Kevin: Some really smart analysis and links to more really smart analysis about the Wikileaks Afghan War Logs release by CW Anderson: "To understand the world of Wikileaks, and what it means for journalism, you have to understand the world of geeks, of hackers, and of techno-dissidents. Understanding reporting and reporters isn’t enough." I couldn't agree more, and it shows why understanding this world is important to a broader range of stories. This culture is becoming much more widespread and mainstream, and it has a different ethos to traditional culture. Furthermore, Anderson says: "We’re seeing here the full-throated emergence of what a lot of smart people have been talking about for years now: data-driven journalism, but data in the service of somehow getting to the “big picture” about what’s really going on in the world." Good piece of analysis.

Kevin: Releases of sensitive material such as the Afghan War Logs could become much easier and more distributed if Wikileaks carries through on its plan to create a widget that would allow people to upload a disclosure to news and other sites. As Dan Nystedt at Computer World says: "The upload system will give potential whistleblowers around the world the ability to leak sensitive documents to an organization or journalist they trust over a secure connection, while giving the receiver legal protection they might not otherwise enjoy."

Kevin: Major UK local newspaper publisher Northcliffe fails to see a return to growth in 2010 and says that "it lacks visibility" (has no idea) when the division will fully recover. I wonder if this is just due to softness in the British economy outside of London and the southeast or whether this is down to a continuing decline in the sector.

Kevin: A good question and answer piece with Jonathan Zittrain, (a friend and) a law and computer science professor at Harvard and one of the founders of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, about the Wikieaks Afghan War Logs release. My key take-away: "I see WikiLeaks as just a new intermediary, not something that gets rid of intermediaries. So the function it’s serving if any is not something alone that should strike fear into traditional newspaper editors.

The people at WikiLeaks have learned that if they want to get a message out, they should hand it to the mainstream media under embargo."

Kevin: Richard McManus considers the decline of startpages such as NetVibes, PageFlakes and iGoogle. "Startpages have undoubtedly faded in recent years, despite my positive outlook for them 4 years ago (although I also correctly predicted that the enterprise market would provide revenue opportunities). The main reason for the decline of startpages in the consumer market is Facebook."

Kevin: A look at various curation platforms that newspapers are using including OneSpot, Daylife, Publish2 and Loud3r. It's an interesting look at how technology is being used by newspapers to sift through large amounts of content.

Kevin: Lawrence Meyer at the Nieman Watchdog blog says that the internet has put a premium on speed. Some of it is fair comment, but I'd argue that the 24-hour news cycle brought about by cable television started this trend long before the internet was a force in journalism. It's a thought provoking piece though. I just might quibble with the causality.

Kevin: The post looks at five tools that allow you to send audio via Twitter. They focus mostly on desktop applications but also include AudioBoo, which has a mobile application (on Apple and Android) as well.

Kevin: Romenesko highlights a quote from Adrian Holovaty from a recent Time story on hyperlocal news organisations in the US. "As much as I love a compelling story, I think good journalism can also be about organizing information in intelligent ways and giving people tools that let them help each other," Adrian said.

Kevin: Good ideas from Janet Titterton on how publications can deliver value added services to their readers. Publishers already have a lot of data on their readers, and they need to use this data to provide services not just to their core print readers but also to their larger online readership. She not only talks about it in the abstract but provides good examples.