Our latest video: Penhold Community Breakfast Jan 30, 2010
In an attempt to become a serious citizen journalist, I went out and covered a local event here in Penhold. Thanks to all the folks from the town – Julia, Tara and Dean – who took part. Hoping to do more in the future.
BTW: Citizen journalism isn’t hard. If I can do it – you can too! Just pay attention, tell a story and hold your camera steady (a tri-pod helps). This video was shot with the Kodak Zi8 – a hi-def vid cam that is simple to use and costs less than $200CDN.
Let me know about your interest in citizen journalism. There are a few of us around and maybe can get a Tweetup or MeetUP going here in Central Alberta.
Dean
Does local TV matter?
We have been working recently with Fred May Jr. from CentralAlbertaTV.net and we shot this in his studio down in Olds Alberta. Fred has been in mainstream broadcasting for over thirty years and has switched to web based video and TV because he believes that it is the future of delivering local TV programing. I do to. He let me rant about big broadcasters and cable companies and is running it in his TV feed from CentralAlbertaTV.net.
Let me know what you think about the current state of local TV (which is going down hill daily!) and will local TV via the web be the future?
Dean
The iNewton – Apple’s new touch screen computer?
Sorry I couldn’t resist. Everyone is coming up with names for the new (rumoured) Apple touch screen computer and since I remember the Newton I thought it would be good for a laugh. For those who weren’t around when the Newton came out and took the industry by storm (actually it was more of a drizzle) it was good idea ahead of it’s time. As an idea it was ground breaking. As a device it was a failure. The handwriting recognition was so poor that whatever you wrote would come back totally unrecognizable. But it did spark the idea that you could carry a computer in your pocket. Think about it – first the Newton, then PDA’s, then along came the smartphone.
As bad as it was, the Newton was typical of the innovation that was and may still be Apple. Steve Jobs is, was and will always be a genius. I can’t help but wonder why he hasn’t come up with a touch screen computer before now. I mean a real computer, not just an entertainment device.
Personally I think touch screen computers have a limited and niche use. Maybe Steve Jobs does too and that is why Apple has been behind the curve on this. It’s not like Apple (or The Steve) to give the public something just because they are clamoring for it. Jobs is usually a few steps ahead of everyone else. He gave us the iPod and iTunes and the iPhone even when we didn’t know we needed them. Instead of the iNewton he’ll release something we didn’t expect and within twenty-four hours we’ll wonder how we lived this long without it.
Dean
BTW: In case you haven’t seen this one before . . .
Shaw interested in Canwest assets
It sounds like Jim Shaw, who brought us such things as Shaw cable is looking over the bric-a-brac at the Canwest yard sale. Reports say he is doing this to see what he can do to ‘help them out’. That’s mighty neighborly of Jim. It’s also a great business strategy. Thirty years ago cable was a fledgling industry looking for breaks and the broadcasters where rich and on-top of the game. Now things have reversed and the cableco’s have the cash to buy up the broadcasters stuff. Good for Shaw but is it good for the viewers? Is it even legal?
Is it in our best interests as consumers of content to have our media controlled by a single source? As one Tweeter suggested on the #CRTC topic if acquisitions like this become popular the CRTC will have only one company to regulate. Think about it – Shaw would control content development, production and distribution. Wasn’t there issues with this in the US decades ago in the movie business and the fed’s broke it up? And it seems to me that there are laws concerning a single entity owning all of the media assets in a local market – radio, papers, tv? Oh wait, it’s the CRTC who regulates this.
Is Canwest-Global too big to fail?
Dean
Outsourced newspapers: an option worth considering
If you don’t follow Kirk Lapointe via his RSS feed or on Twitter, you should. Particularly if you are interested in some of the changes and discussions going on behind the scenes in the newspaper business. Your daily newspaper is undergoing major changes and some bright people out there are looking for solutions to aid in an evolution or even revolution to the next phase of dead-tree media.
This article on outsourcing elements of a newspaper may appeal to the “bottom liners” in the corner offices who are looking for strategies to reduce costs to keep up with declining revenues. Keep the journalists and editors in-house and outsource the rest. At first glance my feelings were that they got it backwards. Is a newspaper’s core business publishing (the mechanical process of putting ink on paper and delivering it to subscribers) or journalism? The fundamentals of outsourcing is to move repetitive and mechanical tasks into a mass production environment. And after all, maybe a newspapers core business is journalism.
After reading through related links and articles and the slide-deck from Mindworks Global Media Services it was obvious where the outsourcing of operational tasks come from. As an IT professional and manager for many years I am well acquainted with the O word. Outsourcing bodies doesn’t save money. Outsourcing tasks won’t produce a higher quality product. On the other hand, results based outsourcing has proven to have some success.
The other O word – offshoring – is the final suggestion and ultimate solution in the Mindworks article. After all that’s their business. Task based workers in India performing various repetitive newspaper duties similar to what has been accomplished with IT services and call centres. The corner office might go for this. After all the bottom-line is what’s important. But what about the longer term bottom line? Outsource, yes. Offshore, no.
You’d think by now we’d realize that losing local talent dilutes the value of our local communities. Outsource if you want to, need to, have to. But outsource to the local community. Help develop and grow financial opportunities in the immediate world around you. You know, the folks that subscribe to your paper and buy from your advertisers?
Dean
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