Future of Newspapers
August 30th, 2006Here ya go brainiacs… various opinions on the future of newspapers.
They are dead: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37138-2005Feb19.html
They are not dead: http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=3885
Somewhere inbetween: http://www.slate.com/id/2133847/
Hopeful for transformation: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7830218
An aggregated effort to create the future: http://newassignment.wordpress.com/2006/08/19/welcome-to-newassignmentnet/#more-3
Chew on some of that.
I also think that it’s worth breaking the newspaper into its components. i find too many opinions that talk only of newspapers in terms of journalism. the newspaper business generates readership from journalism but drives revenues in lots of other ways. newspapers have had more trouble coming up with competitive revenue generation and slightly less trouble keeping up with changes in journalism.
Components:
Syndicated News
Local news
Op Ed
Weather
Horroscopes
Classifieds
Comics
Sports
Entertainment Guides
Personals
Sunday Circulars
Stock Market numbers and analysis
Obituaries
City Legal Announcements
Business News
TV Guide
Consider that list and think to yourself about how many of those components you use the paper for nowadays. All those components were big drivers of new subscriptions and to keep people coming back. Everyone of those components has 5 or 6 large services on the web that uniquely and wonderfully deliver a great experience to users.
An Editorial in response to any “it’s simple” editorials on IMMIGRATION
July 21st, 2006Bill,
Here is another editorial…mine.
Immigration is a HUGE issue that comes to light every 50 years or so and crushes the one-line pundits and Norman Rockwellian types who argue convincingly with their barbers, hair-dressers and neighbors that we must protect American values. A similar argument was used by the south (as organized religions stood watching) to first keep slavery alive and then rid the country of those slaves once slavery was abolished.
The immigration fuss in the southwest is not about immigration. It is about cultural purity bordering on racism fueled by fear.
It is about culture and ‘fear of change’ or having to deal with change.
It is about belonging to something where there are boarders in a time for man when tribes and countries and their boarders are more and more irrelevant. – It is Clearly Cultural
There would be no need for immigration walls, fences and such if there was
· less corruption
· more opportunity
· less oppression
· more freedoms
· less dichotomy between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’
· more tolerance of ideas
· less superstition
…in the countries that people are fleeing from. – Cultural
You’ll notice that justifications for immigration rules are spooned out in very gentile and lofty sounding comments like those justifications that existed to keep
· India’s citizens out of England even though they were subjects of the crown
· Keep gypsies out of Germany even though they were the native Bavarians
· Keep Tasudi out of Nigeria even though Nigeria had hunting grounds there that they had been used for at 500 years
· Keep Protestants out of North Dublin’s Catholic section, keep…
oh, you get the idea… – Cultural
This country (and most countries) have used immigration concerns of the highest moral order in arguments against the Chinese, Irish, Germans, Italians, African’s, Porto Ricans’, French, Vietnamese, and Cambodians. – All Cultural
There is no immigration problem in Wyoming – unless you are a coyote, buffalo or Canadian
There is no immigration problem in Minnesota – unless you not an Indian and try to harvest wild long grain rice
There is no immigration problem in Michigan – etc.
There is no immigration problem almost anywhere “up nort” other than with non-white, Christian English-speaking people, usually males coming across the boarder to seek a better life.
There is no immigration problem almost anywhere “out west” other than with non-white, Christian English-speaking people, usually males landing and taking jobs away from others because they do what it takes to get a job done, don’t belong to unions and work 6 days a week for 12 hours a day.
There is no immigration problem anywhere … unless some rules are broken.
You know the rules I refer too…
· White Anglo waiters in Mexican restaurants but Mexican bus boys cleaning the tables.
· Men dressed in suits and ties going to Mosque and women not allowed to enter.
· Hassidic Jews not conversing with Orthodox Jews unless they need a lawyer.
It even works in reverse: just try to get a job as a sky cap at an airport and be white, strong and willing to bust your butt…it won’t happen.
Keep the boarders safe from terrorists? Please!!!!!!! Who is keeping us safe from internal terrorists at Enron, NSA, Congress, Arian Nation zealots, or corrupt DEA agents or local cops?
9/11 was a wake-up call but it wasn’t about what the pundits have spewed out in mind-numbing tripe. It is about change – culture – and fear. And how how each of those items are used to justify dilution of the Bill of Rights or serve as the reason for high fuel costs.
When you hear any version of “my way or the highway” or “you’re with us or you’re with them” or ‘manifest destiny’, or ‘non-military combatants’, take note. They are about to do you and you won’t get dinner and a kiss when it’s over.
When everyone obeys ‘the rules’ things are good. When someone questions the rules or wants them changed things get ugly. Trouble is, no one knows all the rules. People don’t know their own personal rules most of the time. But, when things get complicated they stick by them all the stronger…as if hanging on for meaning.
Knowing the rules of their neighbors, communities, state or countries across the globe is real difficult. That is why we have all these levels of governments to specialize in navigating those sets of rules. Sometimes the governments are the problem because they have conflicting sets of rules for themselves and conflicting applications to others.
How is a Jewish nation carved out of a Palestinian section of ocean front property any different than a lush section of Mexico carved out to make Texas?
· It has made a large section of the middle east cranky
· It has made a large section of Mexico cranky
Break many rules, major outrage. Break a few rules, less than major outrage. What’s more…it is true of individuals, families, communities and nation states as we are witnessing in the Middle East right now (7-21-06).
Without leadership three is a tendency to identify with quick fixes, stereotypes and ‘brand’ solutions, i.e., Republican, Democrat, southerner, northerner, Christian, Jew, right-handed, left-handed, dog lover, cat lover, etc.
That is where we are now. No leadership. The world is changing too fast for FOX news or CNN or governments. They are behaving as if it were 1950 again. No leadership. In those spots you find leaders there is less confusion and less anxiety. Dah!
The anxiety created by lack of leadership on a wholesale level will not change over night. Just finding leadership may take the next 25 years. Yet, contributing to the darkness by providing one-liner solutions to complex problems is a mistake. You want a heads-up on where confusion and calamity are going to break out in the next two years (as opposed to all those places that exist now)? Tibet.
Last month the most isolated (occupied) nation-state in the world, Tibet, had a rail line completed from other metropolis’ in China. Two cultures so diametrically different are about to rile against each other like shifting seismic plates. By next year, 3000 passengers a week are going to move in and out of Tibet. Ideas and change will be everywhere and there are no anchors to hang on to for those in Lhasa, the capital, much less the rural populace. - Cultural
So, you got an answer? Great! Lead us out of the darkness. Run for office. Be involved. Get beat in the polls for communicating toward something good rather than hiding away in the past.
Moral of the editorial; find out which rules (implied or real) are being broken and you understand better why there is outrage.
That’s my story for the day and I’m sticking to it. Yawannatalk? Get a 6 pack and block out some hours…we’ll talk.
Answers Brainiac
June 13th, 2006http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/asktheplanet/brain.html
As a follow up to the Decision Engine.
One of the resource the engine consults are MSN Answers, Google Answers, Y! Answers and About.com…
Decision Engine
June 13th, 2006I had this rough idea for a new online tool. A Decision Engine.
You simply enter a decision into a box and hit decide.
This engine then analyzes various responses from the big 4 search engines, key user groups/forums, and a couple of key advice sites. It summarizes the results into a suggested decision.
Some examples:
- should I break up with her?
- Should I quit my job?
- Should we leave Iraq?
- is it time to have a baby?
- what school should I go to?
- to live or not to live?
- plasma or lcd tv?
Ok, so now how does one analyze all the response data coming back? There’s got to be some pretty clear language patterns to get a basic positive or negative response. For more open ended decisions a summary of possible decisions might be sufficient.
Would this be useful?
YUP! A ton of search activity on the web is for the purpose of making decisions.
Why not do this? hmmm, wish I had a decision engine to help me figure this out.
Me - Segmented and Labeled
June 13th, 2006For the record, here’s me dropped into a bunch of demo/psyco/citizen-graphic segments:
- male
- white
- motorist
- consumer
- middle class
- investor
- liberal
- conservative
- democrat
- independent
- west coast
- southern california
- dotcommer
- gen x
- gen y
- alumni
- coworker
- husband
- father
- 18-35
- 21-35
- 25-30
- drinker
- non smoker
- repeat visitor
- first timer
- gold level
- platinum level
- tech savvy
- voter
- certified
- risk taker
- job hunter
- short timer
- boss
- employee
- meat eater
- to the left
- ….
Why make this list? Today I felt like I was categorized and sliced a million different ways in the news, in print, over the radio on a website. I figured i’d make it easier on the world and just put my segment orientation online.
Bigger question… are we taking segmentation too far?
Sunday Morning Mindscape
June 11th, 2006Consider the following braindump excerpt from the beginning of Douglas Coupland’s newest novel, JPod:
“Sometime when you’re all alone in a room, ask yourself if what you do for a living can be done by someone in India. if there’s even a flicker of doubt, then you have to admit that you’re doomed. Which is more humiliating: losing your job to a robot, or losing your job to someone who lives in a country whose standards of living you consider inferior? you can’t fake creativity, competence or sexual arousal. if you have none of these three attributes, then pack it in right now. go sell roadside corn in India. […] Even seasoned recruiters base their first impression on the basis of fuckability. The second thing they look at is whether you’re competent, and the third thing they see is whether you’re creative in disguising your lack of competence and/or fuckability.”
Bam! It might be that primal, eh?
Implications of Living Forever
June 5th, 2006It used to be ust a fun mental road trip. Let’s imagine we were immortal, imagine we can live forever. What would we do with all that time?
Through the examination of many recent texts and watching the scientific and technology spheres evolve I’m growing more convinced that we will overcome our current notion and limitations of biology and actually be able to transcend aging and physical death. Rather than argue the merits of that claim, I wish to explore the soulful implications if such an unending physical existence were possible.
What if death as a choice, not an inevitability? what if, because we could choose when to exist, death no longer was a noble or tragic or sad or anyhing event?
The implications of taking time as a currency out of equation changes almost every facet of my life.
Let’s explore.
Scary Times When The Weatherman Can’t Have An Opinion
June 1st, 2006Due to last years tropical season and all the debate about Global Warning, there are people out there trying to get Max Mayfield (head of the National Hurricane center) to resign. All because he’s not yet ready to say all our trials and tribulations with weather are due to global warming. He is cautious with his opinion because the past 100 years have shown many seasons with as much intensity of last year and he’s not yet sure of the facts that global warming is to blame. He’s not ruled it out, but he hasn’t endorsed it.
I found this op ed on one of the blogs I subscribe to on Accuweather.com, the best weather site and team on the planet, period. Please note this is from Joe Bastardi and his blog is a “pay for access” blog so really you should should subscribe if you think he’s cool. Normally I wouldn’t post a long piece like this but I thought it was a great opinion.
Joe’s Blog Entry -
“Notes and asides. The calls for the resignation of Max Mayfield in some circles is starting to get me thinking that these are scary times. The reason for the call is that Max, who to me is a good, hard working person in spite of any disagreements I might have ( I have learned that I am not always right) wont bow down to the God of Human Induced global warming. No matter how many facts one presents about the past, be it him, me or the man in the moon, it is astounding how other people a) wont listen b) wont acknowledge and c) simply say, no you are wrong, we know better.
Why is it scary. Well while the debate over global warming is WEATHER. the debate over freedom of speech and opinion, especially when it is based on well documented fact is. To me its scary in that not only may the climate be like the 1930s weatherwise, but when I see things like that, I worry about it being like it in other things too.
Please understand that I dont think that the facts I am bringing to the table on the past diminish the need to understand and mitigate mans influence, they dont. We have to find out if there is, but we must do so in a way that has always proved to be a benefit to our nation. To the uninformed that may side with what I am saying about my belief its cyclical, it seems like an open and shut case..it was warmer before, why cant it be warm again? Well its not that, and there is immense value brought to the table by worry and DEBATE over human influence. However the trashing of the foundation of immense evidence that say it is cyclical and shutting down of voices is simply not right..and its something that to me, is scary
When it comes to Global Warming…we didnt start the fire”
Vitamins for the Brain
April 26th, 2006I’m growing increasingly certain that stimlating your brain every day with mind games, puzzles and intellectual videos games is akin to taking a daily vitamin. Over the span of a lifetime, doing this will likely preserve memory and clarity in the brain.
Why?
I’ve been rigorously exercising my brain each morning with Nintendo’s Brain Age, suduko, tangrams and 3×3 puzzles and… a) I’m getting much better with each puzzle type b) I get an endorphin high c) my thoughts are clearer throughout the day d) I can write more clearly and faster e) I sleep better.
Though it’s only been about a week, and perhaps some people need more time to convince them of the effects, I’m a believer in training your brain.
There have been plenty of recent studies to understand how overall brain stimulation actually improves performance in complex decision making/project. That is, unrelated to the problem at hand, if you stimulate your brain with puzzles it can increase overall ability… I’m not describing this well and am looking for a pdf or link to post.
more coming soon… including graphs of my daily Brain Age performance.