Thursday, August 4, 2005
See the "comment" link below for the discussion question -- and to join in.
(This is a demo. The first comments below are actually mine, about the limitations of this system.)
4:39:08 PM #
(This is a demo. The first comments below are actually mine, about the limitations of this system.)
4:39:08 PM #
Will the Newspaper Division of AEJMC support the idea of having online
discussions of issues related to journalism education and the future of
newspapers? Maybe, but it will take some selling. Two systems called Conversate and QuickTopic may be just what we need, since they are specifically built for inviting people into a discussion. (More on them later.)
On the simplest level, we could do something similar with a mailing list and a weblog, using something like the "comment" button at the bottom of this blog item -- or an item here containing a more carefully thought out "call for conversation." All of these systems share one main virtue: The "conversation" doesn't fill up your e-mail basket.
Userland Manila (example) and Radio Userland (this blog's comment system) use the same approach -- by default a "comment" link at the end of the message opens a separate window in which visitors' comments are entered and stacked. Newer blogging software may create more attractive presentations of discussion items, sometimes integrating them at the bottom of the original message. Here are some examples:
For groups, bulletin boards like phpBB, Phorum and slashcode are much more flexible at managing frequent discussions by a lot of people on a lot of topics. I doubt that the Newspaper Division needs that power -- at least not yet.
Other options include Yahoo groups (which subscribers can read online or receive as e-mail), and new speedy-turnaround systems like Conversate and QuickTopic, which I'd recommend the division officers take a look at. QuickTopic has been around a while; Conversate has a somewhat cleaner and easier to understand interface, but it's still in Beta testing.
Back to the proposed topics of journalism education and the future of newspapers, if division officers need more reference material to help start the discussion, I've already included many relevant links in these articles from earlier this year:
4:20:31 PM #
On the simplest level, we could do something similar with a mailing list and a weblog, using something like the "comment" button at the bottom of this blog item -- or an item here containing a more carefully thought out "call for conversation." All of these systems share one main virtue: The "conversation" doesn't fill up your e-mail basket.
Userland Manila (example) and Radio Userland (this blog's comment system) use the same approach -- by default a "comment" link at the end of the message opens a separate window in which visitors' comments are entered and stacked. Newer blogging software may create more attractive presentations of discussion items, sometimes integrating them at the bottom of the original message. Here are some examples:
- Press Think (using MoveableType)
- RTB (using Cold Fusion)
- Radio Open Source (using WordPress)
For groups, bulletin boards like phpBB, Phorum and slashcode are much more flexible at managing frequent discussions by a lot of people on a lot of topics. I doubt that the Newspaper Division needs that power -- at least not yet.
Other options include Yahoo groups (which subscribers can read online or receive as e-mail), and new speedy-turnaround systems like Conversate and QuickTopic, which I'd recommend the division officers take a look at. QuickTopic has been around a while; Conversate has a somewhat cleaner and easier to understand interface, but it's still in Beta testing.
Back to the proposed topics of journalism education and the future of newspapers, if division officers need more reference material to help start the discussion, I've already included many relevant links in these articles from earlier this year:
- New Ideas for Journalism Education (The Knight-Carnegie project)
- More than a soundbite about journalism ed ("What can universities do?")
- Old-media tycoon warns editors to think young & digital (Rupert Murdoch)
- Future-of-Print Article Brings Back 1995 Web Memory (Advertising the future of news)
- Good news and bad news about news (from E&P and Bill Moyers)
- Collaborative citizen journalism reviewed (A half-dozen examples, via MIT)
- Aggregating new newsrooms (Steve Outing & Jeff Jarvis on what newspapers should do now.)
- Just What the Journalist Ego Needs: "Newspapers are cockroaches. No matter what is introduced into the media ecosystem, the oldest of the Big Media survives..." (Business Week getting optimistic, plus more on "citizen journalism.")
4:20:31 PM #
Copyright 2009 Bob Stepno
Theme Design by Bryan Bell
