Moms Rising

I know at your age Halloween is more about State Street than candy, but as a mom, I found this an excellent use of social media.

Is the online model turning around?

Looks like what's bad for Wall Street was good for online news traffic.

Links from Student for Online

Hey Katy,

Here is a great post about newspapers and blogs with plenty of great links to check out and some good comments from the former director of photography of men's journal

http://aphotoeditor.com/2008/03/31/newspapers-and-bloggers/.

And another one called Why Print Will Never Die- (from a photography perspective)

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/magazines/why_print_mags_wont_die_80956.asp#more

Is this Juicy?

I have to hear your opinions on this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/fashion/16juicy.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=fashion&adxnnlx=1206806357-vMRPG2FS2XSd3RHzhng60w
It's a story on the Juicy Campus Web site, of which we are, thankfully, not currently a part. I visited after reading this piece and was astounded.
Where does this fit in the sphere of information? Is it ethical to allow anonymous posts? What are the social implications? What recourse do people have when they are the focus of posts?

Keeping track of consumers online

Look at this story on how online behavior is monitored.
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A new analysis of online consumer data shows that large Web companies are learning more about people than ever from what they search for and do on the Internet, gathering clues about the tastes and preferences of a typical user several hundred times a month.

These companies use that information to predict what content and advertisements people most likely want to see. They can charge steep prices for carefully tailored ads because of their high response rates.

The analysis, conducted for The New York Times by the research firm comScore, provides what advertising executives say is the first broad estimate of the amount of consumer data that is transmitted to Internet companies.
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What are the ethics of this kind of monitoring? Government needs special clearance to peep on citizens (though this is far more arguable after the Patriot Act). Does it matter that it's industry watching your activities, not government? And if so, how? Does it matter that you leave a trail when you use, say, gmail?

Packer Oops

This is an object lesson what can happen when you prepare your strat comm (or even journalism) in advance and test it on the Web.
The Green Bay Packers posted for a time on Thursday a story announcing Brett Favre's retirement. They say it was an error, but that may not satisfy fans or the blogosphere. Local news provided a bit more on the story.

Online Power and Giving

Woah, check out this blog. It's a 9-year-old who is climbing summits to raise money for his school. I remember collecting coins for charity in a rinsed-clean milk carton when I was a kid. What does the Web do for kids who support causes?

Race and crime

When I ask you what distinguishes online journalism, some of you answer a key is the space to do more than you could in another medium. This is an amazing and heart-rending illustration of that. I'd love to see them go beyond the blog now, to put some depth to the breadth, particularly by using audio or video to give voice to families that have so often been invisible. I think it's also interesting how on-scene reporting can deepen the kind of data you'd find in everyblock and how race played in different ways for the audience.

Cool Innovation

A few years ago, I happened to stumble across a site called chicagocrime.org that brought together mapping and data on crimes in Chicago. I found it downright thrilling as a former crime reporter because it gave people access to information both broad-based and hyper-local. I had always felt constrained by paper, ink and time, never able to tell my community all of what was going on and where. This site struck me as a fascinating extension of journalism.
So I was beyond bummed when it went offline last week ...
... But thrilled that its creator, Adrian Holovaty, launched a new project that takes the original model many steps forward. Dubbed "EveryBlock," the project gives users access to data well beyond crime. Want to know if a restaurant in your neighborhood has been inspected? It's there. News stories covering your block? Got that too. Even Flickr photos.
Go in and surf around in it. They're EveryBlocking now in Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
Then tell me what you think. Is it a site you'd use in your own city? What's your opinion of the interface? What other kinds of information would you use?

Washington Post On Being

Yesterday a 202er asked me what I think is the "best of the Web." Hands down, the thing that captures that for me is a Washington Post online series called "On Being." It's just a person or pair answering questions directly to the camera that's deftly edited into a brief package. A new one goes up every Wednesday, and I have yet to not be blown away. Check it out today and every Wednesday.
In general, the Post blows me away online. Their "Being a Black Man" is definitely worth a look.
Locally, the State Journal has been behind but just got an award nomination for their Hip Hop 101 package.