Twitter turns on its Geolocation API From RWW this week came a post about Twitter turning on its Geolocation API, which means Twitter users can choose whether to indicate where they are when they tweet. RWW imagines some interesting apps being built around this function. They suggest, for example, an app that tracks who are [...]
Thursday, March 19, 2009
From Clay Shirky a demolition of the notion that some form of micropayments can save publishers: The essential thing to understand about small payments is that users don’t like being nickel-and-dimed. We have the phrase ‘nickel-and-dimed’ because this dislike is both general and strong. The result is that small payment systems don’t survive contact with online markets, because we express our hatred of small payments by switching to alternatives, whether supported by subscription or subsidy.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Adrian Monck's voice is one I like because he's so, well, pragmatic. Anyway, he's rejecting quite a lot of Clay Shirky's post about the future of news which I referred to in a post earlier this week.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Clay Shirky does a nice job exploring the biggest challenge currently facing news companies: that for the most part they are populated with people unaware of how profoundly the internet changes everything. Most people working in news organisations think their company will continue in roughly the same form but will publish a website as well as a newspaper. Or will continue in the same form and publish a website and a mobile site and to social media sites as well as a newspaper. Or will continue in the same form and publish everywhere online and to a Kindle instead of a newspaper.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
The prospect of (some) journalists becoming community managers over time continues to appeal to and intrigue me. By that I mean journalists opening up the news gathering, reporting and analysis process to readers, allowing communities to develop around areas of interest - enabling people with expertise and views to contribute material for news stories on, say, how health is administered in the Waikato, or pest management in the Waitakere ranges. The journalist becomes a community manager as well as news gatherer and news writer. Building communities, however, doesn't necessarily come easy.
Monday, October 20, 2008
My post earlier today on journalistic privilege was based on reading Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody and the issues he raises are interesting and well worth a read, particularly those on the roles/rights of bloggers and who can be defined as a journalist. But the book refers to US laws and practice, and Jim Tucker quite rightly responded to my post with a clarification about the situation in New Zealand, which I wanted to add here as a postscript.
Monday, October 20, 2008
The question of who should enjoy journalistic privilege - the legal right to protect sources - these days is not an easy one to answer given that it's no longer simple to define who is and who is not a journalist. A related question is who should be given access to cover court proceedings and political conferences given that only so many journalists can be accommodated in a courtroom or catered for at a news or political conference. Clay Shirky provides some food for thought on privilege and the definition of a journalist.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
A nice observation about email expectations from Merlin Mann, a software usability expert quoted in Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody: Email is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn't take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that's taller than you and heavier than you could ever hope to move, even if you wanted to do it over a few dozen trips.
Evolving Links
Sunday, November 22, 2009
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