links for 2009-09-21

"What it says is that for most journalists and newspapers, having comments isn’t something fundamental or necessary — or even beneficial. If they don’t produce useful news, then many don’t seem to see the point. The idea that creating a real community around the news — or rather, enhancing and appealing to a community that already exists — might be valuable all by itself never seems to enter their minds. (Some newspapers get it, however, including the Telegraph and the Guardian, and both have done an excellent job on the community front.)"

"Since the 80s, when prestige pointed towards the City, the role of University has been to mass manufacture business graduates (of all flavours) and pump them out so they can get 'a good job', where good is use innovatively to mean 'well paid' rather than the classic use to mean 'to the benefit of society'."

"A council in the Black Country spent £27,880 in three years on superhero-themed plays about recycling and rapping robots who sing about the environment". Or, if you actually read the figures in the story, they managed to get over 14,000 pupils to enjoy something entertaining and educational at school at a cost of around either £1.58 per pupil, or 48p per pupil, depending on whether it was 'Eco Girl' or 'Rapping Robot'. Conservative group leader Councillor Tony Ward calls this 'a waste of money'.

More from Simon on the tech-side of crowd-sourcing MPs expenses - with code snippets showing how it was done.

"Thompson suggests that bringing a Wikipedia-style format to online newsrooms could prove to be a step in the right direction. He might have something there. Every time I want a quick education on a topic I’m unfamiliar with, I head to Wikipedia. As a responsible journalist, I’ve been taught to double-check all the facts I use from the site with primary sources, but the user-generated encyclopedia provides more context and background to an issue than any news Web site I know. In addition, it boasts of updates in almost real time."

This is a great list, but to be honest, if these are ten things Niki *always* forgets about launching websites, they should find another career - maybe "Ten things *you* *might* forget about launching a website but *I* never do" would have been a better title ;-)

"The single biggest mistake you can make is to fail to show up at the party where you're supposed to be the host. Your presence is important and valued by your users. This isn't just a place for your 'community interaction expert' or 'social media editor'. This is a place for reporters and senior editors, too". And, I'd argue, it is also a place for your digital product managers, user experience team and software developers too.

"In fact the downloadable PDF still lives on – and any Telegraph reader missing the ‘old’ form need only hold their nose, make their way across to the Guardian site, and print a copy of G24. Perhaps G24 is still used in large numbers, maybe the overheads are small enough to sustain the remaining hardcore, or maybe the Guardian’s digital bosses have forgotten it exists."

"The Independent's media columnist Stephen Glover could not resist commenting today on the Guardian Media Group in an article headlined 'When an editor's ambitions were too grandiose' in which he compares editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger to the beleaguered Prime Minister". The loss-making Independent in another dig at the loss-making Guardian, which will no doubt be picked up by the loss-making Times and the loss-making Telegraph. I wonder how interested our collective bunch of readers actually are in this merry-go-round of introspective misery?

Using weird and oddball stories and video to teach Greek children English-as-a-foreign-language.

"The London Underground late at night has a haunting atmosphere with its labyrinth of subterranean tunnels, passages, disturbed burial grounds and whatever might lurk down there. Workers on the Underground have often reported strange incidents such as unexplained noises and sightings of ‘people’ that had reputedly died years earlier". A free lunchtime talk from the authors of "The Haunted Underground"

Guardian Open Platform is supporting this event - billed as a day of 'cross disciplinary frolicking' - which looks like a really excellent day. But don't go to it - come to my blog training day instead, which clashes...