Impossible to digest all the news and views I would like to comment on, so here are just some of the most recent links for now:
- Newspapers in 2020: Jeff Jarvis and Dave Morgan write essays for the World Association of Newspapers. File under “future of newspapers” (via Blogspotting)
- Citizen journalism in Germany: Peter Schink reports from a German journalism seminar session on myheimat.de, a citizen journalism concept out of Southern Germany. An editorial team of 15 picks stories from 4500 contributors for printed freesheets which reach a combined circulation of 120.000!
- Video virus: Viral Video Chart is a way to browse all those videos that spread faster than you can say H5N1. Currently based on tracking of videos from YouTube, MSN and Google Video.
- The columnist game: James Fallows on a critique of Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat by economist Edward Leamer (thanks, I didn’t know about that one). Friedman explained to Fallows how a successful columnist works (in Fallows’ words): “In the columnist game, you don’t sell things 51-49. You decide what you think is right, and you push that all the way. So, he could have more accurately said that the world is “flattening,” but that wouldn’t have had the ooomph.” That 51-49 formula probably works just as well for blogging, but what do you do if your motivation is to question and probe? (i.e, if your formula is, say 60-40?)
- Shrimponomics and “carbon” banks: Passport at Foreign Policy magazine is one of those few indispensable blogs. A couple of recent posts: On shrimponomics where we are told that shrimp farming is one of the reasons mangrove forests are dying. And on Morgan Stanley’s carbon bank, a partnership with Norwegian Veritas.
- E-books, finally? Googlezon give it a try.
