BusinessWeek sinks $16m on social media project September 15, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentSounds like a spectacularly large spend for a social networking site, even for a large publishing company. Makes me wonder if there's more to be told. From Brand Republic:
"As the bid deadline for ailing BusinessWeek magazine approaches the McGraw-Hill title is revealed to have spent $16m on creating its social networking site, which is generating little cash.
BusinessWeek launched its social networking venture Business Exchange in 2007. By 2008 it had spent $16m on the site, which is estimated by the New York Time to have generated just $600,000 in revenues."
Five free places to learn how to touch type online August 14, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentSites suggested by Jane Hart. For links, click through to her post (at end, below):
1. Goodtyping.com – Online typing course
2. Peter’s Online Typing Course – A set of free online typing lessons and typing exercises for beginning typists
3. Power Typing -this online free typing tutor is an educational web site for kids, students and adults alike!
4. typeonline.co.uk – structured touch typing course for motivated individuals looking to develop their keyboard skills
5. Typing Web – free online typing tutor & keyboarding tutorial for typists of all ages. All skill levels will benefit from TypingWeb’s free keyboarding lessons.
UPDATE: I’ve just found another one on my list!
6. Keybr – Online keyboarding lesson
You can't do that in a classroom! July 2, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentWhat traditional teaching env. canNOT do (Cath Ellis — great post): "I think it’s time we shifted our thinking away from what eLearning can do to what traditional teaching environments can’t do. The simple fact is, however, that such thinking is deeply iconoclastic. The simple suggestion that traditional, face-to-face learning environments have limitations and *gasp* may even be found wanting is unthinkable to many teachers and learners who have never experienced anything else. But that’s precisely the point. It’s vital that we be able to evaluate different teaching and learning environments on their objective relative merits in order to best harness their distinct potentials. As such, it’s vital that we move away from old-fashioned hierarchical thinking that positions face-to-face learning environments at the top of the heap.
To that end, here is a list of 5 things that can’t be (easily) done in a rigidly synchronous learning space (a time-limited physical face-to-face classroom) "
Search takes umlaut out of Bruno online July 2, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentGuardian style guide ed (David Marsh): " So we have opted to use the umlaut in the paper but not online. The production editor of guardian.co.uk says: "In exceptional cases such as this, where the stories are just not being found on the internet because of the accent, we will remove the relevant accent on the website." "
As style guide editor I support that decision, even though it has given rise to an unusual situation in which we are using one spelling in our newspapers and another on our website. There is not much point in being consistent, however, if no one is reading us.
A twitterable Twitter policy (Gruntled Employees) June 26, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , 1 comment so farJay Shepherd’s commonsense approach to corporate policy for use of social media. Includes 140-character policy for Twitter:
“I generally advocate a simpler approach that involves treating employees as grown-ups who have judgment. See, for example, “A two-word corporate blogging policy” and “The world’s shortest employee handbook.”
With that said, here is my take at a corporate Twitter policy that has the extra added benefit of being itself twitterable:
Our Twitter policy: Be professional, kind, discreet, authentic. Represent us well. Remember that you can’t control it once you hit ‘update.’ ”
How much will people pay for news? May 17, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentJohn Naughton: "…as providers disappear (or, like Murdoch, decide to charge), the supply of free news will diminish and something more like a normal market will emerge. Only then will we find out what people are willing to pay for news."
Print is still king: Only 3 percent of newspaper reading happens online » Nieman Journalism Lab April 29, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentMartin Langeveld does some estimates to get to this three percent figure and concludes:
"So whether you look at page views or time spent reading, only around 3 percent of newspaper reading happens online. I’ve made a few estimates along the way to reach that conclusion, but only a drastic and unwarranted change in my few guestimates would change that result signficantly.
Is it any wonder then, that online revenue is stuck at less than 10 percent of the print revenue? Given the online share of audience attention, 10 percent looks high, actually."
Covering the London Marathon using social media: 5 lessons learned :: Kate Day April 29, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentKate Day reflects on her experience — perhaps the most important point is: "Let the story choose the medium rather than worrying about playing with all the toys available to you."
So armed with my camera, three lenses, a laptop and an iPhone, I decided to see what it was like using social media to cover a live event. In fact, the process began a few days before the race. I knew my starting point would be great photos. So I asked my followers on Twitter where I should shoot from. They duly came back with ideas and one of them asked if I could send small pictures of each location out in my Twitter stream.
I began to see Twitter as a kind of glue that held the various pieces of coverage together, a way of giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it was like to be there photographing the event.
Seth's Blog: Warning: The internet is almost full April 29, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentSeth Godin's point about information overload seems well made:
Ten years ago, you had a shot of at least being aware of everything that mattered. Five years ago, you had to be really selective about what you took in, but at least it was possible to know what you didn't know. Today, it's impossible. Today, you can't even read every article on a thin slice of a thin topic.
You can't keep up with the status of your friends on the social networks. No way. You can't read every important blog… you can't even read all the blogs that tell you what the important blogs are saying.
Used to be, you could finish reading your email, hit "check email" and nothing new would show up. Now, of course, the new mail is probably a longer list than the mail you just finished processing.
The internet isn't full, but we are.
Building a local news mashup with Twitter, TwitterFeed, Delicious, Yahoo! Pipes, Ruby and RSS at Adrian Short March 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentIs this the future of hyperlocal news online? At least as a DIY aggregation from some key sources/searches? A clear outline of how Adrian Short does it for the site he runs, complete with PDF diagram:
“I’m a self-confessed and unashamed news junkie and this is how I’m starting to mash up news in my local area. For those that aren’t local, Sutton is a London borough with a population of approximately 180,000. Stonecot Hill is a neighbourhood within Sutton with a population of a few thousand.”