This job listing is from the CBS Radio employment site. It is at the same location where I work, for the same company. I thought it might be of interest to some people in the class:
Job Title Digital Media Manager-WTIC-AM, FM, WRCH &WZMX
Auto req ID 2163BR
Market Hartford
Station WTIC-AM
Format News/Talk
Department Programming
Job Description
CBS RADIO, Hartford is looking for a full time Director of Media responsible for the websites and technical aspects of the stream broadcasts for the four CBS Radio stations in Hartford. Stations are: WTIC AM, WTIC FM, WRCH FM and WZMX FM.
Required Skills/Experience
Web responsibilities include creating custom graphical user interface templates, create and manage web content, web and email blasts, viral marketing, as well as implementing new web technologies. Responsible for employing tools to prepare text, photo and graphics to the station websites to accomplish updates, edits and refreshes on schedule. Edit, update and compose online material including copy, graphics/photos, audio clips and video clips (for podcasting). Produce content (collaborative and syndicated) to run across format sites. Add RSS feeds to station websites.
Preferred Skills/Experience
Graphic/design responsibilities include photography, creating and maintaining visual imaging (web and print), advertisements (for internal station and client use), logos, flyers, posters, digital highway billboards and other promotional material (mousepads, roll banners, bus billboards, station vehicle wrap).
Director will also be required to work with the CBS Radio sales team, to create compelling internet advertising campaigns; May also, work directly with clients on a per case basis.
Qualified candidates must: Have above average computer skills, be able to prioritize and be able to work under deadline. Successful candidates should be able to work independently with minimal supervision. Must be comfortable working with multiple station departments and be able to work on multiple projects at once.
Technical Skills:
Graphic and Video: Adobe Premium Suite CS3 (Photoshop, Fireworks, Adobe Audition)
Web: Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe Dreamweaver (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
Office: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook)
Other: Google Analytics and Bachelor’s degree preferred.
Minimum Education Level Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent Experience
Additional Candidate Instructions
Please apply on line first by going to www.cbsradio.com and clicking on the careers link and then click job bank and apply for the specific job. Once you have done so you can then email Steve Salhany at SRSalhany@cbs.com or mail your resume:
Steve Salhany
Operations Manager
CBS Radio, Hartford
10 Executive Drive
Farmington, CT 06032
Or via email:
SRSalhany@cbs.com
NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE.
CBS Radio is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Media Theory Is Complicated...
Media theory is complicated...
I enjoyed the class, learned some McLuhanesque and Shirkesian theory, and got hands-on experience with web tools that I would probably would not have gotten around to exploring on my own.
I also met some fascinating people on Monday nights!
The Past and the Future
On Wednesday, I stood about a foot and a half away from a 1455 paper edition of the second volume of a Gutenberg Bible, at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. The bible was open in a clear plastic case. The display card bragged that the Morgan Library and Museum is the only institution in the world to possess three copies. The book itself was printed with heavy, thick black and red body type in Latin, with an ornate first letter at the start of a passage, near the top of the right hand page.
The book in front of me was the first major work printed with movable type. It changed the way knowledge was spread and preserved. On the other side of the room was an even older tome, an illuminated European book of scripture from the eleventh century, with leather straps and clasps on the outside edges of the front and back cover, to keep the book securely closed. I felt a sense of awe at the historic significance of the printed bible, and at the sheer age and the commitment of hundreds of generations of people over the centuries to keep the hand drawn religious book intact.
I also thought of Shirky's prediction (in his book and online) that the internet will make twentieth century journalists as obsolete as the scribes who made the eleventh century volume. On a personal level, I wonder how many scribes became printers...? Which is part of the reason why I took this class to begin with, since under Shirky's theory, my job as a journalist would seem to put me in the scriptorium, quill pen in hand.
Near the end of the final class, we discussed what the next big things might be on the internet. Here are three predictions:
Wikis: They have not fully flowered. Wikis are a fundamentally new way of writing and thinking about information made possible by the internet. I don't know what else can be done with them, but something interesting is possible.
Harnessing the tidal flow of information: There is so much data flowing across the web, much of it about people in social media. Marketers are interested in this info so they can sell more stuff to more people, but what other uses can it be put to? Maybe new metaphors could help spur new ideas in this area.
New uses for mobile devices: Twitter and Flickr seem like early uses, but this area is not mature yet.
I am still undecided on the overall hotness and coolness of the Internet. The 1999 book Digital McLuhan by Paul Levinson (summarized here) described the web as being a very cool place. But the web is a very different place than it was in the late 1990's, with more video and multimedia, in higher definition. Many of the online trends we have discussed in class, from Wikipedia to Facebook, were set up after the book was written. The conversion of audio, video, and text to ones and zeroes, and the ability to use them all in equal measure on the internet has created so many different tools that labeling the entire internet hot or cold would be meaningless. As we did in class, the best approach is to analyze each kind of web site or service and judge them on their own traits.
The book in front of me was the first major work printed with movable type. It changed the way knowledge was spread and preserved. On the other side of the room was an even older tome, an illuminated European book of scripture from the eleventh century, with leather straps and clasps on the outside edges of the front and back cover, to keep the book securely closed. I felt a sense of awe at the historic significance of the printed bible, and at the sheer age and the commitment of hundreds of generations of people over the centuries to keep the hand drawn religious book intact.
I also thought of Shirky's prediction (in his book and online) that the internet will make twentieth century journalists as obsolete as the scribes who made the eleventh century volume. On a personal level, I wonder how many scribes became printers...? Which is part of the reason why I took this class to begin with, since under Shirky's theory, my job as a journalist would seem to put me in the scriptorium, quill pen in hand.
Near the end of the final class, we discussed what the next big things might be on the internet. Here are three predictions:
Wikis: They have not fully flowered. Wikis are a fundamentally new way of writing and thinking about information made possible by the internet. I don't know what else can be done with them, but something interesting is possible.
Harnessing the tidal flow of information: There is so much data flowing across the web, much of it about people in social media. Marketers are interested in this info so they can sell more stuff to more people, but what other uses can it be put to? Maybe new metaphors could help spur new ideas in this area.
New uses for mobile devices: Twitter and Flickr seem like early uses, but this area is not mature yet.
I am still undecided on the overall hotness and coolness of the Internet. The 1999 book Digital McLuhan by Paul Levinson (summarized here) described the web as being a very cool place. But the web is a very different place than it was in the late 1990's, with more video and multimedia, in higher definition. Many of the online trends we have discussed in class, from Wikipedia to Facebook, were set up after the book was written. The conversion of audio, video, and text to ones and zeroes, and the ability to use them all in equal measure on the internet has created so many different tools that labeling the entire internet hot or cold would be meaningless. As we did in class, the best approach is to analyze each kind of web site or service and judge them on their own traits.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Artforum Article: Digital Collage's Growth and Society
This post follows up on the previous post.
This recent Artforum article (free registration required) primarily discusses the growth of collage in a digital age, and its response to economic turmoil, but the author veers into McLuhan territory, and some of what he has to say could also apply to tumult caused by the introduction of new media:
...The manner in which collage can make meaning—in an atmosphere now dense in remixes, mash-ups, and shuffles—will be very different than it was in times of crisis past. Today, collage must confront its status as a form that has risen rapidly in postwar popular culture, making it a natural impulse for all media. It is not only a common response to the layers of information that burden us but also an invisible force that reorganizes histories, logs, and lineages to be more readily accessible—now an everyday necessity. I would like to take collage’s recent resurgence in art as an occasion to revisit and update its related popular histories—a shifting story, one that hovers at the fluid seam of art, politics, technology, and mass media.
* * * * *
FOLLOWING THE LATE 1960s, the collage impulse became increasingly dominant in popular media as segments of information began to get smaller, faster, more readily transferable, and ultimately less linear. Beginning with the Children’s Television Workshop’s heavily research-driven programming, which introduced Sesame Street in 1969, and ending with the launch of Shawn Fanning’s peer-to-peer website, Napster, in 1999, we might reconsider the late-twentieth-century history of collage as a consumer-as-creator genealogy.
* * * * *
IN 1931, [Raoul] HAUSMANN HAD CLAIMED that photomontage could create “the most striking contrasts, to the achievement of perfect states of equilibrium.” By 2001, this equilibrium had reached a global scale through the trafficking of billions of digitized images: the hyperplastic descendants of the rigid cut-and-paste fragments from an earlier moment of collage.
McLuhan Shirky Mashup
Watch my video!
I assembled the video downloadable here from a 2008 lecture hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society by Clay Shirky (released under Creative Commons 3.0), a 1967 question and answer session with Marshall McLuhan from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation via YouTube, plus audio taken from the K-OS song Crabbuckit from the album Joyful Rebellion, and the MIA song XR2 from the album Kala from Compact Discs. My copyright rationale is that the Shirky speech is released for remixing, and all four sources are being used for educational purposes..
McLuhan says artists can anticipate and describe the changes wrought by new media, and teach their viewers how to ride with the punch of those changes, instead of taking it on the chin. Several people in class have mentioned popular movies about the internet (The Net, Enemy of the State), but I'm not sure those are "art," in the sense that McLuhan means.
One form of the art being produced to anticipate the psychological impact of the tools of the internet could be digital mashups and remixes that have been produced by musicians, video artists, and visual artists in growing numbers over the last two decades. This art could be seen as a preparation for a world where copyright breaks down, and where people share information more promiscuously. In a world of ones and zeroes, that information can just as easily be a sample from a song (which was likely very personal to the original artist) as photos of your kids, blog posts, or a video you shot with your friends shared through a social networking site.
My video is itself a mashup, with McLuhan, Shirky, and the effects of the media and digital culture as its topic. In some way, this video may be an example of the medium being the message. Although there may be some lighthearted meaning created by the juxtaposition of pieces of video from 40 years apart, the finished piece is at least as much about my ability to create the work, as it is about creating a new message out of what these two scholars have said.
I assembled the video downloadable here from a 2008 lecture hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society by Clay Shirky (released under Creative Commons 3.0), a 1967 question and answer session with Marshall McLuhan from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation via YouTube, plus audio taken from the K-OS song Crabbuckit from the album Joyful Rebellion, and the MIA song XR2 from the album Kala from Compact Discs. My copyright rationale is that the Shirky speech is released for remixing, and all four sources are being used for educational purposes..
McLuhan says artists can anticipate and describe the changes wrought by new media, and teach their viewers how to ride with the punch of those changes, instead of taking it on the chin. Several people in class have mentioned popular movies about the internet (The Net, Enemy of the State), but I'm not sure those are "art," in the sense that McLuhan means.
One form of the art being produced to anticipate the psychological impact of the tools of the internet could be digital mashups and remixes that have been produced by musicians, video artists, and visual artists in growing numbers over the last two decades. This art could be seen as a preparation for a world where copyright breaks down, and where people share information more promiscuously. In a world of ones and zeroes, that information can just as easily be a sample from a song (which was likely very personal to the original artist) as photos of your kids, blog posts, or a video you shot with your friends shared through a social networking site.
My video is itself a mashup, with McLuhan, Shirky, and the effects of the media and digital culture as its topic. In some way, this video may be an example of the medium being the message. Although there may be some lighthearted meaning created by the juxtaposition of pieces of video from 40 years apart, the finished piece is at least as much about my ability to create the work, as it is about creating a new message out of what these two scholars have said.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
McLuhan V. Shirky
A passing reference by Shirky, to McLuhan.
"Viral marketing is McLuhan marketing: The medium validates the message."
"Viral marketing is McLuhan marketing: The medium validates the message."
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Understanding Media Chapter 1 and 2
Understanding Media: Chapter 6 Media as Translators
Page 57
In a broad definition of prayer, all of social media could be seen as part of the divine thunder (even the trolls taunting the Christians with posts about feces). By some definitions, prayer could be something as simple as taking part in the world, God working through us (our actions?) or even an attitude.
Page 58
This paragraph might describe the trouble now facing traditional news media: Market collapse. With the drop in production costs of media, more people are producing, providing a glut in advertising availabilities. This drives down prices, the same way a bumper crop of blueberries drives down prices for farmers.
Yet at the same time the internet gives people a greater ability make some money by gathering information, and presenting it. For example, Blogger.com users can "monetize" their blog. If they can write in a way people find useful or enjoyable, anyone can earn a (very) few dollars by learning something interesting or helpful, and blogging about it. Of course, people can also choose to contribute their information gathering for free, through efforts like Wikipedia, or open source projects.
Page 59
"We are now in a position to go beyond that, and to transfer the whole show to the memory of a computer."
Page 60 - 61
In this electric age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of informatoin, moving toward the technologoical extension of consciousness. That is what is meant when we say that we daily know more and more abut man. We mean that we can translate more and more of ourselves into other forms of expression that exceed ourselves. Man is a form of expression who is traditionally expected to repeat himself, and to echo the praise of his creator. "Prayer," said George Herbert, "is reversed thunder." Man has the power to reverberate the divine thunder, by verbal translation."The first three sentences of the preceding passage could have been written about Facebook. But I would not typically think of FB as a form of prayer. People are using Facebook to at least facilitate prayer. Other people are making fun of FB through prayer. And then there is at least one Facebook prayer page, which as of this writing, was being attacked by members of this troll group.
In a broad definition of prayer, all of social media could be seen as part of the divine thunder (even the trolls taunting the Christians with posts about feces). By some definitions, prayer could be something as simple as taking part in the world, God working through us (our actions?) or even an attitude.
Page 58
Under electric technology, the entire business of mann becomes learning and knowing. In terms of what we still call an "economy" (the Greek word for a houshold), this means that all forms of employment become "paid learning," and all forms of wealth result from the movement of information. The probelme of discovering occupations or employment may prove as difficult as wealth is easy.
This paragraph might describe the trouble now facing traditional news media: Market collapse. With the drop in production costs of media, more people are producing, providing a glut in advertising availabilities. This drives down prices, the same way a bumper crop of blueberries drives down prices for farmers.
Yet at the same time the internet gives people a greater ability make some money by gathering information, and presenting it. For example, Blogger.com users can "monetize" their blog. If they can write in a way people find useful or enjoyable, anyone can earn a (very) few dollars by learning something interesting or helpful, and blogging about it. Of course, people can also choose to contribute their information gathering for free, through efforts like Wikipedia, or open source projects.
Page 59
"We are now in a position to go beyond that, and to transfer the whole show to the memory of a computer."
Page 60 - 61
Having extended or translated our central nervous system into the electromagnetic technology, [through computer programs that can replicate the human senses] it is but a further stage to transfer our consciousness to the computer world as well. Then, at least, we shall be able to program consciousness in such wise (ways?) that it cannot be numbed nor distracted by the Narcissus illusions of the entertainment world that beset mankind when he encounters himself extended in his own gimmickry.Ummm. This has not happened, and I don't think we are close to putting a human brain online. A search of "human consciousness" at the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research turns up nothing. Besides, there is no programming that can prevent a human consciousness from being distracted by this.
Understanding Media: Chapter 5 Hybrid Energy
Page 49
In reference to new technologies and media, McLuhan writes "They fact that they do interact and span new progeny has been a source of wonder over the ages. It need baffle us no longer if we trouble to scrutinize their action. We can, if we choose, think things out before we put them out."
But starting on page 246 of Here Comes Everybody, Shirky argues that products can be put out more quickly with social media advising the producers, and open source models reducing the economic penalties for putting out a bad product. "Open source doesn't reduce the likelihood of failure, it reduces the cost of failure; it essentially gets failure for free. This reversal, where the cost of deciding what to try is higher than the cost of actually trying them, is true of open systems in general." At the begining of the chapter, Shirky writes "The logic of publish-then-filter means that new social systems have to tolerate enormous amounts of failure. The only way to uncover and promote the rare success, is to rely, once again, on social structure supported by social tools."
Or, as longtime techie and salesman Guy Kawaski writes in Reality Check: "Don't worry about shipping an innovative product with elements of crappiness... If a company waits until everything is perfect, it will never ship, and the market will pass it by."
Shirky and McLuhan's ideas seem to be in conflict. Shirky argues that based on economics, new technology can be pushed out more quickly, because of the ease and prevalence of social media feedback and the lack of economic pain if a product fails because only volunteer time was invested in making the product. McLuhan might find fault with this approach, because if the new medium is going out the door more quickly, then there is probably no time to fully think out its implications for society, or how best it could be used. Shirky's answer might be that the increased speed of social media allows for people to consider the impact of their products as they are being released. Shirky might even argue that this could be one of the changes resulting from a break boundary, which McLuhan mentions in the previous chapter: The speed of interaction afforded by social media might allow us to more easily and quickly identify, analyze and (hopefully) respond to changes in society. These changes are themselves being sped up by the fluidity of thought provided by the Internet and its progeny. McLuhan might argue that it remains to be seen if intelligent thought can be carried out so quickly. Although there is no economic penalty for volunteers working together to quickly put out a bad piece of software, there can be a major penalty, if society is too quick to jump on the bandwagon of a bad idea hashed out too quickly in social media.
Page 51
"The present book, in seeking to understand many media, the conflicts from which they spring, and the even greater conflicts to which they give rise, holds out the promise of reducing these conflicts by an increase in human autonomy."
Does social media increase individual autonomy or decrease it? It increases autonomy by allowing everyone to become a publisher, and by allowing individuals to communicate with each other, potentially to challenge a dictatorship, as described in Belarus in Here Comes Everbody. Social media also allows users to express their personalities online, via everything from plain old homepages to a Youtube account.
But social media could decreases autonomy because it can be used by organizations, like a dictatorship trying better coordinate its efforts to put down a rebellion. And much of the information that people put online to differentiate themselves, can also be used by marketers, governments, or whoever else is able to purchase or collect that data, to identify individuals, their politics, proclivities, and personalities.
Page 51 - 52
"...Each stick of chewing gum we reach for is acutely noted by some computer that translates our least gesture into a new probability curve or some parameter of social science. Our private and corporate lives have become information processes just because we have put our central nervous systems outside us in electric technology."
McLuhan could have written this in the last few years, referring to privacy concerns online.
In reference to new technologies and media, McLuhan writes "They fact that they do interact and span new progeny has been a source of wonder over the ages. It need baffle us no longer if we trouble to scrutinize their action. We can, if we choose, think things out before we put them out."
But starting on page 246 of Here Comes Everybody, Shirky argues that products can be put out more quickly with social media advising the producers, and open source models reducing the economic penalties for putting out a bad product. "Open source doesn't reduce the likelihood of failure, it reduces the cost of failure; it essentially gets failure for free. This reversal, where the cost of deciding what to try is higher than the cost of actually trying them, is true of open systems in general." At the begining of the chapter, Shirky writes "The logic of publish-then-filter means that new social systems have to tolerate enormous amounts of failure. The only way to uncover and promote the rare success, is to rely, once again, on social structure supported by social tools."
Or, as longtime techie and salesman Guy Kawaski writes in Reality Check: "Don't worry about shipping an innovative product with elements of crappiness... If a company waits until everything is perfect, it will never ship, and the market will pass it by."
Shirky and McLuhan's ideas seem to be in conflict. Shirky argues that based on economics, new technology can be pushed out more quickly, because of the ease and prevalence of social media feedback and the lack of economic pain if a product fails because only volunteer time was invested in making the product. McLuhan might find fault with this approach, because if the new medium is going out the door more quickly, then there is probably no time to fully think out its implications for society, or how best it could be used. Shirky's answer might be that the increased speed of social media allows for people to consider the impact of their products as they are being released. Shirky might even argue that this could be one of the changes resulting from a break boundary, which McLuhan mentions in the previous chapter: The speed of interaction afforded by social media might allow us to more easily and quickly identify, analyze and (hopefully) respond to changes in society. These changes are themselves being sped up by the fluidity of thought provided by the Internet and its progeny. McLuhan might argue that it remains to be seen if intelligent thought can be carried out so quickly. Although there is no economic penalty for volunteers working together to quickly put out a bad piece of software, there can be a major penalty, if society is too quick to jump on the bandwagon of a bad idea hashed out too quickly in social media.
Page 51
"The present book, in seeking to understand many media, the conflicts from which they spring, and the even greater conflicts to which they give rise, holds out the promise of reducing these conflicts by an increase in human autonomy."
Does social media increase individual autonomy or decrease it? It increases autonomy by allowing everyone to become a publisher, and by allowing individuals to communicate with each other, potentially to challenge a dictatorship, as described in Belarus in Here Comes Everbody. Social media also allows users to express their personalities online, via everything from plain old homepages to a Youtube account.
But social media could decreases autonomy because it can be used by organizations, like a dictatorship trying better coordinate its efforts to put down a rebellion. And much of the information that people put online to differentiate themselves, can also be used by marketers, governments, or whoever else is able to purchase or collect that data, to identify individuals, their politics, proclivities, and personalities.
Page 51 - 52
"...Each stick of chewing gum we reach for is acutely noted by some computer that translates our least gesture into a new probability curve or some parameter of social science. Our private and corporate lives have become information processes just because we have put our central nervous systems outside us in electric technology."
McLuhan could have written this in the last few years, referring to privacy concerns online.
Understanding Media: Chapter 4 The Gadget Lover
Page 38
I suspect the internet is a break boundary, but I'm not sure how. I mean, I'm taking a class about it, so it must be important, right...!?! It seems to be at least as significant as the switch from the still photo, to the motion picture, which McLuhan mentions as a break boundary. Perhaps the "reversal of itself" will be that although we have access to vastly more information online, if old media structures go away and people stop going to books (as has been posited in our readings), we may have less access to reliable information.
Page 41
The passage on Narcissus could easily apply to social media. Sites like MySpace or Facebook can be all about the user, and the user's friends. Tools like blogs or Twitter can show the user his or her own reflection, by allowing him or her to associate with similar people. The Narcissus myth can almost literally come true for some people online, as social media and other tools eat up all their free time, the way television used to.
On a tangentially related note, this is a not-so-serious look at online addiction, which is also a completely serious advertisement. I had no idea it was an ad until the last 10 seconds, although I was marveling at how well done it was. I have seen more and more of these kinds of videos on Youtube... Perhaps this is the economic model of content on the internet: Advertisers create the content, or hire an agency which does so.
Page 42 - 43
This did not end well for Narcissus. Although, I guess if you turn into a flower after you die, that's not TOO bad.
The associated myth of echo seems to have a useful warning for heavy tweeters and bloggers: "Echo had one failing; she was fond of talking, and whether in chat or argument, would have the last word."
Page 47
"In the electric age we wear all mankind as our skin." This could apply to the increasing communications on the internet, and the increasing amount of information transmitted. Perhaps the digital age will change our "strategic numbing," and make us aware of new things, as McLuhan said the electronic age made us aware of technology as an extension of our bodies, and gave us guilt associated with social consciousness. What that new revelation might be I have no idea.
I suspect the internet is a break boundary, but I'm not sure how. I mean, I'm taking a class about it, so it must be important, right...!?! It seems to be at least as significant as the switch from the still photo, to the motion picture, which McLuhan mentions as a break boundary. Perhaps the "reversal of itself" will be that although we have access to vastly more information online, if old media structures go away and people stop going to books (as has been posited in our readings), we may have less access to reliable information.
Page 41
The passage on Narcissus could easily apply to social media. Sites like MySpace or Facebook can be all about the user, and the user's friends. Tools like blogs or Twitter can show the user his or her own reflection, by allowing him or her to associate with similar people. The Narcissus myth can almost literally come true for some people online, as social media and other tools eat up all their free time, the way television used to.
On a tangentially related note, this is a not-so-serious look at online addiction, which is also a completely serious advertisement. I had no idea it was an ad until the last 10 seconds, although I was marveling at how well done it was. I have seen more and more of these kinds of videos on Youtube... Perhaps this is the economic model of content on the internet: Advertisers create the content, or hire an agency which does so.
Page 42 - 43
The stimulus to new invention is the stress of accelerations of pace and increase of load. For example, in the case of the wheel as an extension of the foot, the pressure of new burdens resulting from the acceleration of exchange by written and monetary media was the immediate occasion of the extension or "amputation" of this function from our bodies. The wheel as a counter-irritant to increased burdens, in turn, brings about a new intensity of action by its amplification of a separate or isolated function (the feet in rotation). Such amplification is bearable by the nervous system only through numbness or blocking of perception. This is the sense of the narcissus myth. The young man's image is a self-amputation or extension induced by irritating pressures. As a counter-irritant, the image produces a generalized numbness or shock hat declines recognition. Self-amputation forbids self recognition.Essentially, McLuhan is arguing that any significant new media causes a shock to its viewers or users, similar to falling a few feet. He argues that the body's response it to go into shock, and become numb. Therefore, people become like Narcissus, obsessed with whatever the new tool is that has been introduced, and unable to turn away.
This did not end well for Narcissus. Although, I guess if you turn into a flower after you die, that's not TOO bad.
The associated myth of echo seems to have a useful warning for heavy tweeters and bloggers: "Echo had one failing; she was fond of talking, and whether in chat or argument, would have the last word."
Page 47
"In the electric age we wear all mankind as our skin." This could apply to the increasing communications on the internet, and the increasing amount of information transmitted. Perhaps the digital age will change our "strategic numbing," and make us aware of new things, as McLuhan said the electronic age made us aware of technology as an extension of our bodies, and gave us guilt associated with social consciousness. What that new revelation might be I have no idea.
Understanding Media: Chapter 3 Reversal of the Overheated Medium
Page 35
This section of the text seems similar to Shirky's argument (Here Comes Everybody, page 66), that journalists are as outmoded as scribes when the printing press was invented. In the example above, washing machines have similarly made servants obsolete. McLuhan's description of the decentralization of electricity also could apply to the internet, where the ease of publishing is allowing many new voices to join the media conversation (albeit to a much smaller audience), than in the old media world, where you needed a printing press or a broadcast license to become part of the media. This passage from McLuhan could also be used to buttress Colin's argument in class, that young people will have to work faster in the future. In offices where secretaries did typing, minor writing, and filing a generation ago, now that work no longer requires as much time or skill, so it is computerized and spread around the staff (decentralized).
BUT... Does McLuhan's example about work at home still apply? There has been another change on the homefront since he wrote this book in 1964: Many more married women now work. This is another example of decentralization in the electric age, as both men and women are in the workforce. It could be argued that electricity contributed to the move of women into the workforce, after the feminist movement of the 1960's and 1970's. The home electric work saving devices McLuhan mentions, may also have given women in the home enough time to stop and think about whether they should be allowed to work, if they choose, or if their families might be better able to get by, if they were bringing home a paycheck.
Page 37
Will the techies driving the internet and inventing social media become the next "betrayers to power?" Perhaps by collecting massive amounts of information about people for the use of "authorities" like marketers, governments, or other organizations?
...It is not the increase of numbers in the world that creates our concern with population. Rather, it is the fact that everybody in the world has to live in the utmost proximity to created by our electric involvement in one another's lives. ... Departmental sovereignties have melted away as rapidly as national sovereignties under conditions of electric speed. Electricity does not centralize, but decentralizes. ... This reverse pattern appeared quite early in electrical "labor-saving" devices, whether a toaster or washing machine or vacuum cleaner. Instead of saving work, these devices permit everybody to do his own work. What the nineteenth century had delegated to servants and housemaids, we now do for ourselves. This principle applies in toto in the electric age.
This section of the text seems similar to Shirky's argument (Here Comes Everybody, page 66), that journalists are as outmoded as scribes when the printing press was invented. In the example above, washing machines have similarly made servants obsolete. McLuhan's description of the decentralization of electricity also could apply to the internet, where the ease of publishing is allowing many new voices to join the media conversation (albeit to a much smaller audience), than in the old media world, where you needed a printing press or a broadcast license to become part of the media. This passage from McLuhan could also be used to buttress Colin's argument in class, that young people will have to work faster in the future. In offices where secretaries did typing, minor writing, and filing a generation ago, now that work no longer requires as much time or skill, so it is computerized and spread around the staff (decentralized).
BUT... Does McLuhan's example about work at home still apply? There has been another change on the homefront since he wrote this book in 1964: Many more married women now work. This is another example of decentralization in the electric age, as both men and women are in the workforce. It could be argued that electricity contributed to the move of women into the workforce, after the feminist movement of the 1960's and 1970's. The home electric work saving devices McLuhan mentions, may also have given women in the home enough time to stop and think about whether they should be allowed to work, if they choose, or if their families might be better able to get by, if they were bringing home a paycheck.
Page 37
Will the techies driving the internet and inventing social media become the next "betrayers to power?" Perhaps by collecting massive amounts of information about people for the use of "authorities" like marketers, governments, or other organizations?
Monday, November 30, 2009
Life After Newspapers
This post is a response to a question raised on the class blog.
If newspapers go away, there will still be several sources of news available. Offline commercial news sources would continue to exist, like television and radio, which have been hit less hard during the recession. They will presumably continue to have a news presence on the web.
Specialty publications like the Connecticut Law Tribune, and the Hartford Business Journal will continue to exist. Their business model appears to be different from most commercial newspapers, radio, and TV, which get most or all of their money from advertising. Specialty publications instead make much more of their money from subscriptions. The weekly Hartford Business Journal charges about $80 dollars for a 1-year subscription, which works out to almost $2 per issue. The Connecticut Law Tribune, for instance, charges $199 for online-only subscriptions, and one source charges more than twice that for print and online access, for a price of about eight dollars per issue, of this weekly publication. Some specialty publications make money by hosting conferences or events. If newspapers went away, I would occasionally look at these web sites for a limited slice of local news, that was professionally gathered and edited. I would read some of the content that was publicly available, but I would not pay the subscription fees.
Nonprofit news organizations would continue to exist, since they get their money from grants, supporting organizations, and audience donations. Connecticut radio has several examples of this sort of organization, including college radio stations like WQUN, which receives support from Quinnipiac, and streams online. NPR affiliates WNPR (Give now!) and WSHU (Pledge now!) both get much of their income from donations, and thus should survive the advertising implosion threatening newspapers. NPR would presumably survive as a national news source, because of its nonprofit approach. The Connecticut News Project would become a bigger part of my news diet. So would The New Haven Independent, or an organization like it, if it covered my part of the state. I would consider making a donation to one of these organizations, if it became my main source of news.
Local blog news would become a larger part of my news diet in a post-newspaper world, but primarily if they cover my town. A quick search turned up nothing like this for my hometown of Plainville. I might contribute to a local 'journalistic' blogger, by sending story suggestions, photos, or interesting information, but I would be less likely to voluntarily send money to a person, or to an organization that is for-profit.
I might use Wikipedia as a news source, programming it to provide me with updates when certain articles are changed, about things I am interested in. This is a poor solution, because it would be limited to things I had a previous interest in, and because Wikipedia claims it is not a source of journalism. But other sites treat it as such. Wikipedia's sister site, Wikinews might be a national news alternative, but today it seems to include a lot of material re-written from old-school media sources, especially the Voice of America (which they say is in the public domain). Perhaps I would be better served going directly to government-funded news like the VOA, BBC, and CBC.
The death of newspapers could either break aggregators like Google News and Yahoo News, or make them more useful. Yahoo's local news function relies heavily on traditional media offerings, with the Hartford local search showing most of the newspapers and TV news operations in the state, plus Connecticut Public Radio. When you localize Google News for Hartford, CT shortly before midnight, November 29, you get 14 Hartford Courant articles, 2 Meriden Record Journal articles, and one article each from the Greenwich Time, the New Britain Herald, and something called Connecticut PLUS, which copies and pastes press releases from the governor's office, and the Sound Tigers. If most of these sources die, the aggregator will have nothing local to aggregate, and they will be useless for local news. But aggregators would become more useful, if they were able to pluck reliable information from the blogosphere.
When it comes to my news tastes, my first instinct is to look for organizations, rather than individuals, in the hope that a group, whether volunteers, nonprofit, or for-profit, would build in some sort of editorial backstop, and be more likely to continue producing content, even when somebody goes on vacation for a week. Perhaps this is a personal bias, based on my status as a partial digital immigrant.
Newspaper web sites have at least one thing going for them: They are the simplest way to go to one place, and get a quick, fairly reliable summary of what is going on in an area.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Hacking for Government Openness
I wonder if there is anything the Hackathon people can do to help Litchfield, Lyme (which seems to have given up its old web address to a site that advertises Lyme disease T-shirts, remedies for dog lupus, and cream for genital warts), and several other towns that don't have web sites, and therefore don't have their agendas or other town information online.
On a related note, I notice that one of the Hackathon events focuses on Drupal, which I only have heard mentioned recently in citizen journalism contexts.
On the Other Future of News gathering, set for about 2 weeks from now: "It's tentatively scheduled for somewhere - we need a venue in Mpls-St. Paul."
It may be a bad sign that even though they don't know where they are going to meet, they DO know "There will be beer."
But as with any online journalism project, the business model is still a challenge. "How that [the beer] gets paid for is unknown at this point."
I hope two things come of this: 1) Now that I have made fun of them, they will be wildly successful, and hit on the key to the future success of online journalism. 2) They will soon post a venue, and this will all be moot.
On a related note, I notice that one of the Hackathon events focuses on Drupal, which I only have heard mentioned recently in citizen journalism contexts.
On the Other Future of News gathering, set for about 2 weeks from now: "It's tentatively scheduled for somewhere - we need a venue in Mpls-St. Paul."
It may be a bad sign that even though they don't know where they are going to meet, they DO know "There will be beer."
But as with any online journalism project, the business model is still a challenge. "How that [the beer] gets paid for is unknown at this point."
I hope two things come of this: 1) Now that I have made fun of them, they will be wildly successful, and hit on the key to the future success of online journalism. 2) They will soon post a venue, and this will all be moot.
E-Democracy Post
I would make a change to the post "E-Democracy, E-Governance and Public Net-Work." Instead of a one-way progression, I would turn it into a circle, with the public work and policy (at least theoretically) flowing back to the populace, in the form of laws they must follow and services they receive.
The online world certainly provides new ways for the governed to communicated with, and get information from the government. The ease of sending an e-mail may prompt some Congressional staffers to reduce their value, in comparison to phone calls or letters on paper, sent through the mail. In the end, the elected representative still makes the final decision.
I think Clift likes his E-Democracy Conceptual Model. He made it look like a flower!
E-Government
The most interesting part of e-government is online voting. It has already been tried, but should this change in technology prompt a change in the way decisions are made in government?
A local election in Honolulu accepted votes only online or over the phone. Here is coverage from a mostly-positive, milquetoast specialty publication, and a more critical editorial from a local newspaper.
On the federal level, the FCC (the agency best-known for regulating broadcast media, and some of the companies that carry internet data) is accepting comment on online voting, online registration and online public hearings. (Comments can indeed be filed online.)
Many organizations are already using online voting. Student government at state schools in California apparently got it right, on the fourth try. Of course, there is much more at stake in a government election.
The internet makes it easier and cheaper to gather votes of millions of people, so should more issues in government be voted on? I don't think this sort of change should be made based on cost savings offered by new technology.
A local election in Honolulu accepted votes only online or over the phone. Here is coverage from a mostly-positive, milquetoast specialty publication, and a more critical editorial from a local newspaper.
On the federal level, the FCC (the agency best-known for regulating broadcast media, and some of the companies that carry internet data) is accepting comment on online voting, online registration and online public hearings. (Comments can indeed be filed online.)
Many organizations are already using online voting. Student government at state schools in California apparently got it right, on the fourth try. Of course, there is much more at stake in a government election.
The internet makes it easier and cheaper to gather votes of millions of people, so should more issues in government be voted on? I don't think this sort of change should be made based on cost savings offered by new technology.
Product of Pain
Photo by Matt Dwyer.
Parts of it seemed dated. Do people in 2009 think Tivo is going to have a significant impact on the media landscape? Friendster...? (Although given the subsequent success of MySpace and Facebook, it was prescient of the creators to include a social networking site.)
As I listened to the video, I wondered where information used in the customized computer-generated news stories people were receiving from future theoretical information outlets was coming from, and what sort of information would be available for this product. Where are the "editors" these future people are subscribing too are getting their news, to remix for their audiences? (This idea was prescient of Twitter and simply an extension of blog followers). Presumably newspaper and other "old media" web sites have pretty much vanished by 2014 in the video scenario, so it can't come from them. As the video mentions, the information could be gathered by "everybody" (or at least the small percentage of any online community that contributes enthusiastically), plus public relations and government data released online.
Based on observation, in a traditional news sense, "everybody" would be good at reporting on things that effect large groups of people suddenly, like natural disasters or the Iranian election. "Everybody" would be good at chewing things over, like George Bush's hump, or Megan McCain's bumps. "Everybody" would also do a good job of covering things that interested everybody who is part of the top of the power law distribution. Right now, that means things like the top search terms on Twitter: The vampire movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," and celebusician Lady Gaga. "Everybody" would be poor at covering boring stuff, like local government. Presumably the web crawlers of the future will be able to find your town's web site, and decode the agenda or minutes for local meetings, and (possibly) determine what is interesting, but it remains to be seen if the bloggers of the future will be able or willing to fill in the human details in an accurate way.
Perhaps media training efforts like this NPR/PBS effort with American University's Center for Social Media will help "everybody" learn how to be a reporter?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Twitter Use 5
Twitter can be used for real-time storytelling. This could be helpful for journalists or authors, who want to have an audience experience their work "live."
Perhaps play-by-play of sports events could be delivered this way. A high school student newspaper in New Jersey says they are already doing it, but I don't see any evidence of it on their Twitter feed. The Huffington Post promises live Twitter coverage of NFL games on sundays, but it seems more like a Tweeted sports talk show about the NFL, than actual information about what is happening right now in any given game.
I decided to try a couple of extremely simple examples of real-time stories, involving two Tweets each, ("BEFORE throwing out newspapers," "AFTER throwing out newspapers," "BEFORE getting a haircut," "AFTER getting a haircut.") showing what happens happens when you take out old newspapers, and when you get a haircut. Although they are not quite live, something does happen, and they are visual.
I have to admit that real time story telling is not unique to Twitter. Other social media have feeds, and even regular web sites have the ability to change or update over time... But Twitter makes it easily mobile through cell phones.
Perhaps play-by-play of sports events could be delivered this way. A high school student newspaper in New Jersey says they are already doing it, but I don't see any evidence of it on their Twitter feed. The Huffington Post promises live Twitter coverage of NFL games on sundays, but it seems more like a Tweeted sports talk show about the NFL, than actual information about what is happening right now in any given game.
I decided to try a couple of extremely simple examples of real-time stories, involving two Tweets each, ("BEFORE throwing out newspapers," "AFTER throwing out newspapers," "BEFORE getting a haircut," "AFTER getting a haircut.") showing what happens happens when you take out old newspapers, and when you get a haircut. Although they are not quite live, something does happen, and they are visual.
I have to admit that real time story telling is not unique to Twitter. Other social media have feeds, and even regular web sites have the ability to change or update over time... But Twitter makes it easily mobile through cell phones.
Before and After Haircut 2
Getting a haircut.
After.
I'm not sure After really looks any better. You could land an F-22 on my forehead. Maybe it will look more normal after I take a shower.
This is more class-related Twitter fodder. Really.
Before and After Newspaper 2
After.
This is just fodder for something to put on Twitter, to test it out.
Twitter Use 4
Twitter can be used for poetry. Artists often create artificial limits for themselves, in part as a way of focusing their creativity. Haiku can serve this purpose. Its short length translates well to Tweets.
At least one hash tag has been created for micro poetry. #micropoetry seems active.
A technological approach can be taken, like this web site, which seems to use a computer program to determine which tweets rhyme, then matches them at random. The Tweets become a raw material for other art.
Also posted outside of Twitter, Madeline40 used 140 character poems for a serious reason: To honor her late son. Maybe she chose this form because she has been a technical writer?
In the loosest definition of poetry, anything anyone writes on Twitter is a poem, whether the author thinks of it that way or not. Of course, under the loosest definition of poetry, pretty much anything written by anyone is a poem.
Of course there are people offering advice on how to write Tweets.
If you read this far, you deserve a laugh.
At least one hash tag has been created for micro poetry. #micropoetry seems active.
A technological approach can be taken, like this web site, which seems to use a computer program to determine which tweets rhyme, then matches them at random. The Tweets become a raw material for other art.
Also posted outside of Twitter, Madeline40 used 140 character poems for a serious reason: To honor her late son. Maybe she chose this form because she has been a technical writer?
In the loosest definition of poetry, anything anyone writes on Twitter is a poem, whether the author thinks of it that way or not. Of course, under the loosest definition of poetry, pretty much anything written by anyone is a poem.
Of course there are people offering advice on how to write Tweets.
If you read this far, you deserve a laugh.
Twitter Use 3
Twitter can be a reason to justify the purchase of a souped-up cell phone, and a 2-year service contract potentially costing a couple of thousand dollars.
One of its founders was focused on designing a service for taxi drivers constantly on the go, and that approach has translated to new cell phones and mobile devices with screens, quick (sometimes unlimited) internet access, keyboards, cameras, and video cameras. These phones often have scaled-down browsers, nano-size keyboards, and 2-inch or 3-inch screens, so there is a limited number of things to do on the web. Twitter's character limit on Tweets puts mobile phone users typing with their thumbs on the same footing as regular computer users bashing away at keyboards. Twitter reaches full flower when used on a cell phone.
There is also a cool factor. If you just bought an iPhone 3Gs ($699 for the 32GB model, without a contract) or an Android (the phone so powerful, its web site hung my browser), you need to have a reason to take it out of your pocket. Twitter gives you that reason.
One of its founders was focused on designing a service for taxi drivers constantly on the go, and that approach has translated to new cell phones and mobile devices with screens, quick (sometimes unlimited) internet access, keyboards, cameras, and video cameras. These phones often have scaled-down browsers, nano-size keyboards, and 2-inch or 3-inch screens, so there is a limited number of things to do on the web. Twitter's character limit on Tweets puts mobile phone users typing with their thumbs on the same footing as regular computer users bashing away at keyboards. Twitter reaches full flower when used on a cell phone.
There is also a cool factor. If you just bought an iPhone 3Gs ($699 for the 32GB model, without a contract) or an Android (the phone so powerful, its web site hung my browser), you need to have a reason to take it out of your pocket. Twitter gives you that reason.
Twitter Use 2
Twitter can be used simply to alert people of changes to new content that has been posted somewhere, in an old-media, broadcast-based model.
CBS Radio News provides an interesting example of this. This approach does not really take advantage of the interactivity of a medium like Twitter, but it does get your message out to a large number of people (5,780 right now, in CBS Radio News' case) quickly. Of course, an organization with a small or medium sized staff probably does not have enough manpower to have someone sitting on every social media site, interacting with users all day. CBS Radio News' twitter presence is somewhat odd, because instead of pushing people towards a web site, it pushes people towards an hourly radio newscast, while also providing a single headline per hour (on the weekends at least, there may be more during the week).
This example is also interesting because of the way it meshes the round-the-clock, short-burst needs of radio, with that of social media. The messages being sent on Twitter today have been written for years, perhaps for decades, and sent to radio stations that air the CBS Radio newscasts on the hour. They are used by the stations, to have some idea of what programming is coming up, so they can plan their own programming. Some of the local stations read the messages on-air, to promote the network newscast.
CBS Radio News provides an interesting example of this. This approach does not really take advantage of the interactivity of a medium like Twitter, but it does get your message out to a large number of people (5,780 right now, in CBS Radio News' case) quickly. Of course, an organization with a small or medium sized staff probably does not have enough manpower to have someone sitting on every social media site, interacting with users all day. CBS Radio News' twitter presence is somewhat odd, because instead of pushing people towards a web site, it pushes people towards an hourly radio newscast, while also providing a single headline per hour (on the weekends at least, there may be more during the week).
This example is also interesting because of the way it meshes the round-the-clock, short-burst needs of radio, with that of social media. The messages being sent on Twitter today have been written for years, perhaps for decades, and sent to radio stations that air the CBS Radio newscasts on the hour. They are used by the stations, to have some idea of what programming is coming up, so they can plan their own programming. Some of the local stations read the messages on-air, to promote the network newscast.
Twitter Use 1
As one of the five ways to use Twitter, people could use it to keep a group together while on-the-go, sending quick messages or links back and forth, for situations in which complicated, back-and-forth explanations are not necessary. According to the poster Kasey found, one of the predecessor applications to Twitter was a program that allowed taxi drivers to communicate.
An article from a marketing blog explains Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's inspiration: "Jack was fascinated by the fact that all the users of this software – taxi drivers, limo drivers, couriers – were really just reporting what they were doing; stripping information down to its bare essence. And thus the seed for Twitter was planted."
Although Twitter might not be ideal for a weekly class, where the ideas are bigger, students are not necessarily on the road, and immediacy is less of a concern, I suggest the class use a hash tag to track our class-related comments. I sent this message to a list of class members who put their Twitter usernames on their blogs:
#Trinblogwar For students in the Trinity Blog Warriors class I suggest this hash tag. Put it in class-related Tweets. Please!Using a hash tag would make it easier for class members to follow each other, by simply clicking on the hash tag in any message, instead of trying to find the Twitter accounts of class members, and then creating a list, as I did. It might also allow members of the class who use the hash tag to more easily have a conversation, and for other people, both in the class and outside it, to follow along.
An article from a marketing blog explains Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's inspiration: "Jack was fascinated by the fact that all the users of this software – taxi drivers, limo drivers, couriers – were really just reporting what they were doing; stripping information down to its bare essence. And thus the seed for Twitter was planted."
Although Twitter might not be ideal for a weekly class, where the ideas are bigger, students are not necessarily on the road, and immediacy is less of a concern, I suggest the class use a hash tag to track our class-related comments. I sent this message to a list of class members who put their Twitter usernames on their blogs:
#Trinblogwar For students in the Trinity Blog Warriors class I suggest this hash tag. Put it in class-related Tweets. Please!Using a hash tag would make it easier for class members to follow each other, by simply clicking on the hash tag in any message, instead of trying to find the Twitter accounts of class members, and then creating a list, as I did. It might also allow members of the class who use the hash tag to more easily have a conversation, and for other people, both in the class and outside it, to follow along.
Before and After Haircut 1
Getting a haircut.
I'm not sure After really looks any better. You could land an F-22 on my forehead. Maybe it will look more normal after I take a shower.
This is more class-related Twitter fodder. Really.
Before.
I'm not sure After really looks any better. You could land an F-22 on my forehead. Maybe it will look more normal after I take a shower.
This is more class-related Twitter fodder. Really.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Twitter Signup Liveblog 1
The first sign up screen seems to follow the Twitter approach of simplicity. It asks for relatively few pieces of information.
No thanks to e-mail updates.
I do NOT want to give my e-mail password, either. I know it is the latest and greatest in social networking, and allows you to connect to everyone on your contact list in your e-mail account, but I think that borders on spam for those other people! Not everyone in my list is really a personal friend. I have gotten what I suspected were zombie friend requests in the past this way, and I usually ignored them. The design of the Twitter sign up (and some other web sites, like Facebook), don't explain that this is an option, give you the impression this is just part of the sign-up process, and that it is something you have to do, Yuck!
No thanks to e-mail updates.
I do NOT want to give my e-mail password, either. I know it is the latest and greatest in social networking, and allows you to connect to everyone on your contact list in your e-mail account, but I think that borders on spam for those other people! Not everyone in my list is really a personal friend. I have gotten what I suspected were zombie friend requests in the past this way, and I usually ignored them. The design of the Twitter sign up (and some other web sites, like Facebook), don't explain that this is an option, give you the impression this is just part of the sign-up process, and that it is something you have to do, Yuck!
Alyssa Milano? David Pogue? Wait, why are these people here? Did they or their companies pay to be my initial pool of information providers? Here is some info about this. Here is a man making a point about the commodification of suggesting users, and promoting himself at the same time. When I refresh the web page I get a different set of people/organizations. Except Alyssa. She stuck with me. I think she likes me. He, he, he...
Wait! I refreshed again, and Alyssa was replaced by... IVANKA TRUMP!?! I'm dumping all these people.
Okay, so now I am on Twitter. I'm SquishyG.
Pre-Twitter Warmup Part 2
The operator of a hyper local web site mentioned over on the main blog checked in there. She responded to a question I posted, seeking a little behind-the-scenes info on a local journalism blog... Check it out!
My Pre-Twitter Warmup
In an echo from a topic we discussed in class a few weeks ago, the Journal Inquirer has now sued the Hartford Courant. Here is the JI article, and here is the initial Courant story.
I do have to give the JI credit for being internally awake enough to give itself the story, and not get scooped by itself (sometimes for internal reasons beyond the newsroom, that happens at media companies). I also have to give the Courant some credit for posting their story about this (at some organizations, a manager in over his head might have told the reporters to stay away from the story for legal reasons).
If this lawsuit goes through the court system without being settled, I wonder if the structures of the two newspapers will have changed so much, that they will no longer be in the newspaper business -- Or if they will even exist in a recognizable form a few years from now.
This issue so important to the JI that the organization is spending money to go to court over it. Is it because the JI is charging for access to its web site, and therefore sees that as its business model? Most newspapers don't mind if they are "properly" aggregated (the aggregator drives extra traffic to the aggregatee newspaper, giving the newspaper extra pageviews, and therefore more advertising revenue). But if the JI's plan is to sell access to its web site to paying customers, then the newspaper would have to be vigilant about controlling the use of its stories. That is difficult to do in the age of copy and paste.
I also wonder what the other newspapers that the Courant took its information from will do.
I do have to give the JI credit for being internally awake enough to give itself the story, and not get scooped by itself (sometimes for internal reasons beyond the newsroom, that happens at media companies). I also have to give the Courant some credit for posting their story about this (at some organizations, a manager in over his head might have told the reporters to stay away from the story for legal reasons).
If this lawsuit goes through the court system without being settled, I wonder if the structures of the two newspapers will have changed so much, that they will no longer be in the newspaper business -- Or if they will even exist in a recognizable form a few years from now.
This issue so important to the JI that the organization is spending money to go to court over it. Is it because the JI is charging for access to its web site, and therefore sees that as its business model? Most newspapers don't mind if they are "properly" aggregated (the aggregator drives extra traffic to the aggregatee newspaper, giving the newspaper extra pageviews, and therefore more advertising revenue). But if the JI's plan is to sell access to its web site to paying customers, then the newspaper would have to be vigilant about controlling the use of its stories. That is difficult to do in the age of copy and paste.
I also wonder what the other newspapers that the Courant took its information from will do.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Theoretical Nonprofit Online Journalism Organization
My area of focus was collaboration for my group's legacy/tech fusion site.
I suggest we recruit bloggers to address certain areas of legislation, or to focus on certain state agencies. We could structure the bloggers the same way government is structured, so in the legislative branch, one blogger might focus on a certain committee in the general assembly. In the executive branch, we could have each blogger follow a certain agency.
For example, perhaps we could recruit this blogger to write about the Department of Transporation. Or perhaps this blogger might be enticed to write about the General Assembly Judiciary Committee. The first job would be to find bloggers who are writing about topics related to state agencies or committees.
The state does put a large amount of material online, so this could be fertile ground for bloggers.
The bloggers could then continue their lives as normal, just with a little more of a focus. Our publication could then take recruited bloggers posts and link to them and/or run them on our site. (Perhaps some sort of arrangement where we run the first several paragraphs of a story on our site, then provide a link to a full post on their site?) In keeping with our "professional" ethos, we would exercise editorial control over anything appearing on our site, although I could imagine a Wikipedia model, where an instant ad-hoc committee of editors makes choices like this. If a blogger goes bad, we might have to remove their affiliation, and stop accepting material from them.
Our publication would get a much larger staff, by bringing in bloggers. This would give us better content, and hopefully more interesting stories for our audience. Our publication would have to give some of our time to manage and train the bloggers. This would involve a much greater time commitment than simply putting up comment boxes, but if we could find an efficient way to use the bloggers, I think it would be worth it.
The bloggers would get several things out of this...
If people realize our web site is a nerve center for the bloggers, our site may get good traffic, and some of that traffic can be allowed to flow to the bloggers' sites. Either way, the bloggers' work gets more attention.
Some of them may not realize that following a specific agency or committee will give them interesting, original things to write about. Beginning students in journalism classes I have taken over the years are often reluctant to get specific in their story ideas. Bloggers without training may also fail to realize that stories are about the specifics, not generalities. Working with our publication could open up this idea to them. We could provide them with some training on the basics of journalism (maybe something along these lines?), and advice from our professional reporters on how to get info and stories in Connecticut. This would probably involve some face time with the bloggers, perhaps in occasional classes, or awards?
Our publication would also give the bloggers some legitimacy, which might give them the confidence to leave home, and perhaps go to the capitol or a state agency headquarters from time-to-time... Or maybe even to venture into the world to see how the agency's work is turning out.
Affiliating with the publication might also give the bloggers an easy way to explain who they are, when the security guard at the front desk of a state agency questions their presence.
I suggest we recruit bloggers to address certain areas of legislation, or to focus on certain state agencies. We could structure the bloggers the same way government is structured, so in the legislative branch, one blogger might focus on a certain committee in the general assembly. In the executive branch, we could have each blogger follow a certain agency.
For example, perhaps we could recruit this blogger to write about the Department of Transporation. Or perhaps this blogger might be enticed to write about the General Assembly Judiciary Committee. The first job would be to find bloggers who are writing about topics related to state agencies or committees.
The state does put a large amount of material online, so this could be fertile ground for bloggers.
The bloggers could then continue their lives as normal, just with a little more of a focus. Our publication could then take recruited bloggers posts and link to them and/or run them on our site. (Perhaps some sort of arrangement where we run the first several paragraphs of a story on our site, then provide a link to a full post on their site?) In keeping with our "professional" ethos, we would exercise editorial control over anything appearing on our site, although I could imagine a Wikipedia model, where an instant ad-hoc committee of editors makes choices like this. If a blogger goes bad, we might have to remove their affiliation, and stop accepting material from them.
Our publication would get a much larger staff, by bringing in bloggers. This would give us better content, and hopefully more interesting stories for our audience. Our publication would have to give some of our time to manage and train the bloggers. This would involve a much greater time commitment than simply putting up comment boxes, but if we could find an efficient way to use the bloggers, I think it would be worth it.
The bloggers would get several things out of this...
If people realize our web site is a nerve center for the bloggers, our site may get good traffic, and some of that traffic can be allowed to flow to the bloggers' sites. Either way, the bloggers' work gets more attention.
Some of them may not realize that following a specific agency or committee will give them interesting, original things to write about. Beginning students in journalism classes I have taken over the years are often reluctant to get specific in their story ideas. Bloggers without training may also fail to realize that stories are about the specifics, not generalities. Working with our publication could open up this idea to them. We could provide them with some training on the basics of journalism (maybe something along these lines?), and advice from our professional reporters on how to get info and stories in Connecticut. This would probably involve some face time with the bloggers, perhaps in occasional classes, or awards?
Our publication would also give the bloggers some legitimacy, which might give them the confidence to leave home, and perhaps go to the capitol or a state agency headquarters from time-to-time... Or maybe even to venture into the world to see how the agency's work is turning out.
Affiliating with the publication might also give the bloggers an easy way to explain who they are, when the security guard at the front desk of a state agency questions their presence.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Where We Live on Local Web Sites and Patch.com
I notice that the panel discussion on hyper-local news outlets mentioned in the Where We Live podcast is sponsored by the Connecticut chapter of the Public Relations Society.
We have not discussed it in class, but perhaps this is what will replace journalism: Public relations.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says as of 2006, there were about 243,000 "public relations specialists" in the US. They outnumbered reporters by almost 4 to 1. And that was three years ago -- There are fewer reporters now.
Some people think this is a healthy thing. Mr. Cavanaugh points out that people are able to access more journalism today than in the past. This is correct as far as it goes. People can access articles instantly from all over the world on the web. Twenty years ago newspapers from out-of-town were hard to get. But even though it is easier to get the journalism that is produced, it is still important that the investigatory work be done so there are stories worth looking for. Some of these stories alter governments, businesses, or inform people about problems they did not know about before.
A professor I had at UConn who had worked in both journalism and public relations said the difference between a spokesperson and a reporter is that a public relations person will have to lie . A reporter gets in trouble if they do that.
The public relations person is responsible to the client. A reporter is responsible to the audience. There is a difference.
We have not discussed it in class, but perhaps this is what will replace journalism: Public relations.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says as of 2006, there were about 243,000 "public relations specialists" in the US. They outnumbered reporters by almost 4 to 1. And that was three years ago -- There are fewer reporters now.
Some people think this is a healthy thing. Mr. Cavanaugh points out that people are able to access more journalism today than in the past. This is correct as far as it goes. People can access articles instantly from all over the world on the web. Twenty years ago newspapers from out-of-town were hard to get. But even though it is easier to get the journalism that is produced, it is still important that the investigatory work be done so there are stories worth looking for. Some of these stories alter governments, businesses, or inform people about problems they did not know about before.
A professor I had at UConn who had worked in both journalism and public relations said the difference between a spokesperson and a reporter is that a public relations person will have to lie . A reporter gets in trouble if they do that.
The public relations person is responsible to the client. A reporter is responsible to the audience. There is a difference.
The Connecticut News Project
Here is an updated post on the Connecticut News Project. It looks like they will start producing material at the beginning of next year.
I notice on the Courant Alumni Refugee site, the part about being an "investigative" journalism organization is crossed out, and replaced with the word "online." I hope they really understand the difference between the two.
It seems as though online news organizations have two competing strategies to get audience:
- Create lots of stories, spending little time on each one, and hope that people will click back often during the day to see what new stories have been posted in the last few hours.
- Create fewer stories, but try to make content that people will be likely to share with their friends.
Unless you have an unlimited number of staffers, I don't think you can do both.
On the business side, it looks like in a general sense they might be trying to push newspaper-style journalism into the same category as arts organizations like symphonies, theaters, ballet troupes or opera companies that the market probably cannot support, but which many people consider good things to have around for cultural reasons, and for civic pride. However, these sorts of arts organizations rely on goodwill in the form of donations, which they might get through pledge drives (like at Connecticut Public Broadcasting), and in the form of government support or cooperation, which they will much less likely to get (most Hartford politicians spit on the ground every time they say the Courant's name). If a nonprofit journalism organization writes some stories showing a governor in a bad light, then goes to that governor's arts and culture agency seeking money, will the organization get the funds? If the journalism organization survives without the money, with that organization think twice the next time it considers posting a story showing the governor in a poor light?
There already is a nonprofit journalism organization in Hartford -- WNPR. (Saturday night, they had three photos of John Dankosky spread around their page. Huh?) Perhaps the two organizations can work together? I wonder if it would have been more efficient for this new organization to affiliate with Connecticut Public Broadcasting. I hope they don't end up competing for the same foundation dollars. Hartford has a very good symphony, but I'm not sure it could support two.
It looks like The Connecticut News Project has already grabbed some domain names.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
That book I mentioned...
...In class this past week, the one that was written by a wiki and had a lot of mentions for software and various products, and a lot of explanation-per-paragraph... It was Content Nation by John Blossom. I'm not sure if you are really the author if your book was "evolved and developed online at ContentNation.com -- literally created by the social media it examines."
Maybe I shouldn't have panned the book out of hand. It covers some of the same turf as Here Comes Everybody, with more breadth, but less depth, including more examples of how social media is used, but spending only a page or two on many of those examples.
It also shows us, (page 320) how social media will help mankind survive a devastating comet fragment impact on Earth, resulting in the deaths of billions of people.
The author is from Westport.
Maybe I shouldn't have panned the book out of hand. It covers some of the same turf as Here Comes Everybody, with more breadth, but less depth, including more examples of how social media is used, but spending only a page or two on many of those examples.
It also shows us, (page 320) how social media will help mankind survive a devastating comet fragment impact on Earth, resulting in the deaths of billions of people.
The author is from Westport.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Voting Video
My election day video is ready... The sound goes away for about 30 seconds in the middle, because I and the election worker are discussing our addresses. When the sound starts up, she notices the microphone I was carrying.
The higher-quality, downloadable Quicktime version should be here, once it finishes uploading.
Here is a lower-quality, streaming version from Facebook:
I also tried to put it on Yahoo Video, but it does not seem to want to upload there.
The higher-quality, downloadable Quicktime version should be here, once it finishes uploading.
Here is a lower-quality, streaming version from Facebook:
I also tried to put it on Yahoo Video, but it does not seem to want to upload there.
Election Day
I voted shortly before noon today in Plainville, at Our Lady of Mercy parish hall.
The poll workers were friendly, and possibly a little bored. Several campaign volunteers sat outside, saying they hoped the turnout picked up at noon, and remarking on the song from the bells of the church next door.
I made a video of it, although I did delete the audio when where one of the poll workers mentioned my home address, and my previous home address (And her previous home address also. She used to live in the same town I lived in before coming to Plainville. I said the poll workers were friendly.) Watch the video in this subsequent post.
The poll workers were also tolerant. They let me go through the voting process clutching an audio recorder and a microphone!
The poll workers were friendly, and possibly a little bored. Several campaign volunteers sat outside, saying they hoped the turnout picked up at noon, and remarking on the song from the bells of the church next door.
I made a video of it, although I did delete the audio when where one of the poll workers mentioned my home address, and my previous home address (And her previous home address also. She used to live in the same town I lived in before coming to Plainville. I said the poll workers were friendly.) Watch the video in this subsequent post.
The poll workers were also tolerant. They let me go through the voting process clutching an audio recorder and a microphone!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Here Comes Everybody Chapter 11
In social media, everyone is the gate keeper, on Page 272. "Wikis take on one of the most basic questions of politcal philosophy: Who will guard the guardians? The answer is, everyone... It takes far longer to write a fake entry, than to fix it."
Page 262: "'Buy Cheesy Poofs' is a different message from 'Join us, and we will invent Cheesy Poofs together.'" I think it was late at night, and Shiky was getting punchy. So am I. Good night.
Page 262: "'Buy Cheesy Poofs' is a different message from 'Join us, and we will invent Cheesy Poofs together.'" I think it was late at night, and Shiky was getting punchy. So am I. Good night.
Here Comes Everybody Chapter 10
The example of the many failing Meetup groups on page 236 is in line with Shirky's theme that things in the digital realm are cheaper -- including failure. "Meetup shows that with low enough barriers to participation, people are not just willing but eager to join together to try things, even if most of those things end up not working," on the next page.
Over on page 242, the emergence of open source software is a better example of the by products of new communications technology than the priest abuse scandals in 1992 verus 2002. In the priest abuse cases, there were more confounding factors. In the software world, the few isolated programmers creating shareware in the early 1990's blossomed into computer-communicating amorphous clouds of hackers creating their own operating systems, web browsers, and office program suites in the early 2000's.
From page 249, on the advantage enjoyed by open source software, in which only volunteer time, not money is invested in each program: "...In world where anyone can tr anything, even the risky stuff can be tried eventually. If a large enough populaion of users is tring things, then the happy accidents have a much higher chance of being discovered."
Over on page 242, the emergence of open source software is a better example of the by products of new communications technology than the priest abuse scandals in 1992 verus 2002. In the priest abuse cases, there were more confounding factors. In the software world, the few isolated programmers creating shareware in the early 1990's blossomed into computer-communicating amorphous clouds of hackers creating their own operating systems, web browsers, and office program suites in the early 2000's.
From page 249, on the advantage enjoyed by open source software, in which only volunteer time, not money is invested in each program: "...In world where anyone can tr anything, even the risky stuff can be tried eventually. If a large enough populaion of users is tring things, then the happy accidents have a much higher chance of being discovered."
Here Comes Everybody Chapter 9
I don't think I would use Dodgeball, the friend of a friend network phone program described on page 218 and 219. The idea of complete strangers walking up to me in a bar seems a little odd, and I would have a tough time having a conversation with someone in that situation. It also seems a little like the "Minority Report" movie situation we discussed in class last week, in which the talking advertisements know Tom Cruise's character's name.
On page 224: "The Dean Campaign had accidentally created a movement for a passionate few, rather than a vote-getting operation." Because they generated too much bonding capital on line, making people feel good about Dean, and themselves, but not moving them to action through bridging capital. ...And I thought they just ran out of money.
A side lesson might be learned from the two examples cited between pages 227 and 229: Strong, easily recognized, well-known personalities can build communities online (Joi Ito's IRC channel), or in the real world (Friends of O'Reilly Camp).
The crux of this chapter comes on page 231. Refering to Ronald Burt's The Social Origins of Good Ideas," Shirky writes: "...bridging caital puts people at greater risk of having good ideas than do any individual traits." The study found that people with access to information from disparate parts of their company had better ideas (as received by their bosses). This makes sense, although I'm not sure if that means companies should get their workers Facebooking with each other. In the real world, this effect might also come into play, but sometimes in less tangible ways. If you have a social connection with someone, they might suggest a piece of music you never heard of, but discover you like, or if you befriend someone very different online, you might get a viewpoint of the world you otherwise would never have exposure to. These are good things in a more quiet way.
On page 224: "The Dean Campaign had accidentally created a movement for a passionate few, rather than a vote-getting operation." Because they generated too much bonding capital on line, making people feel good about Dean, and themselves, but not moving them to action through bridging capital. ...And I thought they just ran out of money.
A side lesson might be learned from the two examples cited between pages 227 and 229: Strong, easily recognized, well-known personalities can build communities online (Joi Ito's IRC channel), or in the real world (Friends of O'Reilly Camp).
The crux of this chapter comes on page 231. Refering to Ronald Burt's The Social Origins of Good Ideas," Shirky writes: "...bridging caital puts people at greater risk of having good ideas than do any individual traits." The study found that people with access to information from disparate parts of their company had better ideas (as received by their bosses). This makes sense, although I'm not sure if that means companies should get their workers Facebooking with each other. In the real world, this effect might also come into play, but sometimes in less tangible ways. If you have a social connection with someone, they might suggest a piece of music you never heard of, but discover you like, or if you befriend someone very different online, you might get a viewpoint of the world you otherwise would never have exposure to. These are good things in a more quiet way.
Here Comes Everybody Chapter 8
Page 198: Reduced transaction costs strike again! "Because they are both internally organized and externally supported, Presbyterians suffer less than Pagans from transactino costs, who have no cuturally normal place and time to meet and no ready way to broadcast their interests without censure." Basically, small, odd groups like Pagans benefit more from social media because it was more difficult for them to get together in the analog world.
Something on page 200 strikes me as very profound: "...It's easier to like people who are odd in the same ways you are odd."
On the next page, I was pleasantly surprised to find the web can be used to fight the isolating effect or suburban sprawl, by bringing together stay at home moms on Meetup.com.
On page 204, I wonder how many of the "Pro-Ana" girls were really girls at all, or if they were really in favor of anorexia. Some of them might have been examples of rather nasty troll behavior. A similarly evil example cropped up in the Jasper Howard homicide investigation, when police said a UConn student with no real connection to the case posted empty threats against people who talked to the police. The police did not say this, but presumably, he was a troll.
I'm not comfortable with page 211:
Something on page 200 strikes me as very profound: "...It's easier to like people who are odd in the same ways you are odd."
On the next page, I was pleasantly surprised to find the web can be used to fight the isolating effect or suburban sprawl, by bringing together stay at home moms on Meetup.com.
On page 204, I wonder how many of the "Pro-Ana" girls were really girls at all, or if they were really in favor of anorexia. Some of them might have been examples of rather nasty troll behavior. A similarly evil example cropped up in the Jasper Howard homicide investigation, when police said a UConn student with no real connection to the case posted empty threats against people who talked to the police. The police did not say this, but presumably, he was a troll.
I'm not comfortable with page 211:
When it is hard to form groups, both potentially good and bad groups are prevented from forming; when it becomes simple to forum groups, we get both good and bad ones. This is going to force society to shift from simply preventing groups from forming, to actively deciding which existing ones to try to oppose, a shift that parallels the publish-then-filter pattern generally.In most cases, don't think this is society's job. The operators of digital services that host bad groups may have the legal right to censor or discourage them, but people do have a first amendment right to peaceably assemble, and I think that protection extends to the online world. I think we should be reluctant to limit that right.
Here Comes Everybody Chapter 7
Here is the nub of the chapter, on page 163: "Shared awareness allows otherwise uncoordinated groups to begin to work together more quickly and effectively."
Anti-government protesters use this in totalitarian regimes, but as I recall in Iran, some of the government's supporters also used social media, to get out their side of why the demonstrators had to be put down.
I'm not sure I believe part of page 168: "Now the organization of group effort can be invisible, but the results can be immediately visible." If a social networker is trying to organize a lot of people, he or she is going to send a lot of messages. I would assume a smart secret policeman could probably infiltrate such a loose online community. Although Shirky is correct to point out that flash mobs make protests impossible to stop, and video and photo technology makes protests easier to document, I suspect a wise regime would simply wait until the protest was over, to met out punishment in ways that make for poor pictures. A demonstrator's father getting fired from his job would probably not make for a good picture for the west, but could be a very effective way of preventing future demonstrations. Let's hope the regimes are less ruthless than I am...
Meanwhile, in an update to the passenger bill of rights anecdote, the bill is still in a holding pattern. (Sorry.) Here is a different take on that topic, from a the Consumer Travel Alliance, which seems to oppose part of the passenger's bill of rights.
I see the return of a theme from earlier chapters on page 181. "The old model for coordinating group action required convincing people who care a little to care more, so that they would be roused to act. What Hanni and Streeting [activists on plane waits and bank treatment of college students, respectively] did instead was to lower the hurdles to doing something in the first place, so that people who cared a little could participate a little, while being effective in the aggregate." This strikes me as similar to Wikipedia, because no one would have time to write an encyclopedia for free, all by themselves, but when people come together digitally, they can each contribute the limited amount of spare time they can afford. For most people that is one edit, for a few, it is a full-fledged hobby.
Anti-government protesters use this in totalitarian regimes, but as I recall in Iran, some of the government's supporters also used social media, to get out their side of why the demonstrators had to be put down.
I'm not sure I believe part of page 168: "Now the organization of group effort can be invisible, but the results can be immediately visible." If a social networker is trying to organize a lot of people, he or she is going to send a lot of messages. I would assume a smart secret policeman could probably infiltrate such a loose online community. Although Shirky is correct to point out that flash mobs make protests impossible to stop, and video and photo technology makes protests easier to document, I suspect a wise regime would simply wait until the protest was over, to met out punishment in ways that make for poor pictures. A demonstrator's father getting fired from his job would probably not make for a good picture for the west, but could be a very effective way of preventing future demonstrations. Let's hope the regimes are less ruthless than I am...
Meanwhile, in an update to the passenger bill of rights anecdote, the bill is still in a holding pattern. (Sorry.) Here is a different take on that topic, from a the Consumer Travel Alliance, which seems to oppose part of the passenger's bill of rights.
I see the return of a theme from earlier chapters on page 181. "The old model for coordinating group action required convincing people who care a little to care more, so that they would be roused to act. What Hanni and Streeting [activists on plane waits and bank treatment of college students, respectively] did instead was to lower the hurdles to doing something in the first place, so that people who cared a little could participate a little, while being effective in the aggregate." This strikes me as similar to Wikipedia, because no one would have time to write an encyclopedia for free, all by themselves, but when people come together digitally, they can each contribute the limited amount of spare time they can afford. For most people that is one edit, for a few, it is a full-fledged hobby.
Here Comes Everybody Chapter 6
Here is where things stand for Voices of the faithful, according to Boston Globe article from early July, 2009 and late July, 2009. If the group gained about 25,000 members in a few months of 2002, and this year it has the names of about 35,000 in its database, I think it is safe to say the group has cooled off a little. Despite financial problems, it does still exist, which is an accomplishment in itself, when its membership is made up of people in the Catholic Church, and the church doesn't like Voices of the Faithful. If Voices of the faithful does have to give up its offices at some point, that could be seen as a more pure test of its ability to use social media.
On Page 146, Shirky leaves out some other causes for expanded outrage at the Goeghan case: Between 1992 and 2002, there had been a steady drumbeat of allegations, settled lawsuits, and criminal charges, involving allegations of abuse by priests. One case can be an aberration, but I know some Catholics who got upset when it happened repeatedly, and when it appeared higher-ups in the church transfered the priests, rather than going to the police with their suspicions.
On page 153, I wonder if anyone would have found out about the documents description of the Boston church's knowledge of Goeghan's actions, if the Globe had not pursued the documents, possibly hiring legal representation, and spent the time to read through them. A similar cache of church abuse documents from the Bridgeport Diocese has been kept sealed since approximately the time of the Globe's 2002 article, while the church appealed to the state Supreme Court twice, and the US Supreme Court once. Very few bloggers could afford to take a case to the US Supreme Court, and most would have given up years ago.
On Page 146, Shirky leaves out some other causes for expanded outrage at the Goeghan case: Between 1992 and 2002, there had been a steady drumbeat of allegations, settled lawsuits, and criminal charges, involving allegations of abuse by priests. One case can be an aberration, but I know some Catholics who got upset when it happened repeatedly, and when it appeared higher-ups in the church transfered the priests, rather than going to the police with their suspicions.
On page 153, I wonder if anyone would have found out about the documents description of the Boston church's knowledge of Goeghan's actions, if the Globe had not pursued the documents, possibly hiring legal representation, and spent the time to read through them. A similar cache of church abuse documents from the Bridgeport Diocese has been kept sealed since approximately the time of the Globe's 2002 article, while the church appealed to the state Supreme Court twice, and the US Supreme Court once. Very few bloggers could afford to take a case to the US Supreme Court, and most would have given up years ago.
On page 156, Shirky writes "Some new and stable arrangement will eventually be found, as it was after martin Luther, but whatever it is, the one option that it won't include is a return to the days of a subdivided and disorganized laity." But social media might contribute a form of division in this regard. Many of the people who go to mass on a weekly basis in many Catholic churches are older than the average person, and therefore less likely than average to have e-mail, a Facebook account, or access to a range of digital communications technologies. A group like Voices of the Faithful could be divided between those who have computers and internet access, and those who do not. At the least, it would have to replicate everything it does online in newsletters, for potential members who are not online. Shirky mentions that the Catholic Church has dealt with change before, like the invention of print, and a bible that the laity could read themselves. Voices of the Faithful may have a small presence on Facebook, but the church is adapting to social media as well. Locally, the Archdiocese of Hartford is on Facebook, too.
Here Comes Everybody Chapter 5
Yea! Wikipedia is one of the best examples of the collaborative creation made possible in the wired world, that Shirky is writing about. I think wikis in general are a step towards something else big, but I don't know what it is. I hope Wikipedia is not the only, or the highest example of this sort of distributed production. It seems nonprofit or shared ownership might work as a structure for these organizations, because big chunks of cash might be less necessary from a single owner or investors, to get an operation off the ground. A smaller amount of money, and a larger amount of time might suffice, if the organization's resource is its workers or volunteers, time, and if its product in the digital fruit of that time.
On page 118, I think Shirky's initial description of Wikipedia gives the impression that it is a little less structured than it really is. The hierarchy from bottom to top includes: unregistered users, registered users/editors, administrators, bureaucrats, stewards, and a board of trustees. Shirky does address some of the organizational structure of Wikipedia later in the chapter.
I wonder if the constant, ongoing process described on page 119 is a common trait of collaborative online efforts. Certainly MySpace or Flickr will never be "finished." Many open source software projects are updated to at least keep the software working with new versions of operating systems, unless too few people take part in the project, and it becomes abandoned. They don't really end. They are like a shark that must keep swimming, (or recruiting new volunteers) to stay alive.
This is an interesting observation on the few users who contribute the majority of the images on Flickr from page 124:
Ahem, a_hot_mess...? But seriously, I wonder if there are any common traits shared by the high producers in social media, and the high income earners in the real world? Perhaps they are both likely to be leaders in their communities (whether online or physical)?
I also like Shirky's description of Wikipedia as a Shinto shrine, which is constantly rebuilt, in a slightly different place, on a regular basis. Perhaps the analogy breaks down on content, however: The monks use the same plan, but Wikipedia's articles constantly change, and presumably drift over time. Shirky is right to say that vandals could quickly destroy either one.
On page 118, I think Shirky's initial description of Wikipedia gives the impression that it is a little less structured than it really is. The hierarchy from bottom to top includes: unregistered users, registered users/editors, administrators, bureaucrats, stewards, and a board of trustees. Shirky does address some of the organizational structure of Wikipedia later in the chapter.
I wonder if the constant, ongoing process described on page 119 is a common trait of collaborative online efforts. Certainly MySpace or Flickr will never be "finished." Many open source software projects are updated to at least keep the software working with new versions of operating systems, unless too few people take part in the project, and it becomes abandoned. They don't really end. They are like a shark that must keep swimming, (or recruiting new volunteers) to stay alive.
This is an interesting observation on the few users who contribute the majority of the images on Flickr from page 124:
This pattern is general to social media: on mailing lists with more than a couple of dozen participants, the most active writer is generally much more active than the person in the number-two slot, and far more active than the average. The longest conversation goes on much longer than the second-longest one, and much longer than average, and so on.
Ahem, a_hot_mess...? But seriously, I wonder if there are any common traits shared by the high producers in social media, and the high income earners in the real world? Perhaps they are both likely to be leaders in their communities (whether online or physical)?
I also like Shirky's description of Wikipedia as a Shinto shrine, which is constantly rebuilt, in a slightly different place, on a regular basis. Perhaps the analogy breaks down on content, however: The monks use the same plan, but Wikipedia's articles constantly change, and presumably drift over time. Shirky is right to say that vandals could quickly destroy either one.
Here Comes Everybody Chapter 4
There is a useful definition on page 83: "User-generated content is a group phenomenon, and an amateur one. When people talk bout user-generated content, they are describing the ways that users create and share media with one another, with no professionals anywhere in sight."
I had not thought about the target audience discussed on page 85, but Shirkey is correct. Much of the blogging and posting done on the internet, is only intended for a few friends. I wonder if the act of chatting with a friend could be changed by introducing a financial incentive, through some of the new models of advertising being pursued by companies like Google (ads to "monetize" small-audience blogs) and FaceBook (ads that tell you what products your "friends" are followers or fans of, as a form of personal endorsement).
On page 87, Shirkey mentions that the line between one-way broadcasting, and one-on-one communication tools were clear in the past. "Someone writing you a letter might say 'I love you', and someone on TV might say 'I love you', but you would have no trouble understanding which of those messages was really addressed to you." I wonder if social advertising on Facebook could be one of the ways those lines get blurred further?
I was bored by the part about fame. I don't care that Oprah can't answer all her e-mail.
Over on page 105:
Life teaches us that motivations other than getting paid aren't enough to add up to serious work. And now we have to unlearn that lesson, because it is less true with each passing year. People now have access to a myriad of tools that let them share writing images, video -- any form of expressive content in fact -- and use that sharing as an anchor for community and cooperation.But does this apply primarily to things that can be transmitted digitally? Page 107:
All businesses are media businesses, because whatever else they do, all businesses rely on the managing of information for two audiences -- employees and the world. The increase in the power of both individuals and groups, outside traditional organized structures, is unprecedented. Many institutions we rely on today will not survive this change without significant alteration, and the more an institution or industry relies on information as its core product, the greater and more complete the change will be.I think Shirkey may be getting a little over-excited here. I hope he makes some predictions about what types of new non-media organizations might be made practical, because the costs of organizing are reduced. Among existing organizations, if we look at the small bakery down the street from where I live, social media could certainly help them advertise their recent opening, and they (sort of) have a Facebook page, they tweeted once two months ago, and they have a bare-bones MySpace page. This might replace some of the old mass-media advertising they might have done in the past, and it might give them a new way to interact with some of their customers, or other restaurants like Barcelona, but I suspect social media has not fundamentally changed the way they do business.
Even for larger companies, social media is prompting big changes in how they manage their public relations, and forcing their PR and customer research units to interact more on social media. Certainly the information gained this way could prompt changes in advertising, or in the product itself, and perhaps the information gleaned will be better than previously, but so far I see this as a big change only for PR and customer research, not for whole companies.
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