Mark Potts runs through the details of Philly.com's reborn commenting system, which takes a good-enough approach to the complex problem of encouraging conversation in a world where an unfortunate percentage of us are idiots. As I've said previously, pseudonymity is a reasonable Middle Way.
I'm increasingly concerned that print editors are either not evolving the print product, or evolving it in the wrong direction -- aping the Internet, which is ultimately a losing game. In trying to pull my thoughts together I assembled this little chart. Additions and comments would be appreciated.
If you've been shaking your head about those Pakistanis and other foreign powers that have been censoring net access, don't get too comfortable.
I was looking over the Miami Herald's snazzy new Drupal-powered Miami.com website and was struck (hard NOT to be struck) by the brand-repositioning links at the top of the homepage:
Old brands are hard to reshape. Sometimes you do need to use a cannon to kill a mosquito.
Robert Putnam's theories about the formation of social capital are foundational to much of what I've been focusing on for the last several years, especially the 2005 launch of BlufftonToday.com. Blogging for the Readership Institute at Northwestern University, Rich Gordon describes troubling new findings in Putnam's latest research, and declares:
Cory Bergman over at LostRemote points to Action 25 News, a cable TV site for Macon, Ga., that NBC stations all over the country are reporting is a fake set up by Internet scammers selling DVD "training" programs. Apparently the website the website was created to lend credibility by having a fake TV consumer reporter claim you can make $84,000 a year by working at home.
Neil Thurman of City University, London, has published a review of the ways British news media are using the tools of interactivity -- "user generated content initiatives," as he calls it. In many cases it's been a struggle and the outcomes have not met everyone's hopes.
Reading through it, I was struck by a recurring theme in his interviews with UK journalism executives. It goes like this: How can I add some of this user-generated filler to my soup without losing control of the flavor?
Somebody at CNN.com should have his/her tail kicked for being dumb enough to launch an online poll asking: "Does Barack Obama show the proper patriotism for someone who wants to be president of the United States?" Ben Smith at Politico.com is reporting that CNN ran that poll.
I can't find it online right now. Perhaps someone woke up over there.
Congratulations to Dan Shorter for receiving the 2008 Online Innovator Award from the Newspaper Association of America. Dan was the longtime online chief at the Palm Beach Post and recently was named Internet VP at the Star Tribune, my old stomping ground up in the Great Frozen North.
I worked with Dan at Cox Interactive and he's a great guy. Wish I could have been in Orlando to hand him the award (I was the 2007 recipient), but I couldn't go this year.
Here's another item I wasn't going to touch: The uproar at Northwestern University, where Medill Dean John Lavine is being raked over the coals for writing a letter promoting the school in which he used an anonymous quote that he can't back up. But I am inspired by Gawker firing both barrels of double-ought snark into the middle of it:
