If only I had a PC

That’s not something you’ll hear me say often.

Came across a very cool looking screensaver today via Valleywag called Twingly. It geographically plots new blog posts on a rotating globe in real time. Unfortunately there’s no MAC version :(.

I think being into this, and willing to share the fact, proves I’ve finally come to terms with my inner geek. No more trying to disguise my Symbian software searches or trips to Pacific Mall as ‘business research’.

Here is a clip of the screensaver:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgIT-hfgOXY]

Reuters (talks about) embracing citizen journalism

After working in the publishing business for 2 year I have a real interest in seeing how that industry deals with the shift toward social media and citizen journalism. So, it has been great reading some of the stories that have come out of the WeMedia conference in Miami.

One of the biggest hurdles for citizen journalism is the rift it has created between the people in charge of traditional media companies and the journalists that work for them. I found that it wasn’t uncommon for writers to feel that the only reason their organisations were interested in citizen journalism is because they could save money on reporting and lay off ‘proper journalists’. Chris Ahearn, president of Reuters, thinks it’s a confidence issue: “as soon as we get over this crisis of confidence we will realise that this is a golden age of journalism.”

In fact Chris had quite a few interesting things to say – there is a post about his speech on the Gaurdian’s OrganGrinder blog.

I think Reuters will play a particularly interesting role in the shift toward social media. The fact of the matter is that most media companies, particularly newspapers, are cash strapped. They are doing less reporting themselves and are relying more heavily on picking up syndicated stories from organisations like Reuters. If Reuters starts sending out citizen journalism over the wires it becomes easy for editors to simply start running it. This is in comparison to getting your own citizen journalism system off the ground – a massive undertaking for most news organisations.

I don’t think this is ideal – but it could be a good start. I’m a believer in news communities. I think citizen journalism works best when someone in a community writes for that community (either virtual or geographical). So with Reuters sending out citizen journalism ‘feeds’ they will likely be detaching the journalist from the community – which in my opinion makes it less powerful.

Still, if editors become comfortable running these stories I think it is a much smaller leap to start asking their own readers to contribute to their newspapers and TV shows in more meaningful ways. I’m optimistic.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned the other big piece of citizen journalism news announced at WeMedia: The partnership between NowPublic and Asociated Press.

From the press release: “Contributions to the AP news report from NowPublic’s network of participants could take many forms over time, said AP Deputy Managing Editor for Multimedia Lou Ferrara. “They could range from simple eyewitness accounts to originally produced content.”

Of course NowPublic is another Canadian startup – based in Vancouver. Great to see them doing so well.

If you’ve ever wondered, this is what a public relations disaster looks like…

Check out this train wreck of a video.

It was taken at the PowerSet party on Saturday night. The comments on the TechCrunch story are a good read too. My favorite: “I am a VC who has invested $100,000 in PowerSet and am desperately worried.”

Why I left the media industry

When friends ask me why I left a great industry to start a web company I think I’ll suggest they watch this clip. It’s cheesy, but it gets across some of the key concepts behind this amorphous thing we call web 2.0. I think it’s a good investment of your next four and a half minutes.

Thanks to Greg Wilson for finding the clip.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE]