List of Twitter links

Second party services that depend on Twitter have gotten out of control. Since I found it difficult to keep up with these and I don't use all these services regularly, I decided to start a list via Blist.

Feel free to added or edit the list. I will add more bookmarks in the up coming days.

Twitter related links & services

Publish your data with blist

Googlahooplesoft News Network

In response to my last post a pessimistic, a-lot-of-us-are-going-to-be-out-of-jobs-unless-we-take-responsibility-for-ourselves look at the future of journalism, Morgan commented that google could never take over the industry because commercial media is what supports companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo & Apple.

In response this... I would like to present googlahooplesoft news network concept....

What is news?
A script is written that scans "web chatter" (blog posts, comments, forum posts, flickr tags, tweets, etc.) for vocabulary works that have a burst in a occurrence on web, meaning they suddenly appear in greater numbers that normal. (Of course "a" & "the" are excluded.)

How do we build a story?
Another part of the script goes out & finds people that are talking about and sorts them or allows users to sort them by the following criteria:
Text length - a longer post, in most cases means more information
Page views
Time spent on page
Frequency of the subject
Links to a source
Etc.

We have a headline & we have some information, but not all of it is "reliable" or "accurate".

That is where the social networking aspect is worked in. There is a rating system of sources. Recommendations for the most reliable sources would be based on those who have voted for the same chatter sources as you have in past. Kind of like Amazon.com. Googlahooplesoft news recommends the following based on what other people who have viewed this story liked. Or... other people who have viewed this story gave ratings positive ratings for these sources.

I think eventually something could be written to piece meal together whole stories via a formula. This is already being done for police briefs and obits at some papers. Why couldn't you write a story that way?

Less circulation means ↑ wood to build coffins

The bodies are piling up. The plague has hit newsrooms everywhere.

No worries. Circulation & the number of inserts is down so we have extra wood for coffins.

Since my time at a small paper in New England, I have seen the departure of a handful of colleagues that in some cases I barely knew. The smell of layoffs is everywhere.

All of us are running stories that are saying, 'Bailout this' and 'bailout that.' We are the band on the Titanic.

Do you know what we have in common w/ the automakers in Detroit? We both created a bad model.

What is the difference? If we lobbied congress and got something out of it, it could be viewed as an industry wide Staples Center debacle. How could we be viewed as impartial?

The only reason we are still around is because Google hasn't written an algorithm to cancel us out. Don't wait for someone to give you the answer or give you some special training. Take matters into your own hands as part of your New Years resolution. Start training yourself. Your job Your livelihood depends on it.

For your entertainment:
God Rest Ye Weary Journalists (Tidings of new media journalism)



And because every article should have them....

Related links:
Newspaper Death Watch
TypePad for Journalists (Formerly the TypePad Journalist Bailout Program)
Tribune Company Seeks Bankruptcy Protection
Roll call III: Say goodbye to more of your friends
My letter to a veteran journalist friend who was laid off

NPR plans to cut 7% of workforce

NPR made the announcement earlier this week.

A memo was sent to NPR employees from NPR Interim President and CEO Dennis Haarsager explaining extent and circumstances surrounding the cuts.

From the memo:
"These cuts include the elimination of 64 filled and 21 unfilled positions, many of which are associated with the two cancelled programs."

Read the full memo Haarsager to NPR staff.

....

On a side note, I wonder how the economy is going to effect PBS.

Screening ONA Entries - Investigative (Small)

I have a place in my heart for investigative pieces. I have probably been through four packages.

There was one that really stood out to me. It was like, "Yes! Now this is what this contest is about." It got the only "Pass" and "definitely" that I have passed along. It was very refreshing.

I did have to pass up the opportunity to vote on one piece, because a professional friend of mine did it. I knew as soon as I said to myself, "Ooooo, I didn't see this piece by [so and so]. I wonder how he and his family are doing these days," that I had to click the "Conflict of Interest" button.

Back to screening. This is more fun than I thought!!!