Monday, July 23, 2007
Google's Evils: Internet privacy and Censorship
Microsoft and Yahoo both plan to add new measures to their search engines that are support to make all search data anonymous and therefore almost useless after a certain number of months. Microsoft would erase identifying data after 18 months and Yahoo will make all search data anonymous after only 13 months.
These announcements come a month after Privacy International released a report that called Google "Hostile to privacy" for not protecting the privacy of user information.
Some people question if other search engines really do less Evil to user privacy then Google.
Despite all the personal information that Google has amassed:
Google has never leaked personal data or shared it with the government.
As a result of Microsoft;'s announcement Google said that it has also decided to make user data anonymous after 18 months.
Only Ask.com has created a service called AskEraser a search option that erases all history of Ask searches.
These announcements make me wonder; Can any of these measures really protect user information?
Can you really keep search data private?
especially after AOL released search search records of 650,000 of its users in August 2006 to the U.S. Department of Justice.
What if AOL told the the Department of Justice that they have enacted a measure to make users data anonymous and that they had no way of recovering this data? Does anyone think the federal government would ever by that excuse?
What will happen the next time (Yahoo 'helped jail China writer') China asks Yahoo for the privacy information on users that are speaking out against the government?
Do users really care if advertising companies and government agencies look at their search data?
While it may seem unnerving to some that the government can force search engines to hand over search data and personal information I think Americans have much bigger privacy concerns to deal with.
After all the press about the NSA's warrant less wiretapping program we still do not know a lot about who was targeted or what standards if any the NSA had to meet to get permission to tape someone's phone line.
The Bush administration has kept Congress from reading classified documents on the program by claiming executive privilege. So Congress recently dropped a subponea on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President Bush.
I think that the most evil thing that Google and other search engines are doing is going along with China's attempt to censor search results.
While I believe that people will eventually find a few to get the truth through cracks in the great firewall of China taking part in censorship with keep millions in the dark.
China still believes that they can maintain their power by keeping their citizens uneducated. The Internet has made it very easy for the common person to educated himself on any subject they choose.
Google has asked U.S. trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers like tariffs. China is not the only country that is afraid of the power that the Internet provides.
A study released last month by the OpenNet Initiative found that 25 of 41 countries surveyed engage in Internet censorship.
Apparently the Great Chinese firewall does not extend to Google Earth. Research Hans Kristensen posted the first photo of what is believed to be a Jin-class Submarine to the Strategic Security blog on the Federation of American Scientists web site.
Since Google Earth has been around for a couple of years now it is hard for me to believe that China did not see this coming.
Converting bloggers to vloggers
Have you ever watch a YouTube video on a computer with a slow connection and after playing three seconds the video freezes. And you have to restart the video twenty times just to get past the first thirty seconds?
According to this article Internet providers will soon give more people the ability to explore the vast library of videos that are available on the Internet without wondering if their Internet connection can handle it.
Faster Internet speed has already made huge leaps in e-commerce and how people get the news.
With faster Internet people who used to organize social gatherings and debate issues on MySpace to take the next step by watching and creating videos on YouTube.
It is also giving bloggers a chance to step out from behind the current of anonymity and show the world what they are really talking about through vlogs.
While you can already buy a cheap web camera at Best Buy for under $50 Sony has created pocket size web cam that allows you to publish videos directly to web file-sharing sites or to your personal vlog that will only set you back $200.
While YouTube already allows you to upload video from cell phones this camera will allow vloggers to store up to five hours on a 2 gigabyte memory stick Pro Duo media card.
The GC1 Net-Sharing CAM will be available in September.
"Comcast is reportedly working on technology to provide broadband speeds of up to 160 megabits per second, roughly 26 times faster than its current 6-megabit service."
Maybe in five to ten years it will reduce the time it takes to download a movie from several hours to a day to a matter of minutes.
Right now faster Internet connections are allowing more people to watch videos on YouTube, catch up on old episodes of their favorite TV shows and watch streaming TV channels through services like Joost.
It is not only opening more eyes to the power of the Internet superhighway but it is giving them a chance to interact and use it to get their individual message out there. It is pushing inter connectivity to its limits and it is letting us access information on any subject we desire in a matter of seconds.
The more people use the Internet the better of a tool it will be in helping people to connect and take part in the global debate.
Google understands this and has made a bid of $4.6 billion in the upcoming federal auction of spectrum to break the strangle hold that phone companies and cable companies have had over high speed Internet access.
"That would be revolutionary," said Bob Williams, director of Consumers Union's HearUsNow.org, a website that promotes telecommunications competition.
"If you want high-speed Internet service, you basically have a choice of two, and in a lot of places you don't have any choice ... and that situation has to change."
Google wants to stop cable and phone companies from continuing to raise their rates because they have virtually no competition.
Wireless companies control all access to the spectrum they license from the government, which is why Apple Inc.'s iPhone can't be used on any network other than AT&T's.
Under Google's plan, people could connect any device to any network and run any software they want on their phones, including free Internet-based calling systems such as Skype.
This is what we need to make the Internet cheap enough so more people can use the Internet to its full potential on all their electronic devices from home computers to cell phones.
As the Internet becomes cheaper more people will use it when more people use it ad rates will go up way way up and maybe just maybe people will stop telling us that print media is a dying industry.
Google is trying to speed up this process. Adding competition to the high speed Internet market could free millions from slow Internet connects and give them the power to interact with the information superhighway instead of just observing it.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Are newspapers gone forever?
Is someone trying to buy Reuters?
Over the last two weeks it seems like more and more major media organization are vulnerable for takeover by a major corporation.
Another scary trend in media is the buying up of every new idea buy the big corporations. The latest offer that has been through out was made by Microsoft. After years of trying to create a half decent search engine to compete with the likes of Yahoo and Google. Microsoft has decided that if you can't be them buy them when they made a proposal to buy Yahoo for $50 billion. Lets put this into perspective Google purchased YouTube for a mere $1.65 billion and NewsCorp bought MySpace for $580 million. Is Yahoo really wroth 25 times the combine cost of both of these sites? In the long run maybe.
According to a blog on the Huffington Post by James Boyce the host of "Heading Left" on BlogTalkRadio a weekly radio show, a major city newspaper will fold in the next twelve months.
It seems a little hard to consider a guy who has never worked for a newspaper (according to his bio.) an expert on the industry but there are a few things that I agree with in his blog.
It is very pathetic that newspapers which such a rich traditions as the Boston Globe have to offer a $40 rebate on their monthly subscription. It sounds a lot like what many American car companies such as GMC and Ford did a few years ago by offering huge rebates to entice new customs.
Meanwhile Toyota's market share continued to grow while they were selling cars that cost thousands more then their American counterparts. Toyota realized that by making high quality products they could add value to their product and justify their high prices.
The problems with huge rebates is it lowers the value of your product. Rebates are a good short term gimmick, but if you use them for to long customer start to expect them and only turn to you because you are selling a product that they can afford rather then something they actually want.
He is right that circulation has been falling since March 2005 at almost every major newspaper and many newspapers like the Washington Post have posted scene double digit profit declines int he first quarter of this year.
Good content in hide demand now more then ever before, since the Internet has opened up the floodgates of rumors and conspiracy theories as it makes it too easy for every cook to create their own soapbox.
Newspapers are still the place most people go for in depth coverage and the place that TV and Radio station turn to when they want to make it appear like they provide in depth coverage.
The world of Citizen Journalism and blogging is still very unorganized to post a major threat to newspapers. The best blogs are too specialized to have a huge effect on newspaper readership. You still have to read 10 or 20 blogs to get the latest news on the same topics that most newspapers provide. The blogs made be kept more up-to-date and provide links to every article that is ever publish on a particular subject but they can only do so much.
The development of Yahoo paying bloggers could lead to more news web sites and search engines paying blogger to act like freelance journalists to provide intriguing content. Freelance Bloggers working by themselves on a single topic can only do so much.
I believe that what can save newspapers from their not so certain doom is figuring out a better way to more advertise on-line from off. Lets face it no one reads the newspaper for the ads no one ever did!!
But on most newspaper websites it is becoming harder and harder to avoid all the pop up ads that come up every time you click on a article. The ones that jump out and cover the screen so that you can't read what is underneath them or close them are one of the most annoying things that a tel-marketed ever dreamed up.
Newspapers should look for a way to work with advertises to provide personal advertising based on the reading habits of their customers. They need to create ads that compliment their coverage of entertainment and arts rather then annoying ads that making reading the newspaper online such a pain in the neck.
No matter how annoying you make things I am still going to read the paper online just because its easier and cheaper then picking it up from the newsstand every day. This is a fact don't act like your customers are doing something evil or illegal by reading online.
Whatever happen to adapting to what the customs wants instead of resenting it.
Making the advertising less annoying and more person is one way to fix the revenue stream, One way to provide more intriguing content is to focus on local news or even provide a web site for Hyperlocalism coverage. Another way is to ask readers about what they think the newspaper should cover. To use a survey or focus group or just an open call for comments to give them a say in the way that the newspaper set its coverage priorities.
Over the last two weeks it seems like more and more major media organization are vulnerable for takeover by a major corporation.
Another scary trend in media is the buying up of every new idea buy the big corporations. The latest offer that has been through out was made by Microsoft. After years of trying to create a half decent search engine to compete with the likes of Yahoo and Google. Microsoft has decided that if you can't be them buy them when they made a proposal to buy Yahoo for $50 billion. Lets put this into perspective Google purchased YouTube for a mere $1.65 billion and NewsCorp bought MySpace for $580 million. Is Yahoo really wroth 25 times the combine cost of both of these sites? In the long run maybe.
According to a blog on the Huffington Post by James Boyce the host of "Heading Left" on BlogTalkRadio a weekly radio show, a major city newspaper will fold in the next twelve months.
It seems a little hard to consider a guy who has never worked for a newspaper (according to his bio.) an expert on the industry but there are a few things that I agree with in his blog.
It is very pathetic that newspapers which such a rich traditions as the Boston Globe have to offer a $40 rebate on their monthly subscription. It sounds a lot like what many American car companies such as GMC and Ford did a few years ago by offering huge rebates to entice new customs.
Meanwhile Toyota's market share continued to grow while they were selling cars that cost thousands more then their American counterparts. Toyota realized that by making high quality products they could add value to their product and justify their high prices.
The problems with huge rebates is it lowers the value of your product. Rebates are a good short term gimmick, but if you use them for to long customer start to expect them and only turn to you because you are selling a product that they can afford rather then something they actually want.
He is right that circulation has been falling since March 2005 at almost every major newspaper and many newspapers like the Washington Post have posted scene double digit profit declines int he first quarter of this year.
Good content in hide demand now more then ever before, since the Internet has opened up the floodgates of rumors and conspiracy theories as it makes it too easy for every cook to create their own soapbox.
Newspapers are still the place most people go for in depth coverage and the place that TV and Radio station turn to when they want to make it appear like they provide in depth coverage.
The world of Citizen Journalism and blogging is still very unorganized to post a major threat to newspapers. The best blogs are too specialized to have a huge effect on newspaper readership. You still have to read 10 or 20 blogs to get the latest news on the same topics that most newspapers provide. The blogs made be kept more up-to-date and provide links to every article that is ever publish on a particular subject but they can only do so much.
The development of Yahoo paying bloggers could lead to more news web sites and search engines paying blogger to act like freelance journalists to provide intriguing content. Freelance Bloggers working by themselves on a single topic can only do so much.
I believe that what can save newspapers from their not so certain doom is figuring out a better way to more advertise on-line from off. Lets face it no one reads the newspaper for the ads no one ever did!!
But on most newspaper websites it is becoming harder and harder to avoid all the pop up ads that come up every time you click on a article. The ones that jump out and cover the screen so that you can't read what is underneath them or close them are one of the most annoying things that a tel-marketed ever dreamed up.
Newspapers should look for a way to work with advertises to provide personal advertising based on the reading habits of their customers. They need to create ads that compliment their coverage of entertainment and arts rather then annoying ads that making reading the newspaper online such a pain in the neck.
No matter how annoying you make things I am still going to read the paper online just because its easier and cheaper then picking it up from the newsstand every day. This is a fact don't act like your customers are doing something evil or illegal by reading online.
Whatever happen to adapting to what the customs wants instead of resenting it.
Making the advertising less annoying and more person is one way to fix the revenue stream, One way to provide more intriguing content is to focus on local news or even provide a web site for Hyperlocalism coverage. Another way is to ask readers about what they think the newspaper should cover. To use a survey or focus group or just an open call for comments to give them a say in the way that the newspaper set its coverage priorities.
Evolution of civic journalism
The citizen Journalism movement
This is a good article about the origins of citizen Journalism and the part that citizen journalists played in breaking the scandal over the firing of eight U.S. attorney.
Commenting on the important role for such a new media that is not corporate dominated and owned, but that is able to fulfill the role of citizen journalism, Linda Milazzo writes, "New Media voices ... won't permit another president to disregard the will of the people as the "Old Press" wantonly do, a new press will have free unencumbered voices, much of which arise from the Internet."(12)
Citizen Journalism has played a big part in the middle east when the mainstream media is often run by the government and their are severe restriction on freedom of speech. In China, Iran and Egypt several bloggers have been arrested for casting a spotlight on social justice.
OhmyNews International is a good site to go to for stories about citizen journalism since Oh My news was one of the first major media organizations to promote citizen journalism.
Iraq still remains the most dangerous assignment for Journalists according to the Committee to Project Journalists as the death toll for Journalists killed since 2003 reaches 100. This also is one of the reasons why American journalists rarely leave the settle of the green zone to capture the story of Iraq civilians. The best way to get their story as I state in early blogs is to go on the Internet and search out blogs and video blogs create by Iraq citizens.
The Sunlight Foundation is pooling citizen journalists to investigate the government. One of the projects gives directions of how to see if representatives are putting their spouses on their campaign payrolls.
So far they have investigated 438 member and found 19 spouses who were paid by a member's campaign committee-totaling $636,876 since January 1, 2005.
They have also sent letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to lobby for legislation to require members file their personal financial information as part of their campaign for government transparency.
Here is a good blog about the development of blogging and how the mainstream media has turned towards bloggers and citizen Journalists for help with reporting.
The L.A. Times published a debate between two journalists about the current state of the news media and its future. They both seem to agree that the Internet is
opening up a whole new world and dramatically transforming the possibilities for journalism.
and To secure its future, Big Media is going to have to try something it hasn't excelled at in recent years: Producing a quality product.
More and more websites from The Chicago Tribune with Triblocal to neighborsgo are going up all the time that act like community bulletin board with community-generated content, where people can post info and picture on local events. In a sense these sites let average citizens contribute to a profiles of their home town Like MySpace made the art of creating you own profile popular. In a way these sites can also give little towns a chance to advertise themselves with real stories from people without all the spin that tourism office's dream up.
This is a good article about the origins of citizen Journalism and the part that citizen journalists played in breaking the scandal over the firing of eight U.S. attorney.
Commenting on the important role for such a new media that is not corporate dominated and owned, but that is able to fulfill the role of citizen journalism, Linda Milazzo writes, "New Media voices ... won't permit another president to disregard the will of the people as the "Old Press" wantonly do, a new press will have free unencumbered voices, much of which arise from the Internet."(12)
Citizen Journalism has played a big part in the middle east when the mainstream media is often run by the government and their are severe restriction on freedom of speech. In China, Iran and Egypt several bloggers have been arrested for casting a spotlight on social justice.
OhmyNews International is a good site to go to for stories about citizen journalism since Oh My news was one of the first major media organizations to promote citizen journalism.
Iraq still remains the most dangerous assignment for Journalists according to the Committee to Project Journalists as the death toll for Journalists killed since 2003 reaches 100. This also is one of the reasons why American journalists rarely leave the settle of the green zone to capture the story of Iraq civilians. The best way to get their story as I state in early blogs is to go on the Internet and search out blogs and video blogs create by Iraq citizens.
The Sunlight Foundation is pooling citizen journalists to investigate the government. One of the projects gives directions of how to see if representatives are putting their spouses on their campaign payrolls.
So far they have investigated 438 member and found 19 spouses who were paid by a member's campaign committee-totaling $636,876 since January 1, 2005.
They have also sent letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to lobby for legislation to require members file their personal financial information as part of their campaign for government transparency.
Here is a good blog about the development of blogging and how the mainstream media has turned towards bloggers and citizen Journalists for help with reporting.
The L.A. Times published a debate between two journalists about the current state of the news media and its future. They both seem to agree that the Internet is
opening up a whole new world and dramatically transforming the possibilities for journalism.
and To secure its future, Big Media is going to have to try something it hasn't excelled at in recent years: Producing a quality product.
More and more websites from The Chicago Tribune with Triblocal to neighborsgo are going up all the time that act like community bulletin board with community-generated content, where people can post info and picture on local events. In a sense these sites let average citizens contribute to a profiles of their home town Like MySpace made the art of creating you own profile popular. In a way these sites can also give little towns a chance to advertise themselves with real stories from people without all the spin that tourism office's dream up.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Is there a legal limit to what you can post?
Viacom, copyright Material, etc.
Can user-generated news site that depend on readers to provide the content allow users to release copyrighted material even encryption code?
On Tuesday, Digg had to remove a link to an article containing the the HD DVD encryption key, that programmers can use to crack the copy protection code on the new disc format.
Readers response by voting for links that contained the code and bashed Diggs attempt to remove the link, which overwhelmed the site filters. Eventually Digg founder Kevin Rose gave the go-ahead to post the code in a not posted on the site.
"You've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company."
The encryption codes should be covered by the 1998 Millennium Copyright Act but their are several loopholes.
Now that Digg has caved to its users and allowed them to post the code, attorney Gregory Rutchik of the San Francisco-based Arts and Technology Law Group says the site could be sued by the AACS.
However since the code was already made public for several moths on blogs and other websites including Conde Nast's Wired.com.
The revolt of the readers has completely changed Diggs policy about taking down links according to the executive director Jay Adelson
We usually give the claimants the benefit of the doubt and take things down, thinking that it's better to be safe than sorry," says Adelson.
This also brings up the fact that no matter what the big corporations do their are millions of hackers out their trying to find a way to hack the next encryption key. What is the point of taking legal action to protect a key when it is leaked all over the Internet?
Two weeks ago attorneys for the Advanced Access Copy System used in both Blu-ray and HD DVD sent out out letter to several websites demanding that they remove references to the encryption key.
After this letter was filed and passed around the Internet Hackers started post links on Diggs, slashdot
and any other website that would allow it.
Wired.com is even taking a poll of readers on how long it will take someone to post the new key online after AACS LA updates their HD DVD encryption key. So far 38.2 percent answered less than a month.
I guess they think that no matter what the AACS comes up with the encryption key will end up on a website somewhere in a matter of months. As hackers around the world work together to open up this new technology to everyone.
Maybe that is one good thing about the Internet. It is almost impossible for anyone to regulate what you can and cannot post on the Internet. So the speed with which copyrighted material and encryption code ends up on the Internet makes any legal action that big corporations take almost irrelevant.
Can user-generated news site that depend on readers to provide the content allow users to release copyrighted material even encryption code?
On Tuesday, Digg had to remove a link to an article containing the the HD DVD encryption key, that programmers can use to crack the copy protection code on the new disc format.
Readers response by voting for links that contained the code and bashed Diggs attempt to remove the link, which overwhelmed the site filters. Eventually Digg founder Kevin Rose gave the go-ahead to post the code in a not posted on the site.
"You've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company."
The encryption codes should be covered by the 1998 Millennium Copyright Act but their are several loopholes.
Now that Digg has caved to its users and allowed them to post the code, attorney Gregory Rutchik of the San Francisco-based Arts and Technology Law Group says the site could be sued by the AACS.
However since the code was already made public for several moths on blogs and other websites including Conde Nast's Wired.com.
The revolt of the readers has completely changed Diggs policy about taking down links according to the executive director Jay Adelson
We usually give the claimants the benefit of the doubt and take things down, thinking that it's better to be safe than sorry," says Adelson.
Now, he says, all of that has changed. "Our users have said that's not good enough," he says. "And we've made a decision to stand with them on this issue."
Beyond the ethical and legal questions that this opens up we also have to look at if their is a legal limit to what you can put on the Internet. Viacom argued that everyday people cross the legal line when they upload a video to YouTube when they decided to sue Google over YouTube clips, for $1 billion.This also brings up the fact that no matter what the big corporations do their are millions of hackers out their trying to find a way to hack the next encryption key. What is the point of taking legal action to protect a key when it is leaked all over the Internet?
Two weeks ago attorneys for the Advanced Access Copy System used in both Blu-ray and HD DVD sent out out letter to several websites demanding that they remove references to the encryption key.
After this letter was filed and passed around the Internet Hackers started post links on Diggs, slashdot
and any other website that would allow it.
Wired.com is even taking a poll of readers on how long it will take someone to post the new key online after AACS LA updates their HD DVD encryption key. So far 38.2 percent answered less than a month.
I guess they think that no matter what the AACS comes up with the encryption key will end up on a website somewhere in a matter of months. As hackers around the world work together to open up this new technology to everyone.
Maybe that is one good thing about the Internet. It is almost impossible for anyone to regulate what you can and cannot post on the Internet. So the speed with which copyrighted material and encryption code ends up on the Internet makes any legal action that big corporations take almost irrelevant.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Media layoffs hit new low
the Problem with Big Media
On Monday, April 30th The Associated Press reported that newspaper circulation had fallen another 2.1 percent in the last six months. This downward spiral of circulation has inspired major layoffs from several major national newspapers. In the first quarter of 2007 media companies have announced 4,391 layoffs a 93 percent increase from last year. Newspapers are not the only one's layoff people;
with six percent of the media job cuts coming from the magazine publishing and 12 percent from television.
In the middle of the coverage of the Virginia Tech Massacre NBC breaks its own record for the lowest prime-time viewership for the second straight week with an average of 6.2 million viewers.
Paying to reach everyone through a single dominant platform such as a general interest news outlet is a proposition that makes business sense for fewer and fewer advertisers.
Media organizations assemble and sell audiences, and the broad audience that a value-neutral news reporting operation tends to attract is no longer in demand, online or off.
What can still work, online and offline, is specialized content that appeals to a particular audience. The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are outperforming other papers.
While a few people are afraid that we are head toward a "Daily Me." where the media fragments into different niches to satisfy the desires of different marketers Google is making context-sensitive ads the industry standard. Every article and every video clip will find its own audience as people use search engines to pick and choose what they want.
No one wants to buy the whole paper if you are not going to read half of it. Why should you sit through a entire newscast when I all you want to know is did the Cubs win their last game?
While everyone else in the media is cutting back and crying over spilled milk Robert Murdoch is still smiling as he looks to add to his empire.
What is he doing now?
After Launching MySpace in China, Murdoch is planning a business-news television channel to challenge CNBC.
To gain a little prestige he is offering to buy Dow Jones, which owns the Wall Street Journal. This announcement rocketed Dow Jones shares up 58 percent.
Is the Media turning into Big Brother?
On Monday, April 30th The Associated Press reported that newspaper circulation had fallen another 2.1 percent in the last six months. This downward spiral of circulation has inspired major layoffs from several major national newspapers. In the first quarter of 2007 media companies have announced 4,391 layoffs a 93 percent increase from last year. Newspapers are not the only one's layoff people;
with six percent of the media job cuts coming from the magazine publishing and 12 percent from television.
In the middle of the coverage of the Virginia Tech Massacre NBC breaks its own record for the lowest prime-time viewership for the second straight week with an average of 6.2 million viewers.
Paying to reach everyone through a single dominant platform such as a general interest news outlet is a proposition that makes business sense for fewer and fewer advertisers.
Media organizations assemble and sell audiences, and the broad audience that a value-neutral news reporting operation tends to attract is no longer in demand, online or off.
What can still work, online and offline, is specialized content that appeals to a particular audience. The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are outperforming other papers.
While a few people are afraid that we are head toward a "Daily Me." where the media fragments into different niches to satisfy the desires of different marketers Google is making context-sensitive ads the industry standard. Every article and every video clip will find its own audience as people use search engines to pick and choose what they want.
No one wants to buy the whole paper if you are not going to read half of it. Why should you sit through a entire newscast when I all you want to know is did the Cubs win their last game?
While everyone else in the media is cutting back and crying over spilled milk Robert Murdoch is still smiling as he looks to add to his empire.
What is he doing now?
After Launching MySpace in China, Murdoch is planning a business-news television channel to challenge CNBC.
To gain a little prestige he is offering to buy Dow Jones, which owns the Wall Street Journal. This announcement rocketed Dow Jones shares up 58 percent.
Is the Media turning into Big Brother?
Saturday, April 28, 2007
student essay treated as real threat
How did Allen Lee, an A-student and an athlete at Cary-Grove High School senior get charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and a misdemeanor that carries up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine?
He wrote a 342 word essay that referred to "Shooting everyone", and having sex with their dead bodies". The most damning part of the essay was the last line:
No quarrel on you qualifications as a writer, but as a teacher, don't be surprised on inspiring the first cg shooting. (Cary-Grove)
Lee plans on joining the Marines but now this incident caused the Marines to discharge him from their enlistment program on Friday.
In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre this case brings up the issue of how can high schools and college distinguish from a kid that is just mad at his teacher and a real real threat.
I believe that Lee had no intention of hurting anyone and the school district has overreacted by threatening legal charges.
If you read the whole essay you can easily see that Lee was just naming of shocking things of the hell of it because he though it would be funny. This is the kind of thing that you laugh about with you friends after class and not something you write in an assignment that a teacher will read.
Towards the end he just goes off on why he does not like his teacher and ends the essay by stating that she may inspire the first Cary Grove shooting. This is a sign of a child that is frustrated with his teacher and just wants to be done with his class. He clearly should be punished for the last line in the essay but pressing legal charges is going to far.
The killer in the Virginia Tech Massacre had a long history of mental mental problems and low self-esteem. His stayed at a mental hospital for a while, his creative writing teacher showed his violent work to the police and then refused to teach him.
In Traverse City, Michigan a 15-year-old Student threatened massacre at a local high school similar to the one at Virginia Tech. What is the difference between him and Lee? simple their behavior patterns:
The 15-year-old in Michigan confided his intentions to a faculty member Thursday and described himself as suicidal. Lee completed the Military Entry Procession station examinations and the psychiatric evaluation.
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting there is a lot of paranoia going around that school administrators need to take every threat seriously. Why that make sense for specific threats and creditable bomb threats.
A student with no history of behavior problems bad mouthing his teacher in a essay is not a serious threat.
What Lee said was stupid but that should not hold him back from graduating or joining the Marines if that's what he chooses to do with his life.
Bill to save internet radio
On Friday Congress introduced a bill that could nullify the new rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) called the "Internet Radio Eqaulity Act." (IREA). The bills aims to stop the ruling which put royalty of a .08 cent per song per listener, retroactively from 2006 to 2010 on internet radio.
After the march 2 ruling advocates were worried that rates could rise between 300 to 1200 percent for webcasters. The IREA would set new rates at 7.5 percent of the webcaster's revenue the same rate paid by satellite radio.
This bill sounds like a good way to keep the CRB from making the world of internet radio to expensive for little radio stations. More community groups and colleges are using webcasts to broadcast their own radio stations most of them will be forced out of business if the CRB rulling stands.
How to start an internet radio station
To learn more check out Savenetradio.org.
Third World PCs
Nicholas Negroponte is still trying to bring cheap wind-up laptops to third world children the only catch is now he says they will cost $175 instead of $100 and production may not start until October.
The former director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab who now heads the not-for-profit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project said that project has been set pack from their original goals by the rising price of materials and changes in the design.
At least seven countries Uruguay, Nigeria, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, and Libya have expressed interested in buying the Laptops that have a crank so they can be wound by hand.
Quanta Computer, the Taiwanese manufacturer which will assemble the machine has agreed to take a profit of about $3 per laptop and the laptops will work on a low cost version of Windows.
Mr. Negroponte also said that the project was considering shipping the machines to poor schools in the U.S.
While the U.S. is second in the world for personal computers per capita.
There is still a major gap in internet access between the rich and the poor according to the pew research center.
While 82 percent of those living in households with more than $75,000 in income now have internet access only 38 percent of households earning less than $30,000 have internet access.
Only 34 percent of Internet users have logged on using a wireless connection.
We need to close the income gap in internet access by making it cheaper and easy for people to get high speed Internet access at least school if they are unable to afford it at home. More teenagers are using the internet to learn more and research topics but they are also adding content and videos.
According to a recent study by Pew Internet and American Life Project, 57 percent of teenagers who are online, create content for the internet. Another study determines that more than 79% of U.S. broadband Internet users watched video in 2006.
The U.S. has a long way to go to provide the next generation with internet access so they can use the internet to its full potential.
According to a report in the Economists Intelligence Unit Asian and African nations are catching up to their European counterparts in affordable broadband.
The best way to truely connect the world is to increase the amount of broadband available so that people in third world countries can communicate and add content in the same ways at first world countries. AS the internet connects the world in brand new ways the media is looking at new ways to work with citizen journalists to cover world events. Citizen Journalists can cover events from the perspective of a witness who has lived in the area and knows the people rather then an outsider reporter who is throw into a war zone with little first hand knowledge of the conflict or the people involved.
MySpace is launching a new site for China last Friday. There are already 7.7 million blogs in China with 17.5 million active bloggers. MySpace China will face competition from similar sites like WangYou.com which has 11 million users.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Hometown Baghdad shows civilian life in Iraq
"Security" Hometown Baghdad
Hometown Baghdad is a video blog that joined YouTube on January 9, 2007 and has produced 18 videos since then of every day life in Baghdad for a group of teenagers. The latest video called "Security" gives a tour of Ausama's grandmother's house after U.S. soldiers raid it because they believed that it was a terrorists haven.
"Powerless"- Hometown Baghdad
Powerless shows us how Iraqis deal with constant power outages and living with only a few hours of power each day.
"Kiss and Tell" talks about the dating stories of Saif, Adel, and Ausama.
Adel plays his guitar for therapy and talks about his band in "Songs of Pain".
A picture of a regular school day in Iraq posted by BlogIraq.
If you want to find out what is really going on in Iraq, blogs and vlogs written by real Iraqis give a much different us a unique perspective on the war.
You can also get an idea of like in Baghdad from the McClatchy Baghdad Bureau at the Inside Iraq blog.
American newspapers rarely report on civilian life on Iraq. I found an article from German newspaper Spiegel called "Anything Is Better than Baghdad"
According to a survey complied by Mercer Human Resource Consulting Baghdad Came in Last for quality of life among global cities. The red cross released a report about the 'ever-worsening' humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
With all this bad news its hard to believe that John McCain's walk through Baghdad was anything more then a political stun to fool Americans into thinking the war is getting better.
In order to get the truth with whats is really going in the American public has to search beyond the mainstream media.
More newspapers cut jobs
The Denver Post announced that it will buyout about 90 newsroom workers to trim costs. The paper only has about 268 workers in the newsroom so this move will take them down to 178. This comes one-year after the Post bought out a dozen newsroom positions. The Rocky Mountain News owned by Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co. eliminated 50 employees last month and The Baltimore Sun just eliminated 50 positions.
All these layoffs raise the question can small papers still provide the same quality coverage that their readers rely on with 178 people? Job cuts that are this big must have a lasting effect on what the paper is able to cover and how they divide their resources to cover local and national events. Most papers already rely on the big three to provide them with coverage of most international events. So if a paper cannot afford to have a corespondent in Iraq do they need one in Chicago? New York? Washington D.C.?
All these layoffs will probably lead papers like the Denver post to focus more on local events that they can cover better then any other news outlet.
Many news outlets have used layoffs as a way to boost their stock prices but that rarely ever works.
Media General Inc had a net lost in the first quarter of 2007 of $6.5 million and as a result they are cutting 70 staff positions from the Tampa Tribune.
Discovery started April by cutting 200 jobs, with more layoffs to come.
In the case of Le Journal in Quebec, Canada 140 employees were locked out after the company reached an impasse with the Canadian Union of Public Employees at the daily tabloid newspaper.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Media: Fire newstaff Hire Programmers
Here is the Trib. vs. Sun-times ad Mocking the Mac Vs. PC ads
Tribune only recent Triumph Red Eye?
Look for our classmate in video.
Excutives at the Chicago Tribune have announced another round of firings at its Flagship and the Los Angeles Times with both papers hit by declining advertising revenues and a first quarter loss of 4 percent.
Its hard to believe that this latest round of "spring cleaning" by the Trib. has nothing to do with, real estate mogul Sam Zell purchasing the Tribune Media Group. Last year on August 25, the Trib . laid off 250 jobs and another 120 on July 14. In 2005 they dropped 900 jobs on December 7, and over 200 jobs on July 7 2004. So over the last three years they have laid off a total of 1,720 employees according to I Want Media.
While newspaper ad revenue and circulation is down in almost every category you can break it up to according to The State of the News Media 2006. Many people believe that online ad revenue will one day like 2018 surpass print advertising. Lets hope that day comes a little sooner for anyone who still has dreams of becoming a reporter at a major newspaper. Like me. Damn you Tribune Dream squasher.
While the Trib. is worried about the decline stock price since its peak on 12/32/04 at $82 a share some people other newspapers are exploring new ways to use the Internet to cash in on new ad revenue.
Daily newspapers laid off around 600 people during 2005 which is about half of the 1,200 to 1,500 reduction that is projected for 2006 by the state of the media report that comes in March.
there are a few special cases where newspapers are actually transitions from print to web and gaining in profit at the same time.
The Wall Street Journal is a special case with more than 764,000 paid subscribers to its online version, and profits of its extended online operations, including indexes and “Marketwatch,” now outstripping those of the print edition.
The report had a warning about the effect of cutting staff has on the quality of newspapers.
Our sense based on the data is that deep news-staff cuts, however logical a response to tough times, may be undermining the core product in dangerous ways. The practice is certainly eating away at the range and depth of newspaper journalism in many communities.
What is inspiring the recent layoffs in the newspaper industry? not falling revenue but stagnate revenue growth.
The threat to newspapers now appears from nearly every indicator. From 1950 through 1999, for instance, newspaper revenue grew seven percent a year. From 2000 through 2006, by contrast, it has grown by just 0.5%. Then in the first quarter of 2006, growth was even less: 0.35%.
Newspapers people have been hiring Journalist-Programmers who can make their website more user friendly and using their web sites to cover stories from all angles using interactive graphics. On example of a newspaper that has done this is TheNewsTribune.com Tacoma, Washington.
One other thing that might be causing the Tribune to cut its workforce Moody's cuts Tribune rating deeper into junk since the deal with Sam Zell's will give them $8.4 billion in dept. Which means should they evertake out a loan on anything the interest on it will go throw the roof.
Tribune only recent Triumph Red Eye?
Look for our classmate in video.
Excutives at the Chicago Tribune have announced another round of firings at its Flagship and the Los Angeles Times with both papers hit by declining advertising revenues and a first quarter loss of 4 percent.
Its hard to believe that this latest round of "spring cleaning" by the Trib. has nothing to do with, real estate mogul Sam Zell purchasing the Tribune Media Group. Last year on August 25, the Trib . laid off 250 jobs and another 120 on July 14. In 2005 they dropped 900 jobs on December 7, and over 200 jobs on July 7 2004. So over the last three years they have laid off a total of 1,720 employees according to I Want Media.
While newspaper ad revenue and circulation is down in almost every category you can break it up to according to The State of the News Media 2006. Many people believe that online ad revenue will one day like 2018 surpass print advertising. Lets hope that day comes a little sooner for anyone who still has dreams of becoming a reporter at a major newspaper. Like me. Damn you Tribune Dream squasher.
While the Trib. is worried about the decline stock price since its peak on 12/32/04 at $82 a share some people other newspapers are exploring new ways to use the Internet to cash in on new ad revenue.
Daily newspapers laid off around 600 people during 2005 which is about half of the 1,200 to 1,500 reduction that is projected for 2006 by the state of the media report that comes in March.
there are a few special cases where newspapers are actually transitions from print to web and gaining in profit at the same time.
The Wall Street Journal is a special case with more than 764,000 paid subscribers to its online version, and profits of its extended online operations, including indexes and “Marketwatch,” now outstripping those of the print edition.
The report had a warning about the effect of cutting staff has on the quality of newspapers.
Our sense based on the data is that deep news-staff cuts, however logical a response to tough times, may be undermining the core product in dangerous ways. The practice is certainly eating away at the range and depth of newspaper journalism in many communities.
What is inspiring the recent layoffs in the newspaper industry? not falling revenue but stagnate revenue growth.
The threat to newspapers now appears from nearly every indicator. From 1950 through 1999, for instance, newspaper revenue grew seven percent a year. From 2000 through 2006, by contrast, it has grown by just 0.5%. Then in the first quarter of 2006, growth was even less: 0.35%.
Newspapers people have been hiring Journalist-Programmers who can make their website more user friendly and using their web sites to cover stories from all angles using interactive graphics. On example of a newspaper that has done this is TheNewsTribune.com Tacoma, Washington.
One other thing that might be causing the Tribune to cut its workforce Moody's cuts Tribune rating deeper into junk since the deal with Sam Zell's will give them $8.4 billion in dept. Which means should they evertake out a loan on anything the interest on it will go throw the roof.
Presidential candidates debate on the Web
from this?
To online debates
Yahoo, Slate and the Huffington post have announced that they have are co-hosting the first-ever online presidential debate. This comes two weeks after the Democratic presidential candidates all lined up behind former Sen. John Edwards by refusing to participate in a debate that was sponsored by Fox News Channel and the Congressional Black Caucus. That was in the wake of remarks made by Roger Ailes that President Bush would have trouble telling the difference between Obama and Osama bin Laden.
There will be two online debates, one for the Democrats and one for the Republicans candidates both hosted by Mr. Charlie Rose held after Labor Day.
The debate will feature real-time questions sent in by the online audience, and viewers questions uploaded on video.
So why online as opposed to the old TV model?
With an online debate the though is that you can engage rather then enrage the audience. For many people the TV presidential debate sometimes feel like way to scripted like a planned out TV drama. With online debate you can members of the public participate in the debate. The 2008 campaign has been all about connecting people through the Internet and giving them the tools to blog about the candidates and raise money online.
This is also a sign of how the campaign is moving away from TV and one to the Internet where you can produce videos and upload them to YouTube for free.
In the past local TV stations have relied on political ads for a large part of their revenue.
"In the 2003-2004 election cycle, some 80 percent of new revenue for local stations came from political advertising," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. said.
Durbin told this story by way of explaining why he has introduced, along with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., S. 936, the Fair Elections Now Act. Durbin says he's tired of political campaigns being a "cash cow for TV stations."
While it is hard to believe that Durbin's plan to take the money out of politics will work I think that the Internet is completely changing the way our candidates campaign.
Now that all the presidential candidate have YouTube channels and some of them have already begun to use their channels to ask questions of the public and answer them in short videos.
In a way the online debate has already began. Through the site ExpertVoter.org you can even keep track of what issues the candidates have made videos on.
What are you going to do to bring about change?
RE: David's Question on Education in a Changing World
Monday, April 23, 2007
Airing Uncomfortable Truths
In crisis's wake, focus is on 'citizen journalism' - Orlando Sentinel : Lifestyle In crisis's wake, focus is on 'citizen journalism' - Orlando Sentinel : Lifestyle
In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech Massacre CNN received cell-phone video shot by Jamal Albarghouti through their I-report initiative, that encourages viewers to send in video and photographs to the network's website. The video recorded outside of Norris Hall caught the sound of several gunshots. Its the only footage of that catches the shooting as it happened. This video has been played over and over again on CNN over the last week.
In the past reporters usually arrive to the scene of a crime after the smoke has cleared and the police have taken away the bad guy.
Technology has made it easy for eyewitnesses to document events as they happened. Within a few hours the media can broadcast the footage for millions to see.
The key to Citizen Journalism is usually about being at the wrong place at the wrong time like Jamal Albarghouti was when he found himself outside of Norris Hall.
bringing the audience closer to the action and seeing it from the point of view of a direct witness tot he events rather then a reporter flow in to cover the story is an example of how citizen journalism can enhance news coverage.
A few days after the massacre NBC aired the video that the killer sent them. NBC received heat from the victims families for airing what they saw as propaganda of a delusional psycho while other people in the media argued that the public needed to see this to reignite the debate about what to do with the mentally ill and gun control.
Jeff Jarvis said that the video could have ended up on YouTube if NBC did not air it or another site.
"We need a debate in this country about our mental health and privacy laws." Jarvis said.
"It is Journalism's jobs to give us the uncomfortable truths."
When I first saw the footage my first reaction was why are we airing the rant of a madman? why are giving him any air time at all, to glorify the mass murder that he carried out?
After taking in the coverage I think Jarvis and other members of the media that have defended NBC for airing the clip. I have a hard time believing that NBC could keep the tape from ending up on YouTube once they realized what they had. As long as the video is not played every time they find a new detail about the killer.
You can see what the President of NBC had to say about airing the video at http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=6405306
Protest of airing VaTech killer video
Should the video be taking off of YouTube?
Bringing uncomfortable truths to light to the public light is part of the media's job. It also their job to continue the public debate even of issues like gun control and how to deal with the mentally ill that have not been address in a long time.
The coverage should focus less on what was in the killer's head and more on how he was able to carry out this horrific act despite all the warning signs.
We need to reexamine our laws regarding the purchased of firearms. We need to take a second look with how we deal with mentally ill people. Most of we need to remember the victims and how 32 lives were destroyed in one day.
Tribune to victims
In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech Massacre CNN received cell-phone video shot by Jamal Albarghouti through their I-report initiative, that encourages viewers to send in video and photographs to the network's website. The video recorded outside of Norris Hall caught the sound of several gunshots. Its the only footage of that catches the shooting as it happened. This video has been played over and over again on CNN over the last week.
In the past reporters usually arrive to the scene of a crime after the smoke has cleared and the police have taken away the bad guy.
Technology has made it easy for eyewitnesses to document events as they happened. Within a few hours the media can broadcast the footage for millions to see.
The key to Citizen Journalism is usually about being at the wrong place at the wrong time like Jamal Albarghouti was when he found himself outside of Norris Hall.
bringing the audience closer to the action and seeing it from the point of view of a direct witness tot he events rather then a reporter flow in to cover the story is an example of how citizen journalism can enhance news coverage.
A few days after the massacre NBC aired the video that the killer sent them. NBC received heat from the victims families for airing what they saw as propaganda of a delusional psycho while other people in the media argued that the public needed to see this to reignite the debate about what to do with the mentally ill and gun control.
Jeff Jarvis said that the video could have ended up on YouTube if NBC did not air it or another site.
"We need a debate in this country about our mental health and privacy laws." Jarvis said.
"It is Journalism's jobs to give us the uncomfortable truths."
When I first saw the footage my first reaction was why are we airing the rant of a madman? why are giving him any air time at all, to glorify the mass murder that he carried out?
After taking in the coverage I think Jarvis and other members of the media that have defended NBC for airing the clip. I have a hard time believing that NBC could keep the tape from ending up on YouTube once they realized what they had. As long as the video is not played every time they find a new detail about the killer.
You can see what the President of NBC had to say about airing the video at http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=6405306
Protest of airing VaTech killer video
Should the video be taking off of YouTube?
Bringing uncomfortable truths to light to the public light is part of the media's job. It also their job to continue the public debate even of issues like gun control and how to deal with the mentally ill that have not been address in a long time.
The coverage should focus less on what was in the killer's head and more on how he was able to carry out this horrific act despite all the warning signs.
We need to reexamine our laws regarding the purchased of firearms. We need to take a second look with how we deal with mentally ill people. Most of we need to remember the victims and how 32 lives were destroyed in one day.
Tribune to victims
Friday, April 20, 2007
Recruiting citizens to do the paparazzi dirty work
When two of the biggest movies stars in all of Bollywood (Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan) are planning to get married in a secret wedding how does Rediff news plan to cover the event?
By sending out a call for citizen journalists to mail the photographs, video to them.
Now, YOU can become a Citizen Journalist, and have your reports published right here on rediff.com
Here's how: If you spot Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, their families, guests, or if you are lucky enough to witness the wedding, take a photograph or a video, scan the pictures, and mail the pictures and video clips to us.
More and more Media organizations are actually recruiting citizen journalists to cover everything from world events to celebrity news.
They even played an important role in the coverage of The Virginia Tech Massacre.
Why hire professional journalists to break stories when you can find citizen journalists to sent you scoops for free or little money?
This is part of the exciting new world of citizen journalism. As long as their is still someone acting as an editor and someone doing a little fact checking with enough scepticism to tell when a story is too good to be true. In order to be a trusted news organization you have to have filters to distinguish the Hoaxes from the real thing.
This can help major media organization to get the immediate rare footage that their viewers crave and it give the average citizens to decided which angle to cover the story. But we must stick to the Principal of accuracy over immediacy. Reporting rumors just to say you heard it here first will always come back to bite you when the truth comes out.
By sending out a call for citizen journalists to mail the photographs, video to them.
Now, YOU can become a Citizen Journalist, and have your reports published right here on rediff.com
Here's how: If you spot Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, their families, guests, or if you are lucky enough to witness the wedding, take a photograph or a video, scan the pictures, and mail the pictures and video clips to us.
More and more Media organizations are actually recruiting citizen journalists to cover everything from world events to celebrity news.
They even played an important role in the coverage of The Virginia Tech Massacre.
Why hire professional journalists to break stories when you can find citizen journalists to sent you scoops for free or little money?
This is part of the exciting new world of citizen journalism. As long as their is still someone acting as an editor and someone doing a little fact checking with enough scepticism to tell when a story is too good to be true. In order to be a trusted news organization you have to have filters to distinguish the Hoaxes from the real thing.
This can help major media organization to get the immediate rare footage that their viewers crave and it give the average citizens to decided which angle to cover the story. But we must stick to the Principal of accuracy over immediacy. Reporting rumors just to say you heard it here first will always come back to bite you when the truth comes out.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Libel on YouTube
Hawaii's Go Airlines files a lawsuit against website
Bloogger threaten with a lawsuit after she wrote about her personal experience
According to the Media Law Resource Center people attacking other people in blogs and video have sparked some 60 libel lawsuits. Today everyone who has a beef against their boss, fellow coworker or rival candidate can blog about it or create a video blog and upload it to YouTube. When does a practical joke go to far to the point where you can be suit for libel? When you secretly record it and upload it to YouTube for the world to watch over and over again.
Sites like YouTube and MySpace have content editors to censor out offensive material but their is only so much they can take out do. Mecaca moments are bond to get through because what some peope might see as a harmless joke will be racists and highly offensive to others.
The site DontDateHimGirl.com allows women to post the name and pictures of guys they have dated along with reasons not to date them. Few of the women that write on the site have any idea that they can be suit for libel for identifying their ex's and writing about them in this public forum. There are 91 profiles of men in Chicago. How can any of these men get a date after their last girlfriend profiles them as a liar and a cheater like Otis "Big O Lucky" for example? How do you distinguish pure gossip from a someone out for revenge from the truth on the Internet? You can't.
The freedom of the blogosphere and the vlogosphere for people to rant and rave about anything they want has let blogger Tim O'Reilly to draft a Blogger's Code of Conduct.
So far O'Reilly has come up with seven rules for bloggers to follow like consider eliminating anonymous comments, and take responsibility not just for your own words but for the comments you allow on your blog.
He is not only asking bloggers to be upfront and accurate about their statements but to also filter their comments. This is a practical idea but I believe that it will only be followed by the major bloggers. many bloggers pull in a large audience in the same way as Howard Stern pulls in listens "you never know what he is going to do and say next." Other throw out controversial topics and wait for their readers to argue back and forth in the form of long rants.
The Internet is a forum that can never be completely censored nor should it be. Creating a code of conduct for blogger is a good idea but a better idea is to educated the public from a young age about libel and the consequences of offensive speech. Education the public will reduce the number of Imus moments by letting people know that their are consequences whenever you blog or rant in front of a video camera and upload it into the public domain.
You no longer have to be a celebrity, or a journalists to get the public to pay attention to you all you have to do is have something interesting or provocative to say. So Citizen Journalists use you power wisely.
Bloogger threaten with a lawsuit after she wrote about her personal experience
According to the Media Law Resource Center people attacking other people in blogs and video have sparked some 60 libel lawsuits. Today everyone who has a beef against their boss, fellow coworker or rival candidate can blog about it or create a video blog and upload it to YouTube. When does a practical joke go to far to the point where you can be suit for libel? When you secretly record it and upload it to YouTube for the world to watch over and over again.
Sites like YouTube and MySpace have content editors to censor out offensive material but their is only so much they can take out do. Mecaca moments are bond to get through because what some peope might see as a harmless joke will be racists and highly offensive to others.
The site DontDateHimGirl.com allows women to post the name and pictures of guys they have dated along with reasons not to date them. Few of the women that write on the site have any idea that they can be suit for libel for identifying their ex's and writing about them in this public forum. There are 91 profiles of men in Chicago. How can any of these men get a date after their last girlfriend profiles them as a liar and a cheater like Otis "Big O Lucky" for example? How do you distinguish pure gossip from a someone out for revenge from the truth on the Internet? You can't.
The freedom of the blogosphere and the vlogosphere for people to rant and rave about anything they want has let blogger Tim O'Reilly to draft a Blogger's Code of Conduct.
So far O'Reilly has come up with seven rules for bloggers to follow like consider eliminating anonymous comments, and take responsibility not just for your own words but for the comments you allow on your blog.
He is not only asking bloggers to be upfront and accurate about their statements but to also filter their comments. This is a practical idea but I believe that it will only be followed by the major bloggers. many bloggers pull in a large audience in the same way as Howard Stern pulls in listens "you never know what he is going to do and say next." Other throw out controversial topics and wait for their readers to argue back and forth in the form of long rants.
The Internet is a forum that can never be completely censored nor should it be. Creating a code of conduct for blogger is a good idea but a better idea is to educated the public from a young age about libel and the consequences of offensive speech. Education the public will reduce the number of Imus moments by letting people know that their are consequences whenever you blog or rant in front of a video camera and upload it into the public domain.
You no longer have to be a celebrity, or a journalists to get the public to pay attention to you all you have to do is have something interesting or provocative to say. So Citizen Journalists use you power wisely.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Is the future of newspapers Hyperlocalism?
According to the Knight Citizen News Network there are over 450 U.S. citizen media sites providing local news in communities from Juneau, Alaska to Coconut Grove, Florida.
So is this the way newspapers have to go in order to grab new readers and create a brand for themselves? Does this mean that newspaper will cut back on their coverage of international news?
These are the questions that PBS FRONTLINE: news war recently tackled in Part 3 chapter 23.
My take is more local news is a step in the right direction, especially if it is done in a way that encourages readers to send in user generated content to turn the newspaper website into a forum for conversation in the community. Newspapers can use "hyperlocalism" to allow readers to interact with each other through their websites in new ways to combine their resources and make sure important news stories see the light of day that are often ignored.
Focusing on the more local news gives newspapers a chance to stick out among all the media organizations as the best place for news on their hometown. To give readers and advertises that the place to go for local news in Washington D.C. is the Metro - washingtonpost website. Since most major cities like Los Angeles only have one or two major local papers this is an easy way for only paper in a particular city to compete with the other local news outlets for advertising and for an audience. In the battle for local video advertising the newspapers are beating TV stations.
Since hyperlocalism are popping up every day newspaper are now competing with local blogs, and citizen journalism sites as more of their readers move online to get their news. The big fat cat print monopolies have to adapt to the changing market being a good local newspaper is not enough you have to have a great website to act as forum of the community.
The new design for USATODAY.com is attracting more people to register on the site since it give readers a chance to see how many people recommend and commented on a stories and to actually read the comments of their fellow readers. At the very least the other major newspapers should follow the USA Today's lead and give readers a chance to see readers comment on stories and search for the stories with most comments. Focusing on local coverage is one unique way that newspapers can better serve their core audience and argue that in the information age that their is room for local newspapers in American.
The one down side of this is some people thing that only to beef up the local news is to shut down international bureaus and cut foreign correspondents. After all do you really need more then one newspaper reporter in Baghdad covering the war in Iraq at the same time?
My answer to them is yes we need several.
Especially in such a dangerous place where everyone is trying to spin the story for their advantage. The fact is the media have made several mistakes in their coverage of Iraq and the lack of security throughout Iraq makes it very hard for any one reporter to do the hard hitting investigative pieces that will allow readers to see what is really going on on the ground beyond the number of casualties from the latest suicide bombing.
What do the average Iraqis think they can secure the country without the U.S.? Are leaders throughout the Middle East denouncing the violence or are they secretly encouraging and funding it to deliver a blow to the America's ego? You need several reporters competing together to answer these questions from ever angle.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Europe thinks newspapers are not dead.
Those crazy Europeans they think that Newspaper is not dead. Meanwhile all the big newspapers corporations in America with any sense believes that only three papers (USA Today, Washington Post, NY times) are need for the U.S. and the Chicago tribune ain't one of them.
How can newspapers survive in the age of Internet with no classified section? fulling ad revenue for the print edition? And fulling circulation?
Bruno Patino, director of online projects at France's Le Monde said that the Internet would allow newspapers to focus on in-depth investigations as the web site focuses on audiences that demands up-to-the-minute-news: translation: to find who is the dad of Anna Nicole's baby the minute they announced it check the website to find out more about how the Veterans hospital system is failing our soldiers when they return from combat read the first in a series of articles on the website updated every so often as we get it. On the Internet 10,000 words costs the same as 10 words. TV and radio still really heavily on newspaper to provide in depth analysis on major stories and so do the readers of newspapers.
like the U.S. Europe is facing fulling newspaper circulation;
The most recent figures available from the World Association of Newspapers showed that daily paid newspapers in the European Union saw a 0.61 percent drop in circulation in 2005, and a 5.26 percent fall over the five years through 2005.
Europe's largest newspaper Berlin based Axel Springer will spend $2.67 billion to expand its digital offerings both in Germany and throughout the world.
Zach Leonard of the The Times of London said that writers will need to learn to write better headlines since search engines tend to reduce stories to their first 200 characters. The Times also encourages journalists to fill out articles with video and audio content.
Another drawback of reading the newspaper online. the computer reads the headlights for you and it does know about everything that you are interested in unless you add 30 or 40 unique topics to the Google News.
Ad revenue online is rising too:
Advertising online is a strong lure for newspapers. In Britain, for example, online advertising rose 41 percent in 2006 to reach more than 2 billion pounds, giving it an 11.4 percent share of the market, just higher than that of the newspapers. That compared to 7.8 percent in 2005, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau report which was compiled by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Center.
So if you will not throw away your subscription to the Chicago Tribune I will not tell my mother to stop her subscription with the Los Angeles Times. News Paper is not dead we just need to figure out how to move the ads from print to online. In the end content, in dept content is king. this is what makes us unique and what will keep us going well into the 21st century. those pin heads who say only three papers should exists hate capitalism because they are against competition and have lost sight to the importance of local news.
Watch PBS: FRONTLINE:news war: part III Chapter 21 on my precious Los Angeles Times that I grew up with.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Why blog when you can Vlog?
Mefeedia just realized there first "State of the Vlogosphere" report which found that the size of its index gre to 20,913 Video blog in January 2007 from just 617 in January 2005.
Go Vlogs! with the rise of Youtube people around the country are uploading great vblogs. You know the motto of the Internet "The more the Marier" Vlogs are cool. the add the visual element to lameo bloggers who just a create a little text with a few links. here are a few examples of vlogs Atlas Shrugs.com she talks about everything from the new HPV vaccine to the New democratic congress
to the New democratic congress
of you can watch the vlog Ask a ninja answer random questions about thinks like net Neutrality for example.
Go Vlogs! with the rise of Youtube people around the country are uploading great vblogs. You know the motto of the Internet "The more the Marier" Vlogs are cool. the add the visual element to lameo bloggers who just a create a little text with a few links. here are a few examples of vlogs Atlas Shrugs.com she talks about everything from the new HPV vaccine to the New democratic congress
to the New democratic congress
of you can watch the vlog Ask a ninja answer random questions about thinks like net Neutrality for example.
The Wisdom of the Crowd
The Current-Cambrain House Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing-opening up work threw the Internet to be completed by a large number of people over the Internet who either do it for free or a small fee. Think Wikipedia, Obamapedia or The Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
Open-sourcing is the nearest cousin to crowdsourcing, generally referring to crowdsourced work on software source code that is available for others to change, add to and build on, as with the Linux operating system.
Corporations and non-profits social services organizations are working with free-lancers and consultants beyond their organization to help them with research using crowdsourcing. AssignmentZero launched by Wired in March 2007 is the first attempt by the mainstream media to harness the power of the crowd to find and add to news stories.
InnoCentive will pay people to solve real research challenge for companies like Procter & Gamble.
Weather Crowdsouring is the Next Big Thing? in Citizen journalism or not is hard to say. For some websites and big new stories it would work very well. If you did a history of Chicago's transit system for example crowdsouring would be great but for small quick stories crowdsourcing would only complicated things.
There is also NewAssignment.Net started by NYU Journalisms professor Jay Rosen that will let readers help decide the topics to cover and how by signing up to pursue part of the story. the first story will cover crowsouring. Several newspapers are looking at different ways to turn into Information Centers that collect info from citizens in the streets as well as there reporters.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Topix lets citizen post local news online
Topix is one of a growing number of new aggregators that has began to let citizens upload local stories giving readers the opportunity to search for stories of a small town written and produced by the people who live there.
Seizing on growing interest in Internet-based "citizen journalists" — stories and images posted by the public — news site Topix.com will introduce an area where anyone can post or edit reports, commentary and photos about local happenings.
Site visitors can find the items about their locality by entering a ZIP code or town name into the site's search engine.
The users' material will supplement Topix' current service that collects and posts news from 50,000 traditional newspapers and blogs.
If you look at the page for Chicago you will see that the page is also edited by citizen journalists from Chicago. While many of the stories are just short blog entries with links to local newspaper articles this site has created forms where people can edit, update and point out related news in new ways. Now every story can be reported on by a thousands of citizens on connected by the Internet. This is the evolution of the news story. From a dead article in a newspaper filed by the reporting of one person to a living story with several contributors that can be debated in a public forum for the world to see.
Topix laid out its plan of attack on April 1st. The center for Citizen Media has created a informed page on the principles of how to be good citizen journalists.
The University of Maryland has ten new projects in community community news such as :
New Castle News Forum. To create a weekly cyber newspaper built from citizen-generated content for the Chappaqua area in Westchester County, N.Y., which has lost its local newspaper. The project is spearheaded by local volunteers under the auspices of the Friends of the Chappaqua Library.
Who needs mapping software when you have My Maps. Google just create a new feature that lets you add place marks and lines to their maps.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Video blogger freed
After serving seven months in prison for refusing to turn over video he shot July 8, 2005 of a protest in San Francisco's Mission District against the Group-of-Eight summit. During the protest a San Francisco police car was set on fire injuring a police officer.
As part of a deal cut with the prosecutors Wolf posted the footage unedited on his blog The Revolution Will Be Televised.
Wolf also swore in a new court document that he neither took part or could identify those responsible for the car's damage or the officer's injury. In exchange for this document prosecutors promised that they would not compel Wolf to testify before a grand jury.
The president of the Society of Professional Journalists who organized supporters of Wolf and the President of the national press club had "mixed feelings" about the plea deal. While they believe that it is good strategy to make the video available to the public rather then just to prosecutors
they both think that it is similar to a reporter being forced to give up all their notes n a particular story.
While it is good that this footage is out in the public the government should not be able to force Journalists to turn over everything they have for a court case because the lets more information out to the public before it has been fact check and edited. This also create a situation where journalists are force to unwillingly act as an arm of law enforcement. If law enforcement is able to use the footage of Journalists to prosecutor offenders then they are unwilling acting as a arm of the law catching criminals in the act. This seriously challenges the ability of journalists to work with the public to criticize the government. How can journalists take on the government if law enforcement can take their foootage and use it against their sources?
I am happy Josh Wolf is out but I am afraid that it is only a matter of time before another Journalists is arrested for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Hey but look at the broight side at least we are not making citizen journalism illegal like France.
Busing the internet to the poor
To give people in poor villages throughout India the company, United Villages, uses buses to provide Internet access to about 110,000 people in rural India and several other countries.
Each village that they serve has computer kiosks set up for villagers to compose emails, read the news and buy products from online stores. The only catch is that the web pages are not served in real time. Two WI-FI equipped buses visit the village four to six times a day to collect requests from the computers and transport the data to United Village hub in the city. The city hub then sends the messages out, processed searches and transfers any requested data back to the bus.
Seoul, Korea has had wireless internet Buses that allow people to access the internet while they are traveling in the city for about a year. Showing once again how they are miles ahead of the technology available in the U.S.
My Question is why oh why don't they do this in the rural parts of the U.S.?
According to Pew Internet.org in 2004 only 55 percent of all Internet users or 34 percent of adult Americans have high-speed Internet connections either at home or on the job. By the end of 2005 only 24 percent of rural American had high-speed Internet connections at Home compared to 40 percent in suburban areas. In rural areas 38 percent were listed as non Internet users. However the report called Rural Broadband Internet use from February 2006 said that Rural Internet users use the Internet for things like searching the news, checking blogs and participating in fantasy sports at about the same rate as urban users.
The easier and cheaper you make Internet access the more people will use it. Opening up access to the information highway so that nothing can stand in the way of person from becoming an expert in a variety of subjects if they are a little curious.
Another report called Wireless Internet access said that 34 percent of Internet users have logged onto the Internet using wireless connections either from their home or office.
The Internet gives people a choice in how they learn about the world and view the news. Instead of listening to the local radio, watching TV, or reading the local newspaper they can choose from thousands of newspapers. The number of choices on the Internet often overwhelm and overload us with rumor and inaccurate information. They also make it nearly impossible for the mainstream media or the government to control what the public knows.
They provide a sanctuary for citizen Journalism and unedited Journals through blogs. The education of the public through the Internet can slowly but surely spread democracy. This is why China is working with Google to control the Internet. They are fighting a losing battle over information. Its too easy to broadcast the truth and get it to the Chinese public you cannot fool the masses anymore.
Sky News report on discontent in China over development.
The truth is out there. Curious people just need the tools to find it and spread the word.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Immigration: The Human Cost | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
The Knight Citizen News Network: started a site to help citizen Journalist get all the tools they need to tell their local stories.
The Onion has just launched a site for fake news video called the Onion News Network.
In The Know: Our Troops In Iraq
Is very funny while the Immigration the Human Cost can only be funny to extreme liberals who choose to ignore the problem of Illegal Immigration.
Immigration: The Human Cost
The Onion has just launched a site for fake news video called the Onion News Network.
In The Know: Our Troops In Iraq
Is very funny while the Immigration the Human Cost can only be funny to extreme liberals who choose to ignore the problem of Illegal Immigration.
Immigration: The Human Cost
Citizen journalists on YouTube
Covering aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
You can watch citizen Journalism from all over the world and submit your own video threw iCommunity.TV
Its time for US media companies to look at the role of Citizen Journalism and how they should incorporated into their coverage.
You can watch citizen Journalism from all over the world and submit your own video threw iCommunity.TV
Its time for US media companies to look at the role of Citizen Journalism and how they should incorporated into their coverage.
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