I’m cross-posting this from my blog at the Globe and Mail, as part of my ongoing attempt to talk about what we’re trying to do at the newspaper when it comes to comments, blogs, forums and other ways that we interact with readers. Feel free to respond here or at the Globe blog — where (naturally) I encourage you to read the comments :-)
In my new role as the Globe’s “communities editor” (you can find more details on that in this post), I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about comments — that is, reader comments on news stories, columns, blog posts, etc. The Globe and Mail was the first major newspaper in North America to allow comments on every news story when it launched the feature in 2005, and judging by the...
It’s a long read, but there’s a thoughtful piece in the Columbia Journalism Review about what newspapers should be doing to not just survive but prosper in the current media environment, and if you’re interested in that kind of thing I highly recommend it. It isn’t the usual obituary, with details about newspaper layoffs and so on — instead, it makes the argument that the essential duty of any kind of quality media publication right now is to help people filter the vast amounts of information that they are exposed to every day, and to interpret it, provide context, etc.
The central thesis, as I see it, is that there are already enough sources of instantaneous information, whether it’s Perez Hilton and TMZ or the Drudge Report (which 37signals recently...
My kids are too old to carry around in slings — I mostly drive them everywhere now — but I can still sympathize with the mom (and some dad) bloggers who are up in arms about Motrin’s latest marketing campaign, which uses “baby-wearing” as a way of trying to appeal to moms as potential customers. The rationale seems to be that using slings and other baby-carrying paraphernalia is mostly a fad, and causes back and neck pain that requires Motrin. Instead, hundreds of moms are criticizing Motrin on Twitter — where they have helpfully tagged their comments with #motrinmoms — and on dozens of blogs as well.
If you’re one of those who believes that “any publicity is good publicity,” or that getting potential customers...
Are you fascinated not just by the media, but by all the ways in which blogs, Twitter and other forms of “social media” influence the news as it develops over time? Then Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera wants to hear from you. According to this posting on Craigslist (which I found via a Twitter link from Salon founder Scott Rosenberg), he’s looking to hire someone to fill a position that has never really existed before, and one which in many ways could never have existed before the Web came along:
“We’re not sure what to call this position. News Technician? News Analyst? Configuring Editor? The role involves interacting with an automated news-picking computer algorithm, configuring it and prodding it to ensure balanced and comprehensive coverage of important news...
Copyright © 2008 Miss604 - Rebecca Bollwitt. If you are not viewing this post through the Miss604.com feed then this content has been republished WITHOUT permission. Visit the original article at http://www.miss604.com/2008/11/civic-elections-2008-surrey-council-candidate-paul-hillsdon.html.Last week I met up with Paul at Central City for some breakfast, a chat, and some good old fashioned Surrey talk. Paul Hillsdon is a blogger that I crossed paths with a few years ago now and he’s taken his passion for transit planning, environmental responsibility and education to the next level by running for Surrey City Council and Surrey School Board in the civic elections this Saturday.
I started off by asking him some of the basics about the municipal elections and he was kind enough to...
Listening to Gawker Media overlord Nick Denton’s predictions for the coming online-media apocalypse, I’m reminded of the story about the boy who cried wolf. That said, however, it’s worth remembering one thing about that story: In the end, there actually was a wolf. And as he describes in a post on his personal blog, complete with scary charts and graphs about projected advertising demand, Nick is convinced more than ever that there is a wolf at the door — and a pretty damn big one at that. How does a 40-per-cent drop in online-advertising revenue sound?
Denton has written several times over the past year or so about online advertising falling off a cliff as a result of the weakening economy. Before the recent global financial meltdown, his warnings seemed sort of...
Eagle-eyed readers looking closely at this blog post at GigaOm about Chris Anderson’s Long Tail theory might notice that it has my name on it. That’s because my friend Om Malik, the genius behind the ever-expanding GigaOm.com network, asked me awhile back if I would be interested in writing posts for him from time to time, and naturally I said yes. I have a huge amount of respect for Om, and what he and his team have built — and are continuing to build — at GigaOm, and I am looking forward to working with them all. I’m not giving up this blog, by any means; I will continue to write here as much or more than I always did, but will also be writing occasionally for GigaOm. If you have any story ideas or suggestions for future posts, feel free to drop me a line...
After thinking about it for a couple of months and dabbling with some other ideas, I recently launched a new blog, Twitterrati, focused on Twitter and microblogging.
Given I had dismissed Twitter has inane about a year ago, it’s not what I expected would happen.
So, what changed? For one, I started using Twitter, and discovered it is much more than just a tool to tell people what you had for breakfast or ate for lunch, although an awful lot of people use it that way.
More important, I started to embrace Twitter as a valuable and easy way to distribute and consume content, test and see new ideas, ask question and make connections. At the same time, it complements blogging by providing a forum for blog bursts as opposed to blog thoughts.
Twitterrati is going to cover the...
Blogging is dead….or, at least, Nick Carr has decided that the free-wheeling blogosphere has disappeared, and been replaced by traffic/advertising hungry writing machines.
In the process, he declares that independent bloggers have been swept aside as “online magazines” such as the Huffington Post, TreeHugger and Engadget dominate the landscape (He could added TechCrunch, GigaOm, et al).
You knew it was only a matter of time before Carr found something new to gripe about. It’s his modus operandi but in this case, he may be right.
The blogosphere has changed in the past couple of years as a part of it has evolved into a business. Look at how TechCrunch and GigaOm, for example, has evolved from one-man shows to multi-faceted entities with multiple writers/blogs,...
I came across the news earlier today that United Feature Syndicate, which distributes about 150 comic strips to newspapers and other publications, has opened its doors and set its content free on the Web. As described by the comic blog Drawn.ca, the site run by United Feature — which has the great domain name comics.com — used to restrict access to the strips it syndicates, and even RSS feeds only included links to the panels. Now, users can sign up for a feed of their favourites and get the entire strip. The site has set free its entire archive of comics as well, which means (among other things) all 50 years of Peanuts comic strips, which Drawn says is more than 20,000 comics. Even better, they have embed codes for their strips so you can plop them into your blog or webpage....
At some point during a long night of Twitter responses to the U.S. election, Ze Frank posted a simple message saying that he was looking for people to post where and what they were doing when Obama was elected president. “Gimme snippets of your night,” he said. And about 130 people did just that, some of them just a few sentences, some of them long messages of 800 words or more. Here’s a few samples:
– “I was the girl who ran up and hugged you under the gigantic American flag. One of the most surreal moments of my life. Thank you.”
– “It was incredible. Went down to Providence to be with friends. When he won, we went through the streets of Providence in a gigantic parade and ended up filling the State House at the end. Incredible.”...
As many people who have been reading this blog for awhile probably know, I work for the Globe and Mail, a daily newspaper based in Toronto, where I’ve been working since 1994 or so. I’ve written about the stock market, the rise of the Internet, moved out West to write about oil and gas, and then came back in 2000 to be the Globe’s first online columnist and its first blogger (before anyone — including me — really knew what that meant). For the past year and a half or so, I’ve been the newspaper’s “new media” reporter, writing about all the ways in which the Web and social media are changing the business of online content for newspapers, magazines, authors, musicians, actors, artists and just about everyone in between.
A little while...
Richard Bailey has an interesting thesis: Twitter has saved blogging.
It’s based on the idea that the blogosphere was getting dull because people were churning out blog posts of mediocre quality. With Twitter on the scene, Bailey said Twitter has become the place for quickie posts, allowing bloggers to write better and less frequent.
I wish Bailey’s thesis was well-grounded but it’s not accurate. While Twitter is chock-a-block with inane brain farts (e.g. “My dog looks sick”), it hasn’t done anything to reduce the amount of noise within the blogosphere. As far as I can tell, there’s still mediocre blog posts with little or no insight to add humming along.
Why?
Blog posts are easy to write and publish. To pump out a 500-word post - or a series of...
Google’s pushing hard within the blogosphere with Blogger, Google Blog Search and Google Reader. But what about the idea of a blog publishing tool - aka the GWriter?
It would be a standalone tool that bloggers could configure to use with Blogger, Wordpress, TypePad, et al. It would feature access to related services such as search, image search, blog search, Picasa and Google Docs.
If Microsoft can offer Live Writer, you figure some brainiac within the GooglePlex could create a different/better mouse trap?
Technorati Tags: blogs, google...
I’ve been doing my best to remain calm, but I have to confess that it isn’t working as well as it usually does. I’m speaking, of course, about the tsunami that is currently wreaking havoc on the traditional media business, an industry in which I happen to have spent virtually my entire working life. The earthquake that created this particular tsunami occurred ages ago, and those who were paying attention have long since headed inland to safety, but the shock waves are now starting to hit with real force, accelerated by the economic uncertainty all around us.
Bad news has been trickling in for months, or even years — newspapers cutting back staff, closing editions, companies on the ropes financially. But it’s been a thousand small cuts, mostly at smaller...
Internet Evolution is a site owned by United Business Media — the company that publishes magazines such as Information Week and Light Reading, and puts on conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo — and its goal is to create a kind of digital think-tank, where ideas and commentary can flow around some of the big issues facing technology and society. I write for them from time to time, and they asked me to mention that they are looking for some site moderators, whose job it is to keep an eye on things and to post thoughtful comments and links in order to keep the conversation going. In return, they get the chance to read some interesting and thought-provoking commentary, and they also get perks like Starbucks gift cards, T-shirts and even cash. If you’re interested, drop them a...
Copyright © 2008 Miss604 - Rebecca Bollwitt. If you are not viewing this post through the Miss604.com feed then this content has been republished without permission. Visit the original article at http://www.miss604.com/2008/10/blogging-is-dead.html.Parsing through my Delicious links this morning I came across two articles that John sent me (yes, I become giddy when I notice my husband tagged something for me in Delicious).
The title of the first bookmark was “Blogs More Relevant Than Ever” and the next one, right on top of that listing was, “Blogs are so over”. The interesting thing is that they are both referencing a Wired article by Paul Boutin.
Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already...
There seems to be an awful lot of excitement these days about NetBooks - small (miniaturized?) notebook computers that provide users with enough power and features to surf the Web, check e-mail, do word processing, edit photos, etc.
I’m personally not in the market for a new laptop but if a computer maker was looking to seize a market niche, it would be interesting to see someone create a BlogBook - a notebook designed and aimed at bloggers.
It would come with Firefox pre-installed with some cool plugins (e.g. Zemanta), a blog publishing tool (Microsoft Live Writer), a user-friendly photo-editing tool, a publishing tool such as Digsby, perhaps a FTP client, and a 30-day free account for Boingo.
The BlogBook would be the perfect computing companion for people who wants a lightweight,...
Radar magazine has folded for the third time, this time apparently for good (although the website has been sold to AMI, which publishes The National Enquirer, and will become a competitor to TMZ and other celebrity sites). Among others, this has stranded Web journalism legend Ana Marie Cox, who was reporting on the U.S. election campaign for the magazine, so she is asking readers to support her directly in a bid to continue writing until the election is over (she still writes a blog for Time magazine as well).
Cox, who was the founding editor of Gawker’s Wonkette blog before moving to Time magazine — and has also written for Mother Jones magazine, as well as for Feed magazine and the godfather of all snarky blogs, Suck.com — has set up a tiered approach to reporting that...
Some good, down-to-earth advice from Matt Sokoloff at Lost Remote about how newspaper bloggers should approach what they do, including:
1. Have a voice - The key isn’t about having a bias but rather being human. News affects people including yourself, don’t be afraid to talk about it.
2. Don’t just post wire stories.
3. Engage with your readers - Not only should you solicit comment but you should also respond to them.
and probably the most important:
4. If you don’t enjoy it, you shouldn’t be doing it - you can always tell when you are reading a blogger who enjoys blogging.
I would echo each of those points, which boil down to a) be human; b) be interesting; c) be engaged and c) have fun. One of the other tips from Matt (who is the interactive product manager at the Orlando...
As usual, I can’t remember where I came across this one (if it was in your feed, let me know and I will send a virtual shout-out), but it’s a great clip of legendary management theorist Tom Peters and marketing guru Seth Godin (who looks a lot like a “house elf” from the Harry Potter movies, but maybe that’s just me) talking about the usefulness of blogs as part of a panel discussion at the Inc 5000 conference. I would have embedded the clip but there was no embed option available. So I took a minute and transcribed what they had to say. First up was Seth, who said:
“Blogging is free. It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it. What matters is the meta-cognition of thinking about what...
Copyright © 2008 Miss604 - Rebecca Bollwitt. If you are not viewing this post through the Miss604.com feed then this content has been republished without permission. Visit the original article at http://www.miss604.com/2008/10/the-five-things-meme.html.Taking a break from the municipal and provincial election coverage to engage in some silly entertainment (see last night’s post about sweet, sweet 80s tunes) I’m going to complete my mission after being “tagged” by Tyler Ingram yesterday.
I admit, I have participated and perpetuated many memes before, and for those of you who are not familiar - it’s kind of like those forwarded emails you would get 10 years ago that you’d have to fill out and pass along to your friends for a nice chuckle (which is...
In an odd opinion piece recently, Wired’s Paul Boutin declared that blogging is dead.
Well, he’s wrong. I mean, Seth Godin and Tom Peters can’t be wrong, can they?
Technorati Tags: blogs, seth godin, tom peters...
Copyright © 2008 Miss604 - Rebecca Bollwitt. If you are not viewing this post through the Miss604.com feed then this content has been republished without permission. Visit the original article at http://www.miss604.com/2008/10/vancouver-blogger-profile-the-buzzer.html.It’s 92 years young and a staple of transit cars in the greater Vancouver area.
The portable, printed, paper newsletters informing you about the latest in transit trends is now online with The Buzzer Blog. I did a quick blogger profile interview with Jhenifer Pabillano who has been writing The Buzzer since January 2008, and now blogging and podcasting over the last few weeks.
Who are you?
Ooh, that’s a very Nardwuar question. Well, I’m Jhenifer Pabillano, and I edit the print Buzzer for TransLink. I’m also the...
Hey, didn’t you hear? Blogs are so 2004. They’re dead now, says Paul Boutin (who also writes for Valleywag) in a piece he wrote for Wired magazine. Here’s his argument (such as it is) in a nutshell:
“The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths.
It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”
Wow — that’s pretty persuasive, isn’t it? You can’t miss with a great environmental metaphor...
It’s been about five years since blogs emerged on the media landscape. They are more than xxx million blogs - many of them well written, insightful and/or interesting but you have to wonder if blogs as we know them have had their day.
By that, I mean the “traditional” blog that features a lot of text, some links and perhaps a graphic or two to spice things up. It’s bread-and-butter blog not unlike newspaper articles or columns.
The barriers to entry are low, which explains why nearly 200 million blogs have been created. Of course, blogs are also easy come, easy go given Technorati’s most recent State of the Blogosphere report said only 7.4 million blogs published a post over the past four months.
The lack of activity may suggests most people who start blogs...
You little whippersnappers are probably too young to remember a great website known as Suck.com, which was a killer blog long before the word “blog” had even entered the popular vocabulary. Back when Wired magazine was fresh and new, and people still struggled with this strange animal called HTML, Suck was a beacon of satiric wit that punctured the egos of Web 1.0 millionaires, poseurs and startup emperors alike. Unfortunately, it expired in 2001 along with so much else, and nothing has come along that compares (although The Onion comes pretty close).
That said, there was one voice that almost captured the middle-finger style irreverence and sarcastic hilarity that was Suck: a site called Uncov.com, written by Ted Dziuba, who happens to also be a startup entrepreneur. Just as...
Copyright © 2008 Miss604 - Rebecca Bollwitt. If you are not viewing this post through the Miss604.com feed then this content has been republished without permission. Visit the original article at http://www.miss604.com/2008/10/wednesday-morning-conservative-link-fest.html.Last night I probably did the most Twittering I’ve done in a few months while watching and tracking election coverage. The dust has settled this morning (well for some, since our voter turnout was a record low) and while we all try to adjust to our new same minority government, here’s a tasty link fest to enjoy.
I have my weekly radio guest spot this afternoon somewhere between 2:45pm and 3:15pm on Talk1410am. Every Wednesday I talk about what’s going on in the Vancouver blogosphere, promo events,...
Just for the record, John Gruber of Daring Fireball seems like a smart guy, and he certainly knows a lot about Apple. How he knows so much isn’t clear, but he appears to be pretty well connected. Everything he said in advance of the Apple event yesterday (as far as I can tell) turned out to be true. But is that enough for John? No. Just to rub it in, he takes some time in a post today to call out those who were wrong, including a long section about Duncan Riley at The Inquisitr, who started the rumors about Apple launching an $899 laptop, which of course turned out not to be true.
I’ve had issues with Duncan in the past, but this seems more than a little mean-spirited. Was the report from his reliable source wrong? Sure it was. And as Gruber points out, today’s post on...
Copyright © 2008 Miss604 - Rebecca Bollwitt. If you are not viewing this post through the Miss604.com feed then this content has been republished without permission. Visit the original article at http://www.miss604.com/2008/10/vancouver-blogger-profile-stephen-rees.html.My 23rd blogger profile in the series features Stephen Rees - who is much more than a transit and eco-blogger. He’s someone that I would suggest everyone in the region (not just Vancouver) put on their list of regular reads.
Photo credit: Stephen Rees on Flickr
Who are you?
I am a 59 year old divorced, semi-retired economist and planner. I used to work for Translink but I am pleased to say they got rid of me, so that has left me more time to be a blogger, photographer, swing bridge operator, cyclist, anti-freeway...