves across the Web: Make the tripod (and other objects) in the video linkable (I [...]Most recent Alertbox column from Jakob Nielsen, the “King of Usability”:
On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.Why I’m interested:
There is still a lot of room for the evolution of how [...]Xoost.com connects you with people searching for the same thing you are (via eHub).
It’s not necessarily creating communities, but creating the awareness of the possibility of a community.
The same principle can be applied to almost any activity. For example, if you have a database of users on your [...]
I. Social: You are what you know and remember, and what others know and remember about you.
Forming groups of like interest / coordinate connections Being in the know / personal topic guidance Creating self-identity / ascribe values to information choices Forming opinions / critiquing service Sharing information (conversation, [...]EveryBlock, from ChicagoCrime.org’s Adrian Holovaty and crew, fishes local info ponds and databases to create a new standard for the required depth of neighborhood news/information aggregation providers.
Why I like it
Rather than having 50 million sacks into which you must stuff your data (from personal information to media and more), DataPortability wants the framework for one big sack that brave Web travelers can carry with them wherever they digitally go.
If/once such a structure takes hold on a mass scale, [...]
After being reminded of Ira Glass’ series on storytelling by MultimediaShooter, I felt inspired to create a static page of videos featuring tips and techniques from Glass and others. Up top, you’ll see the tutorials link.
If you know of other great video tutorials, let me know in [...]
What: Five of the 10 best-selling novels last year in Japan were originally cellphone novels.
Freaking out:
“Fans praised the novels as a new literary genre created and consumed by a generation whose reading habits had consisted mostly of manga, or comic books. Critics said the dominance of cellphone novels, with [...]
With more and more sites getting video crazy, CuePrompter makes it easier for your budding, struggling-with-a-stand-up Web stars to talk to the camera (via eHub). You’ll need a Web connection.
For an offline version, check out Prompt, which is available for Mac and PC.
Video news lessons and [...]
The idea that the print newspaper business faces doom made it to “The Simpsons.” Gawker has a clip.
I looked for it on YouTube, but it was removed for copyright infringement.
Found the clip on Dailymotion:
I wonder if [...]
Founded by veterans of the mobile industry, MizPee provides user reviews and locations of toilets (news you can use) in numerous cities.
Once you’ve settled upon your spot, you can use the same site to browse product deals (let’s call it consumer news) in the area.
MizPee is one of [...]
To steal from BBC beta home:
Hazy, fumbling vision of the future #9,321:
TwitterMail turns e-mail into your Twitter command center.
But when will it allow me to e-mail posts to all of the micro-blogging services by working with HelloTxt.com?
I’m extremely/incredibly/moreandmoreadverbs happy to say I landed a Web producer job with the International Herald Tribune. I can’t wait to get to [...]
If any of you have some coding chops, I challenge you to create a journalism-inspired Web app with AppJet. Let me know of your creation and I’ll link to it. Here’s a note-taking program in AppJet’s list.
Services like these incline me to think that it’s not just content [...]
Jonathan Harris executes more amazing work with his latest creation, The Whale Hunt, a Flash documentary about the Inupiat Eskimos’ 1,000-year-old tradition of whale hunting.
The inventive interface, functioning like an emotional EKG, displays 3,214 photographs taken over 7 days in ways that allows you to identify and explore [...]
Edgeio, which enabled purchases for individual pieces of content at the point of interaction with the content, and which I wrote about, is shutting down.
It’s worth pointing out, though it’s perhaps obvious, that relying upon the myriad, flitting, unproven and delicate (does that capture a butterfly?) micro-monetization [...]
A lazy man’s work: the MoFuse mobile version of newsroomnext.
Go ahead, make your own (after you get up from that nap) at MoFuse.
Pay $6 a month and you keep the ad revenue.
I know I’ve read about a million other Web site services doing the same thing, but I [...]
Though I enjoyed Bill Richards’ vision of a profitable e-paper newspaper (via E-media Tidbits), the deeper issue was not discussed: flesh-eating extraterrestrials.
Let me explain.
If a newspaper’s content is compelling or useful enough, people will buy it no matter what format it comes in.
Making a digital viewing experience more [...]
Problem: You have a usable interview but the talking head threatens you with boredom.
Solution: Find your b-roll on YouTube using iDesktop.tv, which adds an amazing interface on top of YouTube’s content. Look in the lower left-hand corner. See that down arrow? Click on it. Then choose what format [...]
With some creative use of your Web cam, Seesmic might provide another means of quick info updates from breaking-news scenes. Webware reviewed it.
Here’s a part of the service’s description that indicates the Web is becoming your Web site, my favorite song:
Users can link their Seesmic account to [...]
Vidmetrix, like TubeMogul, enables multi-site uploading for your video via one interface (via makeuseof.com).
share via social Web or e-mail
The challenge for librarians (from PVLD Director’s Blog found via Everything is Miscellaneous):
Information experience micro-culture is my somewhat academic attempt to create a term encapsulating the rituals, behaviors, expectations and experiences involving humans and our interactions with information, which includes the concept of story, one way of many (and one of my favorite ways) to organize data.
Why this is important: To make [...]
If a disaster strikes in your city, why not go beyond Twittering like KPBS and add 8 other micro blogging services to your network of news-nugget displays? Because it takes too long to update that many sites?
Nein, non y no! Not with HelloTxt.com.
Here are the supported micro blog [...]
Creating embeddable, audio versions of stories with Web-based software
A drama in 5 acts
1. Read Emily Chang’s mention of vozMe.
2. Play with vozMe and plug in some Shakespeare.
3. Use Emily Chang to track down a free way to host an MP3 on an [...]
Google grabs a patent for producing printed publications from Web content [via Dan Blank, Online Journalism Blog and TechCrunch].
This puts a damper on the idea that journalism organizations could chase after a Web tool allowing customers to assemble news and information into custom books that could [...]
Seamus McCauley (Virtual Economics) offers a perspective on consumer/user-generated content through the lens of a book, This Other Eden, by Ben Elton. Here’s an excerpt of an excerpt from the book that McCauley pulled:
“The public always had the technology to get involved with the action if it wanted [...]
So you’ve given up trying to maintain your own Web site, gone nuts and become a network publication. Now if only you had 1 million producers to manage all those sites or…or…Lifestrea.ms?
I don’t know if the service will perform as promised. Read/WriteWeb has some concerns, but [...]
Clever Hippo tracks the work of software madmen churning out mini apps and widgets for your blog’s right column or your shameless profile on Facebook, MySpace, NounOrVerbHereSpaceOrBookOrFoldOrTalk…
Here are some finds after playing with a few search terms:
Give your customers control over their experience with ads [Video Insider].
They watch when and where they want, and receive content.
It’s a choice: Pay with attention or pay with money.
Make the ads useful (directly sponsored journalism?) or entertaining (sponsored short films?) and they might be watched rather than [...]
Here’s the post explaining the experiment.
Here’s the post collecting comments from Facebookers who were targeted by the ad.
This is gaming instance one. I like seeing tools creatively used, but I imagine Facebook is wondering how to control such usage. Should it? Why?
Summary: Most users want short, scan-friendly content they can snack upon because it efficiently meets their needs. Occasionally your customers want longer, in-depth pieces. Provide both to optimize site engagement and efficiency.
Source: Jakob Nielsen: “Long vs. short articles as content strategy”
Points of interests:
2. Google Blog Search results.
3. kottke.org: “A New Sheriff in Town?”
Point of interest: Kottke led me to this TechCrunch post summarizing the service, which led me to this picture of Attributor’s dashboard view.
4. Changing Way: “Attributor and (Non-)Attribution”
Point of interest: Suggests [...]
This Dow Jones gizmo, “an application programming interface that allows financial institutions to integrate real-time news and data into their automated trading systems,” is a handy conceptual map: Get relevant news to people whenever they broach a decision about how to spend their time, money, attention or any other [...]
On the Web, where everyone is a creator, creators expecting to make money to allow them to continue to create will create content enabling other creators to create. Moby does it. Can journalism?
Thanks: Kevin Kelly: “The new economy master.”
In the comments following this Portfolio story about Facebook’s new ad platform (is it legal?), SmartGuyStocks makes this statement:
But Wall Street and Silicon Valley get carried away thinking that every time you get eyeballs it’s worth zillions — not if people are averse to ads during certain [...]
You’ll need the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in to get Tafiti to work, but it’s worth the effort.
Tafiti presents news search results with a headline and layout that makes them look like a custom newspaper. It hammers home the point that the Web is your Web site, and search [...]
Watch the gorilla on influx insights or click on “read the rest of this entry” at the bottom of this post.
Ah-ha:
1. Your content will be remixed whether you like it or not. Do you want to be involved or not?
2. Enabling remixing (for example, by providing software tools, [...]
Does Attributor mean news organizations can build value with their content no matter where it ends up on the Web?
A screenshot of Attributor finding your content on another site:
This post’s path: New York Times > Editors Weblog > Newsroomnext.
1. Information gatherer
New, original information consistently wins attention. This is the person making the phone calls, attending the meetings, digging through the records and translating data into a story.
2. Information networker
An information networker reformats information (including performing additional reporting) in order to make it relevant and acceptable to audiences [...]
A remixed quote of a quote from Jeff Huber, Google’s vice pres. of engineering (via TechCrunch):
What we see is applications customer attention fundamentally changing. Just like the model for content changed from monolithic news sites trying to trap customer attention, now applications are attention is going to be feeds [...]
The more social networking sites that spring up, and the more that sites enable contributions from their audiences (news outlets accepting comments, for example), the more I wonder how to publish a successful network instead of a single site.
The challenges/solutions to creating a network publication, which I define as your [...]
Mogulus, still in beta, enables folks to stream, mix and add polish to live, networked (meaning multiple people with Web cams can simultaneously contribute) video reports that pull in content from the Web or local resources.
Why this matters beyond being a cool gizmo to turn everyone into a networked [...]
Click2Map, though it costs a bit to get the more advanced features, may end my hunt for the perfect map-making service (here’s my test map).
Yes, personalized Google maps are free, but can they do all of
this:
OrlandoSentinel.com’s “The Write Stuff” blog covered the space shuttle launch with an approach built for the Web: rapidly released, highly focused, simply presented micro-content that builds complexity and a fuller story over time.
In a world without limited resources, it would have been great to:
My hopes for hyper-focused news and information sites took a beating when I read the lament of an independent filmmaker on The Long Tail. Here’s a quote:
I create and produce “paddlesports” content. Canoes and kayaks. … My reality as a content creator and producer is that it is [...]
BugMeNot efficiently bypasses the registration process that, quite mysteriously (I can’t recall giving legitimate, useful info during a registration process), some new sites still require in order to view their content (via makeuseof).
Once again, your customers are in control of their Web experience. Try to force them into [...]
NoteStar, enables teachers (and why not journalists) to lead information acquisition, verification and generation around topics of their choice.
If it seems too simplified, check out Wetpaint, a wiki creation service. Here’s a video tutorial on using it from Common Craft.
I’ve mentioned this before, but why not set [...]
The question is what to do with those TubeMogul analytics. How do you monetize? YouTube seems to prohibit the inclusion of ads in your videos. Partnerships? Will there be a YouTube News, the video version of Google News, or will Google News start pulling in video snippets?
Speaking [...]
Hubbuzz helps people find apartments and understand the character of neighborhoods they’re evaluating during a move.
If Hubbuzz wanted to work with news providers, it would be a good spot to publish hyper-local news because:
View the original Read/WriteWeb post by Alex Iskold (”The Future of Software Development”).
In the real Web world, software projects stories have ill-defined and constantly evolving requirements, making it impossible to think everything through at once. Instead, the best software Web story today is created and evolved using agile methods. [...]
Mochi Media integrates ads with Flash video games that are easily embedded in any Web site [story via Web ware]. Analytics are part of the deal.
This is a model for how journalism organizations should treat each one of their stories.
If you have Flash content, give Mochi Media [...]
If the New York Times regularly revealed what they planned to cover, when they planned to cover it and why, would you be interested?
Start a blog that reveals the inner workings of your journalism organization, make it open to the public and build a never-before-seen relationship with your customers.
Expected benefits:
The work
On the Web, a story is always evolving. It can be reported, edited and reassembled an infinite number of times as long as the work is of benefit to somebody. The labor will spread across organizations, individuals and time to whoever has the most interest, capability [...]
Edgeio.com’s paid content service allows you to turn every piece of content into your personal, one-product store that goes anywhere on the Web.
This may be a more effective way to sell your content than directing customers to your library.
You might be able to sell:
BigTribe offers useful, embeddable, transaction-enabled map-ads that give you a cut of the revenue earned when people use the map-ads to make, for example, reservations at a restaurant.
If you don’t like sharing, do it all yourself with this Google Maps and Spreadsheets tool found, with instructions, at [...]
Summary: Story consumption is driven by a need to bring order, significance and meaning to information and experience. Stories are to raw data as music is to noise. Well-summarized links to other (and competing) stories are tools you can use to become a better meaning-building service.
The Advertisement, a tale of terror and redemption:
Ad buyer: I would like to sell my soul. Can I place an ad on your Web site?
Ad service rep: Sure. But if you want to increase the chance of your soul being sold, consider paying a little extra for our [...]
