Whether you love it or love to hate it, the New York Times is the king of digital journalism for a simple reason: it’s always innovating. Beyond making “snowfall” a verb, the so-called Gray Lady has in recent months overhauled its website, introduced new revenue streams, produced a viral video based verbatim on a deposition, bought its own native ads, launched an explainer microsite, and built a suite of apps. And that’s all before last week’s release of the paper’s internal “innovation report,” which has been called “one of the key documents of this media age.”
If you’re familiar with crowdfunding and sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, you know these are often intense projects that require a lot funding in a short amount of time. Traditional crowdfunding is a great avenue to quickly launch and market new products, but it might not be the best way to raise funds for people who create content on a regular basis: Like you, writers, bloggers, artists and musicians.
The YouTube phenomenon continues on and on, with no signs of stopping, with around 1 billion viewers now visiting the site every single month. That’s a lot of eyeballs, and it’s clearly exercising the attention of Google a lot nowadays, judging by the number of new initiatives which are arriving on the scene for the video makers and their fans.
One such set of proposals has just been announced by Google, which has the capacity to add an interesting twist to the whole synergy between fans and video makers. The company has just announced that it’s working on ways to add some form of crowdfunding feature to the service, so fans can elect to give cash to their favorite channels to encourage more of their most popular content to be produced.
Google released an U.S.-focused version of its video quality report Tuesday, which offers users a way to check which of their local ISPs deliver the best-looking YouTube streams. The report is singling out some ISPs as “HD verified” which YouTube Product Manager Jay Akkad defined this way in a blog post:
“If your provider can consistently deliver HD video, a resolution of at least 720p, without buffering or interruptions — it’s HD Verified.”
The report also shows which ISPs are capable of delivering SD quality video without buffering, and which ones deliver videos at a lower performance, or in other words will leave you completely frustrated. To get to these results, YouTube monitored streams over a 30 day period. Only ISPs that were capable of delivering HD at least 90 percent of the time are being called HD verified.
I find myself reading a lot of material from Gigaom in my daily travels through my RSS feeds. Like many other group blogs/sites they produce a lot of content, much of which is right on target for my technology news needs. I especially like their stories can and does change society, culture, productivity and business.
Recent stores include:
CES robots take on cleaning, fun and personal assistance
At CES, sub-$1,000 3D printer options grow
Supreme Court to hear Aereo case, which could define future of internet TV
From the Gigaom web site…
“Gigaom began as a blog by one writer in 2006, Om Malik, and has grown into one of the most credible and insightful voices at the intersection of business and technology. Gigaom is a new type of media company with a business model that leverages technology, transparency, and access to information. The company’s growth has been propelled by great writers, journalistic integrity, industry depth and audience engagement.
Since 2006, Gigaom has grown into the leading independent voice on emerging technologies and the disruption of media. The Gigaom news network’s online audience of 5.5 million monthly unique readers relies on its definitive coverage of cloud, mobile, cleantech, consumer web and media. Gigaom Events bring together the people innovating, shaping and defining the ongoing evolution of the technology industry. Gigaom Research offers the highest quality research and analysis of emerging technology markets and the companies making a difference in those sectors.”
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
Just got this email from the iTunes Store crew. Please note that this only effects the submission of new entries to the Podcast Directory, not submissions of episodes on existing shows.
Dear podcast provider,
Submit a Podcast will be temporarily unavailable from Saturday, December 21, to Friday, December 27, 2013.
During that time, Submit a Podcast will not be accessible and you will not be able to submit new podcasts. Processing of metadata changes to existing podcasts will be delayed.
WordPress has been upgraded to version 3.7 and I saw notification of this in my WordPress Dashboard today. As usual, this is for users who host their own, local, copies of WordPress. If you you use WordPress.com, your blogs will be updated automatically.
Here are a few updates available in this new version…
Background Updates
Automatic updates for maintenance and security updates.
Daily updates for developers using nightly builds.
Stronger Password Meter
New password meter to encourage users to choose stronger passwords.
Improved Search
More relevant search results.
Better Global Support
Localized versions will receive faster and more complete translations.
Background updates will include translations
For a complete list of the extensive updates, view this page at the WordPress Codex, WordPress Version 3.7.
Upgrade your locally hosted WordPress sites today!
It’s time for another WordPress Wednesday. Take the time this week to backup your WordPress Databases, Update your Plugins and Load the latest, greatest version of WordPress, 3.6. “Oscar”
“The latest and greatest WordPress, version 3.6, is now live to the world and includes a beautiful new blog-centric theme, bullet-proof autosave and post locking, a revamped revision browser, native support for audio and video embeds, and improved integrations with Spotify, Rdio, and SoundCloud.”
The popularity of Netflix’s House of Cards has, I believe, caused some large changes in the awards criteria for the Writers Guild of America, according to this article from Deadline.com. While House of Cards is a big budget, network-quality television production, its new delivery method required opening up the awards categories to be more all-encompassing due to the impact of Internet “broadcasting.” Of course, for me, the best result is the now, all New Media projects over 15 mins in length compete directly with other, more traditionally distributed shows — removing them from the New Media Ghetto where they had previously been placed. I welcome all such changes in the New Media world, as I believe we will be seeing more and more productions emerging from this relatively new production and distribution system. My only wish is that it had happened much more quickly.
From Deadline.com and the WGA…
Writers Guild Makes Changes To Awards Eligibility & Submission Guidelines; New Media Series Like ‘House Of Cards’ OK
Los Angeles and New York – For the upcoming awards season, Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have changed awards eligibility and submission guidelines for the television and new media categories, and have added a new Quiz & Audience Participation writing award.
“Whether you’re watching content on a TV screen, online on a laptop, or with a hand-held device, outstanding writing and great storytelling deserve the same recognition,” said WGAW President Christopher Keyser and WGAE President Michael Winship. “These changes in eligibility and submission guidelines reflect the evolution of distribution models in the entertainment industry. We are also looking forward to giving out the new Quiz & Audience Participation Award in 2014.”
Fellow Friends in Tech member, Kreg Steppe started the first Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge in 2012, as a way to kickstart his own podcasting efforts. I missed that announcement, but I am jumping on board for this years challenge and you should too! What a great way to try out new styles, new shows, new ideas and generally get your podcasting feet moving!
Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.
Turns out there were some of our friends that also wanted to get in on the action and took the challenge too. So it grew into a challenge 7 of us took.
This year we are inviting more podcasters to get in on the action. Keep in mind, it’s a fun challenge, and you will not be shamed (too much) if you don’t record every 30 day. It is kind of like the way Drew Carey describes “Whose line is it anyway?”. A fun game were we earn points, but the points don’t matter.
What matters is that we all have fun recording and listening to each other.
Start Date: July 30th, 2013
End Date: August 30th, 2013
Rules: Podcast Once a day for 30 days. Show length is up to you. Most vary from 3 – 5 Min.
I’ll be posting my daily shows here during the challenge, but I will also be including my usual podcast selection as part of the 30 days, so you should see podcasts on careers, new media, gardening, technology and more!
I just saw notice in my WordPress dashboard that their latest update is now available. It resolves a number of security issues in the software. As usual, it is best to install updates soon after they are released to prevent any hacking attacks that might arise from these known bugs. Click on the “Please Update Now” banner in your WordPress Dashboard to install the update automatically.
From the WordPress 3.5.2 release notes:
The security fixes included:
Blocking server-side request forgery attacks, which could potentially enable an attacker to gain access to a site.
Disallow contributors from improperly publishing posts, reported by Konstantin Kovshenin, or reassigning the post’s authorship, reported by Luke Bryan.
An update to the SWFUpload external library to fix cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Reported by mala and Szymon Gruszecki.
Prevention of a denial of service attack, affecting sites using password-protected posts.
An update to an external TinyMCE library to fix a cross-site scripting vulnerability. Reported by Wan Ikram. Multiple fixes for cross-site scripting. Reported by Andrea Santese and Rodrigo. Avoid disclosing a full file path when a upload fails. Reported by Jakub Galczyk.
It looks like I shared lots of Food and Gardening items in the past month. It is interesting to watch how my interests rise and fall over the course of the months.
As always, let me know what types of interesting items you would like to see and I will keep an eye out for them especially. — Douglas
Working with my WordPress-based blogs today, I see a notice that WordPress 3.5.1 has been released. In this world of online attacks, spam and malware, it is important to keep your Worpdress software up to date.
You can install this WordPress Update directly from your blog dashboard.
It looks like there was a security problem with one of the audio players used by the PowerPress WordPress plugin that many podcasters use on their sites. There is an update waiting and Blubrry says “Everyone is strongly encouraged to update their copy of PowerPress immediately!”
Taking their advice, I have done just that on all my WordPress blogs and you should too. Visit your WordPress Dashboard to perform the quick update.
Here is a snippet from the PowerPress Changelog for this version…
Everyone is strongly encouraged to update their copy of PowerPress immediately!
Due to concerns of possible security exploits, the 1 Pixel Out Audio Player has been removed from PowerPress. Learn More
Notices added in both the WP dashboard and in the Audio player settings page that the 1 Pixel Out player has been removed.
If you’ve configured your web site with the 1 Pixel Out Audio Player, Flow Player Classic will be used. Go to the PowerPress > Audio Player settings page to change this player if you like.
IK Multimedia spent a lot of time at CES 2013 courting Android musicians, but we neglected to mention equal attention spent on iOS at the show through the iRig HD. The company’s new adapter pipes audio from a guitar or other instrument with a quarter-inch plug into Lightning-equipped Apple devices, keeping them in IK’s musical world (and inviting terrible Metallica puns).
This week the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is running in Las Vegas, NV and the technology and new media news has been coming fast and furious. I have been highlighting interesting products and information on my social media accounts and I wanted to gather up these links for the blogs.
Since there is a lot of crossover between the general technology news and those products useful in new media, I am sharing the post with both my Careers in New Media and my TechnologyIQ blogs. I will add to this list of links as the week progressing and new news arises. Enjoy!
I have a lot of interests, as most of you already know. Therefore, I have a lot of different blogs, events, and groups in my portfolio of online engagements. I also try to make myself available wherever people want to converse. This means that each of my interests usually has multiple presences on the Internet.
Here is a list of almost all of the ways you can talk with me and learn about what is happening in my life and work. You don’t need to, nor should you, try to subscribe to all of them. That would only lead to you seeing multiple copies of the same information. Rather, pick and choose whatever ways you would like to consume my “content.” If you are a heavy Facbeook user, you might want to join my pages there. Is Google+ catching your fancy? I have a home over there, too. Maybe email is your thing? No problem, almost all of my content can be emailed directly to your Inbox.
My goal is to make my content available in whatever way makes the most sense to you. It also means you can contact me and converse with me on your favorite online services. This list is also broken down by interest. If you want to see everything I post and share, the first section is where you can find it. This will contain information from all my areas of interest including events, careers, gardening, technology and my organizations.
Maybe, though, you are only interested in my gardening information. You can narrow your reading to my gardening blog or Facebook page. The same applies for careers, technology and my organizations. Select whatever is most interesting, and valuable, to you.
Thank you for supporting me, my blogs and podcasts and my organization over the years! I look forward to talking with you — and sharing more with you — in 2013.
All my interests and personal information as well as my Food-related blogging
Subscribed is my series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
I figured I might as well double-down on last week’s post about another BBC Radio 4 show, In Our Time, and post my other, favorite show from the BBC. Thinking Allowed with host, Laurie Taylor is all about culture and society. His guest regularly include authors and experts on sociology and culture as he explores 2 topics during each episode. Recent shows include discussions on Intoxication and Drugs, History, Heritage and Tradition in British Politics, Children in Hospitals, Family Funerals and Red Tape in India.
I love the far ranging topics of the shows and also the unique British take on problems and issues that effect all nations and cultures. It gives a fresh perspective on topics that have become the realm of dogma in American society. I tend to listen to both these shows as I drive around on client calls or as an educational moment when I am in the kitchen cooking dinner. As an audio podcast, it perfectly fills those 2 podcasting niches for me.
Like In Our Time, I highly recommend Thinking Allowed as a large part of any self-directed educational program. We should all be learning something new every day and this show is a great way to do it!
