What We’re Reading

A Brief Inventory of "Competitor Collaborations" in the News

jcstearns.posterous.com | March 11, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Josh Stearns notes the trend of inter-news-organization collaboration, most notably at newspapers in places like Ohio, Maine, Florida, and Texas, including mentions of a few projects powered by Publish2.

The case for context: my opening statement for SXSW

Newsless | March 10, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Matt Thompson draws a bright line between the episodic distribution of information as it stands today, and emerging methods to put those episodes in context.

The Climate Desk

Reuters | March 9, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Felix Salmon of Reuters announces a collaborative reporting project on the topic of climate change, featuring a group of news organizations you might recognize from last fall's Copenhagen Collaborative.

You need a paper licence to link to the Royal Mail website

malcolmcoles.co.uk | March 9, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Malcolm Coles follows the instructions in the Royal Mail's TOS on the long road to linking to their FAQ.

Whatever Happened to Programming?

reprog.wordpress.com

Web Standards for E-books

A List Apart | March 9, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Joe Clark lays out the case for using an HTML format as a Web standard for e-books. It's an obviously brilliant and necessary thing, but will publishers see proprietary formatting as a form of de facto DRM?

Google Opens Public Data Explorer Lab

ReadWriteWeb | March 8, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Want to mix and match datasets and a few typical ways to visualize data? There's a Google for that.

Anatomy of a Rumor: The Story Behind Chief Justice John Roberts's 'Retirement'

Above the Law | March 4, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: The origin of those John Roberts retirement rumors? A law professor at Georgetown proving a point about credibility. Of course.

Google's AdSense Cookie - The Untold Story

Searchblog | March 4, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: John Battelle puts together the details of how long it took Google to start tracking browsing and clicking habits with AdSense cookies, and why.

Curation's Growing Value

gillin.com | March 4, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Paul Gillin's notes on how he followed the Chile earthquake and tsunami via Twitter and a wide distribution of curators.

‘Already Dead’, Eh?

wired.com

One Type of Collaboration Spot.Us Enables

Spot.Us Blog | March 2, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Important notes from David Cohn on what it takes to build a space for collaborative journalism.

High and low, real and tiny

feedproxy.google.com

Operational transparency

buzzmachine.com

Howard Weaver says: Jeff jarvis on an essential transformation: to transparency.

This stuff is tough

Google European Public Policy Blog | February 25, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: An untechnical, readable peek into Google's principles when it comes to ranking search results.

How genetics works

kottke.org

Howard Weaver says: Outstanding photo.

The Best of Journalism 2009

TrueSlant Metablog | February 17, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Conor Friedersdorf's list is subjective, arbitrary, and quite excellent. His pick from This American Life isn't the episode you're expecting, but I remember it vividly.

The Google/China hacking case: How many news outlets do the original reporting on a big story?

niemanlab.org

Howard Weaver says: 12 of 13 genuine journalistic stories produced by traditional organization. Duh.

Linkbait Generator

linkbaitgenerator.com | February 24, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: This single-serving site is at the same time a finger-wagging warning, a commentary on content, and an amusingly viable idea farm.

America and torture: no resolution in sight

trueslant.com

The Internet? Bah!

Newsweek | February 27, 1995

Ryan Sholin says: Clifford Stoll's 1995 predictions included "...no computer network will change the way government works."

HuffPost editor "a big fan of paying student journalists," but won't be doing it

poynter.org

Howard Weaver says: Hypocrisy allows exploitation with a straight face.

Once Upon a Time, Long Before the iPad, Steve Jobs Rode a BMW Motorcycle

theappleblog.com

Anonymous Polk Award Honors Citizen Journalists

The New York Times | February 21, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: The chain of people who moved video of an Iranian woman's violent death from the street to the Web are honored.

Obama explains climate science to global warming deniers.

thinkprogress.org

Going to hell #7: a different way to choose the Congress

jamesfallows.theatlantic.com

Kubrick and Clarke’s ‘Newspad’

cinemafist.blogspot.com

Poll: PBS is most trusted name in news

Lost Remote | February 19, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Two national polls find PBS to be the most-trusted, least-biased source on the list. Who's Number 2? Fox News.

On foursquare, location & privacy...

Foursquare Blog | February 18, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: The Foursquare team responds to the conversation around pleaserobme.com and the perceived dangers of sharing your physical location on the Internet.

Expert Labs, ThinkTank, Gina Trapani and our Grand Challenges

dashes.com | February 17, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Anil Dash begins to claim territory for Expert Labs as a technology incubator for networking tools to help governments ask and answer big questions.

You can do it, Sen. Bayh!

jamesfallows.theatlantic.com

Howard Weaver says: I'm joining the James Fallows crusade to get Sen. Bayh to spend his last 10 months trying to fix some of the partisanship issues -- starting with the fillibuster.

Bayh pere et fils: the opportunity for Evan

jamesfallows.theatlantic.com

Howard Weaver says: What Jim says.

Kontra on Google Buzz

counternotions.com

Howard Weaver says: Why Google Buzz was NOT about lack of testing.

Going to hell #5

jamesfallows.theatlantic.com

Howard Weaver says: "America's fundamental ills may be incurable without constitutional change. This was the case with slavery, civil rights, women's rights and other nation altering constitutional amendments. It may be the case with voting rights."

Homebrew App for the Palm Pre Reboots Your Phone on a Schedule

stevenf.tumblr.com

Howard Weaver says: Home-brewed app to reboot Palm Pre regularly? Yeah for third-party background processes.

The very foundations

snarkmarket.com

Howard Weaver says: In which @robinsloan watches TED shadows flicker across walls and divines a theme.

Facebook directs more online users than Google

SFGate.com | February 15, 2010

Scott Karp says: Anyone making a bet on algorithmic topic pages needs to read this. Human curation/recommendations rule.

First a Data Center, Now Free WiFi - Google, The Cloud and the Significance of a Small Oregon Town

ReadWriteCloud | February 12, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Lots of context and catch-up here in this link-rich piece outlining Google's free wifi gift to The Dalles, Oregon, where it also happens to have a massive data center.

Open Thread: The Internet Is Hard

ReadWriteWeb | February 10, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Jolie O'Dell's notes from the incredibly weird ReadWriteWeb thread that briefly held the top search result for "Facebook login," leading scores of confused users to complain about the changes Facebook had made. When they logged in at RWW.

"Python for Informatics" Open Textbook Remixed in 11 Days

Creative Commons | February 5, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: This book is a data-focused remix of "Think Python: How to Think like a Computer Scientist," the book Adrian Holovaty often recommends to journalists who want to get started with Django.

Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine

blog.vark.com | February 3, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: Aardvark has published a whitepaper outlining some of the technology and much of the logic behind their social search engine.

Trippy morphing time-stitch video

kottke.org

Howard Weaver says: Timelapse stop-motion? Panorama time-stitch? Work a glance.

More bad news for the media…

hyperorg.com

Howard Weaver says: Bad news for journalists: David Weinberger learned more listening to Republicans question Obama ...

Clay Shirky, info overload, and when filters increase the size of what's filtered

Joho the Blog | January 31, 2010

Greg Linch says: Analysis by Dave Weinberger, taking Clay Shirky's quote about filter failure another step.

A quick guide to the maxims of new media

markcoddington.com | January 30, 2010

Ryan Sholin says: A primer including the origins of crucial one-liners by Dave Winer, Dan Gillmor, Jay Rosen, Clay Shirky, and a few more.

Future Shock

Fraser Speirs | January 29, 2010

Scott Karp says: Steve Jobs wants to build technology for average people. The geeks are resisting.

Publishing in Ten Years: Galleycat Roundup

bookfuturism.com

Howard Weaver says: Care about the future of books, publishing, authors? Whether you've just started or already know a great deal, you need to read this post.

The new book tour

robinsloan.com

Howard Weaver says: Robin Sloan is getting closer and closer to understanding the future of writing.

twitter.com: Canvas?

Howard Weaver says: Gruber and friends want to know: Could the new Apple device be named "Canvas"?"It looks good, it sounds good, and it evokes the right feelings and ideas: thin, light, clean, crisp, blank, the thing great artwork is made upon. It’s a perfect name."