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February 6, 2012 Reporters Covering News Reported by Other People

While reading The New York Times article Blogging Site Tumblr Makes Itself the News, I thought, editorial is finally finding a place again.  For a couple of years, it looked like journalists were going the way of the paper publications they worked for.  Why pay professionals when you have people willing to write (using that word loosely) for free?

Huffington Post wasn’t the first or only, but they were certainly the most prominent to put “citizen journalism” on the map.  I guess “citizen” is nicer than “amateur.” But given the opportunity to build a personal brand, credibility, an audience, and links back to their own sites for SEO value, many citizens were wiling to contribute content for free.

Maybe that shift came first, or maybe it was the loss in ad revenue that drove the change; either way, I’ve watched round after round of editorial lay-offs and lamented the loss of quality in content.   Titillating headings and crappy copy flooded sites, and the job of sifting through it became, well, a job.  Literally.

With the continuous push of content (possibly doubling every 72 hours), someone needs to filter through it and find what’s worth reading.  Many publications have incorporated curated headlines and stories from other sites; and platforms like Facebook and WordPress – and now Tumblr – highlight interesting content from their communities.    And who’s bringing that crème of the content to the top?  The professional writers and editors.

And they’ll continue to do real reporting, as well – there will be fewer doing so, as the need to have so many people covering the same stories has greatly dissipated.  Instead of many resources dedicated to the same beats and stories, we’re spreading the coverage more broadly, looking to the thousands of “citizen” journalists as sources.  Even HuffPo hired professional journalists.

Some say the lack of focus is killing investigative journalism.  But I think where’s there quality, there’s always some way of –and someone – bringing it to the surface.

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January 30, 2012 Thanks, But No Thanks, Google

Normally, when I after I use Google+ or Gmail, I immediately log out, rather than have my friends see what I’m searching for.   Why?  Because it’s none of their business.

But last night I forgot to log out and did an image search for “cocktail.”  (Again, not anyone’s  business).  But what came up in the top half of my image results were photos taken at a friend’s cocktail reception.

It was a little creepy.

But the other problem was that that was not at all what I was searching for.  If I wanted something as specific as “cocktail reception,” I would have type that in.  But even stranger, the second half of the results were what I was looking for (and I found a great photo of a Negroni, thank you.)  But Google decided that what I really wanted to see were results connected to me socially.  And that was a huge fail.

If I wanted to see my friend’s photos, I would ask her where she posted them.  See, Google, when I use your service, it’s to find the most relevant answer to my question, not the most relevant within my social circle.

The one positive I see in these results is, well… I might finally have a reason to try Bing.

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January 27, 2012 I Swear This Was My Idea

You know how you see a new product or service or design and think, yeah, they totally stole that from me?  Even though you eventually recall that you never actually shared the idea with anyone, possibly because they’d think it was dumb.  And then you feel dumb.

So I saw this product mention on Springwise:

RF-enabled app locates lost objects or children

Bikn enables users to find lost objects, pets or children using an RF-enabled iPhone case, tags and app.

And realized it was the same product I had been thinking about for a few years.  Yes, years.  I even told a friend the idea when I had it.  It was when I was with her and her kids at the beach.  And as I lay in the sand, dozing off, I though, wow, it must suck to be a parent and not be able to doze off here.  Because your kids could wander off, go too far into the water, etc.  The fact that parents ever sleep at all is surprising, frankly.  But I knew about RFID chips and though, what if you could insert one into a bracelet or tag on your kids’ clothes?  Then, when they got out of a certain distance, an alarm would go off on your monitor (back then, there were no apps).  Let the napping commence…

But then I worried not about the idea being dumb, but what if it didn’t work?  I don’t mean all the time, but what about when the battery died?  Or it just malfunctioned? And as a parent, you had become so accustomed to it, you no longer paid attention?  Or someone figured out how to disarm and takes a kid.  Would I want that on my conscious?

Don’t get me wrong…I still love the idea and think this will be a good thing.  But I also personally question if it enables parents to relax too much.

I imagine inventors and people who just think they are debate such issues with themselves all the time.

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