by Ron Miller

Cloud Computing from a Youth Perspective

This is a cool video where kids explain cloud computing. Thanks to Shadrach White for the original link.

 

Flixwagon Lets You Broadcast From Your Cell Phone

Image via CrunchBaseFlixwagon Lets You Broadcast From Your Cell Phone - Daniweb TechTreasures by Ron Miller

Web 2.0 has always been about giving the individual the power to publish without having to beg a media company for access. From blogs to podcasts to services like YouTube ordinary (and extraordinary) citizens have been able to publish their work for the world to see. Now Flixwagon lets you broadcast live from your cell phone... Read the full story on DaniWeb.

Citizen Journalists Need to Learn from Jobs Rumor Debacle

Link: Citizen Journalists Need to Learn from Jobs Rumor Debacle -TechTreasures by Ron Miller

This week we learned what can happen when Citizen Journalism runs amok with the Jobs heart attack rumor. Now Citizen Journalists need to learn that when you take on the role, you take on the responsibility to check your facts...

Community Journalism and Open Source Software Share a Social Bond

Link: Community Journalism and Open Source Software Share a Social Bond - DaniWeb TechTreasures.

Community journalism encourages members of the community to participate in the news process, not just as passive readers, but as active producers of the news itself. This direct connection to the product is similar in many ways to the kind of community building that goes on in open source development.

The New Journalism, It's Audience Participation Time Published on EContent

In a week in which so many journalists have been laid off at traditional newspapers, it seems more than appropriate (and perhaps a bit ironic) that my EContent article, The New Journalism, It's Audience Participation Time (requires subscription or payment to view online), was published in EContent Magazine.

The article looks at the changing face of traditional journalism, a change that many traditional media companies have been slow to acknowledge. I write in my introduction:

The 20th-century notion of a journalist acting as a professional surrogate for his or her readers and helping them understand the nature of a story is, well, so last century. Today, audiences want to be involved in the process. That means that they want to select the news source and maybe even help in the production of a story (or at least participate
in a conversation about it).

I spoke to a number of people for this article including Steve Johnson who runs a hyperlocal site called Outside.in, Christopher Grotke and Lisa LePage, who run ibrattleboro.com, a site that goes back to the earliest days of the community journalism movement. Terry Heaton, VP of Media 2.0 at Audience Research & Development, a firm that advises traditional media companies and who writes about the changing face of media, Mark Glaser, a journalist who writes the MediaShift blog and Scott Karp,who runs a burgeoning site called Publish2.

A sidebar looks at the Dallas Morning News, which has teamed with Small World Labs to build a community journalism site called Neighborsgo.com. The purpose of the site is not only to generate revenue for the DMN, but the site also drives some content on the traditional news outlets.

Knight News Challenge offers millions for online news innovation

Link: Knight News Challenge offers millions for online news innovation.

This is very interesting and perhaps a sign that Community Journalism is leaving the margins and taking its place along side traditional journalism in the main stream.

I did an article last year on Community Journalism for EContent Magazine (which won an Apex Excellence Award) and I was so taken by the idea after interviewing the principals who run a community site, iBrattleboro.com in Brattleboro, VT that I was ready to start a similar venture in my home town. Unfortunately, it didn't get anywhere because life and paying jobs (on to the next article) got in the way, but I still think it's a terrific compliment to traditional journalism and one I would love to explore further if I only had the time. (It's on the list with completely redesigning my web site.)

Knight News is putting up a lot of money, and it should be interesting to see what comes of it.

Journalism Returns to its (Grass)roots Wins Apex Excellence Award

I am extremely pleased to announce that I am a recipient of a 2006 Apex Award for Publication Excellence for my June, 2005 EContent Magazine article, Journalism Returns to its Grass(roots).  This marks the first time I have ever received an award for my writing and I am very excited.

The article covers the growing Community Journalism movement. To quote my blog post when this article was published:

Community Journalism provides an outlet for regular folks to share information about their lives, information that most local publications don't cover any more as large media entitites buy local media and produce homogenized material, often far removed from the community.

I want to thank my editor, Michelle Manafy, for submitting the article on my behalf (I had no idea she had) and for being so supportive of me and my work during the years we have been working together.

A screenshot of the award is shown below:

New Site Goes After Big Media

I've been neglecting my blog lately, not for lack of ideas--I've got plenty of them--but more because I've been so busy with work that I haven't had the energy to write here. But I came across a site called Stopbigmedia.com, the other day and it intrigued me enough to write about it.

When I was a Journalism student in the late 1970s, one of my professors assigned the class a book by Fred W. Friendly (the same man who was Edward R. Murrow's producer in the 1950s). In the book, the name of which escapes me now, Friendly discussed the danger of consolidating media ownership into too few hands. In the late 1970s, that meant around 50 corporate owners. In the modern day, that is down to a precious few, and this site aims to stop further consolidation.

While I can't speak for this particular blog, I do applaud the sentiment of what they are attempting to do, and I hope that readers of my blog will contact their legislators and encourage them to prevent further consolidation of the media. One only hopes that blogs, podcasts and community journalism can help combat the rising tide of corporate media, but the more these big companies control the news (and entertainment), the more likely they are to control the flow of information and that is never a good thing for a free society.

Digg.Com Moves Community Journalism in a New Direction

Link: Business Filter - Business Weblog - The Boston Globe: Digg Goes Deep.

This is interesting on a couple of levels. First of all, it takes community journalism to a different level. It's not  regular folks submitting stories that are important to their lives, so much as regular folks participating in the news by submitting stories and then voting which ones make it to the front page. I love the concept.

Another interesting aspect of this site is that so far it has made all of its money with Google AdSense ads. Apparently someone thinks enough of the model to give them $2.8M to continue the experiment.

Ourmedia.org Article Published on Econtent

Link: EContentMag.com: One for All and All for One: Ourmedia.org Empowers Content Producers.

I published an article in the June issue of EContent on Ourmedia.org, the brain child of journalist JD Lasica and Mark Cantor (who helped found Macromedia).  The site is a showcase for people to share their content free of charge. People post music, videos and writing. The site also hopes to be a catalyst for grassroots content delivery. Very interesting concept and well worth checking out.