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Monthly Archives: March 2005

My Upcoming Workshop in Austin

March 31, 2005 – 10:48 pm

Just a quick heads-up: Today I confirmed that I’ll be doing a workshop on blogs, feeds, and podcasts – how to use them and do them at the 2005 conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists (Sept. 28-Oct. 2, Austin, TX)…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Amy's Adventures | Comments (0)

Direct Source Links in Online News: Whether, Where, and How?

March 31, 2005 – 10:33 am

One way I like to use Google News is to quickly compare how different news venues cover the same story. This morning I did that with coverage of the newly released final report from the White House Commission of the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. Here’s the thing: When a news story hinges on a document that’s available online, where is the the best place (and what is the best way) to present that link in an online news story? Are source links even necessary or desirable? There are various ways to approach this quandary…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Media Musings, Net Effects on Society | Comments (3)

Another Goodie: Latest Recommended Links

March 30, 2005 – 10:27 am

I’ve just added another useful bit of content to the right-hand column of this weblog. From any page in this site, look to the right and scroll down. There’s now a section called Latest Recommended Links. This section displays the five most recent items I’ve added to my recommended reading page on del.icio.us. How did I do it?…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Resources | Comments (4)

My Latest Recommended Links

March 29, 2005 – 6:57 pm

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve abandoned my “grab bagâ€? approach to recommending cool or useful stuff to check out online. Instead, I’m listing those links on my del.icio.us page — a popular “social bookmarkingâ€? tool. I know many CONTENTIOUS readers are unfamiliar with del.icio.us, so I thought I’d provide a taste of the kinds of items I’ve been posting there lately…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Amy's Grab Bag (quick notes), Resources | Comments (1)

Yahoo 360: Where Are You?

March 29, 2005 – 1:36 pm

I’m rather intrigued — and confused — by Yahoo’s newly unveiled Yahoo 360 personal information service (in beta). It’s been getting considerable buzz. I’d like to try it out. However, where exactly is it? OK, here’s a little PR 101: When you debut a new online site or service, make sure your site (especially the home page) is definitely up and running before and during the buzz…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Content Style & Business, Resources | Comments (10)

Update: The New AIM TOS

March 28, 2005 – 11:22 am

Quick followup: As promised, AOL has indeed revised its terms of service (TOS) for its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service. The new agreement is more in line with what AOL’s chief competitors in the online chat space (Microsoft Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, and Skype) offer. From my perspective, here’s the new bottom line: AIM’s TOS is now acceptable. However, I still won’t go back to using it, and I recommend that others steer clear as well. I really don’t like that AOL tried to get away with such a major content grab in the first place. They shredded their own reputation, and their defensive and belated response didn’t repair that damage. AOL blew it…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Content Style & Business, Media Musings | Comments (1)

The News Ain\’t What It Used to Be

March 25, 2005 – 11:38 am

Today, Online Journalism Review published an excellent analysis by my friend and colleague Nora Paul, director of UMN’s Institute for New Media Studies. In “‘New News’ retrospective: Is online news reaching its potential?” Paul revisits perspectives offered a decade ago by media professionals. She notes that for the most part, news organizations have not pursued online opportunites to the extent hoped. Personally, I suspect that one of the unacknowledged reasons behind the news industry’s lack of vigor in pursuing these opportunities lies in how inadequately the news business has been defining and delivering news…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Content Style & Business, Media Musings, Net Effects on Society | Comments (1)

Must-Read Feeds: My List

March 24, 2005 – 12:01 pm

I’ve done a little reorganizing in my sprawling list of feed subscriptions. If you’ve checked out my complete feed list (always noted in the right column, Feeds Amy Reads), you’ll see I subscribe to over 400 feeds sorted into about 30 categories. Obviously, there’s no way I read all of that stuff all the time. So I’ve finally gotten around to creating a short list of feeds that I check daily…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Amy's Adventures, Feeds (RSS), Resources | Comments (1)

Book Meme 123.5: My Contribution

March 23, 2005 – 2:02 pm

Need to overcome “Blogger’s block?” Try Michael Pollock’s “Book Meme 123.5″ method: 1) Grab the nearest book. 2) Open the book to page 123. 3) Find the fifth sentence. 4) Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. 5) Don’t search around and look for the “coolestâ€? book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you. …OK, here goes my attempt…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Arranging Ideas, Net Effects on Society, Real World Writing, Resources, Voices: Blogs, etc. | Comments (6)

Strengths and Weaknesses of Metadata Schemes

March 23, 2005 – 10:03 am

I was just reading an item in Dave Taylor’s blog The Intuitive Life, “Technorati tags: Good idea, terrible implementation.” There, Dave voiced this complaint about the inefficiencies of user-created tags (folksonomy). He posed a good question, and I responded in the following comment…

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Labels and Metadata | Comments (2)