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Kevin: Consumer electronics and television is starting to look a like the computer-driven home media centres that have been around for a few years. Roku and XBMC port Boxee are going head-to-head, but we're also starting to see connected televisions with their own applications. The battle for the living room is going to get interesting.
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Kevin: A Knight News Challenge 2010 proposal to develop business services and a collaborative newsroom for hyperlocal news sites in Philadelphia. Some very interesting ideas here.
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Kevin: I have to say that I'm still struggling with Wave. I find the interface inscrutable, and apart from group working on a project or story, I'm still looking for useful applications that are better than what I have now.
However, Leah Betancourt at Mashable looks at ways that news organisations are already using Wave, including a virtual 'town hall' or 'town square' by the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman and as a content planning tool. I can see how the latter works. As I said, I can see how it might be good for collaboration, especially with either staff outside the newsroom. -
Kevin: Kara Swisher at All Things D (a Wall Street Journal Joint) is throwing cold water that Microsoft might pay publishers for content exclusive to Bing. "While it might be a dream of publishers–hard hit by the digital tsunami and blaming Google for the crisis–Microsoft is not likely to fork over the big bucks they’d need for exclusive indexing of their content." She quotes a source saying: "…it's not going to be bank for publishers".
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Kevin: A thorough rundown of changes coming up at Facebook. This is especially useful for developers creating applications for Facebook and any publisher who is using Facebook to help promote their content and engage with their audiences.
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Kevin: Pete Cashmore says that Rupert Murdoch is scoring an own goal on his attacks on Google. "News Corp is merrily making itself irrelevant to web consumers, while continuing to use Google as its punch bag rather than addressing the radical transition of media into the online world."
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Kevin: This is an introduction for a video interview with Michael Rosenblum about local television news in the US. "Michael Rosenblum believes local television news as we've known it for decades is dead. News directors, station managers and broadcast group owners "just don't know it yet."
Rosenblum believes the only way to make the video storytelling model work–profitably–is to cut costs far closer to the bone than any old media company's going to be willing or able to do."
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Kevin: Fascinating post by Steve Buttry and interesting comments about the need for 'mobile-first' news strategies. Steve writes: "News organizations are belatedly, reluctantly and often awkwardly pursuing “web-first” strategies. As we fight these web battles, I am increasingly coming to believe that “web first” is what the military would call fighting the last war. News organizations need a mobile-first strategy."
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Kevin: Ben Metcalfe (a friend of ours) has launched a new venture called Plato's Forms. Ben lays out the problem: "Well, the problem space we are addressing is the perpetuation of of miss-information and inaccurate information within the online news environment. " This is coming from a PR/product perspective rather than a news and information perspective.
I think about this from a slightly different perspective. It's pretty easy for inaccurate information to perpetuate through the news system (there is increasingly less distance between online and print). We often quote other sources (according to the AP, BBC, Reuters.) At any rate, interesting project with concepts that have other application.
links for 2009-11-24
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