And the web is changing....

So says Tim Berners-Lee. And when he says so we better listen as he surely would know what he is talking about being the inventor of the World Wide Web. He talks about the development of a semantic web where data networks intelligently to provide unheard of solutions. The question I have is that with all kinds of personal data in public domain, how would we monitor the collation and reorganisation of our on personal data by some unwanted element. We may be looking at a very high security risk scenario which needs to be seriously contemplated upon before any such tecnology is unveiled in the public domain.

Hoping for a New Media Marketing Conference in India

Was just reading a post about the Second Annual New Media Marketing Conference being organised by IQPC in South Africa. Events like these are the need of the hour as this would spearhead the fledgling domain towards attaining greater visibility and a bigger share of the promotion pie.


Alas, apart from lot of talk, nothing much is being done by anyone in India in this sphere. I am still to come across news of a decent New Media conference organised in India. I like the suggestion given by Mike Stopforth and would further like to add media students to the list of concessional attendees.

Welcome Inorden

The first Nordic Citizen Journalism Venture is up and running. The result of coming together of individuals without any corporate backing, this is arguably the first attempt at a 'Nordic common ground on the Internet' as per Kristine Lowe in New Nordic Citizen Journalism Initiative. I wish Inorden all the luck for the venture.

CJ goes virtual

An interesting piece of news that I came across today is the opening of the virtual office of CNN on Second Life. This is waht I call spanning all worlds. They are going to extensively use Citizen Journalists for coverage. It would be interesting to see the stories that emerge. Read more at CNN Supports Citizen Journalism. In Second Life

From New Media to Old Media

I came across an interesting story of a blogger who went on and established a book publishing company. This is really encouraging and one should look forward to more such news trickling in. Would we see a day when Google (Not exactly media though) or say Orato buys out a mainline newspaper. The company in question is Dzanc Books which was started as a literary blog Emerging Writers Network by Dan Wickett, 'a former quality-control manager for a car-parts maker'.

The Home page of Dzanc says :

Dzanc Books was created in 2006 to advance great writing and champion those writers who don't fit neatly into the marketing niches of for-profit presses.

With a registered community of more than 2000 writers it seems to be headed for exciting times. You could go through the story of their journey till now on Wired.

Citizen Journalism powered Democracy

While I was talking about exciting times ahead when Africa opens up to Citizen Journalism, the citizens in Africa were already into it albeit with a twist. Since the entire Africa consists of fomer colonies of Great Britain, France or Portugal the language of Officialese is not the language of the people. So the written word is still to inspire popular imagination as more often than not it is in an alien tongue. So what is seen is CJ powered radio broadcasts. A good story on this phenomenon has been published by allafrica.com credited to the Inter Press Service (Johannesburg). The writer Linus Atarah reporting in from Helsinki in his story Africa: Citizen Journalism Opening Up Political Space gives a live example of Ghana where Citizens are questioning ministers in live radio broadcasts, something unheard of in Africa.

Media beware here comes the "I Me My" Media

Today I read a good writeup in the Manila Times about the the growing relevance of Citizen Journalism specially in the strife torn areas as evident by the continuous stream of news and information flowing out of Burma from amateurs armed with digital cameras and mobile phones. What is also underlined is the significance of the internet which is 'undergirding' this movement. As the article Digital technology is reinventing journalism by Ike Suarez very well describes, the great enabler for any form of Mass Journalism is Digital Technology. I would love to see a day when the digital footprint on the African Continent becomes more pronounced leading to some uncesored news coverage from there.
The writer has given some very good pointers which I repeat here for the benefit of all.

Quote

1) Digital-enabled and interactive media may be demassified; but when the circumstances are there, they possess a massiveness of reach traditional print and broadcast can never equal;
2) Anyone with an Internet-enabled device is both a recipient and disseminator of news and information;
3) Traditional and Internet-enabled media are never mutually exclusive, but are instead, mutually supporting;
4) Methods tyrants traditionally employ to suppress news and information are no longer potent;
5) Professional journalists still have a value proposition in this new media environment, at least for now.
The value proposition lies in professional journalists integrating into their work and aggregating the content produced by citizen journalists.
It also calls for professionals in the newsrooms of newspapers, magazines, radio and television to embrace citizen journalists as truly their brethren. Not doing so would be an act of psychological denial.

Unquote.