Last Thoughts in the Last Moments of the Year

 

This might be my last note this year. Best wishes to all my colleagues, friends and readers for a happy and healthy New Year.
I suppose the best wish all media and communications activists could have for the next year, would be that of Joichi Ito, Vice President of international and mobility for Technorati, at Global Voices. He wishes for the Global Voices Covenant to become our standard for free communication.
Ito says:

In the past, we had to rely on TV shows to try to feel empathy for people in other countries and organizations such as UNICEF to try to give our support to humanitarian efforts. These were and are noble efforts. However, at our fingertips, we have the ability to reach out and speak to, build bridges with and interact with those people we have been "wishing well" to in the abstract for all of these years. We have a long way to go before we are able to hear the voices of everyone on earth, but I believe that providing voices and building bridges is essential for the World Peace we all wish for...

According to the Global Voices Manifesto, renamed to the Global Voices Covenant 0.2:

...We believe in universal access to the tools of speech...
Thanks to new tools, speech need no longer be controlled by those who own the means of publishing and distribution, or by governments that would restrict thought and communication. Now, anyone can wield the power of the press. Everyone can tell their stories to the world.
We want to build bridges across the gulfs of culture and language that divide people, so as to understand each other more fully...
We believe in the power of direct connection. The bond between individuals from different worlds is personal, political and powerful. We believe conversation across boundaries is essential to a future that is free, fair, prosperous and sustainable - for all citizens of this planet...
We are Global Voices.

Nothing else to say except wishing you all the best in the New Year.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  5:53 PM

Wikipedia's New Definition of Citizen Journalism

 

As you may know, Wikipedia is a project to create a multilingual encyclopedia with the participation of every one who has knowledge on anything. Sheldon Ramption, a PR critic and the editor of PR Watch at the Center for Media and Democracy, has recently edited the Citizen Journalism definition on Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
According to the new definition, Citizen Journalism has been modified as follows:

Citizen journalism, also known as "participatory journalism" is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal report, We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information, by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. They say, "The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires..."

You can review the previous definitions of Citizen Journalism here.
By the way, everybody is welcomed to participate and add one's definition.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  2:11 PM

Google's Eyes Uncover the Invisible World of People's Minds

 

Many wish they could read people's minds. If you take a walk through Google Suggest you'll see it is not just a wish anymore.

As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time...

, Google says.
When you start typing a keyword in the search field of Google Suggest, a drop-down menu containing a list of popular words appears. The words, based on what other people have previously searched for, start with the same letters you are entering...
It is a great tool to promote your company's strategies against competitors and to raise your rank in search engines. What do you think?

Our algorithms use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see. For example, Google Suggest uses data about the overall popularity of various searches to help rank the refinements it offers. An example of this type of popularity information can be found in the Google Zeitgeist. Google Suggest does not base its suggestions on your personal search history.

, this is the way Google Suggest works

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  11:57 AM

What label best fits "War in Iraq"?

 

Mop-up operation or a raging war? Occupation or liberation? The press has long been divided on what to call the current conflict in Iraq...

You may remember, in my notes posted last March, i.e. The Media Function of the Iraq War, I was not sure what label would best fit the war in Iraq...
Editor and Publisher notices that the Washington Post is reconsidering its many-months-old practice of running news about the war in Iraq under the label Postwar Iraq.
E&D adds:

The New York Times no longer runs Iraq news under a continuing heading.

Have a look at E&P's 'Washington Post' Reconsiders 'Postwar' Label.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  1:19 PM

One Story, Two Views: Citizen Journalism vs Professional Journalism

 

Let's have a look at the future of journalism through a subway fire in New York City! To do this, we have to just sit and look through the eyes of Pro Journalism and Citizen journalism. You can make a comparison of two approaches of Pro journalism and Citizen journalism at New York Times and Newsday and Dawn Summers' blog.
Newsday and New York Times report on the accident in a rather matter of fact way and Dawn Summers, a citizen journalist who was inside the train, gives us an inside look.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  10:41 AM

The Media Company "I Wish" to Work For, too!

 

Mark Glaser writes technology features for TechWeb, occasional features for The New York Times' Circuits section and a bi-weekly e-mail newsletter for the Online Publishers Association, whose membership includes most major media companies online. That won't stop him from taking cheap potshots at these outlets, when necessary. "Time for someone to do it, to make the case for a new way of doing journalism, to stop talking about change in decades and start thinking about change in months and days. To stop complaining about the way things are, and the way things don't work, and to start doing it differently...", he says.
Glaser has an interesting essay on Pressthink: The Media Company I Want to Work For-- Not Someday, But Now. Says Glazer:

"I am tired of waiting for media companies to change and figure out the way that the business is shifting right beneath their short-sighted eyes. When are they going to understand that their readers are more important than their stockholders? When are they going to understand their readers at all?"

I and Glaser share the same idea about such a company's website:

"There would be no registration or walls to content, archives, or old links."

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  11:53 AM

"English" for a while

 

Wishing to write in Farsi, but yet I can not, so I suppose I have to write in English for a while.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  11:51 AM