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January 17, 2005

Assignment desk: The Iraqi vote

: Craig Newmark said it well:

Folks, no matter how you feel about the war, people are risking their lives to vote.

If you're in one of the cities where expat Iraqis are going to register to vote, why not go and talk to them and hear what they say about the vote: report and blog. diablo 2 and no cd key

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Jeff's List: A job in Jersey

: There's a project job opening at my day-job company that may interest one or two of you. diablo 2 and no cd key

First, though a big, honking, neon caveat: I won't be replying to your emails and applications. So please don't think I'm rude. Think I'm disorganized, that's fine. But not rude. I will merely collect the inquiries and put them in the right place. So please don't email me followups wondering why I have not replied. And don't think I'm going to get into a discussion in the comments about it. Cuz I won't. Think of this is a classified ad. Jeff's List. diablo 2 and no cd key

Having now made that warm and inviting introduction, let me tell you about the gig:diablo 2 and no cd key

Advance Internet, which includes NJ.com, MassLive.com, OregonLive.com and other fine local sites, is about to create a half-dozen town blogs in those markets -- new, group blogs (using iUpload) to which any neighbor can contribute. These will live alongside the many individuals' blogs, local forums, newspaper headlines, blogs outside the services (and their RSS feeds), and more. The idea is that -- as in GoSkokie.com and NorthwestVoices -- people may not want to start their own blog but they have plenty of news to contribute to their communities: opinions, news updates, sports reports, photos, calendar items, and so on. The hope is also that once we have a critical mass of content in a town from all these sources, a critical mass of audience is sure to follow. This means, we hope, that we can target ads down to the town level and automate them, saving the cost of sales and production, and price them in such a way that we can serve local advertisers who heretofore could not afford to market in big papers. That, I emphasize is the hope -- untested, unproven. Testing that is the job. diablo 2 and no cd key

This person would work on a project basis for a year running this from both an edit and a business perspective. This person would recruit uberbloggers for towns and help them beat the bushes to find more bloggers. He or she would supervise them and come up with procedures for how they should work. He or she would work with the ad department to create appropriate avails and set up the production means of accepting ads. And he or she would work with marketing department to find inexpensive and efficient ways to get the message out to audience and advertisers. diablo 2 and no cd key

Interested? Send a persuasive email with experience to the address on the right -- with "hyperlocal project" in the subject line, please -- and I'll pass it on. Thanks. diablo 2 and no cd key

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An attack on Christianity

: The Catholic archbishop of Mosul has been kidnapped. The Vatican called it an act of terrorism. I wondered whether they have called the attacks on others there terrorism -- they have. diablo 2 and no cd key

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Tag me

: Much buzz about Technorati's cool new tags from David Weinberger, Ross Mayfield, Mary Hodder. diablo 2 and no cd key

So I've been thinking: Why stop at tagging text and photos.diablo 2 and no cd key

It's time to tag people. diablo 2 and no cd key

This comes out of David Galbraith's one-line bio and out of arguments I've made over time that the real future of classifieds is a generation beyond Craig and Monster: It's a distributed world where resumes and jobs (or men seeking women and women seeking men) live anywhere and they are found and matched by some specialized successor to Google that uses tags (e.g., work status, education, location, languages.... or smoker, nonsmoker, single, divorced, great personality). In that world, in essence, people, ads, and content are all tagged. diablo 2 and no cd key

This also fits into the discussion below about the ethic of exhibitionism -- finding a way to exhibit key facts about our perspective so our public can judge what we say in that context. diablo 2 and no cd key

So I started to wonder how I'd be tagged. Would I tag myself? Would the crowd tag me? Would a machine (based on my content and the links to it)? Would it be some Frankensteiny combination? diablo 2 and no cd key

Would tags go to war with each other? Would the Democrats for whom I'm not conservative enough slap the Repubicans for whom I'm too liberal or would it all average out to centrist?diablo 2 and no cd key

Would the tagee have the right to modify tags (like a credit report) or would that be self-promotion? diablo 2 and no cd key

In the end, it needs to be a way for people to find people as well as content and comment and communities. diablo 2 and no cd key

So how would I tag myself? Here's a try: media man... blog boy... tall... fast-talking... parent... Howard Stern... Entertainment Weekly... TV Guide... New York... New Jersey... Iraq... Iran... FCC... centrist... shaky Congregationalist... exploding TV... diablo 2 and no cd key

I would ask how you'd tag me. But I don't have the guts. So how would you tag yourself?diablo 2 and no cd key

: Note also how Micah Sifry is adding tags (instead of categories) to his posts using brother Dave Sifry's new tagging convention. diablo 2 and no cd key

I want a plug-in that lets me add tags to posts as easily as I add the less flexible categories. Better yet, I'd love a smart plug-in tied into a network of Technorati/Flickr tags that suggests tags to me. diablo 2 and no cd key

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The Committee to Protect Bloggers

: Sadly, a Committee to Protect Bloggers is an idea whose time has come, given what is happening to our colleague bloggers in Iran, China, and elsewhere. Its goals:

: We are concerned primarily, though not exclusively, with the well-being of the bloggers themselves. Press freedom is extremely valuable and will be agitated for, but our primary concern is keeping bloggers alive and free.
: We are concerned for them as bloggers, even if some are also journalists or activists.
: We are a group of bloggers, communicating via blogs, about other bloggers. We have some understanding of our fellows that other groups, no matter how well-meaning, cannot. We also have immediate access to the communications power of the blogosphere.

I know nothing about who's behind this; heard about it on Global Voices; eager to hear more. diablo 2 and no cd key

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Economics and change in news II -- Questions
diablo 2 and no cd key

: This is the second of two posts (the first is below) with my prep notes for a session I'm emceeing at this week's Harvard conference on economic pressures on the news business. This is a list of broad strategic questions for the news business raised by the issues listed in the post below. diablo 2 and no cd key

If you can bear more blather from me on the future of media, here's a Q&A at Corante and a presentation I made at the Aspen Institute. diablo 2 and no cd key

As with the post below, please add more questions and issues about journalism and blogging in this new era. Thanks. diablo 2 and no cd key

Strategic questionsdiablo 2 and no cd key

: In an era of consumer control, how do we give control to our consumers? How do we give up control ourselves, when that is antithetical to newsroom culture? How do we make news a conversation? A partnership? We must start by listening instead of lecturing. diablo 2 and no cd key

: In age of transparency, how do we become fully transparent to regain our credibility and trust? Let's reveal our full interviews (see Jay Rosen's and my posts). Let's reveal our process, our news judgment, the backgrounds and perspectives (and voting records) of reporters and editors. At the Aspen Institute discussion of transparency, some said we should be judged by our product, not our process. I say we need to be judged by both. diablo 2 and no cd key

: The internet creates new relationships. What is our relationship with our public? What should it be? How do we change it? How do we increase the respect we give to the public (and the public to us)? How do we regain the humility and humanity of journalism, taking us down off the pedestals we built so we can report the news eye-to-eye? How do we tear down the walls of the newsroom to build familiarity? How can we bring reporters and the public in direct contact (e.g., MeetUps)? Can we still stand at the center of the public square (where blogger Hugh MacLeod says we should think of products not as a "thing" but as a "place" -- a community). diablo 2 and no cd key

: How do we serve a mass of niches instead of the mass audience? How do we afford to do that? How do we assure we do not ghettoize and marginalize those publics? diablo 2 and no cd key

: How can we take advantage of this diverse new medium to enhance the diversity of our own news products and organizations? diablo 2 and no cd key

: Are we in the news media -- along with leaders in politics -- dividing the nation into red and blue when, instead, we should be building bridges?diablo 2 and no cd key

: In this new, distributed world -- where the value of the marketplace and distribution is diminished, where the internet is the network no one owns -- how do we take advantage of the distribution our audience can bring us? Shouldn't we find ways to encourage P2P distribution? Shouldn't we consider copyright (creative commons) licensing that allows the audience to do this? Would we not benefit from the added distribution, branding, and marketing? Can we give up that much control? diablo 2 and no cd key

On citizens' mediadiablo 2 and no cd key

: How do we use citizens to help us get news, information, and diverse viewpoints? We cannot afford to grow our newsrooms. We should gather news from citizens who can now report it thanks to new tools for gathering news (e.g., cameraphones) and distributing it (weblogs). What issues of vetting and credibility does this raise? (See hyperlocal citizens' media projects: GoSkokie.com, NorthwestVoices, Backfence.) diablo 2 and no cd key

: How can we enable the growth of citizens' media (after agreeing that's both a good and inevitable fate)?
> How can we -- journalists and journalism educators -- train citizen journalists in the standards of professionalism (and how they can train us in openness)?
> How can we promote them and highlight their coverage?
> How can we underwrite them? Should we create ad networks (which also increase our reach)? Once we find this can be profitable, we should not exploit them only for our benefit.
> Shouldn't we push to afford citizen journalists the protections and rights journalists have (helping to defend them in appropriate libel cases, making sure they get shield protection, getting them access and credentials)? To exclude them from these protections and privileges sets precedents that are dangerous for professional journalists as well.diablo 2 and no cd key

On change and trainingdiablo 2 and no cd key

: We should train the public to judge the news differently, to become:
> Skeptical of the first reports (the fog of war).
> Adept at judging news according to the perspective of its source (reporter, bloggers, newsmakers).
> Adept at judging news from us (and helping us correct it; see Rather).diablo 2 and no cd key

: How do we break newsrooms out of the ego of the container and serve news to citizens wherever and however they want it served (online, via mobile, via search, via RSS, via audio or video, via blogs)? [It isn't easy!]diablo 2 and no cd key

: We need to retrain newsrooms in multimedia and interactivity. How should news organizations and colleges do that? diablo 2 and no cd key

Financial questionsdiablo 2 and no cd key

: How do we continue to financially support quality newsgathering? How do we find new efficiencies? How do we maintain quality? [Cue Dan Gillmor on news industry margins.]diablo 2 and no cd key

: How do we deemphasize -- and spend less resource on -- commodity news the audience already knows so we can concentrate on what we do best and our greatest value: reporting, local news, and so on?diablo 2 and no cd key

: Can we consolidate but maintain localness and quality and responsiveness?diablo 2 and no cd key

On perspectivediablo 2 and no cd key

: How do we incorporate commentary and reporting?diablo 2 and no cd key

: Can we regain the brave voice of journalism? diablo 2 and no cd key

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Economics and change in news I -- Financial pressures on news

: At this week's Harvard conference on journalism, citizens' media, and credibilty, I'm emceeing, Oprahlike, a session on economic pressures on news and the issues that result. The official word from the conference is "ethics" but I'm not convinced that's quite the right word. Here are some notes in preparation. This first post wants to be a catalogue of the economic pressures on the news business brought on by the internet, citizens' media, issues of credibility, and more. I don't plan to discuss this much, but I thought it was important to start with this background and perspective. As I said to someone about their company lately, "You need a chief reality officer." This is an attempt to issue an economic reality check. Please add in more factors -- or correct the ones I have here -- in the comments. The second part of these notes, on the strategic and ethical issues all this raises -- is the next post, above. diablo 2 and no cd key

Strategic issues

: Thanks to the internet - and the consumer control and choice it enables - the mass market is dying, replaced by a mass of niches. See The Massless Mediain this month's Atlantic (it's not online; I'll post quotes soon). See my First Law of Media: Give the people control of media, they will use it. The corollary: Don't give the people control of media, and you will lose.diablo 2 and no cd key

: All established news media face strong new competition for audience, attention, and ad dollars from the internet, cable, satellite radio and TV, and games. diablo 2 and no cd key

: All established news media face growing competition for stories and attention from new sources of news, led by citizens' media. These new competitors can serve niche markets large media cannot serve. diablo 2 and no cd key

: The value of controlling distribution - printing presses, broadcast towers, cables - is torn apart by the internet. The internet is the network no one owns.diablo 2 and no cd key

: Thus… In the old days, if you wanted to publish or broadcast, you had to have expensive equipment and expertise; you had to know the guy who owned the means of distribution (printing press or broadcast tower or cable); you had to have a fortune for marketing. Now, anyone can create content (and, better yet, conversation) and do it inexpensively with new equipment and tools; they can distribute it online and they can "market" it (that is, it can be found) thanks to search, links, and the metadata they create. All this levels the playing field. As Jay Rosen says: "A blog, you see, is a little First Amendment machine."diablo 2 and no cd key

: News is a commodity. The same news is reported in many ways. The audience often knows the news before we report it, so we seem slow. We also spend considerable resources on this commodity news. diablo 2 and no cd key

: The means of getting news -- for consumers -- has changed: Once was, we readers/listeners/viewers/users waited for news to come to us (the paper is delivered, the show starts). Now the news waits for us. News is becoming an on-demand, anywhere-anytime product. Old packages and delivery mechanisms don't work. Also, in the old days, we browsed a product packaged for us; now we search for what we want. Go read Tom Curley's speech to ONA: "Content will be more important than its container."diablo 2 and no cd key

: Google is a brand killer. People find what they want from any source and don't credit or remember the source. diablo 2 and no cd key

Specific financial issuesdiablo 2 and no cd key

: Newspaper classified revenue plummets due to the economy; direct customer contact made possible by the internet (for real estate agents, employers, auto dealers); new, cheap or free competitors (a study says Craigslist cost San Francisco papers $65 million); and new competition coming (a distributed marketplace made possible by tags and search).diablo 2 and no cd key

: Newspaper (and local TV and radio) retail revenue is also hit by the success of online (see Christmas buying results - a slight increase in local retail but a huge increase in online sales) and by consolidation (Sears and Kmart merge; Wal-Mart kills stores; Wal-Mart doesn't advertise in print). diablo 2 and no cd key

: Newspaper circulation is falling or flat; young people read papers less. So circulation revenue falls and the CPM value of advertising also falls. diablo 2 and no cd key

: As citizens switch media - moving from a newspaper to an online news site - they shift to a lower-margin medium. diablo 2 and no cd key

: Immigrants are less likely to speak English and buy English media, leading to mushrooming growth and competition from ethnic media. diablo 2 and no cd key

: Magazine circulation is difficult and ad revenue has been flat. diablo 2 and no cd key

: TV revenue will be hit when advertisers no longer accept upfront rate increases while viewership declines. diablo 2 and no cd key

Qualitative issuesdiablo 2 and no cd key

: The credibility of journalists is under more regular attack. This is attacking our core asset and value. (See this Newshour transcript.)diablo 2 and no cd key

: Opinion and conversation are proving in some cases to be more profitable than reporting (see FoxNews, the Guardian, blogs…). diablo 2 and no cd key

: The speed of reporting and distribution allowed by technology means that established media often fall behind in reporting. It also means that distribution gets ahead of reporting: The public gets news before it is verified (the fog of war). This, in turn, has an impact on our reputation and credibility. diablo 2 and no cd key

Policy issuesdiablo 2 and no cd key

: Established media companies respond to economic pressures by trying to consolidate and find new efficiency but this strategy is under attack in public opinion and regulation.diablo 2 and no cd key

: The FCC and its attack on alleged indecency is turning broadcast into tapioca, reducing the audience and heat of the media.
diablo 2 and no cd key

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