 |
|
| FriendFeed is the easiest way to share online. Learn more » |
Shannon Brown › Likes
Making Time to Make: One Clear Line | 43 Folders - http://www.43folders.com/2008...
Shannon Brown and Adam Kazwell liked this
"if you leave every channel open to everybody and anybody, all the time and without limit, you necessarily prevent yourself from ever stepping away from the fray for long enough to focus. You’ll never make the time that it takes to produce the sort of good work that theoretically made you so appealing in the first place. And, perhaps as importantly, you also can never devote your undivided attention to the biped mammals who are breathing air in the room with you. Here. People. With faces and hands. Not 'friends,' but friends. Real people. Because, if total focus on the known important stuff in your life has to battle with a never-ending doorbell attached to your brain, it’s hard for me to imagine how your work, or your family, or your sense of who you are, alone in a room without the ringing, can possibly thrive. But, again, that’s really up to you to decide."
- Chad Dickerson
The Top Five Reasons Not to Upgrade to the New iPhone 3G - http://thomashawk.com/2008...
Dani Radu, Cait, Nicholas James and 41 other people liked this
I agree with Thomas' recommendations here. The one exception is the GPS. I really like that, but it, too, needs to be taken the next level with turn-by-turn directions. Battery life? Turn off the GPS and the 3G and you get better life. I'm also seeing that sometimes the battery just drains itself. I think it's due to some applications. Still trying to repeat that enough to be able to authoritatively write about it.
- Robert Scoble
Yeah it really is kind of sleazy the way they tout in TV commercials that the phone is cheaper, when in reality over the life of the contract, it's actually more expensive, particularly since there's no free text messaging. Speaking of which, what's up with companies doing unlimited data service but not throwing in the text messaging. That's pure profiteering right there as the text messages use almost no bandwidth and really are almost 100% profit in the pockets of the cell service providers.
- Alex Scoble
At the end of the day though, it's just a freakin' phone. Most people (90%) would be better off getting whatever free phone is available for AT&T through Verizon. Blackberry Curve anyone?
- Alex Scoble
Who is Alex Scoble and what has he done with Robert?
- Eric Schlissel
from twhirl
There's definitely something weird going on with battery drain. Sometimes my phone will be dead if left to sit overnight, other times it's practically fully charged.
- invariant - farewell FF
Why isn't there a voice guided turn-by-turn application already available? I read somewhere that in the iPhone SDK terms-of-acceptance, it says that you are not allowed to develop voice guided turn-by-turn. Is that true?
- oregon_tony
Interestingly none of those reasons apply in the UK. The monthly cost is the same (both data and voice/sms), but many more minutes & sms are thrown in now. The handset one-off price is much cheaper. O2 are doing deals to enable 2g iPhone owners to upgrade before the end of their 18 month contract. The O2 3G network is OK (not good, but OK), and the O2 Edge network is crap. Because network coverage is better, the phone does not need to work so hard, and so the battery issue is much less of a problem.
- Ian Fogg
I upgraded my iTouch and immediately noticed the poorer battery life on that device too. If I use wifi the device is lucky to last 2 days. If I turn that off and stick to my music/podcasts, I can get several days without needing a full charge. I also wonder how much extra power the different apps use. Games like Super Monkey Ball and Labyrinth and the NYTimes app, or Facebook or any of the others that rely on wifi/data connections? Think I'll stick to my Nokia E90. Cheaper with more benefits and software.
- Stephen Cropp
Ian - having upgraded last week I have found the battery performance disastrous. The 3g network in London is patchy to say the least. Power managment within the OS seems inefficient. Some form of activity monitor is required - there are times when you know that an app is running in the background and draining the battery yet you cannot confirm or control the process. The GPS without...
more...
- Mark
Same with my Touch (2.0). Then again, I use the wi-fi quite alot at home. the games drain the hell out of my battery. Although Apple made fun of Task Manager in WM6, I'd much prefer it if there was one to use on my Touch.
- Roberto Bonini
I think i like my Nokia phone and will stick with it and not go crazy about iphone
- Vidya
I used my Blackberry (and now iPhone) as an alarm clock. My usual routine is to charge it every night if the battery is low enough. I'm pretty diligent with conditioning my batteries. Occasionally, I'll have to do an afternoon charge because I'll let it discharge well below 20%. I wonder if people are complaining about battery life because they have to charge it once per day? I keep bluetooth off, everything else is on. It seems to auto-switch WiFi off in standby and flips it back on when wakes up.
- Paul Reynolds
I have to agree with Thomas. I'd like to note that A-GPS is rather unreliable as it often doesn't work (at least in my case.) I've made the decision replace my iPhone 3G with the N95-3.
- © b e e n s w a n k
If you turn of the push feature, then you get much better battery life. I did it and now it much better. And here in Sweden the 3G / HSDPA network is quite good.
- Svartling
I had a ATT Samsung 3G phone for about a year prior to buying a 1st gen iPhone. The Samsung would also occasionally just drain the battery even in sleep mode. I suspected it was something to do with the 3G radio and its behavior in poor reception areas, but couldn't reliably reproduce the problem.
- Steve Wilhelm
Another theory on the 3G battery life is the radio power is cranked up right now to compensate for the weak coverage and it can be adjusted remotely by the carrier. I forgot to mention I turned "push" down to every 30 minutes.
- Paul Reynolds
Just switched over last week after about 7 yrs of BB devices. Certainly has "cool factor", form factor and UI, but BB still better for power user of basic email and phone services without the bells and whistles of iPhone. That said, I think iPhone is a worthwhile investment and good device to have to monitor what is happening with mobile devices and device convergence. Mobile commerce and communication will be important elements to many business strategies.
- Fred Neil
I'm very tempted by an unlocked 2nd hand gen 1 iPhone. Being tied to a carrier doesn't work for me no matter how compelling the device
- James Clarke
Well James, unlocking for a different carrier is great, but don't expect any good apps in the jailbroken installer. Nothing but stupid themes.
- Dennis Jackson
BOOOOO. But thanks. I'm waiting until my contract runs out and it's literally been killing me. At least this helps cool me down a bit.
- Sarah Perez
Sometimes it might help to 'get Bold' instead of following the wisdom of the crowds :)
- Mrinal Desai
Agreed. As I posted elsewhere, there is nothing compelling enough for me to spend an extra $30 per month. My beat up edge version works beautifully and mine was free!
- Brad Nickel
What bugs me is that everyone is saying to turn this feature off or that feature off to preserve battery. What's the point of having an iPhone 3G if you have to turn all the features that make it different from the original iPhone off? Hopefully Apple will work on better battery life. For now I'm sticking with the 1st gen.
- Dennis Jackson
Seriously, if you're worried about 3G battery life in your car, you might want to invest in a $20 car charge adapter for your $199 (or $299) phone.
- Ernie Oporto
I never turn3G off and no battery complaints here. I do uncheck the ask to join wifi option. Battery usually lasts all day. Sometimes I give it a little charge after getting home from work.
- Bob Blunk
10 Reasons Why Mind Mapping Can Increase Productivity - http://www.gottabemobile.com/10+Reas...
Nicholas James, accesine, Tanath and 11 other people liked this
I'm a mindmanager junkie. Lately I've been experimenting with mindmeister, doing real-time collaborative mindmapping with clients --what a great way to grow ideas visually while talking on the phone!
- Leif Hansen
Hmm mindjets mindmanager has online functionality as well those days.. haven't played with it yet though
- Marcel Ekkel
Let's pick a day and all inflate our tires together - http://www.scripting.com/stories...
Tony Buser, Brian Ries, David Lynch and 9 other people liked this
"We need to find more ideas that can make us $29 billion, again and again. We need to think like a corporation that wants to return to profitability because that's what's going to heat our homes and keep us moving. We've run out of frontiers to exploit, and now we have to face the reality that we must learn how to live with each other. The sneering and bullying must be over, and Obama did what we all have to do when faced with willful ignorance -- tell it to fuck off, we don't have the time for this nonsense, we're busy solving problems, no time to argue with idiots."
- Dave Winer
I agree. Ironically, thinking like a corporation and making line by line budget changes can really help. Small changes.
- Francine Hardaway
from twhirl
Dave Winer is more aptly referred to as if at roll-call: Winer Dave
- eggsy
Dave Winer says "we must learn how to live with other" and then, in the very next sentence, refers to those with whom he, presumably, can't get get along as willfully ignorant idiots. Brilliant, Winer Dave
- eggsy
How you guys just ditch your cars altogether. Just think of how much oil you'd save then! It's not that hard, really.
- Clint Ecker
I can live with willfully ignorant idiots -- I do it every goddam day. :-)
- Dave Winer
It is unlikely that there will be a single magic bullet that will help use deal with Green issues. Instead, it will be the cumulative effect of lots of little things. So, we need to generate and test lots of ideas. We need to encourage this behavior with positive comments about even small ideas.Adobe was able to save $1.2 million a year in their San Jose offices, but it took 64 little...
more...
- Doug Neal
from twhirl
i would like to see everyone stop idling their car, you know 10second rule with modern cars, ---it takes more gas to idle for more than 10seconds, than to turn off and on. @Kirk yes it is true, http://www.slate.com/id... via http://sections.asme.org/florida...
- David Lynch
@David A link, or it's not true. ;-)
- Kirk Kittell
Will The Semantic Web Have a Gender? - ReadWriteWeb - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Shannon Brown liked this
Marshall K in fine form: "What is the semantic web? We define it as a paradigm that makes the meaning of particular web pages understandable by machines - not just in full text searches or keyword categories, but in terms of which concepts are central to a given page and the relationships between them."
- susan mernit
silicon valley map - http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveabl...
Shannon Brown, Frank Jurden and Sameer liked this
The lovely Rebecca MacKinnon suggested that I draw a Silicon-Valley-centric map of the world, a-la the old New Yorker cartoons by Saul Steinberg.
- Dave Winer
from Bookmarklet
Kids Playground - Fun Sites for Children - http://blog.go2web20.net/2008...
Nir Ben Yona, Håkan Dahlström, Shannon Brown and 2 other people liked this
Yes parents, this post is for you, and my guessing is that I picked a good time to cover some children services. Now, when the kids are in their summer holiday, you probably trying to find more activities for them. Here's a list of ideas that might help (all of them are Web related of course)
- Orli Yakuel
from Bookmarklet
Even if you don't have time to read the whole post, pay attention to: http://www.kidthing.com/
- Orli Yakuel
Good article. My daughthers favourite web site since she was 2 years old is http://www.poissonrouge.com/. It is fun and entertaining, and children can learn to use the pc.
- Baard @ Pixum
Good job Orli.
- Nir Ben Yona
Thank you.
- Orli Yakuel
Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani and partner tie the knot - http://www.radaronline.com/exclusi...
 |
mjc, Steven Perez, Jen Kuiper and 57 other people liked this
They took advantage of the recent gay-rights decision in California to legalize their marriage.
- Mitch Wagner
@Tad: +2!
- AJ Kohn
I'm with Tad. Someone should put a stop to this. We can't have people being happy together and stuff.
- ha3rvey (wants confit)
Hmm...is there a Tad comment here?
- Hutch Carpenter
Congratulations!
- Stephen Pierzchala
Tad you didn't delete your comment did you? It was great!
- Michelle Marie Miller
I've had several conversations today about gay marriage and at the end of the day, the majority feel as I do. Living is tough enough as it is without finding that one person in life you love and want to share everything with and not being able to do so. No one has the right to deny a mutual expression of love - no one. First Obama - now this? We're on a really good streak of good feelings here about getting past old prejudices. I've got more hope for the future happiness of my daughter than ever before.
- Vince DeGeorge
@Vince. Agreed - I'm a longtime Virginia dude who moved out to San Francisco back in 1996. Having been out here 12 years, my sensibilities on things have certainly changed. I wrote this post "Same Sex Marriage in California - What Change Will We See?" (http://tinyurl.com/5kncrl) as a reflection of that understanding.
- Hutch Carpenter
yes, vince.
- edythe
what Vince said.
- Anthony Citrano
and they'll have to get a refund for their certificate in november.
- Brooks Bayne
Wonderful. Land of the free.
- Tsega Dinka
Congratulations! It is always a wonderful thing to see two people publicly declare their love for each other regardless of what gender they are. This world needs more love, not less.
- Riayn
awww Vince... your last sentence... *sniffles*
- Yolanda
I never thought of Gina about been gay (I am, and I really like Lifehacker). You know, just for that stupid thing that I have had to be used: she is a woman, and can be a freak geek tech superb blogger. Now she is more than that, she is a freak geek tech Diva (for me). Wish her (and spouse) all the best!
- Fran
Marriage is more complicated then UR right2use a public park. Marriage is designed4creating relationships 4human reproduction(which*IS*important).When U demand gay marriage UR asking 4the same benefits as people who need government assistance because they have no choice over their functions(in the same respect U can't help being gay) Children R expensive. Please take sympathy on straight people. I don't hate U! Obama doesn't support GAY MARRIAGE!
- Noah David Simon
Noah, if I understand your post correctly, you're repeating the canard that marriage is the purpose of reproduction. If you believe that, then my wife and I, who do not and never will have children, are not married. If you believe that, then you are invited to perform a marital act on yourself.
- Mitch Wagner
Can someone repeat what Tad said before he chickened out and deleted it? ;) Gina = Wonderful person. Hope to meet her IRL someday.
- Yuvi
Great happiness to you and your partner, Gina.
- Chris Baskind
I didn't delete my comment - I think the original poster thought I was being serious. It was just a sarcastic comment decrying the fact that these two loving people are obviously destroying the very fabric of our society with their happiness. Read this quickly in case Mitch removes it!
- Tad
Dear Mitch - Tad's cool. Despite the evil looking profile pic.
- Yuvi
I'm surprised though cause Mitch is cool and he oughta know I was teasing...
- Tad
I am deeply indebted to Gina for her words on her blog, so it's with that deep gratitude that I wish her a heartfelt congratulations! Let your happiness rock this country's puritanical masses to the core!
- Pete Delucchi
Lifehacker rocks because of Gina! I wish you 2 the absolute best in life and in love!
- Siddharth Deb
Mitch: Marriage *IS* about preparing an environment 4 children... absolutely. That does not mean the environment is ready or maybe it might even be sadly nearly impossible. But as long as it it theoretically possible then marriage should be recommended. People can love each other without marriage (right?), they should even have a right to laws that protect them in cases of death and...
more...
- Noah David Simon
I didn't delete Tad's message -- at least not on purpose. I know and like Tad -- well, I know him electronically, we're friends on several social networks at this point. Not sure why what he posted here is now gone.
- Mitch Wagner
Noah, sorry, but it isn' "nearly impossible" for my wife and I to have children -- it is *impossible.* Therefore, any definition of marriage which is based on childrearing excludes us and millions of other childless couples. I wish you the best as well -- and that wish includes your getting over your irrational prejudices against homosexuality and realizing that Gina and Terra's marriage in no way hurts heterosexual marriage.
- Mitch Wagner
you accuse me of being irrational, but it is U who have determined 2have a purely emotional reaction. Sarah is considered to be mother of Isaac according to scripture and yet she was barren. Science is not as certain as the tyranny coming from the Blue State fashion police. As for 2women it will not happen without maybe a "Virgin" birth, but in this case I would be willing 2bet that...
more...
- Noah David Simon
Noah, quoting Scripture is not evidence. You oppose gay marriage because the Bible tells you so? That's fine for you -- but why should those of us who are not Christian be required to follow the rules of your religion? And you have not either showed how gay marriage hurts people -- you simply repeated that it does, several times, and concluded with the assertion that God says so, that's why.
- Mitch Wagner
scripture is not the evidence. it is an example of an exception to the norm. it wouldn't matter if I quoted myth. science is as limited to truth as religion can be and you are very arrogant to think otherwise... the only consistency that I can see is these women will not under any condition be making children together. This is beyond science and religion. the good people who are open minded enough to understand multiple viewpoints on truth will also have enough of a heart to label two women exactly that
- Noah David Simon
you might be able to convince others that the cliff is not there, but the good people will pass legislation otherwise. (regardless of your personal viewpoint of origin and Dasein)
- Noah David Simon
That's so awesome. :) Gina is one of the most intelligent people working in our industry today... no doubt. She must be beside herself with joy.
- l0ckergn0me
my guess is if she is intelligent she will recognize a disruption in the conversation here, unfortunately Intelligence has nothing to do with moral fiber.
- Noah David Simon
Congrats Ladies!!!! :D
- Anna Haro
Wow...reading Noah is like watching a wild animal in it's natural habitat for the first time or perhaps the last remaining small pox virus samples at the CDC. I had read about them, heard about them but wow...seriously? That's what you believe Noah...
- Kamath (नमः)
it isn't a question of belief in conventional form Kamath... it is a question of what is best for a family. again the blue state libel is so lazy... try harder to rationalize your slants. Existential points will not put food in children's mouths. This is about tax dollars going to people who are confusing arrogance with love.
- Noah David Simon
It is bad enough that you are unethical and unloving, but to showboat it to your snobby friends as some kind counter cultural hip trophy is disgusting.
- Noah David Simon
Noah - you are basing this "norm" from biblical days. By the same grounds it seems you would be opposed to interracial marriage because that is against this norm. I truly hope you are not as ignorant as your posts make you seem - but I'm betting against it right now.
- Chris Ridenour
Noah: (1) I do not speak for all the people of the blue states here. This is just me talking (2) Do you actually know any gay people? Any long-standing homosexual couples? (3) I'm still waiting for evidence that gay marriage is harmful -- you claim to have presented evidence, but I've seen none from you.
- Mitch Wagner
I'm speaking from New York. It is a blue state (plenty of gay couples in my town of Poughkeepsie. Vassar college is here) and our insurance rates are through the roof. my life is here, but not having any ability to reach a common moral understanding has left our society broken. The sexual revolution has left us without a workable frame of reference. Lots of confusion
- Noah David Simon
family is the only kind of socialism that works... it works because it takes into account the different elements of the unit effectively. Each member providing a different role and expectation. the 70s and the sexual revolution abrupted this cohesion and we have yet to of found workable models for those who exist outside of the nuclear family. The best evidence is the insurance rates. NON NUCLEAR FAMILIES DO NOT WORK!
- Noah David Simon
Congrats :-) wish you the best!!
- Ronald
Noah, you're not citing evidence, you're just repeating yourself and paraphrasing your claims. I could say that all elephants are purple, and it wouldn't be true no matter how many times I repeated the claim. You claim to cite one piece of evidence -- that homosexuality drives up insurance rates. What evidence do you have to support that?
- Mitch Wagner
Also, your claim that non-nuclear families don't work is contradicted by the millions of people who've grown up to lead well-adjusted lives after being raised by single parents, or adult relatives. Why, one of them is running for President of the United States. You may not like Obama but you have to admit he's an extremely accomplished individual. His non-nuclear family worked.
- Mitch Wagner
your science Dr. Quack has no relevance when dealing with moral fiber. If you have just discovered that it is limiting then you begin to understand the kind if tyrannical oppression Blue State values have defined truth with. you have just put a hole in your own argument. If you can't see a parallel between so called "Red State" and "Blue State" insurance prices then you don't want to...
more...
- Noah David Simon
When Obama doesn't work for your snobbish tyranny, you will brush him off like you did with Bill Clinton and declare him just another man... but in the end it is *YOU* that have accepted a man who is a liar. As bad as Obama is, he is a better person then you and your ass kissing friends. He is just an animal to you; a pet. Bill Clinton (another man raised without dad) wasn't good...
more...
- Noah David Simon
Mitch - Noah is a baiting troll and most of us Blocked him quite a while ago. He doesn't actually converse - he just funks up the room.
- Tad
Dear Mitch - Please Block Noah and have peace.
- Yuvi
Noah - Do you keep a pack of paper towels by your computer monitor, or just wipe the angry spittle off your screen with your sleeve?
- Mitch Wagner
that is libel. I put a lot of energy into this thread and I expect better from you then name calling. I brought up a serious issue and the best response you can come up with is a personal attack. This is very ugly and snobbish. I don't hate. you are the haters.
- Noah David Simon
you can't prove very much when it is a sociological question, but it is very easy to prove that what we are doing here in the Blue States is not working by looking at economic conditions like Insurance rates. We can also look at the pure fact that children will not be fed based on the actions here and that people are being hurt by a disbanded boundary. In the same respect if a women's bathroom is ever deemed unconstitutional then it might hurt the fabric of women's lives
- Noah David Simon
Can we prove that men pooping in the same room as women, hurt the women? probably not. But we have seen higher test score from women in same sex schools. It is the arrogance of science to think it can prove such things, and it is how a generation of young men ended up on Prozac... because a bunch of elitists felt their studies were a truth when in fact their studies reflected exactly what they wanted to sell. bullshit. the emperor wore no clothes.
- Noah David Simon
How do we save journalism? Since newspapers' business model is just disappearing very quickly, and advertising money is moving away from TV too, how do we fund journalism that we all need? Living off of $1 CPMs isn't gonna be it (that won't fund serious journalism).
Gavin, Jay Neff, Cedric Chee and 68 other people liked this
Craig: I saw something yesterday that makes me think affiliate marketing is going to be a BIG deal in about four years. But will it be in time to save newspapers? We're going to lose quite a few in the next four years.
- Robert Scoble
There's two issues here: one is that the product of journalism is so easily distributed now, it makes the purchase of its artifacts (the physical paper) unnecessary and even unseemly.
- Jim Benson
Interesting. I don't think that funding of journalism ala carte like that will work that well. It might here and there, but the real problem is we don't know what kind of journalism we need until after we see it. Would anyone have done ala carte funding to break open Watergate, for instance? No. Not before the fact. Not very sexy for anyone. After the fact? Yes.
- Robert Scoble
The second is that advertising was never quantifiable and never worked very well even in a highly regimented economy. Now, with a more distributed economy, blanket advertising is totally ineffective. -- To solve this we need to solve both problems. (1) dealing with a diffused distribution model and (2) dealing with a diffused economy.
- Jim Benson
Jim: the second part (that advertising isn't quantifiable) is what is killing newspaper business models. If you're a business, where would you rather put your ad budget? The local newspaper or Google? I know where I would rather spend my money.
- Robert Scoble
Value used to be assigned to two things (1) the object and (2) bulk eyeballs. Repackaging the assumptions of media is key here. They are no longer making a broadcast or a paper (a single big sellable object), but, rather, a lot of diffused things which is monetized in different - but not entirely dissimilar ways. What's funny is ... for news ... context sensitive ads are not applicable. At a school shooting story you don't want adds for automatic weapons, for example.
- Jim Benson
Regarding ala carte: I'm going to do another week in Washington DC. It costs about $10,000 to take a video crew there and get media done for a week. If it weren't for a serious sponsor I'd never get to do that. But that's not even serious journalism. To really chew on a story like Watergate you need months of investigative and relationship-building work. Maybe even years. I doubt it could be done by an outsider. That means having millions to fund that kind of work. Ala carte just ain't gonna do that.
- Robert Scoble
Jim: good point, the packaging and distribution of news is totally changing. Local news is moving to sights like Topix, too.
- Robert Scoble
here's one idea via spot.us: "If the public has a freelance budget, reporters don’t have to wait for an editor to approve their story. Now they can seize the day and pitch the public." http://blog.spot.us/2008... for example, crowdfunding Scoble-like reporters/bloggers. something like a PBS for the blogosphere.
- ~C4Chaos
What's interesting to me is that I'm now in a VERY small town, & the TV broadcast doesn't cover what happens up here in this tiny hamlet. So I'm more dependent on the local rag then I ever was back in the Bay Area. Perhaps creating newspapers that that focus on smaller geographical areas or "types" of people (SAHM moms, environments advocates, etc.) - which is, of course, what bloggers have been able to do with microniching.
- Michelle MacPhearson
By thee way, it's interesting that FriendFeed is good for a topic that can be settled in about 20 back and forth messages, but isn't good for longer topics that need a longer effort. We could build an entire conference for a few days around this topic. It's important for our society to figure this out, yet putting all the pieces and all the thinking together on this is very difficult. Admob, for instance, has one tiny piece (really great ads for iPhone) that can play a part in saving journalism.
- Robert Scoble
Unfortunately people are getting too used to free everything and seem to be surprised when people need to put food on the table. My wife is a magazine editor so I know first hand how the magazine industry is basically going downhill fast. People are getting laid off daily and taking pay cuts. I would have to say that the current magazine business model will be done soon after newspapers. Not even by virtue of sales and subs but by the reallocation and sheer lack of advertising dollars in this economy.
- Scott Lockhart
C4Chaos: let's be honest, though, a crowd-sourced journalism is going to give us all the news we already get. Celebrities and sports. Who will fund some geek to do investigative journalism that sounds really boring? I just don't believe in the masses. I think we need a better idea for how to fund this stuff. And, there's a lot working against you. The people with audiences are too busy to tear themselves away from what they are doing.
- Robert Scoble
I still think the key word is Quality. If institutionalized journalist will be able to bring good quality stories the people will buy their paper. In areas like army and politics the veteran publicist have the advantage since having better sources to deliver the stories, in other spaces like tech there's an advantage for internet journalists. Conducting profound inquiries that lead to...
more...
- Nir Ben Yona
Nir: I'm never buying a newspaper again, no matter how good the journalism is inside. Neither is my son. So, bad assumption there. Second of all, the $.50 you pay for the newspaper does NOT pay for the content inside. The advertising does. So, if the advertising disappears the great journalism disappears too (which is happening VERY rapidly in the Bay Area as the newspapers have laid off hundreds of journalists recently).
- Robert Scoble
I might be coming across as a Kevin Kelly fanboi today but here http://bit.ly/3aAu3e he suggests that people like to pay because it is; "1) A way of connecting. 2) A sign of approval. 3) A vote. 4) It indicates an alligence with the maker. 5) It feels good to the payer, to support." Hopefully this model might work for journalism, music, and other forms of digital art and expression
- jeremy ettinghausen
Nir: I can tell you with a very straight face that good journalism does NOT get readers. What does get readers? Comedy, celebrity, and sports and small, bite-sized news nuggets.
- Robert Scoble
Nir: also, we live in a Google World: a world of niches. Some niches pay better than others. Great journalism about digital cameras or cars pays MUCH better than good journalism about world peace, for instance. Why? Because Google's advertising system is biased toward transactional audiences and rewards the creation of content that feeds those audiences.
- Robert Scoble
Nir: I would have to disagree with you and agree with Robert - it's ALL about the advertising. That's why magazines give away subscriptions at ridiculous prices compared to their newsstand cost - guaranteed eyeballs to sell ads against. Even if readers were still reading newspapers and magazines at the same rate as they did in the 80s, if the advertising $ today were being diverted to more directed internet campaigns (Google, etc) the industry would still be in decline.
- Scott Lockhart
good point on crowdfunding, Robert. but i was thinking more of a PBS model. (also been reading stuff on this topic on http://www.pbs.org/idealab/). the PBS model had been successful for a long time now so its a good place to start. isn't that similar to crowdfunding but without the crowd necessarily dictating what stories to cover? speaking of media and journalism, maybe we can get Danny Schechter (aka "News Dissector" who produced Weapons of Mass Deception) pitch his two cents on this topic.
- ~C4Chaos
Seems to me there are two problems at work: producing paper is quite costly on the expense side (big fixed costs, typically union labor, etc.). And on the revenue-generating side, there seems to be not enough of what folks want to read (not enough local, overreliance on AP wire, etc.). I'd argue that papers' reporting isn't local enough/specialized enough to have value. With the right local/specialized content -- some professionally reported, some user-generated -- why wouldn't PPC work for the papers?
- Eric Johnson
Oddly I was just thinking about this subject. Unfortunately I came up with very little. One possibility is to create an Xprize type mechanisms so people are richly rewarded for the often unrewarding work of journalism. The key isn't newspapers per say, but supporting the idealism of those who take on the sacred work of providing societies' mirror of truth. This is a distributed people's journalism rather than one organized around artificial organizations like a paper.
- Todd Hoff
The PBS model will not work on the web. Why? Because the web decentralizes and disaggregates things. PBS worked because of the bundling of things together. Yanni raises more money for them than Nova does. But on Web bundling Yanni with Nova makes no sense.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: I'm the founder of Spot.Us (mentioned above). I agree that Water Gate wouldn't have been pre-funded, but reporting like this http://wiki.spot.us/election could merit pledges. Right now spot.us is in a VERY early stage (pre-alpha really) - but I do think it's a potentially new revenue stream. Not a silver bullet (I don't think there are any silver bullets), but it can't hurt to try ;) No matter what: I want to thank you for bringing the topic up - it's incredibly important.
- David Cohn
To continue the idea of support create a legal fund to help fight the battles. Lobbying groups to help fight the muzzle. Organize like a church or non-profit so people could contribute to a support network for journalists. Driving journalism solely through profits may not make sense. Journalism a higher social good packaged like spam. Maybe it should be organized more like other higher callings we appreciate?
- Todd Hoff
Private and public funding seems like a more likely avenue to save journalism. Paper press though is all but dead.
- Todd Jordan
I'll go along with Robert, where does an advertiser put his funds? Naturally they want to market to people in their market and not just splash an ad out for people who are not in their market to see To survive the newspaper industry will have to start going further into targeting their ads to a market instead of the the shotgun effect.
- Scot Duke
I know nothing about journalism, I'm just a professional code monkey. But I have a crazy idea - what about something like similar to kiva.org to fund journalism?
- imabonehead
Gregory: I think you would be surprised at how much news that is spread on the web was first broken by paid journalists, even today. I think the real issue is that the method of information delivery is secondary. It is more about having a free and independent "press" (or wordpress) that holds us all accountable and can provide its contributors a living. So losing newsprint itself is not a loss, but losing the 1000s of reporters and writers that are able to do what they do because of it, is...
- Scott Lockhart
@imabonehead Kiva.org is a BIG inspiration for my project: spot.us - in fact, I often just explain it to people as Kiva.org or Donors Choose for journalism.
- David Cohn
David, cool. Didn't see the url mentioned earlier by other posters. It's still an early Saturday for me. :)
- imabonehead
Robert & Scott: I totally understand your point and i do agree when it comes to day-by-day journalism. After all, it is a lose-lose situation for the institutionalized papers, they can't fight the speed and accessibility of internet news and info, especially for busy people like us who have no time for long articles reading while working. On the other hand i do find niche journals like Science Magazine or Nature for example, able to maintain worldwide readers with quality publication and pro debriefing.
- Nir Ben Yona
Nir: I would have to say that I be surprised if they are doing well... Magazines and newspapers are fairly different, yet similar in a lot of ways too. The magazine format with its combination of design and short and long form journalism is a little harder to replicate online and hasn't been done all that well to this point. If you want to see what is happening at least in magazines, even with very niche titles: check out http://magazinedeadpool.com/ There's a whole blog devoted to publications going under
- Scott Lockhart
<continue> with experts sharing their thoughts and researches. That is a quality journalism that attracts readers. Robert, i'm sure your 14 years son won't mind getting a monthly pro car magazine or a "PC Mag" alike version if he's into tech or gadgets. My point is that there is a place for quality and somehow (maybe naively) i'd like to think some people do go after interesting stories and not just "Celeb Gossip". Maybe it is the same as after the bubble burst, sort of a cleaning occurrence...
- Nir Ben Yona
in an ideal world there would be a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for journalism where journalists could practice their craft free (or almost free) of corruption. a combination of philanthropy/non-profit/donation and subscription model as opposed to journalism run as a for-profit business would save journalism standards. for example, The Nation (see http://www.thenation.com/) is running on a combination of subscriptions, advertising, and donations.
- ~C4Chaos
<continue> to let the good prevail. In my vision, in 10 years, the big newspapers will have a weekly internet edition threw their website and a weekend edition with more investigative stories.
- Nir Ben Yona
This year in magazines these are the losses in advertising revenues for some very established US magazines. What were are seeing here is just destroying their already small profit margins: Entertainment Weekly (-16.8%), Kiplingers Personal Finance (-15.3%), US News & World Report (-30.3%), Home (-30.9%), and Scientific American (-20.3%) Lucky (-12.2%), The New Yorker (-20.1%), and ESPN The Magazine (-14.8%)
- Scott Lockhart
sorry for possibly over-commenting this thread, but it is a subject close to my heart and my shared back account. :) Cheers!
- Scott Lockhart
Nir: you're wrong. My son thinks magazines are pretty worthless. He reads MacRumors and Engadget, both of which bring him much better and more timely news than any magazine can (and more of it, too). FastCompany is actually doing very well compared to the magazine industry, which is interesting (it grew last year). But the category it is in lost several competitors, so overall the trend is right and probably will catch up with FastCompany at some point which is why we're investing online more and more.
- Robert Scoble
Scott: but maybe it is part of the global recession that has dropped margins everywhere, not just in journalism.
- Nir Ben Yona
I'm interested in saving journalism, but the question posed here seems to be about funding. Guess it's a chicken-and-egg thing. Seems like the distance between the reader and the writer has knocked a lot of the middle folks out of the picture, and it's harder to justify the kind of money they're asking for. When it comes to value in journalism, however, I still prefer hard facts over style, design, even spelling and sometimes grammar (and I'm a picky art director). Trust costs more than packaging?
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
Here's the process: 1. End of newspaper advertising ends artificial subsidy funding of "quality" journalism; 2. Supply & demand takes effect; 3. We start to get our first picture of what value people will put on different types of information.
- Dan Conover
We'll know an awful lot more about the future shape of journalism about a year or so after the 20th century metro newspaper system collapses/goes on life support (I'm guessing by summer of 2009, but that's a guess). But the one thing I'm pretty sure about is this: There won't be one way of funding journalism, and we won't lump everything that gets reported under that one heading anymore.The fundamental idea: There should be a logical connection between the info you produce & its supporting revenue streams.
- Dan Conover
Robert: i guess i'm a dope concerning nowadays kiddies. As for FastCompany, i do hope you will keep delivering the good stuff as long as possible. BTW, do you agree with my conjecture of a daily internet edition and weekly hard-copy version, coming up in few years?
- Nir Ben Yona
I think you will get a mixture of rich corporations and individuals trying to fill the gap, like Google. But pushed out from the security of the newsroom, there will also be a flurry of entrepreneurship among the journalists who are displaced. Don't assume that subscription won't work in the future, either. It may well be that newspapers have actually been obscuring the need and opportunity for a higher quality journalism. I believe The Economist has achieved impressive growth against the secular trend.
- Tim Penn
journalism doesn't necessarily imply newspapers, does it?
- Adri Munier
No, but about 90% of what "A-List" blogs do is NOT journalism. I'm no authority, but I'm beginning to see why people say there is a difference. "Editorial Discretion" Oh, @Tim, you're absolutely right. Online and print content can thrive in a subscription model if there is value. The mistake newspapers made was giving it away in the first place.
- Andrew Feinberg
And the general newspaper model makes zero sense now. A daily packaged product can work for niche content, but who reads the entire newspaper? I use the big paper websites for different reasons (local, national, international, etc). Political news? Niche publications. I buy (or sometimes expense) Roll Call, CQ and CongressDaily. People in the Cable/Internet/Telecoms buy CommDaily and WID. There are tons of other niche trade pubs that are thriving. It's the blob of daily newspapers that needs to be split up
- Andrew Feinberg
It's important to realize that journalism is a process, not a product. Newspapers might not survive but the craft of Journalism will. The question is... how? There are no concrete answers right now - but I do think that practicing journalists are earnestly trying to figure that out (for the first time). @Robert - I don't think Ala cart funding for journalism will lead to Brittany Spears stories. There are ways around that - I'll try and write a blog post at blog.spot.us with more details.
- David Cohn
Since there is no known answer to this question, the most important thing to do right now is launch as many possible experiments in as many possible directions, increasing the likelihood that we will find good answers a little faster. But it's vital to understand that this is essentially *research* -- practical research, but research nonetheless. And in research, the dead ends are...
more...
- Scott Rosenberg
This is currently an unsolved problem, a hard concept for some to grasp. Every possible answer--rich people! foundations! internet advertising! crowdfunding!--has some pretty glaring defects. No one has the solution yet. Right now the most promising developments are Talking Points Memo (http://is.gd/1cVX), funded by ads and reader support and doing investigative journalism of the kind we want; Pro Publica, funded by rich people (http://is.gd/uLu) and spot.us, which is crowd funding.
- Jay Rosen
Jay lists 3 good funding sources. Also consider: Nonprofit corporation (supported by pledge drives, sponsorships, foundations, etc.); true-cost intelligence subscriptions (as with STRATFOR) and smart amalgams of keyword/display/classifieds/and various affiliate-type programs. And where I think it gets REALLY interesting is when you start creating information tools that have specific value to the end user. You add value, you take profit.
- Dan Conover
The trick? In Web journalism, you're paying for people costs. You're not paying for trucks and paper and ink and presses. So when people say "The Web can't pay for journalism" what they're REALLY saying is "The Web can't support newspapers and TV stations."
- Dan Conover
The thing I'm really looking forward to putting my energy into is developing some kind of smart, shared business infrastructure that would connect individuals who make content to all the reliable services that a new-media businesses will need to make money. You might be able to make some money writing useful articles and selling your own ads and doing your own site, but that's not a bright long-term prognosis. And yes, I'm a newspaper guy who signed up for a buyout last week.
- Dan Conover
Won't journalism always win Pulitzers? Which brings a sort of global cache and prestige... which is what newspapers hope to gain, such that the world will pay attention, right? That's at the highest level. There can always be prestige and prize for journalism at all levels... even if it has to come from new sources.
- Christopher Galtenberg
it's so easy... just do as in Italy, where crap newspapers (most all of them) are financed by the government!
- Luigi Centenaro
Newspapers are thriving in the ethnic market, primarily at the local level. The reason for the success is that their readership is starving for intl/local ethnic information. Weeklies are the way; most papers are run by journalists from their respective countries-it is extremely streamlined. Journalists need to take the initiative with sales professionals and open up local, weekly newspapers that serve specific niches/markets/topics. Also, home delivery is a must, as is a strong grass-roots component.
- Harold Cabezas
Robert, I think you could ask a different question here, too. Was there a journalistic failure running through the housing bubble and its aftermath? In his new book, Robert Shiller suggests there was, but he made the arguments clearly before about the tech bubble. Given the scale of importance of this story, if we ask what might journalism have done differently, the answer might also suggest useful commercial or funding structures.
- Tim Penn
Altrustic funding isn't the answer. Newspapers will have to stand on their own merits just like any capitalist enterprise. I'd like to more Nritish style
- Hutch Carpenter
British style that is. More point of view included in the reporting. You win on your point of view.
- Hutch Carpenter
Journalism needs a couple of things (1) a lower distribution cost structure and a lower news acquisition cost structure. If you look at online news folks (like Scoble, others) they've found an effective way to lower the distribution costs of their journalism. To lower news acquisition cost you need to look for alternatives to collecting news, whether it's UGC or leveraging a freelance network like Beet.tv is doing with TurnHere (disclosure - I work for TurnHere).
- Morgan
<continued morgan> (2) the big media companies need to move quickly into diversified news outlets (as has been mentioned above) reducing the number of pages in newspapers, moving from trying to bash the mass over the head and instead move towards aggregating the long-tail of news consumers to roll up in to a critical mass not through one communication vehicle (i.e. a paper) but through many diverse channels. Finally they need to go for more sponsorship money and less ad money as we've seen in other biz.
- Morgan
whatever it is can't be based on lame-O advertising cuz i NEVER click those.
- Susan Beebe
I haven't commented on this yet because I really don't have anything substantial to contribute yet. But it's had me thinking for 24 hours. I guess that's not a bad thing.
- Chris Baskind
One of the things implied in all this (at least for me) is the idea of completely self-selected news. It's an exciting development to be able to do that, but what are we missing? Scoble hits it on the head when he says Watergate reporting wouldn't get done under this model. If we're going away from news bundlers like newspapers, can we find a new business model to finance serious journalism? And what does a society without serious journalism look like?
- Tom Landini
I don't like that I can't tell when these comments occurred. I have no idea if I should bother to comment. Has the conversation moved on or do people come back and talk more?? And what's with not being able to use paragraphs? Lots of text is a pain to read.
- Dawn
Lots of interesting thoughts here. I have to say that this very subject is on my mind daily as I personally aggregate Hispanic news and have done so for 3 years to the tune of 40k+ posts. Just one niche among many but I worry about the loss of journalists especially since at least within the Hispanic community it is perceived that there aren't enough journalists covering issues...
more...
- Tomas
Dawn: yeah, time stamps on comments would be very cool. Generally I find a conversation on FriendFeed can go on for about a day. Same with this one. it's pretty much died out, even though a few interesting comments have trickled in today.
- Robert Scoble
Then FF will never go mainstream. "Non-passionates" don't want to have to be plugged in 24/7 in order to be able to participate. Thanks for the clarification.
- Dawn
I'm actually doing a three-post series on how the internet has changed the economics behind the publishing business this week on Eat Sleep Publish. I'm also doing an event (a mini mini version of what Robert suggested above) in Seattle this Septermber to get smart ppl together to round-table about what the business model is. Robert - you going to be in town?
- Jason Preston
All I can say is - I hope newspapers will not go away - since I enjoy the print medium and the ability to carry my paper without having to plug it in every time. One of the reasons why i pay for my Economist is the convenience of having it, rolling it up and enjoying it without having to wait for XP or MaxOS to boot and show it. And even with always-on OSes (like Palm and iPhone), still enjoy the feel of paper.
- Sanford
Further to my comment about Robert Shiller and the role of the press in positive and negative feedback loops, a full review of the book is here http://bit.ly/1IFiZb, with further links out.
- Tim Penn
Question: WHY do we want to save journalism in the first place? Why not let it die its own death like fax machines and pagers.
- Mukund
In the UK we have something that will buck the trend: the BBC. It's funded by a "licence fee', which you have to own BY LAW to have a television in your house. I.e. If you don't have a licence, you're busted. Sure, the BBC has to justify the fee annually, but the UK population seems, on the whole, happy with what it gets: unique, high quality local and national TV, Radio and web uninterrupted by advertisers. A place where in depth "Because it's important" type journalism may still be able to flourish?
- Tom Beardshaw
First, get the facts on ad revenue for newspapers. Yes, ad revenue is shrinking for papers and they have had to shed bureaus and reporters. But they still get more money for their paper ads than their online ads. And they aren't standing still, they are evolving as well, the pressure of all the blogs and podcasters has forced all the major news sites to completely transform with all kinds of user-friendly features. And you still find the Murdochs of the world buying papers. This story is far from over yet.
- Prokofy Neva
I cover Bakersfield City Hall. It is not big and glamorous enough for these national-oriented projects like ProPublica. Yet I doubt I could be funded by donations because the crowd who would donate is similar to the crowd that runs for office -- politically slanted. I could get funding from one of the conservative camps by being sympathetic to them. But how does that serve the community?
- James Geluso
The REAL problem is there really isn't much "legitmate" journalism out there anymore anyway. As a former reporter, what newgatherers are putting out there for average citizens day in and day out is absolutely pathetic and, many times, inaccurate. With reporters having to do more with less, the problem continues to grow. Advertisers should "buy" with more caution than ever...or not at all!!!
- Jennifer Windrum
Newspapers as we know them are doomed because they're no longer a sustainable product in the era of the internet. The question is why should the whole industry (journalism/publishing) die because of the medium (paper). They must figure out a way to become profitable through the new medium (the internet). I think The Wall Street Journal has the right formula. Not so much the The New York Times.
- moncef b
Mark Cuban was onto something with sharesleuth: http://sharesleuth.com/about.... The company funds good investigative journalism by trading on the information in the financial markets first, publishing second. Barring that, I believe it may be time for public journalism as ~C4Chaos argues. If people really want good journalism, they should be willing to pay for it.
- David Pennock
Other ways to read this feed:
