Delicious linklog

A little bit more on the digital implications of The Guardian's World Cup archive wall - this time for guardian.co.uk itself

"It's the off-hand way that a creator from another branch of the publishing business dismisses the future of our industry that stands out to me - they think that newspapers are now so unimportant that the character doesn't carry the same weight as an editor as he once did..." *shudders*

"Time Inc. likes to show off its iPad apps as a symbol of the company’s future. But inside the publisher, the digital editions have become a source of hair-pulling frustration. That’s because the magazine giant has been unable to get Apple to let it sell and manage subscriptions for its iPad apps — much to Time Inc.’s surprise."

Fascinating post from Kristine that weaves together a lot of current strands about privacy, social media, journalists vs bloggers to suggest that we are currently in transition phase before we reach "a world where most everyone who is someone has said and done plenty of stupid things online, revealing their most awkward traits or most foolish decisions" and "it will be those who have no online history to speak of who will come across as suspicious."

In depth blogpost from John O'Donovan about the behind the scenes changes to the BBC News content production system, including screenshots.

"On the one hand, I love Google Trends. It’s fun seeing what the top terms are that are sparking interest. It’s also smart publishers that tap into this type of data. On the other hand, it’s clear how much garbage that Google has caused to be generated, simply by publishing the trends. But that garbage wouldn’t happen, if it didn’t know it was going to be rewarded. It is, both with traffic from Google and from revenue from Google for those carrying its ads."

"Not enough attention has been paid to a remarkable U-turn, and a piece of buck-passing, by the government over its broken pledge to give defendants in rape cases anonymity.....He [Justice minister Crispin Blunt] even suggested that the PCC guidance to editors in 2004 recommending that papers do not identify people before they are charged with rape should be strengthened. That took me by surprise because I couldn't recall the PCC ever issuing such guidance on rape. So I checked and discovered that no guidance exists, and nothing so specific has ever been issued."

Should be compulsory reading for any men or women in technology.

"The Wikileaks disclosure of thousands of Afghanistan war records was datajournalism in action. This is how we did it".

"Ridding also points to the fact that the FT has had 250,000 iPad downloads in the US, which has driven 10% of all digital subscriptions even though it is currently available on a free trial. And the average session time is reported to be a staggering 25 minutes". Wow.

Raises some interesting points about the tone of sensitive local news coverage on Twitter, and when engaging in the comments can cause unexpected reactions.

A new angle on the journalism vs bloggers debate - now with added criticsim of journalists who blog but not in a journalist-y enough way. A very passionate post from David Higgerson.

"Any four of us can get behind a keyboard and -- not to dismiss his talent -- come up with an interesting harmony or melody. I don't think we're afraid to work on music without him". Said the drummer, totally dismissing his talent.

"Here is a flier obtained from the long since demolished record store (remember them) known as Reckless Records". There is a statistical chance that I gave this man this flyer.

"This month's FUMSI collection reminds me of how much this real-time feedback and social collaboration has invaded our corporate and institutional worlds."

"I feel guilty. I feel guilty when I look at a certain interface elements. It's the unread, or "new" count, that little number you see by your email inbox or beside a subscription in your RSS reader. Drawar, a design blog and community, has recently added a little sidebar box that shows the number of new site updates. Unless you click on the link to see the feed of updates, the counter will just keep going up. Worse, the box detaches itself and follows you as you scroll down the page, leaving no escape from the counter."

This story involves several levels of bonkers [ahem], and is, I reckon, the only time you are going to see the word "bukkake" on the PCC website and currybet blog...

The links all seem to be about $ex today: "So, with a little research The Sun could easily have presented this as an interesting case study in how modernisation within the health sector is putting public services on a more commercial footing through investment in improving services. But that wouldn't be a good story would it."

"If you're a blogger and you've been offended somehow by my piece, ask yourself why -- I highly suspect it's because I called some behavior of yours out as not being 'journalist-y' enough. While it's true that we all hold ourselves to different professional standards, the above are pretty basic. If you feel threatened or attacked by what I've written, I suggest you get back at me by taking a couple journalism classes at a community college and doing an internship at a local newspaper; it'll change your writing and your life". Or maybe, the reason as a blogger you'll be annoyed is because, for the nth hundredth time in the last ten years, someone has failed to grasp that BLOGGER != JOURNALIST, or that many bloggers aren't interested in doing journalism, or that essays like this about the wonderful ethics and brilliance of the journalism profession would ring a lot more true if NEWSPAPERS DIDN'T KEEP SIMPLY MAKING THINGS UP TO SELL PAPERS. *And breathe*

"Once you've launched a site, the most important thing to do is be ready and poised to completely change it. Reacting very quickly to real-world feedback can turn unseen problem areas into strengths. I wanted to share a real-world example with you of how we recently did this on a project of ours."

One of the Polis Summer School papers that Charlie Beckett has been publishing on his blog, this one includes a look at the Trafigura injunction & Twitter exposure

I rather think that Oliver Brown has missed the point here. He makes a lot of Hungary not being a fitting choice of opposition. Surely they have been chosen as preparation for the Euro2012 fixture against Bulgaria, which he doesn't mention at all?

Now, what strikes me as interesting here is that, in contrast to the PCC, it only took two complaints from third parties to get ASA involved in assessing the way this offer was promoted.

"I, for one, will be avoiding YouTube in case I puke up my own pelvic bone."

Ian Usher jokingly suggested to me on Twitter this article had been commissioned purely as a response to criticism of the BBC News redesign.

"Online journalism innovator Paul Bradshaw has taken voluntary redundancy from his post as course leader for the online journalism MA at Birmingham City University, in what he says was a 'complicated decision'".

"With the current revolution in technology and journalism, many journalism pundits are blindly advocating non-technical journalists learn programming and web development skills. Programming, as opposed to coding HTML or CSS, takes a considerable time commitment to learn and may or may not come natural to the average journalist. Use the flowchart below to determine whether or not learning programming/web development is the right choice for you". Great chart. As I always argue, it is a *programming mindset* that is more likely to be beneficial to the average journalist than being able to crank out "Hello, World!" scripts.

"Mixed feelings over paywall stats: maliciously pleased fewer people reading the Times; slightly despairing that no-one willing to buy news."

"I have updated my Times blog post with a new intro. This hopefully makes clear that the rest of it is utter bollocks". If only all newspaper corrections and clarifications were as frank as this...

"He has commented on Coles' blog to say:'I've just checked the daily # of visitors on the new site, and I'm pleased to say that you are *spectacularly* underestimating that number". What I'm finding entertaining is the way that when Tom Whitwell or colleagues speak in public now, it seems we are contractually obliged to say they are speaking "from beyond the paywall" as if we need to have some kind of seance for them to get through