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Your Take Roundup
Your Take Roundup::Sense of Community Motivates You to Work for Free
So much of the web is powered by volunteer work it's mind-boggling. The non-commercial ethos of the early days of the web, when people posted their thoughts to usenet groups and bulletin-board services, stuck around for years even as the web became more commercialized. America Online's chat room moderators, eBay's user-generated ratings, and Flickr's vast array of user-submitted photos...
more »Your Take
Should the government regulate Net neutrality?
More and more people are using broadband connections, and with those broadband connections come more video, more audio -- more, more, MORE of everything that can potentially slow up the pipes. The broadband providers are saying their capacity can't handle the booming traffic, and that they need to start finding a way to finance infrastructure improvements. One idea floated by...
more »Online Video
Fighting for Open Standards::Cox Newspapers Says No to AP Video
Since launching MediaShift in January, the one post I've written that has received the most vehement response so far was about the Associated Press' new online video service requiring Internet Explorer and Windows. And I even followed up on that with a blacklist and a whitelist of other online video services that either shut out alternative browsers or the...
more »Weblogs
Israeli Elections::Live Blogging the Next Best Thing to TV
Before the 2004 U.S. elections, I considered political news on the Internet to be an addendum to the breaking news I would get from cable TV or the serious journalism of newspapers and magazines. But as the 2004 elections neared in October of that year, I realized that any serious political junkie was getting a much better fix on...
more »AdvertisingShift
Digging Deeper::Go Daddy Gives Podcasters Freedom to Create Ads
Advertisers and marketers spend much of their time (and money) trying to pitch the public on their products and services. Their language includes terms like "mindshare" and "branding" and "conversion rates." It's all about convincing you and me to go out and buy their stuff, and how to motivate us to do it, by any means necessary. But imagine...
more »Open Source Reporting
Open Source Reporting::Living Your Life Online
I've been thinking a lot lately about life before the Internet, and life before computers. How was life different? Was it worse? Was it better? How? Of course, there is a generation of people and children whose entire lives have been lived on computers and online -- they know no other way to live. Conversely, there are huge populations...
more »Your Take Roundup
Your Take Roundup::Email Trumps Blogs for Political Action in '06
As more people have broadband, more people are going online to get their news. The latest research from Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that 50 million Americans went online for news in a typical day in late 2005 -- up sharply from the number in 2002. And with the upcoming 2006 mid-term U.S. elections, you can count...
more »Your Take
What motivates you to do work for no pay?
This has been a nagging question for me. I know that America Online in its early days was helped immensely by the volunteer work done by hundreds of chat room moderators. Many online services such as Amazon and eBay and Craigslist depend on the work done by so many of its customers, who help monitor what goes on there, and...
more »Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper::Your Guide to Personalized News Sites
The great thing about getting your news online is that you are the person in control of your experience. You can visit the news sites and blogs that you like, and follow a trail of hyperlinks to learn about events happening around the world. And if your niche interests include sumo wrestling or collectible Pez dispensers, then that's what...
more »TVShift
CNN Everywhere::Do We Need TV in Public Spaces?
I spent the past week on a work vacation of sorts in Austin, Texas, which is a good thing. But one annoying thing was when I was stuck in an airport, and couldn't tune out the ubiquitous TV monitors blaring the CNN Airport Network. As a longtime news junkie, I used to consider this TV broadcast in airports to...
more »Your Take Roundup
Your Take Roundup::Parental Involvement Key to Kids' Computer Time
My 3-year-old son Julian is obsessed with typing and sending emails to his grandparents. Whenever he sees me working on my laptop, he cries out to visit the Sesame Street site online and its various games. But so far, we have tried to limit his computer time to 20 minutes per week, just as we try to limit TV...
more »Your Take
How will you use the Net to follow the 2006 U.S. elections?
With each election cycle in the United States, more and more people use the Internet to do research on candidates, give money to candidates, and discuss issues that are important to them. In 2004, Howard Dean used a group blog to help organize grassroots support, and political bloggers received press passes to the big national conventions. So I'm wondering how...
more »TVShift
Dear CBS Sportsline::Close Down Live Streams of Tourney for Our Own Good
Open Letter to CBS Sportsline Dear Keepers of the March Madness Tournament Flame, We the college basketball-loving public appreciate all you've done for us. You offer satellite packages with all the games in the men's college basketball tournament. We can go to Las Vegas and watch and bet on all the games. And now, in your crowning moment, you've...
more »Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper::Internet Gives All Sides in Israel-Palestine Debate
Many people living outside the Middle East would like to understand the political situation in Israel and Palestine. But the more you read online at blogs and opinion sites, the more you realize that it's not a simple situation of good vs. evil, or us vs. them. There are many ways to view the highly charged issues in this...
more »Online Forums
Riding Talk Revisited::Politicians Speak Out About CBC Forums
In early February, I looked at an interesting project by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) called Riding Talk, where they provided a moderated forum for each and every riding (electoral district) in Canada before the late January elections. I had hoped to include the thoughts of a few politicians who participated in the forums but I didn't hear from...
more »MusicShift
CD Swapmeet::La La Love Ya, Don't Mean Maybe
I have a wall of CDs that sit around gathering dust. I always thought that one day I would just rip them -- i.e. copy them to my computer hard drive -- and get rid of them. But that day never came, and the CDs just sat there, unlistened to and unloved. Then came La La, a service that...
more »Open Source Reporting
Open Source Reporting::The Whitelist: Video Services That Play Nice
Since last week, I've spent a lot of time ferreting out online video sites that don't play nice with a huge number of web users. These sites don't let you view videos with the popular Firefox browser, or on Macintosh computers. First, I wondered why the new AP Online Video Network shut out Firefox and the Mac. Then I...
more »Your Take Roundup
Your Turn Roundup::Your Cell Phone's Made for Talkin'
The makers of cell phones would like you to know that you can do a lot more with your cell phone than just talk to people. You can text. You can go online and check your email. You can snap photos or take video. You can listen to music and watch TV clips, maybe even movies. But when I...
more »Your Take
When should a young child first use a computer?
It seems like kids are getting soaked by media at earlier ages with each passing generation. Is that a good thing? When my son Julian was 18 months old, one mother of a teenager warned me: "Avoid screens for as long as possible -- TV, videogames, and computers -- because once kids get used to them, you can't get them...
more »TVShift
Digging Deeper::TV Critics Eye Online Content Reviews
Anyone who has spent an afternoon at a site such as iFilm Viral Video or YouTube can attest to how addictive online video can be. Some of it's funny, some of it's stupid, some of it's classic. But the problem is finding the good stuff, as the most popular videos and the ones with the highest user ratings aren't...
more »Online Video
Open Source Reporting::Which Online Video Services Require IE?
Last Thursday, I wondered why the Associated Press was launching a new video network online that required the use of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. The AP's Sue Cross says that the news cooperative is working on a solution to the compatibility problem, but many readers pointed out that the AP Online Video Network isn't the only video service...
more »Weblogs
Blog Obsession::I Am a Technorati Addict
When I started this blog, I was worried that it would take over my life. What I didn't know at the time was that the blog wasn't the only thing that would take over. Now, when I log on each day, it's not just to read comments on the blog or write something for it. I also must make...
more »Online Video
Millions Not Served::AP Video Requires Microsoft Browser
Most people don't realize just how important the Associated Press is. The news cooperative -- owned by its U.S. news organization members -- has been around since 1848, and now supplies 8,500 subscriber news outlets with text wire stories and photos, and 5,000 radio and TV outlets with audio and video content. And online, the service is ubiquitous, popping...
more »Social Networking
Your Take Roundup::Split Verdict on MySpace's Future
Lately, the hugely popular social networking site MySpace has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Politicians and parents are worried about sexual predators and other illegal activity on the site. And Jupiter analyst Nate Elliot believes the membership numbers for MySpace -- hovering around 60 million registered users -- are deceptive. Most of these users create...
more »Tags
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