Monthly Archives: October 2009

Real-time challenge

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Bjarke Myrthu sees a business opportunity for “old media” in “the challenge of the age” identified by Google’s Eric Schmidt: Learning how to rank user-generated, real-time information. Bjarke:

Part of what he calls “real-time social content” is what old media is calling “breaking news”. In other words Google is working hard at becoming the best at collecting and organizing breaking news produced by all of us. While most of us had no idea what Google was about to do first time around (I remember thinking it was a great service but too bad they would never make money), this time around the Newspapers and the rest of the media industry actually have a chance to compete. Why should the best brands in old media not be able to create a great search technology and future business model for breaking news?

Advice for the multimedia journalist

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Adam Westbrook has written a practical, little booklet about multimedia & freelance journalism. Among the useful tips, for me:

The worst thing a multimedia journalist can do when producing video for the web is to replicate television – unless that’s your commission of course. TV is full of rules and formulas, all designed to hide edits, look good to the eye, and sometimes decieve. Fact is, online video journalism provides the chance to escape all that. Sure it must look good, but be prepared to experiment – you’lll be amazed what people will put up with online.

And of course it’s CC-licensed.

“Att hävda rätten till en egen encyklopedi är typiskt för dumheten!”

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Umberto Eco har kommet med en bok om boken og skriftspråket, og Anaïs rapporterer og oversetter fra et interjvu med forfatteren:

Det finns en sorts encyklopedi av delat vetande, även om en 70-årings är mer välfyllt än det hos en ung 25-åring. Internet kan i förlängningen betyda att den gemensamma encyklopedin smulas sönder och ersätts av sex miljarder, att varje individ konstruerar sin egen och fritt kan föredra Ptolemaios framför Copernikus, berättelsen i Första Mosebok framför arternas evolution. Vi riskerar att kommunikationen och det universella, kollektiva vetandet blir omöjligt. Givetvis kommer de traditionella kontrollmekanismerna fortsätta att fungera, framför allt genom skolan, men dessa kommer att hamna i ökad konflikt med självhävdandet hos särintressen. Att hävda rätten till en egen encyklopedi är typiskt för dumheten! Kulturen finns där just för att sådana som Bouvard och Pécuchet inte skall vinna.

Mediestøtteutvalget

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Så kom endelig mediestøtteutvalget. Mandatet ser ok ut (med ett viktig unntak). Det viktigste er at utredningen blir “plattformnøytral.” Dette er en grei formulering:

Konvergensen på medieområdet og utviklingen av mediehus gjør at de ulike mediene i stadig større grad må betraktes som ett integrert system, der støtte til én type medier kan påvirke konkurranseforholdene for andre medier. Utvalget bør derfor på bredt grunnlag vurdere behovet for tilskudd eller andre økonomiske virkemidler, og hvordan slike virkemidler på best mulig måte kan bidra til å oppfylle statens infrastrukturansvar og de politiske målsetningene på medieområdet.

Unntaket: Lisensfinansieringen av NRK skal ikke utredes. Sikkert fordi dette ville komplisert en allerede veldig vanskelig utredningsoppgave. Likevel er det uheldig. Det siterte avsnittet som postulerer at “de ulike mediene i stadig større grad må betraktes som ett integrert system” harmonerer svært dårlig med at en gigant som NRK i neste åndedrag fjernes fra oppdraget. Hva om utvalget finner ut at det er en svært god ide om deler av lisensinntektene bør fordeles på andre aktører enn NRK? Blir et slikt forslag “verboten”?

(Veldig) relevant: Intervju med Sven Egil Omdal i Vox Publica. Han lanserer et forslag om pressestøtte til enkeltjournalister.

Time, money and skill

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ProPublica editor Paul Steiger is fairly optimistic on behalf of investigative journalism in the web era:

Last year, a 20-something, self-taught Internet genius named Amanda Michel mobilized hundreds of politically active citizens to supply info for her “Off the Bus” report on the Huffington Post Web site. When Candidate Obama voiced the notion that some folks who were losing out in the global economy were clinging to such things as religion and guns to compensate, Michel’s network captured it and we soon all heard about it. Without that network, we might never have known, because reporters weren’t invited into the area where Mr. Obama spoke. Michel now works for ProPublica and has put together a team of more than 2,200 volunteers who will do similar reporting for us. This army permits us, for instance, to track progress on 500 representative federal stimulus projects in real time, even though our own news staff numbers just 32.

We will still need journalists’ special skills:

The process of finding and communicating what we used to call news may no longer require newspapers-at least not as we have known them, as seven-day-a-week, ink-on-paper compendiums of new information on a broad range of subjects. But the process will still require journalism and journalists, to smoke out the most difficult-to-report situations, to test glib assertions against the facts, to probe for the carefully contrived hoax. These are reporting activities that take a great deal of time, money, and skill.

PicApp seriously improved

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Afghan Presidential Elections Partial Recount Begins

PicApp is an idea I’ve liked from the start: Professional news photography being made available to everyone, via embedding like the Afghanistan photo here. In the first phase the service didn’t work so well, so I ended up not using it that often. But the new version has serious improvements. Now embed code in different sizes is directly available (no login necessary), and photo presentation is better as well. Advertising is only displayed — as far as I understand — when you click on a photo.

A story at ReadWriteWeb clarifies some of the questions bloggers might have — se especially the comments.

Guardian hiring “beatbloggers” for local project

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From the Guardian’s digital content blog:

Starting with Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh, guardian.co.uk is planning to launch a local news project in a small number of locations. At the moment guardian.co.uk is looking for bloggers – with journalistic qualifications “desirable” – to help cover community news, and report on local developments. The project will emphasise local political decision-making, and is scheduled to go live next year.

The job description for bloggers:

Working from your home, or anywhere with WiFi, as a ‘beatblogger’ you will lead the Guardian’s innovative approach to community news coverage in Leeds. This will include reporting on local meetings and events with an emphasis on local political decision making, identifying issues of importance to local residents and signposting information and news provided via other sources. You will be willing to collaborate with others to create a vital resource for the city.

Rådata nå?

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Det tidligere annonserte prosjektet om kartlegging av offentlig sektors data er i full sving.

Spørsmålene vi ser på er:

  • hvilke datakilder finnes faktisk i de ulike virksomhetene, og i hvilken grad og på hvilke måter gjøres disse dataene tilgjengelig?
  • hvilke planer har offentlige virksomheter på dette feltet framover?
  • hva er de viktigste hindrene mot at offentlige virksomheter opplyser om og frigir data de disponerer?

Vi har også en prosjektblogg kalt Fakta først, der vi også tar opp debatter og ideer rundt hvordan data kan brukes. Bidrag ønskes – også til selve kartleggingsarbeidet!

Det er ingenting som kan passe bedre enn at det samtidig blir bevegelse i kartdatadebatten.