iPM is working with the CASA (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) – developer of a website for sharing maps – to use the technology more closely for journalistic ends.
Aside from this (and in a totally non-scientific way, they say) iPM wants to create a mood map of the credit crunch, assessing how people the length of the country feel about possible financial choppy waters ahead that it can use it to inform journalism.
We give developers the opportunity to tell us journalists why we should sit up and pay attention to the sites and devices they are working on. Today, it’s indexing interviews across the web from Access Interviews.
1) Who are you and what’s it all about?
My name is Rob McGibbon and I am a freelance journalist with a background in writing – mainly celebrity interviews – for various national titles. I launched Access Interviews.com in January 2008 after two years of development.
The website provides a unique index to the world’s interviews with subjects of all kinds and in every category. AI is a totally original concept, which is not bad going in such a crowded web world!
The site works on an open editorial platform. Web editors on newspapers and magazines and individual journalists submit links to the interviews, which they have published on their own websites.
Access Interviews does not carry the actual content but instead links back to the copyright owner’s website and automatically maintains a full searchable archive of the links to interviews that are submitted.
2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?
It is useful in many ways to journalists. It is ideal for research because Access Interviews only carries genuine, professionally sourced interviews.
This material is often the most important for a journalist. You can save a lot of time you might otherwise waste on Google by going to AI first.
Access Interviews is also a great tool for journalists and publishers to promote their work. Individual writers can create a portfolio of their interviews, which is particularly useful for freelance journalists who work across a number of titles.
Newspapers or magazines can also promote their archives as a way of drawing new readers to their website or hard copy.
Some magazines and provincial newspapers have small circulations but get great access to high profile personalities because of the credibility of the publication.
Our website is a powerful independent platform to showcase exclusive work and bring a new audience to the work of smaller publications.
The AI site is also the perfect way of establishing the true origin and copyright of an interview. This is incredibly useful for journalists who originate so much material, only to see it ripped off in this digital world.
3) Is this it, or is there more to come?
I am already developing three other websites that will be launched later this year, but the priority is to get Access Interviews fully established and being used by the journalists.
There are already extensive plans to expand AI, so this is my focus.
4) Why are you doing this?
More is definitely not always best and the internet is living proof. It is congested with worthless and often inaccurate content. Interviews are the golden source of content and I want to create a 24-carat resource for journalists and to generally promote the value of the professional interview.
5) What does it cost to use it?
It is free to use and there is no need to register. Click and go. How can you resist?
6) How will you make it pay?
Regretfully, the money side is very much phase two. I expect any business-minded person would hear me say that and scream or laugh.
Essentially, my plan is to make a great website that becomes indispensable to journalists and users generally. By doing this, Access Interviews will have a powerful readership which, in turn, will make it an interesting proposition for big brand advertisers.
China has moved past the US as the country with the most internet users, it was reported by Chinese state media.
According to Reuters, Xinhua news agency quoted the China Internet Network Information Centre, claiming that the number of internet users in the country had risen to 221 million by the end of February – surpassing the number of internet users in the US for the first time.
German publisher Bertelsmann AG is planning to publish what could be the first in a series of yearbooks whose content is derived from entries on Wikipedia.
According to the Associated Press, the company said it is planning a “One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia” starting in September with the content made up of 50,000 of the most-searched terms on the German language edition of Wikipedia.
News 24 Journalists and colleagues from radio and the TV news bulletins have become the first to move into the BBC’s new integrated newsroom and start work.
According to the Press Gazette, the first stage of the project was completed on Monday.
International and World News staff will be phased in over the next few weeks, along with journalists covering the text-based areas of the BBC News website.
We give developers the opportunity to tell us journalists why we should sit up and pay attention to the sites and devices they are working on. Today, it’s live video streamed over the web from mobile phones from Qik.
1) Who are you and what’s it all about?
Hi. I’m Bhaskar Roy, co-founder of Qik.
Qik’s vision is to enable anyone with a camera-phone to stream live video from anywhere in the world to the web, TV, mobile phones, and gaming consoles.
2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?
For news – immediacy of information is very important. Qik enables journalists to capture and report news live from wherever they are – without having to wait for the news truck to arrive.
It enables journalists to conduct better interviews by taking questions from anywhere in the world. It provides the ability for viewers on the web to send real-time chat messages to the person streaming the video straight to their phone enabling a high level of interactivity.
As a result journalists are able to conduct richer, better interviews. It also enables journalists to leverage anyone who may be at a particular event to capture the story for them.
3) Is this it, or is there more to come?
We are just getting started! 🙂
In our current invitation-only alpha release, users with Nokia smartphones can stream live video from their phones to anywhere on the web and playback their Qik videos from their phones.
We are working on addressing other smartphones and Java-enabled phones. We are also working on providing the ability to stream live from phone to phone.
4) Why are you doing this?
We truly believe that sharing and experiencing moments of your life with your friends, family and/or your world is invaluable.
5) What does it cost to use it?
We are currently in a free, invitation-only alpha stage.
6) How will you make it pay?
We are at a very early stage of bringing this innovation to market and focused on ensuring that we deliver high value to the billions of camera phone users globally.
The major disruption to Twitter last week was made all the more embarrassing by its huge popularity, says Charles Cooper, but are its recurring technical problems scaling the service a blip that Twitterholics will put up with?
Cooper doesn’t think so, a word of warning from him:
“Is Twitter so addictive that we can’t live without it? Don’t believe the hype.
“I know a lot of tweet-deprived people who made it through the weekend in fine fettle.
“Remember what happened to Friendster? The service started to bog down and failed to recover in time.
“The upshot: It lost its mojo and its users defected to the likes of MySpace and Facebook.”
Cooper adds that if the gremlins are dispatched from the Twitter machine then the service could have a bright future – but warns that the next fad is just round the corner if problems persist.
Speculation about Bloomberg placing a bid for the New York Times has been rife for some time, but don’t believe the hype says Portfolio.
It quotes Bloomberg dismissing the speculation himself during a press conference yesterday in New York.
“I am not a newspaper person,” Portfolio reported him saying.
“I know nothing about the production of a newspaper. I know something about reading it. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I don’t. I buy it everyday retail. But I am not going into the newspaper business.”
MySpace has launched a trail advertising platform across its site aimed at giving advertisers great control over what they do across the social network.
The Community Builder platform allows advertisers them to build and customise campaigns.
The platform also providers analytics to help gauge performance.
Social network in a box, Ning, has raised 60m dollars in a fourth round of venture capital money from ‘unspecified institutional investors’ taking valuation of the company to 500m, according to Paid Content.
The company raised raised 44m last summer, which then valued the company at $170 million – says PC.