If you are interested, here is an iPod-ready MP3 of the discussion on the Diane Rehm show on the fate of the newspaper industry (May 6). Only caught the tail-end, so I need to go back and review later today.

I find it interesting that Rehm and guests are talking about the fate of newspapers — and the influence of new technology on the industry — and her own show is only available to listen to via streaming audio. So ’90s.

I hate being forced to sit in front of the computer to listen to a Real Audio or Windows Media files, or buying a transcript or CD for $30 a pop. A CD, really? Most NPR shows are available as podcasts, which are great for on-the-go listening.

The Fate of the Newspaper Industry MP3. Right-click to download.

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Larger eBook reader from Plastic Logic

Larger eBook reader from Plastic Logic

For all the hubub about the Kindle eBook reader getting a larger display and how this might save the print industry, none of it will matter if makers of these products do not re-imagine and re-tool the reading experience for the digital age.

As Brad Stone noted in today’s New York Times, “These new gadgets, with screens roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper, could present much of the editorial content and advertising content of traditional periodicals in generally the same format as they appear in print.” (My italics.)

It’s also widely reported that newspaper organizations (like Hearst) are looking for newfangled devices that accurately translate the printed form to digital, allowing newspapers and magazines to shift to a high-tech distribution system — which, by the way, lack-of-visionaries from both industries hope people will pay for. Some believe that a larger Kindle will save the textbook industry.

Typical of technologists and the thirst to solve problems with newer, bigger, better technology, the savior for print won’t be a larger display, or even a color one. It will be coming up with a digital reading experience that allows people to read newspapers, periodicals, books, and textbooks like they do now, only in ways more appropriate for the digital age.

After all, the act of reading is behavioral and ritualistic, and user interfaces for eBook readers like the Kindle pay little attention to how people actually read.

In reading the newspaper, people often separate the sections they want to read from those they don’t care about. Then they take the pile they want to read and subdivide it even more, eventually settling on what they want to read now, what they hope to read soon, and what they are saving for later if they get the time.

While newspapers on the Kindle do allow readers to jump from section to section and to see a list of stories, the “paper” on an electronic device is still jump-from-one-link-to-the-next. Saving an article to read for later, or adding it to a group of stories for ongoing research, is impossible.

The same goes for books and other printed material. I can jump to chapters, sections, and bookmarks while reading on the Kindle, but it’s still not a true browsing experience. I cannot easily “thumb through” an electronic book.

Solving the act of reading a newspaper or book is just one step toward innovating the electronic reading experience. The digital age allows us to share what we read much easier with family, friends, the world. Back in the day (insert old-timer’s voice), to share an article you had to cut it out, hand deliver it, mail it, or copy and fax it.

Today newspapers and magazines have taken strides for sharing information by adding link buttons for Facebook, Digg, Twitter, or email, but these are baby steps. It’s not even possible to share what you read on the Kindle — and I’m not talking the source article or book and digital rights management.

Annotation is in its infancy on the Kindle. I can highlight passages, add text, or bookmark a page, but these are saved in a single text file on the Kindle. I must connect the device to a computer to retrieve my notes, which is a pain because I get highlights from Outliers mixed in with marks from Brain Rules and clippings from the NYT.

At this time no eBook device allows people to read newspapers, periodicals, and books the way they want to read them and to do with the information what they want. Until the reading experience is re-imagined and re-tooled for a digital age, putting a larger display on a Kindle won’t save the newspaper, magazine, or textbook industries.

Or attract the masses to electronic readers.

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Irony, Winer & Rosen

by Dan on April 23, 2009

Dave Winer

Dave Winer

The irony isn’t lost on me. I tell the students about the need to consistently post to their blogs and that speed is of the essence in new media — and then it takes me a month to update.

The semester is almost over, and I am anxious to get back behind the keyboard. For now, the 140 characters of Twitter have been a Godsend. I’ve posted quite a few links for journalism and the newspaper industry and I encourage you to check them out, if you are interested in the topic.

I am enjoying the Rebooting the News podcast that Dave Winer is doing with NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen. Winer also started a FriendFeed room for Rebooting The News that’s worth joining. (Also follow Winer and Rosen on Twitter).

Winer is an opinionated, curmudgeonly character who, in addition to his popular blog Scripting News, occasionally produces a podcast called Morning Coffee Notes. The production value is often poor, but I really don’t care. Winer rewards you for time spent with quality content, deep insight, opinion, perspective, and a technology voice who speaks from experience. He knows what he is talking about, unlike so many so-called new media experts and commentators these days.

This is refreshing. I sense a trend in new media technology shows that’s exasperating. Many of these programs, including the dearly loved This Week in Technology and Steve Gillmor’s Gillmor Gang, are getting too chummy. The hosts and guests spend more time yucking it up than they do presenting technology news and analysis, which is the value they bring to their listeners.

As much as I love Leo Laporate — and he’s certainly a respected new-media pioneer — it was painful listening to him titter like a schoolgirl with guests Lisa Bettany and Shira Lazar on the most recent episode of TWiT (#191). But this is a topic for another time.

Suffice to say, Winer and Rosen don’t pander. They exchange a few pleasantries, reference a couple of past experiences, and get to the subject at hand.

Like I need to.

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Taking the Kindle 2 plunge

by Dan on March 23, 2009

Kindle 2's design is much improved

Kindle 2's design is much improved

I finally broke down and bought a Kindle 2 eBook reader from Amazon.

It helped, of course, that I had leftover gift certificates from Amazon, so the price was a bit more palatable. Even so, this is a big change for me.

I hated the first Kindle.

It was ugly, felt plastic-y in my hands, and the user interfaced — there’s no other way to say it — sucked. Nevermind that I could buy books without a computer using Amazon’s Whispernet. The hardware had to improve before I’d jump on the Kindle bandwagon.

(See a few post from my days writing for the digital lifestyle blog last100: Despite recent interest, eBook readers have a long way to go and Kindle 2.0 is looking more like Kindle 1.5.)

So why the change?

The Kindle 2’s hardware has greatly improved. It feels solid, less plastic-y, and is well-balanced in my hand. I no longer accidentally turn pages through poorly designed buttons. The hard interface on the front of the reader is well placed, well spaced, and reasonably easy to navigate.

I try not to be swayed by the A-Lister techies like Leo Laporte (of This Week in Technology fame), but he and others make a good case for the improved Kindle 2. Leo thinks the Kindle 2 will do for print what the iPod did for music. (See also Jacob Weisberg’s post How the Kindle Will Change the World at Slate.)

My brother-in-law loves his Kindle, and he has the first edition.

The annotation tools, while far from perfect, seem better with the Kindle 2 and helped me make the decision. I’m tired of buying heavy, costly books to mark up and file on a shelf. I want to use the information. I’m not sure the Kindle 2 the perfect solution yet, but I can only hope that interface designers are studying how people read books and what they do with them while they read for future improvements. [click to continue…]

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What is Your Blog?

by Dan on February 23, 2009

A prospective student reports about a recent job interview:

I just had an interview and the third question they sent me is what is your blog? Straight up! And I’m in sales.

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Dana Rose

Dana Rose

Every time we present the Dallas Museum of Art Late Night’s program Art Bytes it gets better and better. From humble beginnings to standing-room-only, tonight we feature three video artists of extraordinary talent.

I have no idea yet what order they will appear, but they are . . . drum roll please:

Mona Kasra

From Mona’s bio we learn:

  • She is a video/digital artist of Persian desent
  • Her work is inspired by questioning cultural and traditional assumptions that she grew up with
  • Her videos and installations are mainly autobiographies, addressing her curiosities, memories, and insecurities
  • Before moving to Dallas to pursue a Ph.D. in Arts & Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas, she taught a variety of digital art courses at Santa Monica College and California State University-Northridge
  • Her work has been displayed in festivals and exhibits around Los Angeles

Lorin Wood

Certainly one of the hardest working men in show business, Lorin has been specializing as a pre-visualization artist for Hollywood, television, and the gaming industries the past few years. Clients and projects include in no particular order:

  • Gearbox/Sega
  • The film A Scanner Darkly
  • Toyota’s Tecoma “Nessie” TV ads
  • Turner Classic Movies
  • CBS TV
  • Texas Instruments/LucasFilm Ltd.
  • Disney

And he’s friends with nearly every visualization artist in the world. Really.

Check out his website/blog/portfolio/life’s work.

Dana Rose

Last but certainly not least — that sounds way too cliche — is the multi-dimensional video/performance artist Dana Rose, who mixes video with performance, song, narrative, and character creation.

I’ve been wanting to add in live performance to Art Bytes, and Dana is the first to attempt this. She will be performing, in character, a selection from her piece “Padoma” as well as show us some of her other work.

For a taste of Dana’s performance, check out her YouTube channel (Dana Rose or Rosie Danes, I forget which) and work on MySpace (Mocia is a character in “Padoma”) and Dana Rose Music.

Trust me. After tonight’s event, the DMA is going to have to give us access to a larger auditorium and KERA/PBS will come calling to develop a new program for arts and technology called Art Bytes.

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Andrew Sullivan on Why He Blogs

by Dan on February 10, 2009

I confess. I have a blogger crush. Sort of. Meet Andrew Sullivan.

Sullivan, author of the popular Daily Dish, blogs and writes for The Atlantic. One thing I like about him: He boasts of being of no party or clique. In the November 2008 issue of the magazine, Sullivan tells us why he blogs, an interesting read, one which you will undertake.

Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. Blogging is writing out loud.

Nicely put. the-atlantic-online-november-2008-why-i-blog-andrew-sullivan

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couchslugs1

Will

My criteria is simple and offers students a great deal of freedom. Probably too much freedom, but with new media there are no editors telling them what to write or how to write it. Everything is up to the student. Get used to the freedom.

My only criteria is to write what interests them the most. Students come up with two, three, four ideas and we discuss these in class, with me challenging them and fellow students offering advice, criticism, observations.

How does your subject relate to what you want to accomplish in school? Or in your job? Or in your personal life? If it’s a whim – “I like movies, I’ll review movies” — ditch it because it won’t keep your interest.

We, as humans, are motivated by special interests. I like to ride bikes. I read. I like music, particularly improvisational jazz. I like tech stuff. I like social media, social networks, and Web 2.0 stuff. I use the Internet to find information about these subjects. I don’t care about running a sub-4-minute mile. I don’t like celebrity gossip, other than what Joss Whedon is up to. So I don’t spend my time writing about these subjects.

If students have a direct interest in something, chances improve that they will actually write about it during the semester. Will the subject keep them interested enough to keep digging for posts? Will they be motivated to find interesting links to bring to their readers? Because, no matter what the happy social media experts tell you (and there are hundreds of thousands of them), blogging is hard work.

So, without further adieu, here are the blog subjects of 3326. Most of them are good. There are a few I am concerned about, and I voiced my issues in a recent class. Let’s see what they do with these, but keep in mind they are all young with little or no experience blogging. In no particular order . . . [click to continue…]

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ted_logoI tweeted this today but wanted to bring it to the attention of students who do not read Twitter. Check out the article in The New York Times on the TED Conference. Virginia Heffernan, a self confessed TED addict, discusses what TED is, the video of TED, and why she’s so addicted to watching short speeches by its participants.

Count me among the obsessed.

TED is a great example of what I love about podcasting, new media, and social networks from a practical point of view. Most of us will never be invited to speak, or participate, at the highly prestigious and expensive TED Conference, an annual event that brings together today’s most interesting people and brightest thinkers in all disciplines.

Yet through podcasting and new media, I am able to see highlights of TED presentations and be exposed to thinking and ideas  that  I wouldn’t normally have access to. All that’s missing is the social hobnobbing, between presentations hallway talk, and expensive dinners at day’s end.

It’s worth your time — and much cheaper — to investigate TED via the Web and iTunes.

A side note: While you can access TED videos through a desktop or laptop computer (duh), there are two other access points I really like — the AppleTV and iPhone. Both use iTunes to allow you to download TED videos, either to your television for laid-back viewing on the sofa or to the phone for on-the-go consumption. The iPhone is particularly nice because you can download a new video as long as you have access to Wi-Fi, although the search function could be better implemented.

There are about 370 TED videos, and I am far from seeing all of them. Do you have any favorites that you recommend?

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2768329817_cbc0f015f9_b

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I’ve been watching this blurring for some time now. Students, and others, would cite real, honest-to-God blogs when asked for an example in the early 2000s. That’s because it was easy to tell a blog from a Website then. Most blogs were crudely designed, written in stream-of-consciousness, contained all sorts of grammatical and factual errors, usually contained entries on breaking up with a lover, and no one used the phrase Powered by Wordpress.

Nowadays, blogs look like Websites and Websites look like blogs as the communication form has evolved from crude implementation to refined and sophisticated.

When the 3326 class first met this semester, I asked students to bring in examples of their favorite (or most hated) blogs. My only caveat was that their samples needed to be actual blogs, not Websites that may look like blogs.

I didn’t define blogs at the time. I didn’t show examples, although we talked about them in abstract terms. My reasoning was that I wanted to see how the students defined blogs, what examples they used, and why they consider them to be blogs in the first place.

(I suspected most examples would be Websites, not blogs).

I’ve been reviewing student submissions and my assumption was correct: most cannot tell the difference between a blog and a Website or don’t care (we won’t discuss their examples until tomorrow). Even without the chat, I can tell that for students blogs and Websites just are. They exist together, even though they have uniquely different characteristics.

I received submissions for Web magazines like Truthdig that feature blogs, but the site itself is not a traditional blog. (Can there even be a traditional blog when blogging is five years old for most people?)

I received submissions for the online presence of traditional media like CNN, The Nation, Mental Floss, Al Jazeera, among others. Again, these sites have a blogging component but they, themselves, are not blogs.

I received submissions for actual blogs that now, over time, seem like Websites. MacRumors and AppleInsider have gained so much readership that, while they remain blogs at heart, they feel like mainstream media Websites because they carry so much content and enjoy readerships that far surpass traditional media publications on the same subject.

I particularly enjoyed one student who noted that one of his examples, TheCCTVBlog, is mostly a “marketing ploy” to directly market ApexCCTV. “Now, while there is useful information on this site, most of the links and verbiage is meant to directly promote ApexCCTV, the company I currently work for,” he said.

“In the business of SEO/SEM (search engine optimization/search engine marketing), there are many lines easily crossed and closely skated,” he said. “Product review blogs/websites are often link farms, and many even deceptively hide links in text that is the same color as the background. I won’t get into it, but my main point is that many blogs out there aren’t created for readers at all, they only care that the search engine spiders see a backlink to their main site with high-ranking keyword anchortext.”

I did receive a few submissions I would actually consider real, honest-to-God blogs like Natural Beauty Workshop and Nettus, but for the most part the line between what is and what is not a blog continues to distort.

PhotoCredit : by Scott Beale, Laughing Squid (image on Flickr)

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