I’ll be at the Society of Editors conference in Bristol on Monday. I’m promised wifi so I’ll try to Twitter away and Qik too if a suitable opportunity arises. If you’ll be there too, let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter.
Demonstrating once again why journalists should not only blog but monitor incoming links, the BBC’s response to the recent story about ‘holding back Google juice’ in its linking came to my attention as I was scanning the incoming links to this blog. John O’Donovan, Chief Architect, BBC FM&T Journalism, says “nothing sinister”, and:
“We are rolling out improvements to the way this works, as already used on some other parts of the website. Essentially we use JavaScript to retain SEO (“Search Engine Optimisation“) and Google juice for external sites, while we will still be able to track external links. Search Engines, casual observers and those without JavaScript will still see the original URL.”
That’s the question bumping around my mind after reading this post at SEObook.com:
“if you are not an AdWords advertiser, are not in universal search verticals (like news and video), and are not wikipedia, then you don’t have many organic search results that you can rank for on the first page.”
The image makes it clearer:
In some ways, blogs are better placed than ordinary websites, as Google may be indexing your blog as part of its news search. But that isn’t particularly comforting. The wider move towards mainstream results that keep you within Google doesn’t look particularly healthy.
Here’s what SEObook suggests:
The only upside? Google may be making itself less relevant, and more open to competition.
Mirror's mobile site at 8.53am on Nov 5 2008
Elections bring out the best in online journalism. News organisations have plenty of time to plan, there’s a global audience up for grabs, and the material lends itself to interactive treatment (voter opinions; candidates’ stances on various issues; statistics and databases; constant updates; personalisation).
Not only that, but the electorate is using the internet for election news more than any other medium apart from television (and here are some reasons why).
PaidContent has a good roundup of various UK editors’ views, and decides blogs, Twitter and data are the themes (more specifically, liveblogging and mapping). Continue reading
Written by Wilbert Baan
Today is the day of the US elections. I don’t think we ever had a live event on the web that will get so much live coverage. This means incredible amounts of information will be published over all kind of services and social networks. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, WordPress, Blogger and many more.
Most popular web services have programmable interfaces. These interfaces allow developers to extract information out of the system. This creates a whole new genre of storytelling: storytelling with public databases. You can aggregate the information you need and sort it the way you want.
To prove the concept I made three small mock-ups. They all use search.twitter.com to see how people voted.
When I made the first the first animation Erik Borra replied by developing the idea into something that stores the data retrieved from Twitter in a database. I made a new interface that shows a graph based on what people say they voted on Twitter. And the result is a Twitter Poll.
These three examples are not representative data, it is extracted from Twitter. But it shows you how much personal and valuable information is in the public database. All you have to do is ask yourself what you want to tell to your readers and if this information is available.
I voted
This animation gets the latest twitter message where someone says they voted on McCain or Obama. It automatically refreshes. Continue reading
In the latest in my series of interviews with the people who deal with online communities as part of their job, I speak to Ning‘s Laura Gluhanich. Laura started at Ning in 2007 as a Community Advocate. Prior to that, she spent 4 years in restaurant management in her native Michigan. As acting Manager of Support at Ning, she manages the front line of community feedback regarding the platform. She spends her time at http://help.ning.com, http://blog.ning.com, and http://twitter.com/lauragatning.
Here are the 3 things she’s learned about community management:
Each person on our platform has created a network or belongs to one. Each member of my team is familiar with hundreds of networks and their Network Creators. This familiarity leads to better support because we know a fan network for a band is different from one that is used to collaborate in the classroom, and can respond to their needs better with that knowledge.
Community guidelines are there for a reason, and consistency is key to providing a great environment for people to engage. That said, there will always be unique cases where you will need to be creative with a solution that benefits all involved.
The larger your community gets, the less you are looked at and treated as a real person. It is important to provide context and explanation for changes and decisions, and to admit mistakes to your community. Your communications and online presence should reflect your personality.
Written by Wilbert Baan
The last year has seen social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn updating the design of the homepage to turn it more into a notification page: the homepage as a place where you can see what your friends are doing. Your virtual center of the network.
These updates let you know what your friends are up to, but they also let you know what your friends like or share. The social networks often work as recommendation networks as well. Continue reading
Alex Gamela talks to Dave Cohn, founder of the non-profit, crowdfunding journalism project Spot.us, winner of a Knight News Challenge grant, and a suggested new model for the news business. On the eve of launching the Spot.us official website, Dave told OJB how he is putting his ideas into practice, and his views on the current state of journalism.
Four months after winning the KNC grant, Dave Cohn is a happy man. He started with a wiki where he presented and tested the different sides to his project, and he quickly managed to fund three stories. Now it is on its way to fund a fourth one. All of this even before having an official website. Continue reading
I’ve created a social network for anyone researching news and journalism. It’s at http://onlinejournalismresearch.ning.com/
It’s an attempt to provide a way for journalism students and academics to get in touch with others researching the same area, exchange ideas and tips, and ask for help on everything from finding relevant literature to sourcing contacts and the best research methods.
Research is traditionally a solitary, frustrating endeavour. It doesn’t need to be. If you work with journalism students, please encourage them to join the network and contribute a question or an answer.
If it helps, I’ll be hanging around trying to help as much as I can, and I’ll be inviting others to do the same.
Let’s get news research networked.
Online Journalism Blog 