Kevin: Colleague Neil McIntosh has a killer quote about journalism: “I struggle to think of another industry that views its premium product as something akin to a nasty cough syrup – necessary, good for your health, but irredeemably foul-tasting.”

Kevin: This post is correct that traditional media should be all over ‘social media’ but aren’t. However, I think that registration is only part of the problem. Traditional media also don’t understand the conversational nature of social media.

Kevin: Jay Rosen says, ‘According to Wolf Blitzer’s instant analysis, Obama’s speech boils down to a “pre-emptive strike” against attacks still to come. In fact it was a speech aimed right at him and other makers of political television.’

Kevin: Ewan McIntosh says that if you’re designing new kit or a new web service: ‘It’s vital that you have an audience in mind, an understanding of what might be possible, and the ability to change your plans frequently without sacrificing the integrity o

Kevin: PEJ’s State of the News Media 08: “The crisis in journalism, in other words, may not strictly be loss of audience. It may, more fundamentally, be the decoupling of news and advertising.”

Kevin: Guardian’s Jemima Kiss talks community at SXSW: Ben Brown “But if there’s not a host of the party, then there’s no party. Someone has to be initiating stuff and moderating.”

Kevin: ReadWriteWeb provides the master list for visualation tools. Essential either for representing data or for exploring large sets of data.

Kevin: From the Media08 conference last week, George Eby Mathew realises how the newsroom has changed forever. “The bloggers were faster in getting word out ..than traditional reports”

Kevin: I missed Richard McManus’ presentation at Media08. Mr ReadWriteWeb gave a great overview of trends: What’s Next on the Web? Web Technology Trends for 2008 and Beyond.

Kevin: My colleague Roy Greenslade shows the threat to newspapers on paper. “Thankfully, most British newspaper owners and managers understand this. I’m afraid it is my fellow journalists who refuse to face reality.”

Kevin: Kleiner Perkins sets up $100m fund to focus on iPhone startups. The iPhone SDK is a game changer especially because OS X developers can leverage their knowledge so easily.

Kevin: (Via Alf at reportr.) Robert Niles writes: “The key lies in abandoning any expectation that an employer will protect you. It is *your* responsibility to create enough value around your individual work”

Kevin: Ewan McIntosh has an interesting post about “civic innovation and participation”. Government, civil society groups and news organisations need to be involved in this discussion. We need to increase social capital and civic participation and technol

Kevin: Post worth reading from Mukund Mohan about plateau in Facebook use. I’m not sure whether this is part of the life cycle of an SNS or part of a broader trend. Niche SNS services have more staying power than Facebook, Friendster, Orkut. More later.

Suw: Fearmongering makes me so cross, so very happy to see people giving this the respect it deserves.