The essay co-authored by Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle, two of the Internet's terrific thinkers, is some of the richest writing on the evolution of digital media you'll read.
Better that their words occupy the screen, but in summary, they discuss the emergence of the digital power of the collective mind, with cooperating systems, implied metadata, sensor-based information, the generation of mapping from unstructured data, and real-time information guiding businesses.
It's an eloquent look at the last five years and the possibilities of the time ahead.
A new Nielsen report suggests the belief teens are eschewing conventional for social media is somewhat mythical. They're still glued to the TV, reading (gasp) printed media, and playing in the new sphere but not living in it. Details are emerging on the Journalism Online initiative co-founded by Steven Brill, designed to help newspapers monetize their online content. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer predicts that within 10 years all content will be digital. In the shorter-term, he suggests the recessionary impact will be permanent on advertising in media. The testy relationship between the newspaper industry and the world's largest search engine has been ratcheted another notch. The publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Les Hinton, says Google is "sucking the blood" out of the newspaper business and promises technology to address it. Flowing Data, the impressive site on information and its availability, has gathered 20 visualizations of crime. Alan Mutter, in Reflections of a Newsosaur, questions the viability of grassroots journalism. He suggests that it isn't sustainable economically so won't develop professionally in a form that reliably serves society. New data from Nielsen Online suggests the time spent on newspaper Web sites declined at 17 of the top 30 U.S. outlets in May. The typical user spends seven minutes a month on such sites. The University of British Columbia's graduate school of journalism has produced a story for the PBS program, Frontline, on electronic waste. The Earl Blog is the creation of Earl Wilkinson, the respected executive director of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA), and it ought to be a substantial addition to the blogosphere. |