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Freedom of the (electronic) press

Submitted by yelvington on February 16, 2007 - 9:15am

I'm in Paris at the conference "New Media: The Press Freedom Dimension," organized by the World Press Freedom Committee at UNESCO headquarters. It's been a humbling experience to be on stage with people talking about real barriers to Web publishing: government repression, censorship, arrests and outright poverty. And here I am discussing our interactive community efforts in a couple of cushy upscale suburban markets in the United States. Nevertheless, the audience seemed genuinely engaged and there was quite a line of people wanting to exchange cards and ask questions afterward.

Ted Stevens moves to block those tubes

Submitted by yelvington on February 16, 2007 - 4:14am

Ted Stevens, the fossil who thinks the Internet is a series of tubes, has reintroduced legislation that died in the last Congress that would force schools and libraries to block social networking websites and chat rooms on the grounds that they're full of predators and (gasp) "cyberbullies," which apparently are more dangerous than the regular kind because they're cyber.

MyClaySun.com launches

Submitted by yelvington on February 15, 2007 - 11:49am

MyClaySun.com launched today in Clay County, Florida, just west of Jacksonville. The blogs-for-all website is coupled with a four-day newspaper, around 30,000 distribution. The website has a couple of nits here and there that the tech team is still chasing down, but the community interaction seems to be off to a good start.

Another clueless lawmaker targets social networking

Submitted by yelvington on February 14, 2007 - 9:49am

The Arlington Heights Daily Herald may think his conservatism is "the thoughtful, common-sense brand," but his legislation suggests Illinois state Sen. Matt Murphy is a clueless demogogue playing an ignorant crowd. Why am I saying this?

Bonsoir from Paris

Submitted by yelvington on February 14, 2007 - 9:32am

I've been very quiet lately as I rushed to get some real work done against a hard deadline. My friends in colder climates will appreciate the sacrifice I made in spending some time in Florida. MyClaySun.com launches later this week and it seems to be coming together nicely, and the staff has labeled Jonathan Bennett, the site's community content coordinator fresh out of University of South Carolina, as "our very enthusiastic," which is somewhat more restrained than the sign I saw on his door last week, which I think read "Captain Awesome" or something like that.

Great panel discussion

Submitted by yelvington on January 30, 2007 - 12:01pm

I was on a panel discussion of social networking yesterday with moderator Michael Odza and the Dans: Dan Strauss from Fox Interactive (Myspace), Dan Pacheco of Bakotopia fame, and Dan Wheeler, who's about to pop a new site called Big Lick U. (It's a Roanoke in-joke.) Despite poor conditions -- the hall was eight rows deep and about a zillion chair wide -- the place was full and the audience was engaged. They had to push us out to make way for the next session. Jennifer Johnson blogged the session.

In action: Guides, not gatekeepers

Submitted by yelvington on January 29, 2007 - 12:17pm

In 1999 I declared that journalists must accept a new social role as guides, not gatekeepers. Today's New York Times has an excellent example of that principle in action, eviscerating the wingnut political online magazine Insight for publishing a stream of falsehoods.

Thank you, NAA

Submitted by yelvington on January 29, 2007 - 11:58am

I want to thank the members of the organization formerly known as the NAA New Media Federation for last night honoring me with the 2007 Online Innovator Award at the NAA Marketing/Connections conference in Las Vegas. Howard Finberg presented the award and pulled quotes from emails I had written more than a decade ago, which is a little frightening considering that sometimes I'm not sure I should have said what I said the morning after, much less more than 10 years after.

MyClaySun

Submitted by yelvington on January 25, 2007 - 8:57am

It's public now: We're launching another "daily" hyperlocal product, this one in a western suburb of Jacksonville, Fla., called MyClay Sun. It will have a four-day print publication schedule, "daily on the Web," with a participative community website. Some elements will be very similar to Bluffton Today, but there also will be some significant differences. Launch date is the middle of next month.

LA Times: The sleeper awakens

Submitted by yelvington on January 24, 2007 - 11:15pm

A few weeks ago the word was that the Los Angeles Times' "Manhattan project" (renamed "Spring Street") report had disappeared into the bureaucracy, never to be seen again. But it resurfaced today full of fury in a major shakeup outlined by Staci Kramer at paidContent.org. This is a big deal, and is especially remarkable considering the conditions under which it's happening. Ordinarily, when a company is on the auction block, paralysis ensues -- not radical change.