I haven't blogged here for over a year. That's not to say I haven't written posts elsewhere, because I have; or that I've not been writing posts for this blog because I have - I just haven't pressed publish. It's not that I didn't want to write, it was just a job too far with... Continue Reading →
In praise of failing slow
I have a problem with Failing Fast. It’s a phrase that crops up in discussions around newsroom evolution, and in presentations at journalism conferences, and I have to wonder, did whoever first coined the phrase (in a non-Product context, at least,) really believe a failing quickly and moving on to the next thing a good thing?... Continue Reading →
A ‘how to blog’ talk got me blogging again.
Long-term work and blogging compadre David Higgerson and I were asked to give a talk on blogging recently. Obviously David has lots of thoughts on this subject because... pause... he still actually blogs (and there aren't many journo bloggers from way back when resolutely still plugging away - Hello! Adam and Paul !) Every one seems to be... Continue Reading →
Facebook and the blue pill of news
"You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe" * I read a Roy Greenslade blog post today about Facebook, and it made me thoughtful about our attitudes towards the ownership of news and information in the way the phrase "Google's tanks are on our... Continue Reading →
What should a local news source be?
I was thinking today about an upcoming reader project and started jotting down what I'd want from a regional news provider. I don't mean section headings ('news' or 'information' are givens, surely?) ; I mean, what values would make me think of them as more than a purely geographic recorder and pusher of information. In... Continue Reading →
#ONALondon keynote: What journalists can learn from game design
Speaker: Lindsay Grace - Associate Professor and Director of American University's Game Lab and Studio, American University Lindsay is a game maker and teaching games and interactive media for 12 years. He is an associate professor at American University and founding director of the American University Game Lab and Studio. More about his work here... Continue Reading →
#ONALondon session: Reaching Unexpected Audiences With New Platforms
Erica Berger, who is founder of Catchpool and Co-Founder of Mileage Media, kicked off her session with some impressive facts: 30 mins a day spent per day for average users of Snapchat Instagram has 77% of audience outside the USA Soundcloud has 350m users a month WhatsApp has 990m users - 70% use it daily;... Continue Reading →
#ONALondon Session: Crowdsourcing as the ultimate strategic engagement
Panel: Mimi Onuoha, Research Fellow, Data & Society, Tow Society for Digital Journalism, Katerina Stravroula, freelance journalist and radio producer based in Athen and Tobias Dorfer MO: Co-author of Tow report on the subject and before you read any further, you probably need to open this http://towcenter.org/research/guide-to-crowdsourcing/ Broadly defined by the Tow report as ‘The act... Continue Reading →
#ONALondon Session: It just got personal – engagement via chat apps
Speaker: Sarah Marshall, Social Media Editor, The Wall Street Journal, EMEA. I'm going to make the bold prediction - with the afternoon still to go - that this is my favourite session. I learned so much, and enjoyed the speakers enormously although sadly I didn't catch the name of the Globe&Mail ad hoc speaker. Sarah... Continue Reading →
#ONALondon ‘When news breaks bad: UGC in the newsroom’ session
Panel: Mandy Jenkins, VP ONA board, head of news, Storyful; Fergus Bell, ONA Ethics committee, and Dig Deeper Media Ok, so for this blog post to make much sense you probably need to head straight to http://toolkit.journalists.org and have a look at that, because this is what we're talking about. Done that? Good - the... Continue Reading →
Alison Gow | Building the New 