Archive for December, 2008

Crisis brings new freedom

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Robin Meyer-Lucht says it in Freitag:

Das Internet ist die über weite Teile klar überlegene Technologie zur Verbreitung journalistischer Inhalte und zur Herausbildung einer deliberativen Öffentlichkeit. Als zugangsoffener, universaler, vernetzter und kostengünstiger Medienträger vermag es Diskurse und Positionen viel besser und in höherer Komplexität abzubilden, als es das klassische Mediensystem je vermochte. Dass letzteres vor allem auch vermachtet ist, häufig mutlos, unoriginell, überheblich und absurd ineffizient, wird in der Debatte gerne verdrängt.(…) Im Netz bildet sich langsam, aber in zunehmender Geschwindigkeit eine neue vernetzte Informationsökonomie von Journalismus und gesellschaftlicher Kommunikation heraus. In dieser neuen Konstellation spielen spezialisierte Angebote auf der einen und große Aggregatoren auf der anderen Seite eine entscheidende Rolle. Öffentlichkeit entsteht in einer neuen Verschaltung von Publikationen und Filtern.

(tip: Netzeitung Altpapier.)

Berlin, 1939

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Berlin March 1 1939. Photo: Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia Commons

Troops parade past the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (and Generalfeldmarschall Göring) in Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse on March 1, 1939. The photo is one of about 100.000 donated by Germany’s Bundesarchiv to Wikimedia Commons and being uploaded today. The photos are published under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Germany license.

UPDATE: More details about the cooperation on Spiegel Online.

Wikipedia-etikk

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

En masteroppgave om feilretting og kvalitetssikring på Wikipedia blir ikke tatt nådig opp i en diskusjon på Wikipedia-Tinget. Studenten har fabrikkert feil og lagt inn i artikler, for å se om eller hvor hurtig de blir rettet. Uetisk, mener de fleste av wikipedianerne som diskuterer oppgaven i dag (studenten eller høyskolen har foreløpig ikke tatt til motmæle). Wikipedianeren og forskeren Trond Trosterud trekker i diskusjonen fram et metodeproblem også: Det er ikke noe grunnlag for å hevde at konstruerte feil er representative for genuine feil, mener han:

Vandalismebekjempinga vår er ikkje primært laga for sånne som han (som prøver å snike inn feil, med ein uklår agenda). Det vi derimot gjer er å ha ein metode som i vel så stor grad finn vandalen som vandalismen (dvs. vi ser etter vandalar, og deretter sjekkar vi om dei har vandalisert). Ei interessant oppgåve ville dermed ha vore å leite etter ekte vandalar, og ekte vandalisme, og studere retteprosessen i samband med dei. T.d. er det mogleg å studere feila som blir retta: Gå gjennom loggen, identifiser alle vandalismerettingar, mål tida attende til vandalismen vart lagt inn, og prøv å finne ein systematikk i mønsteret. Eventuelt må forskaren finne genuine feil, og studere korleis det går med dei. Eit hjartesukk til norsk Wikipediaforsking er forøvrig at det til no har vorte drive av folk som har lite greie på Wikipediaprosessen.

Journalism Labs

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

New BBC blog Journalism Labs makes its debut with an analysis of an experiment with embedded external links in news articles:

Over 90% of those that responded said that they found Apture useful. This was an unexpected result, even considering that the opt-in nature of the trial favoured early adopters.(…) We’ve decided to do go back to basics and look again at the fundamentals of linking in news stories. When the BBC News website started in 1997 we placed background links to the side of the article instead of inline, for technical and user experience reasons. We haven’t revisited that decision in any significant way until now. In 2009, we’re going to be refreshing how we markup our stories.

And now France…

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Disturbing, this story about the treatment of a French ex-publisher: Dawn arrest, handcuffs, strip search incl. cavities, grilling for hours — in a libel case! Henry Samuel about freedom of the press in France:

Firstly, journalists need better protection in France – European champions for the number of reporters arrested doing their job. There has been a rash of cases in recent months of journalists being arrested and quizzed over their sources. Last December, Guillaume Dasquié, an intelligence expert, was placed under official investigation for providing Le Monde with a classified document on a failed plane terrorist plot prior to September 11. He was grilled for 27 hours non-stop first. In July, a reporter working for car magazine Auto Plus was placed under investigation after spending 48 hours in jail for publishing previously unseen photos of a new Renault car. Last year, satirical weekly successfully barred police from searching its files for a source.

Germany has its issues as well. A catalogue (wiki?) of European free speech limitations would be enlightening.

(tip: FP Passport).

Sveriges beste medieblogg?

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Det er Same Same But Different, skriver Martin Jönsson. Undercurrent adlyder og begynner umiddelbart å lese SSBD, som har det fortreffelige mottoet “En blogg om mötet mellan gamla medier och nya”.