Archive for September, 2006

Newer Entries »

Competition for Wikipedia

Sunday, September 17th, 2006

Before the weekend, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger presented his new project Citizendium at the Wizard of OS conference in Berlin. Citizendium will be a fork of the English Wikipedia – it will start with continuously mirroring all Wikipedia’s articles, then depart from Wikipedia when the community starts developing their own versions. A practice that Wikipedia’s open license allows, of course.

According to Marshall Poe’s Wikipedia article in The Atlantic, Sanger made two great contributions to Wikipedia – “he built it, and he left it. After forging a revolutionary mode of knowledge building, he came to realize – albeit dimly at first – that it was not to his liking.”

So how will Citizendium solve the problems that Sanger has with Wikipedia? One big difference is that all authors will operate under their full names. See the FAQ, and Sanger’s introductory essay for more clarification. (via Netzeitung’s Readers Edition).

Posted in Media and democracy | Comments Off

Wikipedia for better or worse

Friday, September 15th, 2006

Do we really have to choose between Wikipedia and Britannica-style encyclopedias, as the WSJ’s duel between Jimmy Wales and Dale Hoiberg suggests? I want both. Wild, experimental but socially sophisticated Wikipedia, well-written, tightly controlled, old-fashioned professorial Britannica. Because both models have a lot going for them. Consider Wired News’ experiment with a publicly wiki-edited article. In a follow-up piece, writer Ryan Singel evaluates, and concludes:

Certainly the final story is more accurate and more representative of how wikis are used. Is it a better story than the one that would have emerged after a Wired News editor worked with it? I think not. The edits over the week lack some of the narrative flow that a Wired News piece usually contains. The transitions seem a bit choppy, there are too many mentions of companies, and too much dry explication of how wikis work. It feels more like a primer than a story to me.

I have very little experience as a Wikipedia contributor, but the first challenge if you want to improve an article there, is what to do with the existing text. Completely rewrite, improve a little here or there? Often the result isn’t very satisfying, if you like good writing (Bjørn Stærk first tipped me about this).

Still, this is no crushing argument against either Wikipedia or wiki-based editing. Wikipedia’s development is simply astonishing. In an article now published by Swedish magazine Axess (paper only) and in Norwegian by Dagbladet Magasinet today, I try to identify some of the reasons for Wikipedia’s growth – a subject I’ll return to here soon.

Posted in Media and democracy | Comments Off

Rewinding to Sept. 11

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

Tomorrow starting at 14.30 CET, CNN.com will replay its TV coverage from September 11, 2001, on its Pipeline service (usually a paid service, now for free against registration – hat tip to Teknotum).

This also creates an opportunity to have a look at CNN’s other web coverage of 9/11 five years later. One of the items is especially intriguing if you’re interested in how the web related history: a timeline of how the CNN home page changed (scroll down to “Timeline: September 11, 2001, on CNN.com” – opens as pop-up) at intervals during the morning. Note how other stories (“Michael Jordan will return to NBA?”) are still presented more than half an hour after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Then the surge in traffic led to the page being stripped to the bare essentials.

There are many websites dedicated to portraying 9/11, such as the screenshot archive of online news sites. Also one from Netzeitung.de, though that screenshot is taken more than 12 hours after the first plane hit.

Posted in Innovative journalism | Comments Off

Blog headline of the year

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

…or of the decade? It’s going to be hard to beat this from Tom Watson, Labour MP: “Minister leaves government to spend more time with his blog”. Be sure to check the comments, especially the first one (hat tip: Erik, as usual).

Posted in Blogs in Europe | Comments Off

A glimpse of the time machine

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

Google’s new news archive search is maybe just a start. Lots of articles are behind pay walls, and the number of sources are limited. But still, what a start! As with so many other of Google’s new, imperfect services, this one lets you just guess at the potential. Imagine the timeline with a broader selection of sources. Still, to now have gems at your fingertips like an in-depth profile of “this pudgy, stoop-shouldered, tooth-brush-mustached but magnetic little man”, published on Monday, February 6, 1933…

Time Magazine is very well represented with free articles and deserve praise. But these samples just leave you craving for more. It’s always a bit strange when old stories are presented in the same layout templates as the magazine from 2006. I know they must earn ad revenues, but what about creating a special template for this material? And, sometime, pdfs of the original magazine story…

Posted in Media industry | Comments Off

News round-up

Monday, September 4th, 2006

Some new sightings in Undercurrent’s area of interest:

Posted in Undercurrent in English | Comments Off

Wiki as an editorial tool – public or not

Monday, September 4th, 2006

wiredn.jpg

Smart experiment by Wired News: They turned a regular story about wikis into a wiki, to see what happens when the readers get a chance to edit. It could be easier to get an overview how the story develops, but right now there seems to have been over 200 edits of the piece.

I was thinking about a related possibility the other day: A wiki should actually also be an excellent internal editing tool for the media and other publishing ventures. How it would work: A reporter starts a wiki entry for each new reporting assignment. Uses the entry as idea list and notepad as the story develops. The editors can have a look and see if it’s going in the right direction. After the story has been filed, editors go to work rewriting sections, checking facts and names, polishing language, ironing out inconsistencies etc – whatever an editor does. And after publishing the finished piece, everyone involved will forever have the full editing history available, which can be very useful for evaluation purposes.

On some stories, then, journalists and editors can make the process public and do as Wired News has done here – invite users to participate. Or invite users to scrutinize the editorial process behind a story. That could be very useful for certain controversial stories – if the editors dare…

Posted in Innovative journalism | 1 Comment »

From viewers to selectors

Monday, September 4th, 2006

Experienced web, DVD and game console users turn away from traditional broadcast TV, according to a new German study of 3.000 “digital households” (via Ben Schwan). Instead of the usual 230 minutes a day spent on watching TV, these consumers – or “selectors” – are content with 130 minutes. The good old practice of zapping through channels is being replaced by a better planned TV behaviour. The web and electronic programme guides are the tools the selectors use. The research report is part of the programme “TV 2010″, where several German institutes and the company Buhl Data Service are involved.

Posted in Media industry | Comments Off

Free on paper, free on the web

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

The plan to launch a free newspaper in Denmark with nationwide distribution – Nyhedsavisen – has thrown the Danish media market into a nervous innovation frenzy (Nyhedsavisen will launch on October 6). Less well known, at least outside Denmark, is that the paper also has high online ambitions. Nyhedsavisen will be among the country’s five most read websites within a year, editor David Trads claims on his blog. And to web magazine eJour he says that “free media is the future” – whether on paper or on the web doesn’t matter. Nyhedsavisen will allow all its journalists to blog, and they love the idea, according to Trads. He promises that the website will build on user participation, “blogs and anarchy”.

So far, so good. The Danish web market desperately needs innovation, as the established papers have been ultra-conservative and ultra-defensive in their approach. They are best known for hopelessly fighting the web’s logic.

But I’m sure Trads is also aware that good news journalism on the web also requires investment – in talented people, building a competent team. If Nyhedsavisen’s main revenues will come from the ads in the free sheet – and competition will be tough – how will he justify channeling resources to the website? On the other hand, a fascinating thought: What if free paper-Nyhedsavisen turns out to be just a massive and clever marketing campaign for web-Nyhedsavisen?

Posted in Media industry | Comments Off

Newer Entries »