norton, brian

There have been plenty of posts about Storify, a (relatively) new tool in curating social media. It’s a great and useful tool that will certainly help to shape the future of journalism.

I’ve used it a few times myself:
- Curating a Twitter debate about a College Football Playoff
- Taking a look at the new home of the CWS, TD Ameritrade Park
- And even curating advice for college journalists

That’s why I found this blog post, on the great 10,000 words, to be interesting. It’s the pros and cons of Storify. I really hate to critique the post of a new blogger (see Elana Zak’s tweet here — let’s face it, my blog sat empty for months so who am I to criticize), but I have one major gripe.

Zak discusses Storify as if it is a new form of journalism. One in which fact checking “takes a back seat.” She also asks why someone would use this instead of pounding the pavement (as she says it, “why was I using this instead of going out and finding real people to interview?”).

The problem here is that Storify isn’t a new form of journalism. It’s a new tool for journalism. It’s a tool just like Twitter, a computer or a pad of paper and a pen. It’s a way for journalists to harness the discussion on the Internet without having to do a lot of copying and pasting, taking screen shots, etc. It saves time and makes for an easier reading experience.

Going out and talking to a few “real” people about the weather by pounding the pavement is just fine. But, with social media and Storify, you can get the view of hundreds of people. The way I see it, a tool like Storify allows journalists to provide a fuller picture of the story. As journalists, shouldn’t that be something we strive for?

The Social Network, aka the Facebook movie, debuts on Friday. I’ve already blogged about the movie’s brilliant trailer and early marketing effort. The book it is based on, The Accidental Billionaires, is a great read, so I was already excited to see it. And now the movie is drawing rave reviews and is considered to be a front runner for Best Picture. And, for the record, here is a list of 5 myths about Facebook.

With that in mind, I thought it would be a great opportunity for an Omaha Movie Tweetup. There was some initial interest, so I figured I’d make it official with a blog post.

Here’s the Omaha Movie Tweetup plan:
When: Friday (Oct. 1) at 7:45 p.m. showing. Let’s meet at 7:30 outside the theater
Where: Rave Theater at Westroads
Tickets: Buy them online here

I can buy tickets if people really want it, but I think it’d be best if we all purchase our own tickets. And, of course, we can plan on going somewhere after to digest the movie. Leave suggestions on here or Twitter.

You can find me on Twitter and on Facebook.

Lots of great links to share tonight. These are some of my favorites from this week. The Publish 2 link assist in WordPress makes this very easy to pull off.

TBD.com screenshot
Poynter/TBD.com
Some very cool screen shots from @TBD. Lively, vibrant and yet well organized. I love the Long story short part.

YouTube – The Decision….PART DEUX!

YouTube | Aug 6, 2010
Congrats to Anthony Tolliver for signing with Minnesota. Classic AT vid. Good things happen to good people.

Coming (Very) Soon: TBD.com
News Channel 8 / TBD | Aug 6, 2010
Extremely excited to see @TBD when it launches next week. Such a great, creative crew. Fun stuff.

How The Guardian is pioneering data journalism with free tools
Nieman Journalism Lab | Aug 5, 2010
Great read on The Guardian’s data journalism blog. They do amazing work with mostly free tools.

The Evolution Of The Journalism Job Market: We May Be Headed Into A Golden Age
Business Insider | Aug 3, 2010
Golden Age of journalism on the way? Honestly, makes sense to me. Communication is key now.

Dana O’Neil: The Shot and The Effect at Northern Iowa
sports.espn.go.com
Great read about UNI and the impact that beating Kansas had on the athletic department.

Airline pilot to jetski from London to New Zealand on “the ultimate ride”
www.gadling.com
I couldn’t imagine riding a jetski 12 hours a day from London to Auckland. Those Kiwis are adventurous.

Cancer victim tried to pack a lifetime of mothering into two years
Dallas Morning News | Aug 1, 2010
Wow, talk about a powerful read. This really helps put life into perspective.

Media Cache – Norwegian Newspaper Taps Into Web’s Efficiencies – NYTimes.com
NYTimes.com | Aug 1, 2010
I dislike the loss of copy editors, but some interesting thoughts on newspaper/online split from Norway.

I’m extremely excited to see what the TBD crew has in store for us at launch, which is finally coming some time next week.

TBD is a project I have followed someone closely. Who am I kidding, what online journo hasn’t been following TBD closely? There is so much buzz they held a media session today and I wouldn’t be shocked to see TBD as a trending topic on launch day next week

Why all the interest? They have assembled an interesting crew and have a bunch of great ideas, starting with the TBD Community Blog Network.  You can see the post below for more information.

A few tidbits that sound especially interesting to me:

- Complete this story box. Each story will have a box that allows for readers to submit corrections, thoughts, etc. about how to improve the story (and, I believe, stories will be much more fluid). This is very true.

- List reporter. There will be one beat that is focused just on lists like “Best $6 meals in D.C.” or something like that. I think this is a very creative way to tap into an Internet favorite: lists. They drive traffic and spur conversation. Lists are something we really want to launch on our site but finding the time is tough. This sounds like a great solution.

Twitter is buzzing today, so check there for more information on TBD. A few feeds to focus on:
Jeff Jarvis
Mark Briggs
TBD
Steve Buttry

Related links:

Coming (Very) Soon: TBD.com
News Channel 8 / TBD | Aug 6, 2010

Journalistic blogging is fair, balanced and ethical | Media | guardian.co.uk
Guardian.co.uk | Jul 29, 2010
Interesting read on Journalistic blogging.

Swan/Pearl Station Computer – Lost Auction Preview – Profiles in History
www.profilesinhistory.com
Is it sad that I really want this? It’s the Apple II from #LOST. Way out of my price range, I bet.

SCVNGR Launches Sophisticated Rewards Program
Mashable | Jul 28, 2010
SCVNGR is planning an interesting release. It’s like @foursquare mayor rewards, but more sophisticated.

Those wacky Boinx guys release You Gotta See This! iPhone 4 app
The Unofficial Apple Weblog | Jul 23, 2010
If I ever get an iPhone 4, this will be the first app I buy.

Maybe you’ve seen it. It’s a trailer that stops you in your tracks. It starts with the beautiful music – a stunning and, well, creepy cover of Radiohead’s Creep by Scala and Kolacny Brothers women’s choir and a collection of familiar Facebook imagery. Some have even called it a short film. That’s right, I’m talking about the movie trailer for The Social Network aka the Facebook movie. Here, take a minute to watch it:

It’s interesting to me that a movie about the founding of a social networking site is able to generate such buzz without actually using many resources on social networking sites.

Google takes the FTC to school « BuzzMachine
Buzz Machine | Jul 20, 2010
Why does Google understand the news industry’s problems more than most of the news industry execs do?

Metro/Region – Omaha.com
omaha.com
Maybe this is cold, but if a 4% tax is really that draining, you probably shouldn’t be eating out anyway.

NEVER WAKE UP: THE MEANING AND SECRET OF INCEPTION
chud.com
This is a brilliant take on #Inception. Seriously, read this if you have seen the movie.

10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review
blogs.hbr.org
Very good read here about why we should stop apologizing for our online life. See my blog about this here: http://nortonbrian.com/archives/45

A piece from the New York Times, In a World of Online News, Burnout Starts Younger, has garnered some interesting Twitter comments. The basic premise:

Such is the state of the media business these days: frantic and fatigued. Young journalists who once dreamed of trotting the globe in pursuit of a story are instead shackled to their computers, where they try to eke out a fresh thought or be first to report even the smallest nugget of news — anything that will impress Google algorithms and draw readers their way.

In general, I find the tone of the article to be off base. It’s pretty evident, at least to me, that the writer has a bit of skepticism about online-only news organizations. I could be wrong, as it appears from the outside at least, that the New York Times is more focused on the online product than most traditional “old media,” but I’m not so sure.

Either way, as someone that deals with the delayed deadlines of print mixing with the immediacy of online, I found the article interesting. Personally, I think those tactics (a “big board” of stats and early morning e-mails about a missed scoop) go a bit over the edge. Hard work is key in journalism – print or online – there is no doubt. As Dr. Wirth told me while on my visit to Creighton as a high school senior, don’t expect the average 9 to 5 with journalism. Anyone getting into this business should realize that. But, at the end of the day, we are all human. You should be able to work hard without burning yourself out.

This week there have been a ton of great links on Twitter that I want to discuss, but I figured it would be appropriate to start with this great Harvard Business Review blog post by Alexandra Samuel: 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life. You can follow Alexandra on Twitter @awsamuel and check out her website. She is the Director of the Social + Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University and the co-founder of Social Signal.

Ok, now to the real task at hand: her blog post. She did a wonderful job of laying out the reasons we should stop apologizing for our actions in “online life.” I found this post very interesting because, more and more, I realize just how wrapped up my “real life” is with my online world. I use e-mail and tweet constantly. I talk more with someone on Twitter that I have never “officially” met than I do some of my closest friends from high school and college. Without Facebook, I’m not quite sure where some of my “real life” friendships would be.

In fact, I tweeted something that pertains to this on Monday as I was waiting to get my windshield replaced:

Funny how tweeps can play a big role for awhile and then drop away. Just like real life except there is a block button (on) Twitter.

Maybe this is the reason that more of us don’t think of the online world as “real life.” Sure, it’s pretty easy to cut someone out of your “real life” (even without a block button) but, ultimately, it is easier to do online. The connections seem more fleeting, even if they shouldn’t.

But, whatever the reasons, I’m making a decision to stop treating the online life as some odd subset of my “real life.” It is my life, no matter what. Instead of IRL I want it to be RTL: Real Life Too.

Here are some of my favorites out of Alexandra’s list of 10 reasons:

1. When you commit to being your real self online, you discover parts of yourself you never dared to share offline.

2. When you visualize the real person you’re about to e-mail or tweet, you bring human qualities of attention and empathy to your online communications.

3. When you take the idea of online presence literally, you can experience your online disembodiment as a journey into your mind rather than out of your body.

6. When you focus on creating real meaning with your time online, your online footprint makes a deeper impression.

9. When you embrace online conversations as real, you imbue them with the power to change how you and others think and feel.

Thanks to @czuegner for retweeting the link. Look for more posts this week, lots of great social media/journalism comments to discuss.

No, I am not counting down the days until I meet my soul mate. But what if it was possible to know the exact day that you are meant to meet your soul mate? And what if you wore a device that told you when you made eye contact with said person? And since the general point of this blog is to discuss journalism and social media, I promise we will get there eventually, just keep reading.

That’s the basic premise of TiMER.

In this movie, starring Emma Caufield as Oona, humans are able to have a TiMER, implanted into their wrist, that will countdown the days until they “zero out” which signals the day they will meet The One. The catch: The One has to also have a TiMER implant. If not, then the countdown does not start. Essentially, for Oona, there is no point in  dating. Her One doesn’t have an implant, so she asks any TiMER-less guy she dates to get one implanted just to check.

Now you might expect a hopeless romantic like me to love the idea of knowing exactly when you are going to meet The One. But I would never want something like this. It sure does take the fun out of dating. Plus, as nice as it would be to know that I am going to meet the woman of my dreams on Oct. 12, 2011, what’s the fun in the that? The journey is the fun part of life, the end result is just that – an end. (As a side note, if I do happen to meet someone on Oct. 12, 2011, I take back everything I just said).

So what does this have to do with social media? Nothing, specifically, but I think the movie brings up interesting questions about technology in general. As we evolve ever-improved technological gadgets we lose a bit of what ties human kind to the past. As we embrace the waves of technology we must remember to not forget where we have come from and to not allow technology to run our lives.

I am as guilty as any as I type this on my MacBook while checking Twitter on my iPhone and running the dishwasher. I would be lost without some of the most basic of technologies. But, every once in a while, it’s nice to take a step back and put all the tech away. Try it some time.

For the record, the movie was just good, not great. But it brings up an interesting topic of discussion.