tHe cOpyPaSter

Howard Rheingold's Moblog blog has got a good link collection of reputation related posts. Reputation is an important factor in new forms of journalism (I mean, who do you trust: the reporter for the New York Times or Hesari or an anonymous blogger?) Without personal experience or good reputation the anonymous blogger will have much harder time convincing you than the pro journalist for a esteemed paper. Usually.

An interesting blog by an Iranian guy living in Toronto. Hope this blog and other blogs kept by Iranians will shed some light on the situation in Iran. (There seems to be something brewing...)

I'm definitely more interested in points of views expressed by Iranian bloggers than reading about Iran from traditional media. This is the first time I feel this way. Obviously the mainstream media has not succeeded in telling me about Iran and ordinary iranians.

It is the people that make the technology, not the engineers. Howard Rheingold reminds us of this fact in a recent interview in Business Week. Innovation happens with people, especially young people:

"You're seeing that now with the picturephones. People are not using them the way it was predicted. They're using them to share their days: Here's a picture of somebody's haircut. Here's a picture of somebody's melon. Look at this shoe in a store. It wasn't determined by an expensive R&D lab. It was determined in practice by young people who appropriate these devices in unexpected ways. There's nothing more inventive than a 15-year-old."

People are the true engine of contemporary innovation. Some of them that is. People also seem to resist spoon fed technologies, even if they were designed for their own good. I've seen many (so far) unsuccesful attempts to "engage" people in online community projects. "Mansetori, for example, seems to be one of them. It's a site where so called "neighbourhood correspondents" write articles of special concern to their neighbourhoods. I wonder who is actually reading those rather infrequently posted articles? It seems to be a well meaning community project that does not work because people are not interested. My theory is that younger people, who are most eager to adopt new technologies, just aren't interested in reading or writing about some local kiosk or community art exhibition. And if younger people aren't interested you might as well forget your online community journalism projects.

Interesting article in Wired about an event (exercise?) in Hawaii called Strong Angel II. According to the article the event was intended to provide a platform for testing a broad collection of communications, collaboration and translation tools that can help smooth the flow of data in austere disaster zones. The event was initiated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which asked U.S. Navy Medical Corps Cmdr. Eric Rasmussen (who also led the event) to propose improvements in field communications between civilian and military relief workers in Iraq.

"It is enormously difficult communicating with both the people you are trying to serve and our coalition partners,'' Rasmussen said. ''We also recognize that the influence of the press is enormous and that we often have a genuine impediment to understanding the population around us if we don't keep track of what the local media is saying."

It's nice that the Pentagon has finally realized that it's pretty useful to understand the people and country you've, um, liberated. Cooperation is probably a bit easier when you have at least a vague idea what the other person is saying and what the local media are saying.

I should have known: The cyber enthusiast and author of the book "Smart Mobs" Howard Rheinglod has a weblog/website called Smart Mobs. Adding it to my blog roll.

Found an article by Vin Crosbie on the problems newspapers and their online versions are facing in today's media saturated world. According to him a dismal future is waiting for the newspaper industry unless profound changes take place in the near future. According to Crosbie

"The real solution for the industry's future doesn't revolve around simply adding multimedia to generic editions. It instead will require that the newspaper industry:

"1. Use new technologies to match the newspaper's existing cornucopia of content to satisfy each individual reader's unique mix of interests"

"2. Understand that neither newsprint nor the Web nor digital editions nor wireless is the answer, but that the true convergence of all those into a single unitary product not only is necessary but likely within 10 years"

"3. Focus less on the industry's ability to produce content and more on its unique service of delivering to people a complete package of content -- a change that requires newsrooms and corporations to go beyond traditional definitions of "news" or "syndicated sources.""

Customization and increasing the number of content sources are closely related since without a broader set of content providers it is impossible to cater for, sometimes pretty eccentric, individual needs. This might also mean getting content from non-tarditional sources:

"This also means that newspaper companies should even acquire distribution rights to stories and information from reputable sources that might not traditionally have been parts of newspapers -- such as trade journals, newsletters, magazines, blogs, other Web sites, etc."

There have been some examples of "cross syndication" where (online) newspapers/publications (that are not part of the same corporate group) have published each other's content. At least Slate and Guardian have done this. I think. Can't remember. Also blogs by non-staff members have appeared in some online papers (Guardian springs to mind again). I think this kind of "outsourcing" might be natural for smaller and/or alternative or more or less progressive publications but that big "brand names" such as the New York Tímes or The Economist don't have to bother. Then again, I might be wrong.

Nokia has created an easy looking content management system called lifeblog. With it you can organise your cameraphone pictures. Will moblogging go mainstream if the service becomes popular? Do I have to buy a cameraphone now?

I'm writing an essay on weblogs/web publishing and ethics. While searching for discussions and background material on the issue, I came across Rebecca Blood's (author of "The Weblog handbook") proposition of six rules that would in her opinion "form a basis of ethical behavior for online publishers of all kinds".

"Journalistic codes of ethics seek to ensure fairness and accuracy in news reporting. By comparison, each of these suggestions attempts to bring transparency--one of the weblog's distinguishing characteristics and greatest strengths--into every aspect of the practice of weblogging. It is unrealistic to expect every weblogger to present an even-handed picture of the world, but it is very reasonable to expect them to be forthcoming about their sources, biases, and behavior."

I also came across this petition:

"In order for the blogosphere to be taken seriously as a news medium, bloggers themselves should commit to crediting/sourcing the other members of our community who break legitimate news. In signing this petition, you indicate that you promise to abide by these practices from today on forward."

Are weblogs growing up and becoming a truly responsible and credible media form?

An interesting column by Aly Colón addresses the issue of weblogs and ethics. The main question is: Do weblogs have a free-pass on accuracy if it means the difference between getting the scoop or not? The question was originally posted on Slashdot.org and managed to create an interesting discussion.

Quotes from Jeff Bates of Slashdot in the Aly Colón column :

"Yes, speed is prized -- but because of the elasticity of the medium, it also means that if there's even a small change, we post it, we update it -- and we admit mistakes. That's a far cry from having the mistakes corrected in the next day's edition, in small print, in spots no one ever reads."

and

"...If something appears to be ludicrous, or out of whack, we do take efforts to check it out. But one of the other advantages Slashdot has is that even if we miss it, the readers catch it. Thousands of eyes make finding mistakes very easy."

And to give some context to Finnish readers: the question is related to notorious sites such as the Drudge report and Wonkette which are known to publish rumours (which then prove to be false) as well as more factual material.