contentious.com

Comment-tracking service I'm going to demo. Recommended by Patrick Beeson. I need comment tracking, and Co.mments.com has been totally down (like, GONE, no site, no feed, nothing!) all day. I absolutely need comment tracking, I comment on blogs daily and need an easy way to follow conversations.

People want to connect, and they’re looking for people who can help them with things they need to get done in their lives. This becomes even more important when you consider that people are overwhelmed by the explosion of media. They are consuming more media than they ever have in history, but where they really want help is finding the best and more relevant information.

"Community information is a broader conversation than just journalism. When people get together to discuss what comes next after newspapers, there tends to be a lot of journalists in the room, and so a lot of the conversation revolves around journalism. Certainly, that's a critical component. But when I think about community information, I think of things like a visit my family made on our way to Yosemite recently. We stopped in a Target in a small town in the Central Valley and at the front of the store were two computer kiosks. They were there because apparently you have to apply for jobs online at Target. But in this digital era, how are folks in that area able to find out about jobs, let alone apply, if they're not digitally savvy?"

Report from Brian Boyer: "To help create their fantastic piece about Hillary Clinton’s White House schedules, the NYT developed a tool to aid them in analysis of the enormous amount of information that the schedules contained. Today at the Online News Association conference, Aron Pilhofer, editor of interactive news tech at the NYT, told a session audience that they are planning to release this tool as an open-source project! (He said it’ll be on Amazon EC2, though I’m not sure exactly what that’ll amount to.)"

Scott Karp's seminal article on the value of link journalism: "What if link journalism could transform the newspaper archive from a dusty locked vault to a vibrant, dynamic part of up-to-the-minute news reporting? Suddenly, a site like Time.com starts look really smart for making available for free this in-depth piece on McCain from December 1999: The Power and The Story

"Imagine what link journalism could do to increase traffic to high quality journalism, old and new. How do you save important journalism? Make it relevant again using the currency for relevancy on the web: links"

"My observations at metropolitan daily newspapers lead me to believe that we are poised right at the cusp of developing a more productive relationship between business and editorial departments, but workplace routines and traditions – especially those that are well-intentioned and rooted in core values, even if they don’t ultimately serve those core values very well — are hard to break down."

"I guess researchers and/or some of the press have not figured out that if you want to report on science that uses a map, you need to have a map! The news is a report, "The Geography Of Personality; A Theory of the Emergence, Persistence and Expression of Geographic Variation in Basic Traits" currently running in Perspectives On Psychological Science. You can read the abstract free but the article requires a fee. Thus, I don't know if the article provides a map or not. But wait, McCLatchy Newspapers did the work. That organization provides an interactive Flash-based map built on the findings."

A competitor to Swype — writing on touchscreen by dragging finger across keyboard, rather than touchng letters. I have the earlier version of this app on my iPhone. "ShapeWriter WritingPad is temporarily unavailable in the App Store/iTunes. However an improved version 1.0.4 has been submitted and is currently
in review status so it should become available shortly in the App Store."
We appreciate your patience.

Another way to type on a touchscreen. Interesting.

"People who are actively building (or thinking about building) the news sites and journalistic organizations of the future might want to think their way around these concepts. You'll notice that not everything described here is purely journalistic. As reporters and editors across America are being reminded in 2008, journalism doesn't take place in a vacuum. Many of these coordinates are focused on the context in which journalism will occur, as well as how to sustain it.

"So here's the drill: We're posting the draft here this evening for your feedback tonight and Tuesday, leading up to publication of a more formal draft at PressThink, where we'll be seeking more comment and continual improvement (Coordinate 07.01). And so on."

"Ask500People is introducing demographic polling: poll for results by gender, age, location, team, education. That is huge, and definitely something you can’t do with a casual poll on Twitter. Knowing this level of details for an answer to your question is valuable information, and seeing it visually represented is even better."

Google "allied with John Malone’s Liberty Global and banking giant HSBC to form O3b Networks, a reference to the “other 3 billion” people to which it hopes to provide Internet access. Together, the three companies are investing $750 million in 16 low-earth orbit satellites that collectively will provide Internet back-haul capacity to areas that lack it. This additional capacity will make it substantially easier and less expensive for others to deliver high-speed Web access to underserved locations."

"O3b Networks Ltd. today announced it will begin deployment of a new global communications infrastructure to provide high-speed, low-cost Internet connectivity to emerging markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

"Backed with financial and operational support from Google Inc., Liberty Global, Inc. and HSBC Principal Investments, the new system will reduce bandwidth costs for telecommunications operators (telcos) and Internet service providers (ISPs), enabling cost-effective voice and broadband services at speeds equivalent to those enjoyed in the developed world."

Exec Summary: "Serious gaming, or the use of games and gaming dynamics for non-entertainment purposes, is poised to take off thanks to the rise of Technology Populism, the greening of IT, and the emergence of the Millennials. Opportunity comes from many sectors, but competition comes from a hodgepodge of companies, including IBM and Microsoft. To achieve widespread adoption, the industry must deal with five issues: 1) what games should be called; 2) how slick the presentation should be; 3) how users should interface with the games; 4) how to determine ROI; and 5) determining if the technology has any limitations. Clearing these hurdles will open the door for revolutionary uses of games, but getting from here to there will require patience and guidance on the part of serious games vendors."

"Since unveiling the makeover seven weeks ago, Facebook had left it up to users to decide whether they wanted to switch over. If they didn't like what they saw, the converts could just click on a link to switch back to the old format.

"But that option will be taken away from all users by the end of the week, a shift that Zuckerberg already knows will alienate some of Facebook's audience and raise the risk of driving more traffic to rival social networks like MySpace and Bebo.

"The Forrester report argues that serious games are “poised to take off” in the next seven years. Why?

"Forrester cites the “green revolution,” which is pushing major corporations like IBM and SAP to experiment with virtual world technology as a way of saving on energy and operational costs, as well as the pervasive popularity of technology, especially among the Net-savvy Generation Y: “This comfort with virtualized workspaces has opened the door for the use of video games to help reduce long-term expenses in other cost centers, like training, learning, and team building,” the report reads. (Forrester’s authors distinguish persistent virtual worlds like Second Life from serious games, which are developed for specific goals in a limited time frame.)

"Google has also insisted that it will move ahead with the Yahoo deal–which was struck as a parry to Microsoft’s attempt to buy Yahoo and is set to begin next month–no matter what. I actually believe Google execs when they say this because they have shown a strong streak of stubbornness on controversial issues–witness the company not backing down from the Viacom lawsuit–about which they believe they are in the right."

"Go big or go small. That's the question facing lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice investigating Google. Sources who have provided testimony to the government say a departmental debate revolves around whether antitrust regulators should challenge Google's proposed revenue-sharing deal with Yahoo, or go for the whole enchilada–and haul Google into court on broader charges related to its dominance in search advertising."

"Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo's Connected Life division, said its oneConnect service, a social address service that marries a cell phone contacts list with social networks, is premiering on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The service, which is available now in the Apple App Store, allows users to pull their friends and contacts together into one application, enabling them to communicate via instant messaging, e-mail, text messaging or phone. The application also lets users get updates and check in on their friends across a variety of social-networking sites, from Facebook and MySpace to Bebo and Twitter.

"Yahoo also is expanding a new development language to help developers build applications easily for mobile phones. Using a language called Blueprint, which Yahoo took five years to build, developers can create applications and Web sites at once that will run on a variety of operating systems and devices.

This NRDC magazine now has a citizen journalism section

Tidbits contributor Rich Gordon writes: "I don't think the most important lessons of this story are about Web sites, journalism, software or human judgment. The lasting lessons should relate to the regulatory oversight of the world's increasingly automated global economy. However blame for the United Airlines debacle is apportioned, something is fundamentally wrong when investors make substantial bets on a company's stock based on a news story that anyone following the company closely would know was incorrect."

"Craig Rosa, interactive producer, presents the "cross-platform, cross-editorial program" KQED Quest. "Cross-platform, cross-editorial" means Quest is about science, environment and nature-based content for community education in schools, radio, television, and the Web. As their show is based in and about Northern California, Craig explains how KQED Quest reinforces the message of global environmentalism by educating viewers about their local geography. Quest innovatively features an interactive map of Northern California as their web homepage; allowing users to access radio, blog, and TV content all from one page. Craig says Quest's mantra is: "geo-tag everything." Quest encourages users to download, manipulate, and/or reproduce their content any way they see fit."

"News, like most all other forms of communication today, is both accidental and on-demand. We often get news online when we aren’t looking for it, and we also get news when and how we want it (we also seem to get only the news we want to hear, but that’s another issue for another day.) So let’s not confuse the changes news is going through with its impact. News still matters, even if the news itself is not always recognizable based on long-held perceptions."

If cell carriers can subsidize the cost of phone hardware, then maybe opt-in advertisers can subsidize users' cell phone bills? Hmmmm….. "Although only about 9% of people agree with the statement that advertising on their cellphones is acceptable, 31% say it's acceptable if it lowers the bill, Paul Kultgen, director of mobile advertising at the Nielsen Co., said during a presentation at Billboard Mobile Entertainment Live in San Francisco today."

This echoes my experience, too: "For me, the new Facebook is a mixed bag. My favorite feature is probably “The Publisher,” a toolbar high up on Facebook that makes it far easier to share links, photos and other content. I always felt that with the old Facebook it was surprisingly hard to share a link, and that I was always indulging in a lot of errant clicks between me and sharing."

Annotation platform for Yochai Benkler's book.

I just installed this firefox add-on update for Delicious. We'll see if I still keep having that problem of my browser stalling waiting for it to "sync bookmarks" periodically…

Suggestion #3: "Start developing original content again. I never really understood why Yahoo got out of the content development business in the first place. My guess is it got a severe case of Google envy and decided to heck with creating content when you can make a fortune off other people's. It's time to concede the 'starting point of the Web' to Google and focus on becoming the 'premier Web destination.'"

"TV stations in New Orleans learned a lot from Katrina three years ago, when some stations were forced off the air and out of town by the hurricane that flooded the Crescent City. Some of what the stations had implemented since Katrina came in handy Sunday and Monday as Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast and moved inland. Here are some of the stories that emerged Tuesday, after Gustav had moved on."

How one Washington Post reporter fought back against offensive targeted Facebook ads. Good context if your site runs (or is considering running) targeted advertising.

Ad demographic geeks, take note. New research from Ipsos Mendelsohn: "The difference between the rich and the super-rich is even more defined in mobile device usage. Whereas 40% of affluents use hand-held devices to access the Web, that figure rises to 57% of those earnings $250,000 or more."

Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott argues persuasively on why reporters should blog: "Today, I just can’t imagine working without a blog. I write nearly everything online first and then figure out what makes sense for the print newspaper. And it was the different sort of writing that I was doing – conversational and analytical pieces – that paved the way for editors to consider me for a new role I am soon to begin as a columnist and editorial writer. Part of my charge is to bring the paper’s editorial and commentary operation along to a more interactive and conversational future online.

Some great advice from fellow Tidbits contributor Paul Bradshaw: "For all the talk of how journalists can get a grip on new media, there’s been far too little on how ad sales people can do the same. So here I present ten ways ad sales people (and their managers) can save their jobs."

The 800-lb gorilla is trying to mend fences with ad agencies. Could this affect the online advertising market? "Google could avoid ad agencies when it sold only search advertising, where it is dominant. But now that it has a wider set of products in more areas — including social media and virtual reality — it finds that it must work harder to drum up business, particularly because of the lingering hard feelings. …Despite all the happy talk, there is still a good deal of skepticism. As Google begins trying to sell television, radio and print advertising and creates tools for buying and planning media campaigns, some advertising executives and academics say that the company is working with the agencies in order to eventually displace them."