Check out our shiny new InfoCouple 2025 graphic, distributed at the Online News Association conference:

Posted by AmyWebb at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's contest time! As many of you know, I'm giving my "10 Tech Trends" presentation at this year's Online News Association conference in San Francisco. (I actually give the 10 Tech Trends talk a lot all over the world, but the trends I highlight are always different at each session.)

We have some very cool things planned... for example, the first 250 people will each get a free swag bag chock full of unforgettable items. I'll be showing demos of some interesting new technology. And George Michael will, undoubtedly, make an appearance in some form or another.

I'm hoping to open the session with a snapshot of tech zeitgeist: what journalists and bloggers think are important trends vs. how consumers are actually responding to new products and tools. To that end, I'm inviting all of you to come up with your own 10 Tech Trend list. Whoever comes closest to the list I use will win a pair of 1.3 Megapixel Spy Glasses (capable of recording video and shooting photos -- they play mp3s, too!). The second closest list wins an "Emergency Exit" T-shirt in Japanese.

Contest Rules

1. You have to post 10 trends to your blog (can be personal or company). Specific keywords will suffice, unless you want to write a description for each trend. Good examples: augmented reality, mobile social..... Bad examples: mobile, social networks...

2. Email the link to info@webbmediagroup.com and please include your name. If you're a winner, we'll need to get in contact with you again for your mailing address.

3. Deadline is September 25th at 5pm Eastern. No exceptions.

Announcing Winners

We're going to announce the winners at the beginning of the 10 Tech Trends session at ONA and will post here immediately after that. Winners will be mailed the goods, as well as one of the swag bags from our session at the conference, the first week of October.

Prize Specs

1st Place - Super Spy Sunglasses

• 1GB of storage (can hold thousands of photos)
• Plays MP3s and takes 1.3 Megapixel digital photos
• Embedded ear buds for MP3 playback
• Remote control for taking photos
• RF remote frequency: 2.4GHz
• Li-ion rechargeable battery (3.7V, 240mAh)
• USB 2.0 connection for transferring files and re-charging the battery
• Control buttons for Vol +/-, Fwd, Rwd, Play, Pause, Capture
• Includes: sunglasses, remote w/ strap, USB cable, storage case, cleaning cloth, extra clear lenses

2nd Place - Emergency Exit T-shirt

In Japan, a green emergency exit sign hangs above doors. Wear it under your business suit and, just like Superman, reveal it to get out of meetings quickly. Show up to a gamer convention and instantly find yourself in the "in" crowd. Don it on a first date in case the conversation goes stale. Whatever your reason, this shirt will get you noticed!

• T-shirt will come in your size (we'll ask in a follow-up email)
• White lettering on 100% cotton heavyweight green shirt

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Interesting and important recent tweets from around the web... All significant, and none about what someone ate for lunch. Enjoy!

From @om The Battle of the Apps: Google vs. Apple http://om.bit.ly/rxdH9

From @webbmedia: Now available: DDoS Attacks Explained, a 4-page report in plain English. Email me if you'd like a copy. We're making it free to everyone. (Email is info at webbmediagroup dot com.)

From @MacDivaONA Facebook buys FriendFeed http://bit.ly/1ayz7s - FriendFeed employees abandon office http://bit.ly/19RznA

Related: @TechCrunch First Interview After Acquisition With FriendFeed And Facebook http://tcrn.ch/4arS

Related: @mashable FriendFeed Users Outraged by Facebook Acquisition - http://bit.ly/dE7ix

Related: @TimOBrienNYT FriendFeed deal: 'Google will eventually hit its outer limits — and when that happens, Facebook wants to step in' http://bit.ly/xsST2

From @jayrosen_nyu Christian Science Monitor: Storm ahead? Death of tr.im raises concerns about the cloud http://bit.ly/61ywS Good report.

From @10000Words Can you tell the difference between search results for Google, Bing and Yahoo? Take the blind test to be sure http://bit.ly/6j51Q

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It's a voluntary system, and in order to participate, the member needs to initiate by requesting and completing an assessment (via email). More on the details in a bit... but first, I'll explain why we're doing this.

The idea began with a dinner I shared with the CEO of a fairly large company and a mutual friend who works for the federal government. Both were explaining relatively new problems. The CEO was sitting in a meeting with his staff when their discussion turned to Twitter. Everyone agreed that the company needed to set up a corporate account to both claim their digital identity and to serve their consumers. The problem? My friend, the CEO, didn't really understand what Twitter was. He'd been on the site and read through the About page. He'd even created a personal account. But he didn't understand Twitter culture - the lexicon, the whole retweeting thing, what the hashtag really was - and didn't feel comfortable asking his staff. Worse, he tried searching on Google, but where to begin? Several attempts returned all kinds of marketing mishmash and pontifications...but no concrete way to learn how to use the system or a guide to learning social media in general.

Just as we finished that conversation, our mutual friend who works for the federal government explained that she'd been given the ability to purchase training materials for her staff. But she wasn't sure what, exactly, they needed to be trained on. She said that her biggest problem wasn't resources or budget, but instead that she didn't know how to provide resources for the people who needed it most.

That's when it hit me. It's fine to provide access to training, but lots of people need help understanding what they really need to learn.

We created Knowledgewebb as a comfortable place to learn practical skills...as well as they how, why and when. So far, we've been really successful. Our membership continues to grow, and we're taking calls almost daily from various corporations, newsrooms and universities about supplying their organizations with memberships.

It's great if you know what you don't, well, know...but what if you're like my friend the CEO? Or that manager working for the government?

So, we launched CustomCurriculum. We’ve taken the guesswork away and now provide you with a clear path to learning. Are you starting a new website? Do your employees suddenly want you to use social media? Maybe you’re just trying to stay ahead of your students, who all expect copies of your lessons via podcast?

You can think of it as having a personal trainer right there with you, prescribing the best learning tools based on your personality, career goals and work style. First, we send you a short email questionnaire, which will help our learning consultants assess your current skills set, what you need to work on and what technology you have. Then, our learning consultants outline which Knowledgewebb.net lessons and experts we think will help with your immediate needs. We'll also suggest social media (Twitter users, Facebook groups) as well as blogs, podcasts and other websites that we think will best suit your interests.

One thing that's always irritated me about learning sites is that they'll give you basic access for a set membership fee and then charge a la carte for all the good stuff. That's not the way we operate at Knowledgewebb. Like all of our lessons, live chats and webinars, CustomCurriculum is a feature that's free for everyone in our Knowledgewebb.net community.

Everyone may want to learn the same material, but no two people learn in the same way. At the end of the day, our aim is to help people thrive in a digital environment, even when the world seems to be capsizing around them.

As we like to tell folks, "don't sweat the tech." CustomCurriculum is just another way we're helping them to embrace, rather than fear, the web.

Knowledgewebb members can look here for details on how to get started. Meantime, you can download the press release here along with a sample CustomCurriculum report.

Posted by AmyWebb at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's been a flurry of debate and pontification lately on whether or not news and other organizations should start charging for digital content. Take a look at the recent kerfuffle between Chris Anderson (his new book, Free, discusses this in detail) and Malcolm Gladwell (his reaction to Free in the New Yorker). Seth Godin, Jeff Jarvis, Howard Owens are all one-upping the doomsday predictions about it. Hell even my dad, who still reads three daily newspapers in their physical form, is talking about whether content should be free.

Full disclosure: I'm firmly grounded in the you-oughta-pay-for-content camp. But two recent experiences provide excellent anecdotes as to why I think that way.

Case #1: Discovery on Pandora Equals Paying Conversions on Music Store Sites.
I'll admit it - I'm on Pandora nearly every single day. I don't know what I'd do without it. I listen at work, I listen when I'm out walking around, I listen when I'm flying on a wifi-enabled airline.

You see, I'm starting to feel my age. I can't stomach the latest pop disasters... the Britneys and the GaGas and whoever American Idol is endorsing this week. For me, the day the music died was when Pearl Jam told Ticketmaster to stick it and Dave Matthews went inexorably commercial. But after more than 20 years with my old CDs and mix tapes, I'm ready for something new. Something similar enough to suit my tastes, but different than what I'm used to.

Searching through the iTunes store (yes, even with Genius turned on) or Amazon is too overwhelming. Ditto for Google. I need a curated experience. Someone to make recommendations, and to have those recommendations actually work.

Enter Pandora, which does just that. I search for a song I like, and over the course of a few hours I'm introduced to lots of new artists and songs I've never heard of before. Usually, I like five or six of them so much that I'm compelled to seek out an mp3 download. And because it's too cumbersome to trudge through all the P2P networks looking for one particular obscure artist's song (and illegal, yes, but who hasn't file-shared at least once in their digital lifetime?), I head over to iTunes and make a purchase.

If tomorrow Pandora decided to charge me, the user, a $5 subscription fee per month, I'd be inclined to pay. Can I find all that music elsewhere? Sure. But I'm paying for regulated, personalized content discovery.

Taking this a step further, if I was a musician - someone unsigned, looking to make a name for myself - I don't think I'd be knocking on MySpace's door just yet. Pandora has a growing audience here in the U.S. and is becoming available on a variety of devices. I might just be willing to pay Pandora a $500 placement fee, just as a publicist pays the same amount to place a story on the various wire services. The song gets distributed and, if it's good, in a matter of time folks start buying it. They might even want to see the act live - buy concert tickets. That's how I became a Nickel Creek fan and bought tickets for some of their final concerts.

What I think we can learn from Pandora is that if the distribution system is unique, dependable and fits a real consumer need, both consumers and content providers might be willing -- should be willing -- to pay.

Cast #2: Why We'll Pay to Tweet
Twitter's Fail Whale may not have showed it's scary water spout over the weekend, but plenty of us got kicked off the system during a massive attack. Mine was one of many accounts in good standing that got suspended. While there's no clarification yet on what, exactly, went wrong, there appears to be an algorithm malfunction over at Camp Twitter. Read more about it here.

I know that when I saw the red suspension notice, my heart sunk. I was in the middle of a conversation as well as the start to our launch campaign for Knowledgewebb. (Also see press release below this entry.) There was no real information about how to contact Twitter other than to use their form - I got a response saying that someone would look into the situation and get back to me within 30 days.

THIRTY days?!?

It's as if someone stole the transmission out of my car and said that it may or may not be returned in the next month. How was I going to drive around the Twitterverse?

I started using Twitter a few years ago primarily because my friends stopped using instant message. If I wanted to stay in touch with them during the day, I'd have to Tweet. Since then, I've come to rely on Twitter as a news aggregator, instant messenger, marketing tool, investigative resource and shopping guide. What the hell was I going to do?

My account was restored within 12 hours, but the experience got me thinking. Twitter hasn't been clear about it's plans for monetizaton, but I can tell you this. I'd pay for a Twitter Pro account, if it meant that I'd verified and immune from accidental suspensions, outages and Fail Whales in general. If I was guaranteed 100% uptime... and maybe a higher API limit (200, 300, 500 per hour?)... I'd pay $5, maybe even $10 per month.

I know what you're thinking. PAY to use Twitter? Sheesh! Someone will just come along with another free network and we'll all hop on that.

That's easy to say if you're a causal user. For the rest of us, I'd argue that a paid option wouldn't be so bad.

Conclusion
Or think about it this way: What would you do if Google suddenly charged you a monthly fee? Would you hop on over to Yahoo? Maybe you'd do that if you were only using Google to search. But what about your Gmail account? All those beautiful Google maps? Google Docs?

And now consider this: What if Google charged us each $2 every month, or $24 a year, for full privileges? Google had somewhere in the range of 145 million unique visitors this past May. So that'd be 145 x $2.00 = $290,000,000 million.

$290 million per month.

You're telling me that you'd really throw your arms up in protest and give Google the Pearl Jam Ticketmaster treatment?

What makes Google, Twitter and Pandora different from your average newspaper or magazine? Consumers find that those websites/ services meet the following criteria:

1. they are indispensable
2. personally or professionally valuable
3. easy to use
4. compelling to reuse again and again
5. interesting enough to talk about with friends and coworkers

Given the same set of criteria, would your organization pass the monetization test?

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New Feature- and Resource-Rich Site Can Help Anyone Become a Master of Wikis, Blogs, Podcasting, Website Development, Social Media Tools and Much More Highlighted Links

BALTIMORE, MD--(Marketwire - July 7, 2009) - With a commitment to digital empowerment, Webbmedia Group today announced the launch of Knowledgewebb, the first all-in-one resource to help turn digital media and social networking novices into more marketable digital mavens.

With just a click of a mouse, Knowledgewebb provides all the technology training, tips, tools, expert help and community support to help even the most techno-phobic reinvent, reinvigorate or save their careers.

"In today's difficult economy, no one can afford to sit on the sidelines because of a lack of digital know-how," said Amy Webb, founder and principal consultant with Webbmedia Group. "I started Knowledgewebb to ensure that content creators -- which today is just about everyone -- know how to use the latest online tools, techniques and systems to become more marketable in a web 2.0 world. It's the easiest way to get rewired to be rehired or reinvented."

Knowledgewebb, whose tagline is "Don't sweat the tech," is designed with the digital newbie -- or even the technophobe -- in mind. All its content is jargon-free, and everything on the site is tagged to make navigation and search simple and fast. Members have regular access to experts in areas like website design and web applications, search engine optimization and social media tools who can provide digital hand-holding. To learn more about Knowledgewebb, click here.

"I knew I wanted to start a business but had no idea how to create a blog or website. I felt like I was in a black hole; it was all kind of scary," said Knowledgewebb beta tester Karen Butterfield, a 64-year-old Fairfield, CT, resident, who is launching a women's coaching business. "Knowledgewebb has given me a tremendous boost and motivation by providing me with the tools I need to launch my business. It's taken the scary factor out."

Knowledgewebb experts have years of experience in traditional and new media at major outlets such as National Public Radio, the Washington Post, ABC News and CNN. Their depth and breadth of practical, actionable media industry insights and grasp of next-generation information tools gives Knowledgewebb members a significant advantage in today's talent marketplace. To learn about the Knowledgewebb experts, click here.

Knowledgewebb is the brainchild of Webb, who has 15 years' experience as a journalist, publisher and consultant to major media organizations, including Time Inc. Style & Entertainment Group (People, InStyle, etc), ABC and NPR and many others. An expert working the intersection of media and technology, Webb said she created the site to address the critical learning and skill needs of people who have been displaced by the economic tsunami.

"The traditional media world is being turned upside down, driven by sweeping economic changes and the reality that millions now look to emerging outlets for real-time news and information," said Jim Brady, former executive editor & vice president at Washington Post-Newsweek Interactive. "Knowledgewebb can help people from all types of backgrounds open up new and exciting career and business opportunities."

Knowledgewebb members can access its many resources to create a number of initiatives, including designing and launching a new website; sourcing, recording and distributing a podcast; or creating a highly visible, traffic-generating blog or audio-photo slideshow. The site also explains, in very plain English, how to use mobile devices for content, how to use Twitter, how to exploit Facebook, and more. Membership fees are priced to make it as widely available as possible.

Site features include:

-- A special section on entrepreneurship for those looking to set up a Web or new media business.
-- Learning resources such as worksheets and Tech Talk Q&As.
-- A continually refreshed "Did You Know" section pointing members toward new content and resources as they become available.
-- A database of more than 150 interactive lessons on new media and technology topics, including "Twitter for Publishing & Marketing," "Personal Blogging 101" and "How to Buy a Digital Camera." Members can suggest new topics for inclusion.
-- Weekly live chat sessions with noted experts that cover subject areas ranging from search engine marketing to audio editing and Internet security along with ongoing email access to experts.
-- Informative webinars each week on topics like "Reinventing Yourself for an Online World."

There are also forums and communities so members can interact and share ideas and insights. Those who want to take their professional development a step further can have one-on-one personal training sessions in the home or office, led by Webbmedia Group consultants; the sessions are available at a discount for Knowledgewebb members.

About Webbmedia Group Webbmedia Group helps clients apply digital tools for use in online news media. Its team of consultants helps companies adapt new technologies and integrate digital tools to increase traffic, monetize content, launch new products, train newsrooms and develop long-term strategies. WMG uses a customized, research-driven approach with every client to ensure that each project utilizes the very best technology available to achieve a company's goals. Its extensive client list includes ABC News, Hearst, People.com and Columbia University, Knight Foundation and more. For more information, visit www.webbmediagroup.com and www.knowledgewebb.net.

Knowledgewebb Design/Architecture Knowledgewebb was designed and built by Amy Webb. It was programmed by Achieve Internet. Achieve Internet is a leading open source software development firm specializing in the development of Web 2.0 Social Networking websites for the most demanding environments. We combine the flexibility, scalability and robust functionality of the Drupal framework with an agile development process to deliver next generation websites for our enterprise clients. Achieve ranked 239th on the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies in 2008. In our 10-year history, Achieve has developed websites for Fast Company, LifetimeTV, NBC Universal, ABC/Disney, Viacom, The World Bank, and Experian. www.achieveinternet.com

Media contact: Wendy Marx, Marx Communications 203-445-2850 and Michael O'Brien, Marx Communications 203-377-4047

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Since we had such an overwhelming response to our free webinars (held for laid-off journalists and others), I decided to launch a service that would give you access to ongoing webinars - as well as live chats, discussion forums and hundreds of learning opportunities. It's called Knowledgewebb, and we just went live!

Knowledgewebb is a site offering hands-on training, self-directed courses, ongoing webinars and more for everyone working in media and communications. Members receive unlimited hands-on training in a very easy-to-use setting, interactive live webinars and chat sessions and access to experts in a dozen different subject areas. We even have a database of 125+ hands-on lessons to help you learn more. (And we're adding new lessons every week!) Want to start your own website from scratch? We have a lesson for that. (Six, actually - showing you how to pick a domain, how to choose a platform, how to get your content online, etc.) Want to use Twitter to market yourself? Yes, we have a lesson for that, too. Flash for beginners? Check. Buying a digital camera? Yep. Facebook Connect? Of course! Take a look at our current offerings here.

And if you wanted to know about getting content to mobile phones, or selecting a content management system, starting a website from scratch or even how to protect your identity while researching online, you can ask one of our Experts directly for help. I wanted to give you the same kind of access I have to the leading movers and shakers in digital media. Need to learn more about visual storytelling? Ask our Expert, Emmy-award winning journalist Tom Kennedy. Just getting started? Amy Eisman, nationally-known writing and teaching coach and American University Professor, is here to help. Want some feedback on your Flash project? Mark Luckie, author of the popular 10000 Words blog and award-winning multimedia designer, will critique your work. Longtime NPR personality and trainer Doug Mitchell is ready to help with all your audio questions... Our Expert list goes on and on.

What is Knowledgewebb?
Knowledgewebb offers hands-on training, self-directed courses, ongoing webinars and more for everyone working in media and communications. Want to learn Wordpress to start your first blog? Ready to try your first audio-photo slideshow? Need a refresher on CSS? Or are you just a beginner who doesn't really know where to start? We created Knowledgewebb for people working in all ares of media who are trying to reinvent themselves and either reinvigorate - or save, as the case has become - their careers.

Membership has its benefits! Unlimited hands-on training in a very easy-to-use setting. Interactive live webinars and chat sessions. Access to experts in 20 different subject areas. And much more:

• More than 120 self-directed lessons so far, with 3-5 new lessons added each week. Topics range from “How to hire a developer” to “Semantic Web basics,” and “How to launch your first blog” to “Building an iPhone app from scratch.”

• More than a dozen recognized experts in a variety of topic areas, including Mobile, Flash, Location Aware Services, Semantic Web and even Beginner. You'll get direct access to each and every one of them!

• Interviews with the creators of popular Web applications and tools, with explanations of how they can be adopted for use in journalism, PR and communications.

• Several expert-peer Smart Rooms, where our members can ask targeted questions about a wide range of topics and get immediate answers from our experts and knowledge community.

• Worksheets and step-by-step primers for those starting a new communications business, publication, blog and more.

• Dozens of how-to guides and tipsheets.

• Archives with transcripts of past live webinars and live chats.

• A schedule of upcoming live chats with experts and webinars, which are free for all members to attend.

What people are saying...
"You tell folks the WHY, which is perhaps the most important piece that we miss in multimedia training. We show them shiny objects, scare them to death and tell them if they don't use them they'll loose their job. Knowledgewebb shows you the truth by showing your the tools byt then giving you the context about when to use them and why it can be useful." - Cory Haik, Director of Content at The Seattle Times, Seattle, Washington.

"Busy executives don't have time to follow all of the trends in media, and hardly any have the expertise to identify the trends worth watching. Knowledgewebb helps you know not only what's worth watching, but how to implement technology in your business. -Ken Sands, Executive Editor, Congressional Quarterly, Washington, D.C.

"As someone who's trying to start a website, I've found Knowledgewebb to be invaluable. After just a few weeks taking self-directed lessons and sitting in on some of the Live Chats, I feel like I have the basic information I need to start my business. I haven't found anywhere else online with this much information!" - Edgar Lewis, Entrepreneur, Greensboro, North Carolina.

I'd love to hear from you, too! Please email me and let me know what you think... feedback, ideas, etc. welcome!

Posted by AmyWebb at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Big news! Our latest project, Knowledgewebb is live!

Knowledgewebb is a site offering hands-on training, self-directed courses, ongoing webinars and more for everyone working in media and communications. It gives direct access to the creators of popular Web applications and tools, mobile applications/ handsets and other tech gadgets via targeted live chat sessions and discussion forums, which we're calling "Smart Rooms." Knowledgewebb also publishes regular short interviews with leading developers about tech trends and how they apply to journalism, public relations and beyond.

Members receive unlimited hands-on training in a very easy-to-use setting, interactive live webinars and chat sessions and access to experts in a dozen different subject areas...so far. If you wanted to about getting content to mobile phones, or selecting a content management system, starting a website from scratch or even how to protect your identity while researching online, you can ask one of our Experts directly for help. We have a database of 100+ hands-on lessons to help you learn more. Everything has been written and programmed specifically for content producers, be they journalists, mommy bloggers, university public relations or even the head of a major broadcast network.

Let me know what you think!

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The news this week has been grim. Again.The Rocky Mountain News is no more, and I suspect that won't be the last paper to fold in the coming months.

Here's what I know you don't want to hear: Many of you probably won't land back on your feet as a working journalist at an American newspaper.

So we're going to reprise our free training, that we offered to laid-off Gannett folks in December and January, and open it up to all the journalists who lost their jobs in Colorado, in Seattle and elsewhere. About half of what my company (Webbmedia Group) does is training. We train reporters, editors, producers, developers, teachers...hell, we even train lots of trainers...on how to adapt technology for journalism. (The other half is strategic planning and innovation. Like, which content management system should you use and how can you best implement it to accommodate mobile, the geospatial web, etc?)

So, to the recently laid-off journalists, here's something to help: We're going to offer an updated version of our free training session on what to do next. It will focus on emerging technology and post-mainstream journalism careers. We'll show you some new tech trends, explain how you can combine them with what you already know, and then show you how to apply your skillset to either land a new gig or even start your own site. As before, this won't be an hour of learning code - it'll be instruction on how to think and understand differently.

Again, these sessions are free. You'll also get access to tipsheets and other information. Criteria are below:

WHO: We'd prefer that you're a newspaper refugee, but we won't turn away working journalists or anyone working in communications. Sorry - this time, we will not take technologists, consultants, academics or students. We're going to check, so don't try to pull a fast one on us.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 25th at 3pm Eastern Time. The training session will last 75 minutes.

HOW/ WHERE: We'll give registrants a call-in number and passcode ahead of the session. You'll need a computer (one that's online, of course) and a phone line to call into. After the session, we'll give you access to tipsheets and other information to help you continue learning on your own.

HOW TO REGISTER: Send an email message with your full name, your email address and where you're currently (or were recently) employed. Also tell us what kind of job you had (multimedia producer, city hall reporter for the paper, etc). For those of you who have previously participated in one of our training sessions, you'll already know that we never do the same thing twice and that all of our sessions are completely personalized. To the extent we can, we're going to try and do the same thing this time around - so share whatever information you'd like. The more we get, the more meaningful we can make the information for you. DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION IS MARCH 20th. NO EXCEPTIONS.

I'd like to cap the session at 200 people total, so this will be first-come, first-served. While I'd prefer that you didn't participate in one of the previous sessions, this one will be different, so it's okay for you to register again.

There are no strings attached, folks. We're just trying to help out. Please help spread the word!

Posted by AmyWebb at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Get our 8-page glossary of tech terms translated into Spanish here. On that page, you'll also find a tipsheet all about Twitter (translated into Spanish).

And for a limited time, you can also download our glossary translated into Russian here.

More to come! Meantime, we're hard at work on a stealthy project launching this April... stay tuned!

Posted by AmyWebb at 09:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

UPDATED

You can make a neat, automatically updated mosaic of the folks following your on Twitter. Take a look at Sxoop to get your own mosaic and to order pretty cool Twitter swag.

I've since taken mine down - the more followers you have, the longer it takes to load...

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Sorry for the absence here. I must tell someone once a day that in order to build a blog's traffic and an audience content must be updated regularly - and it needs to be good. Excellent example I'm setting here...

My excuse? I've been hopping around various cities working...and we have a project over at Webbmedia Group cooking in the background that's been taking up a lot of my time. Look for an April launch!

One other thing we've been working on is translating our knowledge base - dozens and dozens of guides, how-to tipsheets, self-guided lessons and more - into multiple languages. Pretty soon, we'll have glossaries and tipsheets written for anyone working in communications translated into Russian, Arabic, Hindi and, of course, Spanish. (As an aside, we're still trying to find a French translator - pls email me if that's you!) Some of the work is currently available in the Public Research Center on the Webbmedia site.

Since we're in the process of putting together all of these resources, I'd love your feedback! Are there specific how-to guides or tipsheets you wish you had? Please let us know via email (info at webbmediagroup dot com) or Twitter!

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With Microsoft's announcement of fresh layoffs this morning and stories of financial markets tumblimng even further, I thought I'd offer a laugh and some help:

<Laugh>

(Can't find where these originated, and I'd like to include a link to the artists.)

<Help>
We're making the self-assessment worksheet and other materials from our "Now What?!" webinars available for everyone to use. Click here to see a list and download.

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Within minutes of President Obama's official swearing in, the new White House site launched. I'm exceedingly happy to announce it has a number of news tools, easy and direct links to various government offices, video, a blog and a sleek design we've got used to seeing during his campaign. Hell, the damn thing even has Flash!

It's a great day indeed!

Posted by AmyWebb at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Introduction
It’s not enough these days to simply count the number of Twitter followers or Facebook friends you have. Most people who use a social network have at some point connected with someone else once, and then never visited their Facebook page or paid attention to their Twitter posts again. Lots of people may hundreds, if not thousands, of connections on a social network. But does quantity trump quality?

The answer is no. There is a growing body of anecdotal evidence showing that true social mavens are not those with massive networks, but are instead the folks who actively produce great content that is forwarded and reposted via their connections (and their connections) across other networks. S/he may not have thousands of followers, but it doesn’t matter. A person in this position is eventually seen as a digital sage. Posts and updates will spread virally throughout global social networks even if 10,000 people aren’t connected to him/her.

At Webbmedia Group, we define socialitics as the the act of analyzing a person’s or message’s scope throughout social networks, in an attempt to discover its true reach and impact. To be sure, many people use the term “engagement” to describe in general how engaged your site’s visitors are with your content. (Are they clicking on your links? Are they staying on your site to read?). Socialitics is instead a measurement of what’s happening throughout the vast number of social networks on the web.

What is your company website/ mobile tool’s socialitics?
It’s important to monitor traffic, to determine how and where visitors are finding your content, how much time they spend with it, and what they’re clicking on. You advertisers (or funders/ investors) will want this data - and you’ll need to know about how you fare within your own competitive landscape.

But standard analytic tools, such as Omniture SiteCatalyst, Tacoda and Google Analytics, aren’t able to capture data on the discussion about your site (or you, personally), references to content that’s been posted or even instances of your content that has been reposted elsewhere.

What’s your personal social network’s socialitic score?
Let’s say that you now have 27,000 Twitter followers and that you typically post 20 tweets on an average day. Doing simple math, that means your message is heard 540,000 times every single day - and that would just be within your own personal network.

The problem is that the numbers don’t really add up quite so nicely. While there is no concrete, official data released from any of the social networks, those who study them agree that only 20-40% of uses participate - that means post and read posts - with any regularity.

A recent study by Bernardo Huberman, Daniel Romero and Fang Wu, researchers at Hewlett-Packard’s Social Computing Lab, looked at 309,740 Twitter users who had an average of 255 posts (in total), 85 followers and followed 80 other users. Of the 309,740 users, 32% posted only one time and then didn’t use the service again.

Rather than counting friends or followers, a more accurate representation of reach is to follow reposts, retweets and mentions of your content across other social networks.

Your socialitic score, therefore, measures how effective you are at contributing to conversations and compelled others to share your wisdom/ questions/ content.

We have just createad a new tipsheet to help you determine how powerful you/ your message/ your company is online. We offer a checklist and lots of websites to get you started. Download the tipsheet here.

Posted by AmyWebb at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dear New Yorker/ Condé Nast Advertising Team:

Got your email (again) today. Sorry, I was in meetings with some of our clients - just getting to your message now.

I'm starting to question our relationship. Yesterday, you insisted that I purchase a BlackBerry Storm when you know I have a relatively new iPhone 3G. I thought we were on the same page. I mean, you seemed to think it was pretty neat when Lizzie Widdicombe talked to that guy who tried to publish a magazine using his iPhone. I thought the iPhone was "cool." But I guess you've moved on.

Today in your message, I think you're accusing me of being, well, a little fashion-backward. You urged me to "be a well-dressed rebel with GQ rules." But have you seen my hair?! It just doesn't get more rebellious than this. In fact, I already use a cocktail of four products in the morning to tame my curls and frizz. That's after shampooing and conditioning with this really fancy stuff I import from France. (And we all know that they're rebellious!)

Quite frankly, I'm a bit concerned about what you might suggest I do next. I mean, what else is wrong with me? Do you think I made the wrong computer purchase? Am I looking fat? Do I need certain...enhancements?

I'm starting to question our relationship. I used to look forward to your once-a-week wit and charm. Now, it just feels like you're harassing me day in, day out.

Anyhoo - I guess I'll look forward to hearing back from you tomorrow afternoon sometime. Unless we're fighting or something. Is it the way I dress? I feel like you want me to leave the "in" group. Are you mad at me? I'm really worried.

XOXO,
Amy

Posted by AmyWebb at 06:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A question for the good people of Condé Nast Publications/ New Yorker Magazine: Why have you made absolutely no good use of digital media for your content, and yet you’re willing to flog BlackBerry’s wares via mass email? I got the above message yesterday from you. Please help me understand how you, the smartest minds in publishing, could be this far behind in electronic media?

Posted by AmyWebb at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My husband and I are always on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to new mobile technology. For reasons that absolutely escape me, he's wedded to his Palm. I'm a prefectly happy iPhone user. So when the new Palm Pre was unveiled at CES this week, I prepared for battle.

Yes, the new Pre looks sleek. Yes, it has a slide-out full keyboard. Yes, it will use their new webOS platform. Yes, it promises to bring "you the information you want without having to search for it."

But the Pre doesn't have an iTunes Store. And that's why it won't be a game changer.

Since the iPhone's launch, we've seen a handful of phones that look and feel like copies. The Android. BlackBerry's Storm. And now the Pre.

What makes the iPhone special isn't the flat touch screen or the ability to play music. It's the content users have access to via the iTunes Store. It's the sheer number of available applications, the relative low cost to buy them, and the ability of anyone to develop and deploy creative new games, productivity tools, and more. As a former BlackBerry and Palm user, I can tell you that there's just no comparison. BlackBerry applications tend to be wickedly expensive. As for the Palm, there just aren't chic, exciting apps for it.

Apple wins because it continues to control the means to fantastic content distribution. The only way to play is to visit the iTunes Store. And to do that, you gotta have an Apple product.

Stay with me, now, because I'm about to veer off into business models for news... It used to be that news orgs controlled the distribution. Not just anyone could easily publish a big newspaper or command the airwaves. The web forever altered the distribution channels. Is there something to be learned from Apple's approach?

In one sense, Apple is essentially a distribution company that also controls the means of collecting that content. The iPod and iPhone wouldn't have reached critical mass without the iTunes Store and vice versa. Here's a newer example: Amazon was smart launching the Kindle as a means for distributing books, magazines and newspapers.

Maybe it's unrealistic to imagine a news org launching a competing piece of hardware, especially this late in the game. But why aren't more newsrooms seeing opportunities to partner with mobile companies in a more meaningful way? Most of you are still using SMS in America rather than developing across mobile platforms. I can only think of one, maybe two, mobile applications from traditional media outlets that work correctly. The rest are promising something they're not ("breaking news where you are" means using location-aware services, duh!) or the app just wasn't executed well.

The new Pre doesn't launch in the U.S. for another six months, according to Sprint. Mobile is the next shift, folks. Get ready, or get ready to face another round of dramatic, uncomfortable change within your organizations.

Posted by AmyWebb at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We were grocery shopping last week at Giant, and we were asked if we wanted to try a new scanner as soon as we entered the store. The basic idea is that we'd scan our own merchandise, then bag it and then place it into our cart. At the end, we'd scan a final barcode at the register and swipe our credit card. Given what lines are like in this area - I've been known to ditch my cart after waiting on the line for 20 minutes or longer - it seemed like a fantastic idea. Plus, a new toy!

As we were moving though the store, the scanner (Motorola) began suggesting items we might want based on where we were standing and the items we'd already scanned. It also offered up coupons.

Is there a way to integrate news content here? Absolutely - and that's all we talked about as we shopped. What about news alerts that were location aware? Sports scores, breaking news, weather... It'd also be a possible platform to carry video ads, since our scanner had sound and speakers. What about streamed content, like what's available in New York City cabs?

This may seem far-fetched to you, but I talk often about multi-screen content and how that applies to journalism. I don't just get content on my office computer. I have a few laptops. Two mobile phones. TiVo. A GPS system in each of our cars. Is your news organization in a position to deliver your content across multiple screens? Can I start following your coverage of, say, the Hamas/ Israel conflict on my television in the morning, then continue with your brand while I'm on the train and then later at work in my office? If not, what's your plan for the next six months to correct that?

front of store scanning center

my other half scanning butter

coupon notification alert

checkout center

Posted by AmyWebb at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy holidays to you and yours! Here's to a healthy, joyful 2009!

How about this to start off the new year? My company, Webbmedia Group, has a short-term PR consulting project that we need some help with right away. We need someone seasoned, with a great source list, is based in the States and who has some time right after the first of the year. If that's you, please shoot me an email...

Posted by AmyWebb at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

NOTE: I've updated this post. Jay Rosen rightfully points out that Carr's piece was part of the Biz section, and not part of Op-Ed.

*****

The New York Times published an op-ed piece by David Carr yesterday that's snaked its way through all of my social networks (and then some). Carr is a GA for the paper's Culture section and also writes a weekly column in the Business section.

This particular story, "Newspaper Shuns Web, and Thrives," uses Dan Jacobson, publisher/ owner of the New Jersey paper TriCityNews, as a case study to argue that the Internet is destroying the newspaper. Apparently, online advertising will experience a sharp decline over the next few quarters (quoting Gawker's Nick Denton - his predictions are now good enough source material for the NYT?!).

"There is no doubt that readers benefit in all sorts of ways from digitized journalism and searchable listings online, but that ease of use has not been accruing to the benefit of the publications that provide that information, or very often, their advertisers," Carr writes.

According to the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which peddle in actual data (neat!), we've really seen an 11% increase in Internet ad revenue since 2007. The rate of increase may be slowing compared to several years ago, but it's still on the rise. I'd also point to washingtonpost.com, latimes.com and hell, even Carr's own nytimes.com, whose parent companies may have undergone organizational change in the past 12 months but are proving that digital growth is the only way up and out for troubled media conglomerates. Just last week, we learned that latimes.com site revenue has surpassed the LAT editorial payroll costs...

But here's the rub. Carr's analysis isn't particularly strong - turns out that TriCityNews is a 3.5-person shop with a 10k circ - and it's not even a new perspective. The Times chose to print it anyway, ostensibly inviting commentary on a topic that's very much in the spotlight. (Because, why else recycle an old, tired opinion piece?) You're supposed to want to forward it to a friend. To send it to a colleague. To share it elsewhere. To discuss it. To venerate it. To chastise it.

But you can't.

Editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal just told E&P that "our Op-Ed now is very rapid response, but it is at the most the next day. We are looking at a way to take advantage of the expandability of the Internet, the back and forth of it and the instantaneous nature of the Internet."

Rosenthal is, well, wrong. The Times may well start posting opinions on breaking news beginning next month, but what it's doing now isn't exactly..."rapid."

And it certainly doesn't conform to what the rest of the world is doing online. The Carr story offers three external links, and "Gawker" simply redirects to a Gawker Media topics page on the Times' website and doesn't mention anything about Denton or his ad apocalypse premonition. It is possible, though not immediately clear how, to share that story with someone else. But all of the discussion I've seen has been way off of the nytimes.com site. It's been via Twitter. Facebook. And now, my blog.

It makes me think that the editorial dept. doesn't really get the digital world. Maybe they don't want to?

I know incredibly smart, talented people working on the Times' website. They know a hell of a lot about how and why the Internet works. The print-side Times' folks would do themselves well to sit down with digital and learn a little. At least learn the lexicon and the players, for goodness sake. </rant>

Posted by AmyWebb at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you who have attended one of Webbmedia Group's training sessions, you'll have already received a version of what's below. We just finished testing some newer tools, and we've reorganized our Twitter hit-list below. You can obviously use this as a reference, but also feel free to download a copy for yourself or for your organization. It's available at our Research Center. As always, we've noted how these tools can be used for journalism.

Utilities
TwitterFeed - Got a blog? This will automatically updated your posts to your Twitter account. If you're not sure how to effectively Twitter at your news organization, create a basic Twitter account - like BaltimoreNews. Then, you can automatically send out announcements of your new blog entries to everyone who's following you.

Autopostr - You can use Autopostr to post Flickr photos to Twitter and also send a tweet to your followers.

Mobypicture - Shares photos via Twitter, enables you to post directly to Flickr and your blog.

Twadget - If you're a (blech) Vista user, this is a gadget that will track and send all new tweets from your account.

Twitzer - Want more than 140 characters? Twitzer works with Firefox and will allow you to type in longer posts. Be warned, though. Twittering is meant to be is micro-sized, and some of your followers may not want long, rambling posts from you.

TwitterGram - Tired of just sending out 140 characters? Use TwitterGram to send mp3s tweets. Use it for journalism: This could be a fantastic way to share breaking news audio reports. You might also consider using it to send out quick advertisements every X# tweets.

Clients
Twhirl - This is a nice desktop application that allows you to update and read your Twitter account. This application really functions more like an instant message client. Still, it can help reporters stay on top of breaking news.

Snitter - This is a popular desktop client, but it requires Adobe Air to run.

Twitteroo - Desktop client, works best on PC.

Twitterrific - Desktop client for mobile or desktop.

Twitbar - For our Linux friends, a Twitter client for Gnome users to post from the Deskbar.

Trends and Analysis
Twitt(url)y - A popular service to track the most buzzed-about URLs people are sharing. This could be a useful tool for reporters during breaking news events.

SocialToo - Includes a host of Twitter applications, including SocialSurveys, which enables users to easily create polls. You can also auto-follow, blacklist and DM followers after setting up an automated system.

TweetPad - Enables you to visualize Twitter stats. http://silentlycrashing.net/tweetpad/

Favrd - Aggregates the most favorited tweets, which can help journalists to identify upcoming news stories and events or even search by topic on previously popular stories. http://www.textism.com/favrd/

TweetDeck - A must for tracking Twitter trends and conversations, though you’ll need to install and run Adobe Air to make it work.

Peoplebrowsr - A comparative Twitter search tool, aggregator, connector and messaging system. It’s incredibly helpful, though the amount of information it produces can at time be overwhelming.

Monitter - The interface looks suspiciously like PeopleBrowsr, but that doesn’t make it work any less efficiently. You can search keywords at once and compare results.

Search
Twellow - This is a search engine that you can use to browse people and other topics, uses Twitter and other social networking tools. http://www.twellow.com/

Twitter Answers - Ask Twitter a question, find an answer. http://www.mosio.com/twitter/

Summize - Twitter’s own search engine.

TwitterTroll - Yet another search engine, TwitterTroll also shows the most popular searches at any given time. Can be useful to search the zeitgeist.

Tweet Scan - This is another search engine for tweets. Again, you're not quoting directly from folks - just looking for leads and additional context to aid in the reporting process.

Mobile/ Geolocation
PocketTweets - This tool enables you to post and read tweets via your iPhone.

TwitterLocal - Filter out tweets from just a certain area. Reporters can use this as source material to find out what's happening within a certain range of miles, postal code, state, city, etc.

BrightKite enables you to share your location and find people based on where you are.

Loopt helps you to find friends and track them using Twitter and your mobile phone’s data connection. (Also available on the iPhone without using Twitter.)

Fun
TwitterLit - This application will send out the first line of a book and a link to Amazon. It's part trivia - can you guess the author and title? - but mostly a marketing ploy to get Twitter users to buy more stuff on Amazon. But it's effective - and lots of people are using it. Mimic this application for use in your own newsroom. Tease new stories. Use quick-hit trivia to drive traffic to your site. What about promotions? Selling photos or archived video?

Twitter Tube Tracker - Track the status of London's Tube trains and get delays sent to Twitter.

Twittervision - We wrote about this last year... Twittervision displays random updates from people around the world. It's a bit like watching an aquarium, and it's addictive. Want to get included? Add TwitterWhere, which will automatically post your tweet location.

Tweetbeep - Google News Alerts for Twitter.

People/ Relationship Management
Twubble - Want to follow more people but not sure where to start? Twubble will make recommendations based on who you currently follow and your geographic location. This is a good way for jurnos to get started using Twitter, especially if they're not sure who to start following just yet. Note: In order for Twubble to make suggestions, you need to be following a handful (10 or more) of Twitter accounts.

FriendOrFollow - May make you feel worse about yourself, so be warned. This service will show you who you’re following that isn’t following you back.

Follow Cost - Will forecast the amount of time you’ll need to spend following a given person or account on Twitter.

TwitterSnooze - Gives you the ability to temporarily stop receiving a specified person’s tweets - without letting them know or without having to unsubscribe entirely.

Basic Communications
GroupTweet - Will enable you to use Twitter within groups, which you cannot do with the current platform on its own.

TwitThis - Allows you to tweet anything you see online, directly from the page you’re visiting. If it launches for iPhone, this would solve the headache caused for folks wanting to retweet but can’t because of the missing cut and paste function.

Twitter Ad Networks
Twittertise
Twittad
TheDeck

<Some Twitter Basics>

# Use a hashtag in front of a keyword to make it more easily searchable. People decide on a keyword and then tweet conferences, breaking news events and more. For past examples, search #griots, #web20summit and #mumbai.

@ Use the @ symbol in front of a Twitter user’s name to reference them in your post or to respond to them publicly.

Sending a direct, private message varies depending on the Twitter client or site you use. It may be the letter “d” in front of the username, or you may need to select “direct message” from a drop-down window. Be careful when sending content that you intend to be private - one click could make your message available to all of your followers.

Posted by AmyWebb at 05:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by AmyWebb at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The news this week has been grim. Three thousand layoffs at Gannett. The News Journal in Wilmington is cutting 44 jobs. More at the Tennessean, the Asbury Park Press, the Tallahassee Democrat...

And now here's what I know you don't want to hear: Many of you probably won't land back on your feet as a working journalist at an American newspaper. The economy is in the shitter, news orgs are still using tired business models and old fashioned newsroom jobs just aren't in demand. Not when the Huffington Post pulls in more traffic on an average day than many newspaper websites do in an entire month.

I want to make things better. About half of what my company (Webbmedia Group) does is training. We train reporters, editors, producers, developers, teachers...hell, we even train lots of trainers...on how to adapt technology for journalism. (The other half is strategic planning and innovation. Like, which content management system should you use and how can you best implement it to accommodate mobile, the geospatial web, etc?)

So, to the recently laid-off journalists, here's an early holiday gift. We're offering two free live online training sessions focusing on emerging technology and post-mainstream journalism careers. We'll show you some new tech trends, explain how you can combine them with what you already know, and then show you how to apply your skillset to either land a new gig or even start your own site. We might point you in the direction of a new project or introduce you to a different kind of digital journalism entirely. This won't be an hour of learning code - it'll be instruction on how to think and understand differently. Why should you go away quietly and take a random PR job or somesuch, when you can instead harness the technology that's causing much of the heated competition facing newspapers?

Again, these sessions are free. You'll also get access to tipsheets and other information. Criteria are below:

WHO: We'd prefer that you're a Gannett refugee, but we won't turn away working journalists. Sorry - this time, we will not take technologists, consultants, academics or students. We're going to check, so don't try to pull a fast one on us...

WHEN: Two sessions - they'll be repeats with the exact same information. Tuesday, Dec. 23rd at 4pm Eastern and Wednesday, Jan. 7th at 1pm Eastern. The training session will last 75 minutes.

HOW/ WHERE: We'll give registrants a call-in number and passcode the day before. You also must be calling in from the U.S. and not from an international number. You'll need a computer (one that's online, of course) and a phone line to call into. After the session, we'll give you access to tipsheets and other information to help you continue learning on your own.

HOW TO REGISTER: Send an email message with your full name, your email address and where you're currently (or were recently) employed. Also tell us what kind of job you had (multimedia producer, city hall reporter for the paper, etc). For those of you who have previously participated in one of our training sessions, you'll already know that we never do the same thing twice and that all of our sessions are completely personalized. To the extent we can, we're going to try and do the same thing this time around - so share whatever information you'd like. The more we get, the more meaningful we can make the information for you. DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION IS DECEMBER 15th. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Because of the software we're using, we're capped at 100 participants per session. This means that we can only take 200 people - first come, first served. Since we're not charging anything, please only sign up if you can definitely make the session. We don't want to take away spots from others who'd like to attend.

There are no strings attached, folks. We're just trying to help out. Consider it an early 8th night Hanukkah present from Webbmedia Group & company.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that we also have an upcoming training session that's being held in conjunction with the Columbia J-School. It's a four-hour, hands-on, intensive class on how to dig really deep through the dark web, social platforms and more to enhance your reporting. We're also going to detail some nifty Google tricks/ hacks. This one isn't free - and they may or may not have seats still left. But details are HERE .

Posted by AmyWebb at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)