tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43599636968471212472011-07-08T05:06:15.914-04:00This blog is part of a Trinity College class on online media and traditional media.Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.comBlogger891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-88629928900251663082009-12-18T16:08:00.000-05:002009-12-18T16:08:43.207-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-29898672553467426782009-12-18T15:52:00.000-05:002009-12-18T15:52:14.189-05:00

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!

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-56000769578160255312009-12-18T15:44:00.000-05:002009-12-18T15:44:42.012-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-56399217555566772432009-12-13T19:51:00.000-05:002009-12-13T19:51:16.495-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-89832738110860554772009-12-13T19:50:00.000-05:002009-12-13T19:50:16.512-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-57665218859132489002009-12-10T13:40:00.000-05:002009-12-10T13:40:07.110-05:00

A passing reference by Shirky, to McLuhan. "Viral marketing is McLuhan marketing: The medium validates the message."

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-72320479920286945022009-12-03T19:59:00.001-05:002009-12-03T20:01:26.822-05:00

I blogged on chapter 1 here, and on chapter 2 here. I created the above image by combining two existing pictures, to create a new work of art.  It was produced for a college class.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-5648928065973649922009-12-03T19:56:00.000-05:002009-12-03T19:56:51.000-05:00

Page 57 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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-62953025747747183162009-12-03T18:41:00.000-05:002009-12-03T18:41:14.521-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-59395443582571777822009-12-03T17:26:00.000-05:002009-12-03T17:26:21.467-05:00

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,

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-15101608750490892442009-12-03T16:24:00.000-05:002009-12-03T16:24:22.238-05:00

Page 35 ...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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-11416739148152247872009-11-30T00:44:00.000-05:002009-11-30T00:44:30.885-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-85872548194750654392009-11-27T20:48:00.000-05:002009-11-27T20:48:09.716-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-66328321264120593402009-11-27T19:59:00.000-05:002009-11-27T19:59:34.031-05:00

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. "As our one-way broadcast world becomes increasingly two-way, will the governance process gain the

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-18500737496962462102009-11-27T19:15:00.000-05:002009-11-27T19:15:31.335-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-61028102462916138812009-11-27T15:03:00.000-05:002009-11-27T15:03:45.524-05:00

Photo by Matt Dwyer. I liked the production of the EPIC media future video, and I think it is a good use of the multi-media nature of internet.  If this had simply been an all-text blog, it would have had much less impact.   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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-20804272521306129542009-11-22T18:53:00.000-05:002009-11-22T18:53:09.248-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-50518606718900964882009-11-22T18:16:00.000-05:002009-11-22T18:16:06.015-05:00

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.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-42109298178147889752009-11-22T18:13:00.000-05:002009-11-22T18:13:45.686-05:00

Throwing out old newspapers (symbolic for our class, eh?) After. This is just fodder for something to put on Twitter, to test it out.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-56686160109887377922009-11-22T18:04:00.000-05:002009-11-22T18:04:19.875-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-50916494524342485362009-11-22T17:37:00.000-05:002009-11-22T17:37:09.661-05:00

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,

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-74736635124341961472009-11-22T17:15:00.000-05:002009-11-22T17:15:55.227-05:00

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)

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-35965767551234430202009-11-22T17:00:00.000-05:002009-11-22T17:00:43.340-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-34170858943253848672009-11-22T15:44:00.001-05:002009-11-22T18:14:48.173-05:00

Getting a haircut. 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.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-59032636134770156352009-11-22T15:36:00.001-05:002009-11-22T18:12:19.924-05:00

Throwing out old newspapers (symbolic for our class, eh?) Before.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-83902629450964932622009-11-19T16:46:00.002-05:002009-11-19T17:12:34.123-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-89933923599898986822009-11-19T16:03:00.000-05:002009-11-19T16:03:10.789-05:00

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!

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-68082979170869347152009-11-19T15:21:00.000-05:002009-11-19T15:21:53.207-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-40810590323371894222009-11-14T23:14:00.000-05:002009-11-14T23:14:24.462-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-86674936289979176032009-11-07T21:32:00.001-05:002009-11-07T23:37:40.371-05:00

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.  

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-91216630110609144712009-11-07T20:37:00.001-05:002009-11-07T20:38:26.997-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-82430588285771832632009-11-05T00:11:00.002-05:002009-11-07T22:41:39.763-05:00

...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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-30309215008420402352009-11-03T20:39:00.002-05:002009-11-03T20:45:09.421-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-71706323739066354842009-11-03T12:47:00.001-05:002009-11-05T22:43:08.635-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-33413039528039897472009-11-02T02:18:00.000-05:002009-11-02T02:18:22.117-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-62413401366670110492009-11-02T02:12:00.003-05:002009-11-02T02:12:32.074-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-79442446021712055032009-11-02T02:12:00.002-05:002009-11-02T02:12:25.275-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-76567105337037972692009-11-02T02:12:00.001-05:002009-11-02T02:12:15.054-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-74478834303088859492009-11-02T02:12:00.000-05:002009-11-02T02:12:03.821-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-5154824074913865712009-11-02T02:11:00.002-05:002009-11-02T02:11:27.633-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-61815923377967184322009-11-02T02:11:00.001-05:002009-11-02T02:11:17.225-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-91496634584368890322009-11-02T02:11:00.000-05:002009-11-02T02:11:05.161-05:00

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

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-55480220311627912022009-11-02T02:10:00.003-05:002009-11-02T02:10:55.188-05:00

Okay, I have minor bones to pick on pages 56 and 57.  I think Shirkey is wrong to think that newspapers missed the internet.  I interned at a local newspaper in the late 1990's, and there was a lot of discussion of the internet, including the loss of classified revenue, and a good deal of action, like posting existing content online, which has proven popular.  I can even recall some discussion of

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-82162535727020814602009-11-02T02:10:00.002-05:002009-11-02T02:10:44.060-05:00

There is an important caveat on page 30 to the decentralized, web-based organizations that Shirkey seems so excited about:  "The more people are involved in a given task, the more potential agreements need to be negotiated to do anything, and the greater the transaction costs..." For an example of this, see the revision history of the Wikipedia article on abortion... Page 31 also includes a big

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-27679508332225044432009-11-02T02:10:00.001-05:002009-11-02T02:10:31.852-05:00

I am somewhat troubled by the racial aspects of the missing phone anecdote.  Would the phone story have gotten as much attention online if the "villain" wasn't Latino?  Could Evan's actions be interpreted as those of an online vigilante?  Could the story be seen as an example of someone with more money and status, using their resources to beat up a person with less money and status?  The internet

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-27449127342805377842009-10-31T10:44:00.000-04:002009-10-31T10:44:32.982-04:00

In an unintentional example of the fluidity of information in social media, The Washington Post found out which members of congress are being investigated by a congressional committee, because a staffer saved a list to a part of her computer that was visible to a peer-to-peer network, and someone saw it. From the Washington Post: In the breach, the report was disclosed inadvertently by a junior

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-24499711645029528372009-10-24T21:49:00.000-04:002009-10-24T21:49:15.468-04:00

The process of creating my Wikipedia article brought me back to basic research, albeit done digitally. There was very little material available on the internet on my subject, 1930's food media personality George Rector. I ended up resorting to newspaper archives, primarily the New York Times, since Mr. Rector achieved his greatest fame in that city. Google was only useful once, when I checked

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-21558891094421959232009-10-24T21:40:00.000-04:002009-10-24T21:40:42.564-04:00

Hmmm.  So I spent about 6 hours today researching and writing a new article for Wikipedia. I'm guessing this is about 6 hours more than the average poster. Anyway, I ran into a problem.  I posted it in the work in progress page, and apparently because I have not been a registered user long enough/have not edited enough articles, I do not yet have access to the "move tab," so I can't post it. So

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-40666686592251946842009-10-18T22:49:00.004-04:002009-10-18T23:07:51.777-04:00

Google's official Don't Be Evil policy seems similar to other corporate behavior policies, except for the part about allowing dogs.  The main difference seems to be that it is written in a more casual manner. The long version of this policy may be a significant change from the early days of the company, when "Don't Be Evil" was described in a 2001 Wired magazine article as "What Sergey says is

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-16221505942191352642009-10-18T22:22:00.005-04:002009-10-18T22:30:32.433-04:00

Here is the obvious part of what happens when I type in a search on Google: My query goes to one of Google's servers, probably one relatively geographically close to me.  The server passes the query on to a database, which uses the PageRank formula to spit out a bunch of results, based on "more than a hundred" (or by some estimates, about 200) factors, the details of some of which are kept

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-46542140417433022242009-10-18T16:02:00.002-04:002009-10-18T16:21:01.676-04:00

As mentioned in the previous post, here is the page where you can opt out of Google's advertising cookies.  Here is a link to the web browser plug-in to more permanently opt-out.  It also appears that on at least some browsers, (like Safari), you can stop at least most cookies like this by blocking third party cookies, in a preference menu of the browser. An advertising privacy policy includes

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-6040650399431779752009-10-18T15:50:00.001-04:002009-10-18T15:58:03.605-04:00

This is an interesting article from IDG News Service (a tech publisher) explaining Google's advertising cookies.  Essentially Google is now planning to put a cookie on a user's computer which gives them ads based not just on what they type into the Google search engine, but based on what they view when they surf the web.  The cookie will apparently track all of a user's surfing, although a

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-75440540450999571042009-10-18T15:01:00.001-04:002009-10-18T15:03:56.644-04:00

Perhaps a model for a Google Books licensing deal could be provided by the music industry? Radio or television stations that play music obtain the rights to do so by paying groups representing the composers (although many musicians have thought they should have cut of the royalties, also).  This arrangement has been imperfect, but it has lasted for a long time.  The artists benefit because at

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-32301727141161172772009-10-18T14:07:00.005-04:002009-10-18T14:34:57.846-04:00

It was very considerate of Google co-founder Sergey Brin to write his New York Times Op-Ed piece just in time for our class on Google!  (If NY Times blocks access, class members can look it up in here or here.) His description of the modern day preservation of printed material reminds me of a scene from medieval Europe, in which a handful of monks copy books by hand in an abbey, while

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-51186666556641301612009-10-17T13:53:00.004-04:002009-10-17T13:59:32.620-04:00

In case there is anyone else in the class who had not found time to track down the New Yorker article Colin assigned (here is the abstract), I tried e-mailing it as a pdf to the class through Blackboard.   If that did not work, you can find the full article by going to the Trinity College library, searching for The New Yorker under "Find a Journal or Newspaper by Name," then searching for the

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-21464644351620673942009-10-09T23:32:00.000-04:002009-10-09T23:32:22.851-04:00

This is strange.  It is a video game played on top of some of the internet's most popular or influential web sites, some of which we will be talking about in this class. Maybe it is a commentary on the way Google inserts advertising into everything on the web.  Perhaps it is a statement that the web has become nothing but an advertising vehicle.  It could be a commentary on the drive to "

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-3340684874257437732009-10-05T05:03:00.000-04:002009-10-05T05:03:00.910-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6, 2009.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-65349460411887809262009-10-04T19:06:00.000-04:002009-10-04T19:06:44.680-04:00

As a public space, I think Facebook is more like the mall, than the town green. The purpose of the town green is simply as a common space.  If a group with a controversial social message wants to gather there, they can, regardless of what their message may be. The purpose of the mall, and of Facebook, is to sell you things.  Social functions may take place in either location, but when push

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-87195392584685212212009-10-04T11:09:00.000-04:002009-10-04T11:09:45.991-04:00

The article What Is Journalism’s Place in Social Media? shows a need for training not just for journalists in the age of social media, but also for hobbyist bloggers/social media content providers, and at least a little training for information consumers. We have expressed concern in class about the declining quality of traditional journalism as budgets and staffs get squeezed.  Perhaps part of

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-70245108854400590282009-10-04T05:02:00.000-04:002009-10-04T05:02:00.213-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6, 2009.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-76724205726319221332009-10-03T17:05:00.001-04:002009-10-03T17:05:34.065-04:00

It's not just unscientific, it might also be invalid! In response to ongoing privacy concerns about Facebook, I posted this message on my profile on the site:  "Quick unscientific poll for my media class: Who knew/did not know the applications you use in Facebook (Farmville, Mafia Wars, Bejeweled Blitz etc.) can collect information when you give them access to your profile?" I also included a

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-54363927566215849962009-10-03T16:33:00.000-04:002009-10-03T16:33:45.254-04:00

Mark Zuckerberg is the guy who later designed Facebook...  (Although some other students later claimed he took some of their ideas, and sued). Although The Facebook had not been created yet, this 2003 article in the Harvard Crimson notes some of the same issues we are talking about now, like privacy, hurt feelings, and something a young person posted online (ostensibly) going beyond the audience

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-62381863433988901682009-10-03T16:23:00.002-04:002009-10-03T16:27:30.802-04:00

This is a response to something that was not really the main part of Colin's post:  "I wanted to transition over the Facebook this week partly because it has gigantic implications for the legacy journalists" I don't think Facebook itself has gigantic implications for old-school journalists.  Maybe it could in the future, with some significant changes, but for now, I think it has some

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-39670904715117592592009-10-03T05:55:00.001-04:002009-10-03T05:55:00.629-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6, 2009.  It currently lives next to my window.  Nice cloudy light this morning.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-49020307712612723832009-10-02T05:52:00.001-04:002009-10-02T05:52:00.436-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6, 2009.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-78590629910986207682009-10-01T05:47:00.001-04:002009-10-01T05:47:00.058-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6, 2009.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-39436329194421269792009-09-30T05:42:00.001-04:002009-09-30T05:42:00.405-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6, 2009.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-82669847556225179622009-09-29T05:41:00.001-04:002009-09-29T05:41:00.722-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6, 2009.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-13867964849901911832009-09-28T00:39:00.000-04:002009-09-28T00:39:42.866-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6, 2009.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-27510033313965582622009-09-27T23:59:00.001-04:002009-09-28T00:00:01.122-04:00

I posted two messages on the Courant's web site. The first one was an innocent, naive post on a piece of wire copy about the death of a man and woman in a house fire in Stratford.  The story was on the Courant's home page. "This is very sad. My heart goes out to the loved ones of the couple who died." There is not really much to argue about on this story, so I suspect it will get relatively

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-85146044562474988312009-09-27T22:42:00.001-04:002009-11-19T15:23:59.276-05:00

(UPDATE 11/19/09: Here is an important new development: The lawyers get involved!) The Connecticut Law Tribune makes an important observation on this story:  "For years, print publishers have complained about radio and television stations taking newspaper stories and reading them on the air." It is standard operating procedure at many radio stations and TV stations in the morning for news

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-29538844702555263272009-09-27T20:57:00.000-04:002009-09-27T20:57:23.362-04:00

In response to the article in the Columbia Journalism Review, I think The Courant's own story on the standoff provides some useful information, especially the newspaper's contention that it was informed about the hostage-taker's demand to take down the story by 2:30 so close to the deadline, that it would not have been technically possible to remove the story in time: Shenkman made numerous

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-79522059172649517882009-09-26T16:35:00.002-04:002009-09-26T16:37:28.479-04:00

Zippy the Pinhead doesn't always make sense, but this one does... I like the crosshatching.  And it's even somewhat relevant.  Really.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-66011442753928673992009-09-26T16:11:00.002-04:002009-09-26T18:49:12.794-04:00

I have some history with Courant.com. I interned there in the summer of 1998 (specifically for the newspaper's web site), and I sometimes write and post stories to an adjunct web site, Connecticut Breaking News, which is hosted on the Courant's blog system, and featured on Courant.com during the week.  I have also scanned the breaking news sections of Courant.com during the day as a part of my

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-92097242420461763342009-09-26T14:30:00.002-04:002009-09-26T16:40:31.512-04:00

This is a response to Colin's post on the class' mother blog. Wait, if my Facebook messages become public, does that mean Scarlett Johansson could find out that I'm cheating on her with Megan Fox!?!   Probably not.   This Facebook staff post for application developers does seem troubling to me: "Message: This table allows you to get information about each message in a thread. You can get

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-54640026358453833122009-09-26T13:56:00.000-04:002009-09-26T13:56:55.928-04:00

For the record, I did NOT mean to "sign" that online petition for Facebook privacy "Keep My Inbox Private".  I was in a rush, and I clicked on the wrong button by accident. Didn't something like this happen to someone else???  This was another Verum Serum tempest (the guys who worked early on, getting out the ubiquitous Sonia Sotomayor video we discussed in class earlier).  In the linked CBS

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-41646525328600650752009-09-26T12:25:00.001-04:002009-09-26T13:09:28.156-04:00

Gosh, this sounds familiar. Mark Bowden's Atlantic piece about the Sotomayor video strikes again! So this story began in the medium of lecture (the original Sotomayor appearances at Duke and Berkeley Law School, really intended for the people in the hall), went to video when someone recorded the lecture, went to online video when it was posted, then went to blogs and online discussions when it

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-14749712990234898882009-09-21T11:59:00.005-04:002009-09-21T11:59:00.110-04:00

At left (or top), is the garlic at 6 am.  At right (or bottom) the garlic has grown significantly at 11 pm. After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-11872270296687523842009-09-21T09:26:00.000-04:002009-09-21T09:26:55.682-04:00

Some of the major conclusions of this chapter are: Radio talkers (who are mostly conservative) devoted an overwhelming amount of their airtime to the 2008 election, but oddly, radio newscasts devoted less time than most media to the election.  NPR spent more time on international news, probably because they actually have reporters in other countries. This chapter is called "Audio" instead of "

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-82539227622156407492009-09-20T11:59:00.006-04:002009-09-20T11:59:00.920-04:00

Gentlemen, this is Mission Control.  We have telemetry for stage two! Roger. God speed, little garlic. After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-9164088013964577642009-09-19T01:29:00.001-04:002009-09-19T02:00:12.321-04:00

It's ALIVE!!! After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6.  It currently lives next to my window.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-8438740752663998582009-09-19T01:23:00.001-04:002009-09-19T02:00:58.659-04:00

This man tried to use a very small camera (at right) to broadcast a New Haven Police Department press conference on Annie Le live to his station/web site, apparently through a wireless internet Air Card thingy (the black thing sticking out of the side of the laptop).  I have one of those cards at work too!  And I successfully fed an audio story about five minutes after the press conference ended.

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-12955242822171267752009-09-19T00:46:00.002-04:002009-09-19T02:03:09.437-04:00

Colin writes that he did not see the Annie Le story coming as a national topic.  I did, as soon as I saw her picture on the New Haven Register web site the afternoon the story broke. Typically, when a murder becomes a national story, it begins with a beautiful young woman or girl who goes missing.  Annie Le was very beautiful.  This is not entirely a bias of the people who work for news

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-45040134682043200612009-09-18T23:10:00.006-04:002009-09-19T02:01:56.811-04:00

Colin's Other Blog mentioned our last class, in which we learned about the death of Patrick Swayze from a message on Colin's Facebook page. Although Colin's assertion that Facebook is an "information multivitamin" might be true for a user who carefully balances the components, with measured parts of real friends, "news" outlets or reporters who provide content online, and people who are

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-42898126106544215492009-09-18T11:59:00.007-04:002009-09-18T11:59:00.777-04:00

After buying some garlic at the supermarket, I noticed some of the cloves were sprouting.  I planted one of them September 6. What will happen next?  Here is a dimly lit photo that doesn't give too much away... Follow my blog to see what comes up...

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-54376805889798396752009-09-18T00:47:00.002-04:002009-09-19T01:35:44.119-04:00

There is a relevant quote in the last paragraph of Chapter 8: Today computers held out the promise of a means of instant translation of any code or language into any other code or language.  The computer, in short promises by technology a Pentecostal condition of universal understanding and unity.  The next logical step would seem to be, not to translate, but to by-pass languages in favor of a

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-80406528822770309692009-09-17T23:01:00.001-04:002009-09-17T23:02:00.418-04:00

To break down the hot media vs. the cold media: Hot Media Extends one sense in high definition. Leaves little for the audience's imagination, little for the audience to fill in. Radio Movie Cold Media The audience gets relatively little information. The audience has to fill in the blanks, and therefore participate. Telephone human speech TV Page 24 "A tribal and feudal hierarchy of traditional

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-34534349596158730462009-09-16T23:30:00.003-04:002009-09-17T22:42:01.858-04:00

McLuhan starts with a bang, and includes probably his most well-known catchphrase in the first sentence:  "The medium is the message."  Somebody put a check mark next to it in the library book I'm reading.  Thanks.I think the media people use do influence their way of thinking, perhaps the structure of their thoughts or ideas, but I am not sure I literally believe the medium is the message.  

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359963696847121247.post-87332151414837333032009-09-14T23:38:00.001-04:002009-09-19T02:04:36.501-04:00

I'm taking this class at Trinity College the fall about the decline and fall of the old media and the rise of the new media. At the moment, the hottest part of the "new media" seems to be online social networks. I will be blogging through December, starting by typing out some notes from parts of "Understanding the Media: The Extensions of Man," by Marshall McLuhan. But first, to get in the

Matt Dwyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18365985768095486992noreply@blogger.com0