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Posted 5:04 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Wireless Tech: Gone to the Dogs
Steve Outing on deploying new technology
Here's yet another example of new uses for wireless technology being devised: GPS dog collars that help hunters know where their dogs are located, and even allow owners to speak commands to a dog who's out of sight. (Article from New Scientist. Thanks to the Spike Report for alerting me to this.) The link to journalism here is thin, but I point this out by way of saying that wireless technology and wireless Internet offer vast opportunities for all industries, and especially media. We've barely scratched the surface in creating services possible using wireless technology. Unwire yourself and go get creative.
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Posted 2:20 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
'Where Did You Come From?' 'I Don't Know'
Steve Outing on Web user behavior
In an item yesterday, I noted the new free e-newsletter, The Stella Awards, which Randy Cassingham tells me resulted in some new subscriptions. He asks new subscribers where they heard about Stella, and — perhaps this shouldn't be surprising — a couple people were confused. One wrote that he learned about the newsletter from Jim Romenesko's weblog (on Poynter.org); another said MediaBistro, a media jobs site. I've noticed this sort of thing before. My theory about it is this: As many of us go from website to website during a typical online session, we visit so many brand names that it's difficult to keep what we saw on any one site straight about the source. A more accurate way to figure out how a new subscriber or customer came to you is to rely on server referral logs. Human memory is too unreliable in an age of information overload.
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Posted 12:24 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
More Uses for Wi-Fi
Steve Outing on the modern museum
It's fascinating to me to watch new technologies like Wi-Fi (wireless networking) being implemented in the real world. BBC News reports an example: the Tate Museum in London has begun offering multimedia tours of its exhibitions on Wi-Fi equipped Pocket PCs (small personal digital assistants with wireless cards). This a great replacement for older devices that some museums use. When my wife and I toured the rock and roll museum in Seattle a few months ago, we were given multimedia tour guide devices, but the things were bulky and felt like they weighed a few pounds.
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Posted 11:48 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Customers Satisfied With News Sites
Martha Stone on Web consumer ratings
A customer satisfaction index from the University of Michigan reports that users are more satisfied with news and information sites than search engines or portals. Its most recent survey ranks satisfaction on a scale of 1-100. Search engines and portals both had an overall score of 68, while industry news and information sites scored 73. However, a wide range of scores show exceptions: Google gets a score of 90, for example, while Alta Vista is just 61. Meanwhile, there is not much difference among the news and information website scores: The industry score is 73, while ABCNews.com is 74 and NYTimes.com and USAToday.com are 71. (Here's more information about the index.)
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Posted 11:08 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Baseball? Who Needs Baseball? Not Big 12 Fans
Steve Klein on online sports content
On the heels of my item Thursday on MLB.com's live streaming video webcast of a game Monday came this note from FOXSports.com's Chris Malcom: "MLB testing a game is one thing, LIVE Big 12 football all season long is another." Quite another. In a joint press release with RealNetworks on Thursday, the two organizations announced exclusive streaming video online of Big 12 games, highlights, and other coverage through RealOne Super Pass. Your choices on Saturday: Texas A&M vs. Louisiana-Lafayette or Nebraska vs. Troy State. Real.com has all the details."Our hope is that alumni, students, and fans who may not be able to get to the games or who live too far to travel will now feel like they are in the middle of their most important games," said Ross Levinsohn, senior vice president and general manager of FOXSports.com. Baseball? Who's gonna miss baseball?
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Posted 4:35 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Calling a Jerk a Jerk
Steve Outing on weblog vs. print standards
I've written that weblogs give journalists a looser venue for expression than old media — less closely edited, and more appropriate for expressing strong opinions and using more casual language. Just take a look at a weblog item yesterday from Dan Gillmor, technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and blogger for the Merc's website: "[headline] Jerks Hack Music Industry Site. [text] Some bozos hacked the Recording Industry Association of America's website. Stupid and counterproductive. Sigh..." Do you think you'd ever see writing that forceful and personal in the newspaper? I doubt it. It's why I think the Web is a great thing for journalism — a place for new types of expression, even from "old-media" journalists now set free.
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Posted 3:49 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Here Come the Handwritten Websites
Steve Outing on website design
Tablet PCs, based on a new XP operating system from Microsoft, are due out in October or November. The long-awaited tablets will support handwritten documents, in lieu of those typed on a keyboard — using Microsoft's new note-taking utility, "Journal." In a Business 2.0 article by Chris Taylor is this prediction: Because you'll be able to save a handwritten note as an HTML document and put it on the Web in seconds, "get ready for a rash of handwritten websites."
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Posted 12:44 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Publishers Ruining E-books' Prospects
Steve Outing on digital reading
I was enthused by the idea of e-books a while back. The technology holds promise, but the industry hasn't captured the public's interest. But the technology isn't the problem — its the paranoia about piracy of book content by the publishing industry that's killing e-books before they get off the ground. A new survey of e-book device users helps to explain the sorry state of affairs with e-books. Here's an excerpted quote from a survey participant that succinctly sums up the problem:"I stopped using my e-book because of economic reasons and as a matter of principle. When I purchase a paperback, I can share it with my wife or friend. That is not possible with an e-book. I also think paying the same price for an e-book is not right when the publisher is not paying for paper, ink, binding, or labor. This is especially true when those purchasing a regular book can trade it in at a used bookstore for other books. So I stick to my principles and buy regular books. My general feeling is that e-book users are being taken advantage of by the publishing industry. It was a great idea to begin with, but the idea was abused by those trying to skim more money into their pockets."
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Posted 12:28 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Play Ball?
Steve Klein on online sports content
You can't blame MLB.com, the official Major League Baseball website, for trying to reach new audiences and try new things. But the irony of Friday's impending players' strike has to lay heavy over the apparent success of its first-ever live video webcast of a MLB game on Monday between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees. About 30,000 fans from around the world tuned in, and another 12,000 users within the local television markets for both teams attempted to watch but were denied access. The webcast, which took place on the 63rd anniversary of the first television broadcast of a baseball game, was blacked out in the local television markets to protect the local broadcasters' rights.About 10% of the viewers were from outside the U.S., from some 60 countries. Fans on the West Coast accounted for about 25% of the total audience. "One of the goals of the webcast was to expand the reach of the game throughout the world and we believe we were successful in doing that," said Daria DeBuono, director of streaming media at MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media company of MLB, which operates MLB.com and the 30 individual team sites. "We were very pleased with the quality of the broadcast and the positive reactions from fans around the world." Ah, but that will be completely forgotten if the players strike on Friday.
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Posted 12:23 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Law as Entertainment
Steve Outing on the Stella Awards
Journalist/humorist Randy Cassingham has a knack for devising entertaining and provocative syndicated columns and e-mail publications: This Is True (bizarre-but-true news items with quirky commentary); Heroic Stories (about real people doing heroic things). Cassingham's newest is The Stella Awards, true stories about ridiculous U.S. legal cases. The e-mail publication was inspired (and named) for Stella Liebeck, who was awarded $2.9 million in damages because a hot cup of McDonald's coffee was spilled on her. Cassingham says the intent is to be entertaining, but also to point out problems with the American legal system and abuse of it by greedy lawyers and plaintiffs.
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Posted 7:50 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Wireless, Dude, As In Mobile
Vin Crosbie on wireless Internet access
With some amusement, I'm reading the announcements that Starbucks and McDonald's will be offering 802.11b wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) within selected numbers of their restaurants. I'm amused because I am sunning myself at the beach while browsing the Web pages featuring those announcements. I browse using my Pocket PC Phone device, one of many converged, wireless PC-PDA-phone-e-mail-SMS-Web browser appliances now being sold worldwide. It accesses the Internet through "always on" GPRS connectivity. Relatively new (less than a month), these devices are sold under a variety of names; mine happens to be from T-Mobile, the same company (Deutsche Telekom) that's to provide Wi-Fi access to Starbucks. True, mine accesses the Internet at only DSL speeds (<171K baud), not the megabit speeds of Wi-Fi, and its 3x2.5-inch color touchscreen, which shows only a fraction of a Web page at a time, means I have to scroll down and sideways a lot when browsing. But I'm paying T-Mobile only a fifth what that Wi-Fi access costs at Starbucks and I can get this access anywhere, not just at selected restaurant franchises. Bravo to McDonald's and Starbucks for offering another reason to enter their premises, but wireless means to me not being leashed to their establishments. Oops, gotta go, the surf is up!
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Posted 2:36 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Oxygen Media to Lay Off 2/3 of Online Staff
Vin Crosbie on Web content
Oxygen Media yesterday announced that during the next three months it will lay off 29 of its 44-person website staff. The Associated Press reports that Oxygen CEO and chairwoman Geraldine Laybourne e-mailed the staff, "The online side is simply not structured in a way that it can sustain itself economically. Therefore, in order to do the right thing for Oxygen's business overall, we need to make some significant changes to that part of our business." The oxygen.com site will now focus on promoting the Oxygen cable TV network, rather than providing original content. Even its chat rooms will be phased out. The layoffs won't affect Oxygen Media's Oprah.com, a separate site employing 30 people.
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Posted 2:02 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Satellite Radio Flopping – a Lesson for the Web?
Steve Outing on paid content
As the Wall Street Journal reports today, U.S. satellite radio companies Sirius and XM Satellite Radio are having a tough time convincing people to pay $10 or more a month for radio — a medium that of course has historically been free. There's also the issue of buying a new satellite-equipped car radio (and adapter device for your home stereo), on top of the monthly fee — but I think the subscription fee is the killer. Free commercial radio (even though it's abysmal in most markets) is "good enough" that most people won't yet pay for a higher quality replacement.This might be a cautionary tale for media websites now considering or moving to paid-content models. Beware: Internet users may well find similar but not-quite-as-good content for free that's good enough. It won't be easy for many Web publishers to get online users to pay up.
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Posted 12:59 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Internet, Everywhere ...
Steve Outing on future trends
... Well, not yet everywhere, but the reach of the Internet continues to broaden. You probably noticed last week's announcement that most Starbucks coffeehouses in the U.S. now offer wireless Internet broadband service. Today, CBS Marketwatch's Internet Daily reports that automaker Toyota will make access to a new Internet network standard on all vehicles it releases into the Japanese market, beginning this fall. Honda is expected to announce a rival service tomorrow. This is important stuff for media companies to note. Mobile Internet will present new opportunities for media companies to reach their customers — even when they're in transit.
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Posted 12:25 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Tech Industry Slowdown Shows Up on Campus
Steve Klein on information technology education
At George Mason University, where I teach, the journalism courses like "Writing Across Media" and "Newswriting and Reporting" are filled to capacity. But a story in the Washington Post by Ellen McCarthy reports that enrollment in undergraduate computer science departments is down. A report by the Computing Research Association said that the number of undergraduates majoring in computer science fell by 1% in 2001, and that number may be accelerating into a trend.To use numbers from GMU, 900 of the 2,000-plus undergraduates studying information technology and engineering last school year were computer science majors. This year, enrollment is down to 800 — although a new, more general information technology major has attracted 200 students. "Having it ease off for a while is a bit of a relief," said Lloyd Griffith, dean of GMU's information technology and engineering school. "Particularly with the field as it has been, they don't want to spend four years on something and then not get a job." And while students still (hopefully) go to college to get an education, their bottom line is graduating with job prospects. The jury is still out on the "Online Journalism" course I teach, since it will not be offered until second semester.
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Posted 1:54 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Ted Nelson, Xanadu, and Microtransactions
David Carlson on the evolution of online content
Any talk of paying for online content can, it seems to me, be enriched by a short discussion about Ted Nelson, inventor of the word "hypertext" and also, I believe, originator of the concept that has come to be called "microtransactions." If you will forgive me for oversimplifying a bit in the interest of brevity, Nelson's idea, put forth in various writings between 1965 and 1987, is, in part, that each of us would pay a tiny amount, as in tenths or even hundredths of a cent, for each bit of information we consume. Quoted information would be linked, not reproduced. Thanks to hypertext, Nelson wrote, "[T]he customer is buying the fragments from the original author whenever those quotations are read. So, nothing is misquoted, nothing is out of context, credit is apportioned correctly, and royalties are apportioned correctly."Nelson's dream was a software framework he called "Xanadu." He coined plenty of other words and important concepts as well, including "humbers" (humongous numbers), "hypergrams" (branching pictures), and the "docuverse." A Google search turns up hundreds of references to Nelson and his work, including his austere home page and a nice read from the Wired archive.
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Posted 12:00 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
How Do You Spell XAT?
Juan C. Camus on wireless chat
A full-blown ad campaign in Chile has been launched to teach people how to chat through their mobile phones. The force behind the campaign is Entel, an Italian company. Since four major players in the Chile market have agreed to use the same platform to send messages between their users, Entel was the first to go ahead and offer an interesting glossary about how to shorten words and send them via mobile phones. For example, XAT means Chat. You can see that glossary at the Entel PCS website.
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Posted 11:49 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Adult Content Weathers the Storm
Steve Outing on online user preferences
CBS Marketwatch's Internet Daily reports some interesting numbers from Nielsen/NetRatings: U.S. traffic to adult/sex entertainment sites in July was up 5% from year-ago levels; the category had 28.3 million visitors. By comparison, the news sites category drew 50.1 million visitors during the matching time period, and sports sites had 36.4 million. The notable news about the online adult-content sector is that it seems to be recession-proof.
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Posted 10:51 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Hidden Cost of Charging for Content
Carla Passino on the impact of pay-per-view model
As I go on my daily news trawl on the Web these days, I seem to stumble upon an increasing number of pay-per-view or subscription-only websites. In Britain alone, the Times Online has been charging foreign users for access since last spring, while the BBC, which is rumored to be considering the idea, now asks first time users whether they are UK residents. The FT.com — ever the global newspaper — charges Britons and foreigners alike to view premium editorial.With my publisher's hat on, I obviously welcome the move. Producing quality content — online or otherwise — is an expensive exercise, and anything that adds to the revenue stream is good news to me. Wearing my Internet user's hat, however, I can't help but worry about the implications of the charge-for-access model on the living Web — that myriad of sites that are updated every day, feeding on one another's content. Many heavy-linking weblogs, for example, would cease to exist. I, for one, would sooner kill my international news weblog than subscribe to the hundred or so websites which I mine for news every week. The best solution, in my view, is a compromise a la Time.com (standard disclaimer: I am employed by IPC Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc.). Charge for archive content, but keep news free.
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Posted 5:32 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Baser Side of the Internet
Steve Klein on making money online
It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that the place to make money on the Internet is in the gutter. "Life is good at the bottom of the cyberspace pit," writes John Schwartz in the New York Times. It seems that the best way to make money online isn't much different than a tried-and-true method off-line: "selling titillation and cheating their customers," according to Schwartz. That certainly sounds like the spam I get. You, too?"Every industry has its charlatans, and e-commerce is getting its share," said Safa Rashtchy, an analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. "I don't see evidence that it is more than you would expect, especially in a new industry." And what might that portend for online media companies? "It is not easy to find many pure Internet companies that make healthy profits without appealing to baser interests or using questionable business practices," writes Schwartz. "Even huge companies like AOL Time Warner appear to be struggling to figure out — still — how to come up with online content and services that mainstream consumers will be willing to pay for." Fortunately, the mainstream media isn't willing to stoop so low.
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Posted 4:26 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Contrarian Thought
Steve Outing on paid vs. free online news
Here's something to think about — something "out of the box." Rusty Foster, proprietor of the popular community site Kuro5hin, posted this comment to Poynter's Online-News discussion list today: "Has anyone tried the 'pay for fresh news, free archives' approach? This always seemed to make a hell of a lot more sense economically for the news business to me, but it doesn't seem to come up much. I think having news be subscription-only for, say, two weeks, and then pass into a free public archive would perhaps be one way of both supporting online news as an industry, while also serving the greater good of making information generally available. The trend has been the reverse, locking news up in paid archives when it's no longer fresh. Isn't most of the value of news precisely in the fact that it's 'new'? Why not charge for the valuable part of your product and give it away once it becomes fish-wrap?"
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Posted 9:14 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Wedding Notices in Print vs. Online
Steve Outing on outdated journalism
You probably noticed last week the debate about the New York Times beginning to publish wedding or "commitment ceremony" announcements for gays. The controversy shed light on the whole idea of newspaper wedding and engagement pages — seemingly benign content that actually can be criticized for excluding "lower" socio-economic classes of people. Especially in the cases of large metro papers, a single weddings page once a week is sure to be an element in a newspaper's "society" coverage. I find the idea of exclusionary wedding pages in print anachronistic, so here's an idea (not a new one, but seldom employed) — for the Times and every other metro paper that doesn't have the newshole space to publish every wedding/engagement announcement it receives: Use the print space for something else and let every couple that submits an announcement be published on the paper's website. Promote it in print. Charge for "premium" announcements, or including a photo of the couple. And if a significant wedding or engagement comes along, cover it as a news story, based on its merits as one. Foremost, get in tune with the times.
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Posted 8:48 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Afghan Internet Publishing – Really
Steve Outing on connecting to the rest of the world
Well-traveled Andrew Stroehlein, who among other things contributes to this weblog, has an article in Online Journalism Review about his experience teaching eager Afghans to publish on the Web. He begins: "On my recent media-training visit to Kabul, a group of Afghan journalists asked me for some instruction in online publishing. 'Just one problem,' they said. 'No one has any Internet access here yet.'" Teaching Afghans about the Internet is not folly, however. As Stroehlein suggests, the baby steps he helped a few Afghan journalists take were important in "finally bringing some light to an information blackout and connecting a country that has for too long been separated from the rest of the world — and with disastrous results. The dirt track of Afghan online publishing is ready to merge with the world's information super-highway."
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