Stuff I’ve been reading

• Open Source ‘Twitter’ Could Fend Off the Next Twitpocalypse
  Wired article that sumarises the movement towards decentralising Twitter-like microblogging services.
• Video interview with Anil Dash on "the future of new media"
  Nice to see the inclusion debate articulated by an Amercian tech person. A number of parallels with efforts going on here with an emphasis on those who make the tools having a responsibility to make them accessible, both technically and culturally. "Culturally" being the important one.
• Why local bloggers may never compete with local media
  This issue came to me last week and it worthy of much thought. In fact it's probably the biggest issue facing those wishing to see blogging take off at a hyperlocal level. In short, those producing the blogs are part of the communities they're writing about so if they write something controversial or unpopular this can affect them personally. We haven't spent much time looking at the dynamics of the local communities which we're looking to network in new ways. I suspect they might be more complex and fragile that we imagined. And someone might get hurt.
• What Works: The Web Way vs. The Wave Way
  The difference between how commercial companies think and how the Internet works is something I've been observing for a while recently. It's most obvious with Twitter, Facebook and other centralised services that mimic the distributed architecture of the web but I think it's as much a state of mind as a technical solution. Here Anil Dash delves into the mire using Google Wave as an example. [Follow-up post]
• Google News registration is an easy win
  Ironically I'm not a fan of websites that aren't traditional news organisations being part of Google News but since Google has decided to open the gates a bit here's a handy guide to getting your site considered for inclusion. Notable that it has to be a team effort.
• Cosy social networks ‘are stifling innovation’
  When I was at school a visiting journalist gave a talk. He encouraged us to change our newspaper every few weeks to get a more balanced view on the world. I suspect the same applies to social networks. It's easy to settle into the a cosy, comfortable environment but it's not necessarily going to take you anywhere interesting. On the other hand, your modern social networks are built up of many overlaps so new information does come in. But I've been feeling my Twitter community has become a bit "safe" of late.
• Torchwood Writer Gets Online Abuse: Where social media stops being fun
  I meant to write more about this at the time. There's a fine line between fans and fanatics and it's worth remembering that if someone is really, totally passionate about the thing that you do they might just be a little unhinged. Do you really want people like that being your ambassadors online? All sorts of things bundled up in this – giving away ownership and control for one.
• Nutshell – Directory for UK Local Blogs
  A slightly more ambitious attempt to collate the "blogs about a specific area" that exist. Directories like this are doomed to failure in the long term but do act as a useful bridge to the creation of communities of interest. More about the intentions here.
• Scott Rosenberg: Say Everything: How Blogging Began
  Promoting his new book (which I've not started yet) Scott gives a very basic introduction to the origins of the form and dispells a few myths. 35 mintues of talk followed by Q&A. Worth watching.
• Joanna Geary links for 2009-08-03
  If you're at all interested in how content providers might make money for their content online (with newspapers being the main focus) Jo's collected a rather good batch of links here summarizing the current thinking and positing some solutions.
• Nice definition of Social Journalism
  Social Journalism or Social Reporting is a term that's been bandied around recently. I was struggling to figure out how it was different to old fashioned blogging and the like. This definition makes a bit of sense – it's the curating of the stuff that bubbles up from social networks.
  

  "What’s Social Journalism? It’s what you do when you gather information in social media channels and then report it to your readers. Watching a Twitter #hashtag for posts related to a critical local issue or big event, then publishing them in a roundup or sidebar on your news site? That’s Social Journalism. Scanning YouTube for the latest video from a protest, county fair, or city council meeting? That’s Social Journalism."

Syndicated from my del.icio.us account using Postalicious