Blogs offer unique disaster coverage

Several years ago, I attended a session by EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow. In describing the difference between reading news reports by journalists and newsgroup posts by individuals, Barlow said it was the difference between looking at a map and being on the ground.

Blogs take this distinction to a new level, given (among other things) the ability to add graphics. Yesterday’s New York Times reports on how bloggers used these capabilities to report on the tsunami disaster. These weren’t reporters flying in to cover the tragedy. These were individuals who were on the scene when the disaster happened—and they happen to have blogs.… Read More »

Blogs vs. newsgroups

As I promote blogs as a communication vehicle, I’m often hit with this question: “Aren’t they just the same as newsgroups?”

No, they’re not, but since I don’t have an elevator speech in my pocket to address that question, I usually stumble through my explanation of the differences. Thanks to Dana VanDen Heuvel, I can now offer some concise points of distinction between blogs and newsgroups. In his blog focusing on technology in marketing and advertising, VanDen Heuvel lists five differences. It’s not a comprehensive list (I’ve covered similar comparisons before), but I like several of the points VanDen Heuvel makes.

For instance, “You… Read More »

What journalists can teach bloggers

Poynter Online’s Steve Outing started his two-part series with an overview of what traditional journalists have to learn from bloggers. Now comes the second installment, which turns the tables. Bloggers no doubt felt fairly puffed up over having something to teach mainstream journalists, but may sniff at the notion that those same journalists may have anything to teach bloggers.

Outing notes the primary difference is an editor: “An extra pair of eyes can certainly help to catch spelling, grammar, and factual errors, but more importantly they can catch really dangerous issues—such as when you’re about to libel someone.”

He also notes… Read More »

New software is up and running

As you can tell by looking, I’ve completed the switchover from the software I was using to publish my blog—pMachine—to Expression Engine. Expression Engine is distributed by the same company, but it offers several significant features not available in pMachine. The one that motivated me to make the switch is the inclusion of Captcha.

Captcha stands (sort of) for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. You’ve no doubt seen Captcha implementations elsewhere. Captcha generates a graphic image of a word that computers can’t read—only people can. You have to enter the word in a text field to show that… Read More »

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