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New Media News Every Morning

Are New Media Workers Multi-Taskers?

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When was the last time you were doing multiple things at the same time? A Washington Post article talks about how teens multitask with homework, video, phone calls, and Internet chatting. But I quickly realized that I pretty much to do it every day. It’s a necessity for working in New Media. You’re browsing in one window, with a blog editor in a split pane, and running 1-4, maybe more, chat windows with different collaborators or clients. You might even be talking with someone via Skype or SightSpeed.

This sort of multi-tasking activity becomes second nature for new media workers, and if you have a large enough screen, you can actually do it productively. Teens who multi-task their homework and interact online say they feel more productive. But experts are not so sure that this is a good thing for younger people:

There is special concern for teenagers because parts of their brain are still developing, said Jordan Grafman, chief of cognitive neuroscience at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Despite that, young students feel better because they can get the answer to a homework problem by firing up a chat session and asking a friend, or a friend of a friend. Since this sort of multitasking seems to be widespread, if there are any problems it’s not known how detrimental it’ll be. But if proves not to be a problem, I think we’ll have a generation of youth fully ready to handle the role of professional bloggers.

Originally posted on February 28, 2007 @ 4:21 pm

Digg The Next President? – Reprise

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Blogger Andy Ostroy has a piece in yesterday’s ABCNews site’s politics section entitled Al Gore will not only run, but he can and will win. Now, given how far ahead Senator Barack Obama is in terms of stories submitted to Digg, the social networking engine, and its new US Elections 2008 section, this should prove very interesting to watch and see whether Ostroy is right.

If he is, can we conclude that winning an Oscar for the film Inconvenient Truth and then winning the Presidency means that old media is more powerful than new media, particularly the blogosphere? I’m not sure that’d be a fair assessment, but it’s still true that more people in the United States watch TV than use the Internet for any great length of time.

However, research from late last year shows that kids in the late pre-teens and early teens are ignoring TV for the Internet. Maybe, when they’re old enough to vote, the key to gaining the Presidency will rely on a proper new media campaign. For 2008, however, that may not be true, no matter how popular Digg’s Elections 2008 section becomes. Which might mean that Ostroy will be right, that Americans will vote in a President who has proven his/her ability to get things done.

Originally posted on February 28, 2007 @ 6:44 pm

New Media Wire – Mon Feb 26, 2007

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Pileup On Perez

Red Herring wrote on Friday that the paparazzi are piling up on celebrity blogger Perez Hilton (Mario Lavandeira), who is already being sued by Universal City Studios for posting a topless picture of Jennifer Aniston. A group of photo agencies are planning to sue Perez for using their photos without permission. Now if these groups went after every blogger using their photos without permission, the courts would be tied up forever.

Blogging To Be Replaced With Vlogging?

IPTV, or Internet Protocol TV, is the next big thing. Or could be, if it didn’t take up so much bloody bandwidth. Though if you’re wondering, very few people know what “IPTV” is and most searches are for “Internet TV”. This graph at Google Trends shows that the latter term has more popularity over IPTV, Joost, or Babelgum.

Unlike VoIP, I somehow think IPTV will have more users in a shorter time frame. What I’m wondering is, if and when it’s feasible to watch Joost, Babelgum or similar IPTV clients on your computer, will anyone read or write blogs anymore? Will we get a million channels of vlogs and other user-generated video content?

Online News Reportage

Of course, if you’re a “real” journalist wondering how to make money breaking news online, Online Journalism Review (OJR) has their second annual online journalism conference on March 30, 2007. While you’re at OJR, check out their how-to guides, including shooting video and earning revenue.

If you’ve already been blogging for a while, you probably already know most of what they say, but the revenue picture is put into very simple terms. To wit, the example they give about how much traffic you need if you want to earn $36,500/yr. That’s $100/day, and if your site is earning an average CPM (Cost per Mille, M=1000 pageviews), then you need at least 10,000 pageviews per day, on average, in each 24 hour period.

Originally posted on February 26, 2007 @ 2:45 pm

TV Shows About Blogging?

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Fox News Channel is debuting a new TV show on Sunday Feb 25th about blogging called It’s Out There. Actually, it’s not so much about blogging as about hot blogs and social spaces.

Now how mainstream does blogging have to be before this sort of thing happens? I guess we’re there now. One of the hosts is conservative politblogger Michelle Malkin, who has her own loyal following. The other host is Kirsten Powers, formerly a part of the Clinton administration.

Well, at least there’s some balance in the choice of hosts. It should make for some interesting viewing. Or maybe not. Who does Fox think will watch this show, beyond Malkin’s fans? They’re trying to capture the Sunday night audience with this show, preceded by a fake news show that has a sound track, of all things.

What’s even stranger is that the first episode is about Senator John Edward’s virtual campaign HQ. It would have been far more interesting to see how Senator Barack Obama’s campaign crew is using new media such as their Brightcove Internet TV channel, a social network (my.BarackObama), and blogs from network members. Other presidential candidates could learn something from such a TV episode about the current Websident.

While it’s a bold step, embracing new media into the bosom of old media, I’m not sure I’d care to see a TV show hosted by two non-TV personalities with no experience. Especially when there are great shows already running on Sunday nights. What do you think? Will you watch?

sources: National Review, Variety, Media Bistro.

Originally posted on February 23, 2007 @ 7:46 pm

Looking back at 10 Years of Blogging

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In 1997 I was still in school. I didn’t know what a blog was. Dave Winer and Doc Searls were blogging. I made my entrance into blogging a few years later. It’s very much at the center of my life. Strangely enough 10 years ago I could build a desk and I didn’t know much about blogs. Today I can’t put together a simple desk.

Many people didn’t think blogging would make it this long. I’m sure as heck glad it did. Here’s to another 10 years of blogging. I will be 37 by then and hopefully will have made as many mistakes as I did these last 10 years.

Originally posted on February 26, 2007 @ 3:21 am