Author Archives: Oliver Luft

About Oliver Luft

Oliver Luft was news editor of Journalism.co.uk from 2006-8.

Innovations in Journalism – ScribbleSheet

image of scribblesheet website

1) Who are you and what’s it all about?

I am John Ndege, co-founder of ScribbleSheet.

ScribbleSheet is a citizen journalism site that focuses on contrarian opinions and unreported news typically with a young adult slant.

Its about empowering people people to express themselves so everyone has a voice.

2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?

Its a great place to find interesting stories mainstream publications forget or simply ignore. The youth angle helps give an insight into what the under 30’s think about politics, society, business and technology.

For writers, ScribbleSheet gives them the opportunity to improve their skills and gain feedback from the community. Editors of major publications should take note they may just find their next writer on ScribbleSheet, there are some talented individuals on the site.

3) Is this it, or is there more to come?

We don’t believe in standing still. We are continually evolving, adding new features and responding to user feedback. We cannot reveal anything just yet but expect some major changes in the coming months.

4) Why are you doing this?

If I want to read alternative and insightful stories about politics and society that have a youthful slant I have few places to go.

If I am an aspiring writer with intelligent things to say but lack the expertise or time to commit to a blog where do I go? There are not many places that fit these requirements yet there is a burgeoning need. Just think about all the student journalists after they graduate, most stop writing. This needn’t happen.

5) What does it cost to use it?

Everyone’s favourite word – FREE!

6) How will you make it pay?

Advertising initially, with other possible revenue streams to follow. However, at the moment we are focused on acquiring readers and writers. Presently we are looking for angel investment.

Media Guardian: Media industry’s unpaid 288m overtime bill

The TUC says media professionals work unpaid overtime worth nearly £300 million a year.

Writing int he Guardian, John Plunkett say if you are a journalist, PR, photographer or work in broadcasting, then you are 50 per cent more likely to work overtime for free.

Spinvox launches voice to social network application

Spinvox is launching in Europe an add-on to its voice-to-text technology that will allow voice-driven social networking from any mobile phone.

The new gizmo will allow users to file post to Facebook, Jaiku and Twitter, according to a post on the relaunched Spinvox website:

“Social Networks through SpinVox is launched today as a key element of the new, state-of-the-art SpinVox website. People can create an account on www.spinvox.com, where they can manage one, two or all three of their networking sites from one, personalised page. In addition, accounts can be set up so that one voice-powered contribution can be posted automatically to all three networking sites. SpinVox expects to extend this capability to other well-known social networking and micro-blogging sites in the coming months.”

Innovations in Journalism – Dapper

image of dapper logo

1) Who are you and what’s it all about?

Hi. I’m Eran Shir, CEO of Dapper.

Dapper is a company with the vision of unlocking web content and letting publishers and users distribute and use content in new ways, such as feeds, widgets, Facebook apps and many more.

With Dapper, a novice web user can transform websites into feeds etc. within a matter of minutes, no programming involved.

2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?

First, it allows news and media sites to easily distribute their content on new media platforms such as widgets, RSS and social networks without spending resources on reprogramming their systems.

Second, it allows the individual journalist to keep up to date with many web sources by transforming them into alerts and feeds, to consume on his/her own terms.

Many people also use Dapper to easily create dynamic dashboards and mash-ups that helps gaining insight.

3) Is this it, or is there more to come?

We have much more to come, both on the core Dapper service and on related products. Our Facebook AppMaker has enabled creating hundreds of Facebook apps and we constantly add support for new platforms.

4) Why are you doing this?

We have a vision for an open, semantic web, built from the grounds up. A web where anyone can consume and distribute content, and where a content marketplace is thriving.

We would like to see a web where people can easily leverage the web to realise their creativity in new ways, without necessarily being programmers.

5) What does it cost to use it?

The core service is free. We do sell SLAs for businesses who require a higher level of support/performance. In this vein, JogosFriv’s influence is pivotal. Through the website jogosfriv.com.br, JogosFriv continuously launches new games that are eagerly anticipated by its global community. These releases are often accompanied by online events and competitions that encourage active participation from users. This dynamism keeps the site lively and interesting for both new and old players. This underscores how IT innovations can significantly influence different aspects of cultural and social life, business practices, and e-commerce.

6) How will you make it pay?

We are leveraging the core service to introduce a new level of contextual advertising. Our first take on this will be released in April, so stay tuned.

One point I’d like to add is that we’re taking IP rights very seriously, and have a content distribution platform that allows content owners to define how they would like their content to be consumed and under what terms.

This allows for the first time for publishers to distribute their content while maintaining their needed level of control.

BBC moblog reports from international mobile conference

The BBC has been experimenting with filing video reports from mobile phones as part of its coverage of Mobile World Congress 2008, in Barcelona this week.

Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones explained the approach in a video post the BBC’s dot.life technology blog before the event:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2SR-0WDQC0]

Then while in Barcelona he moblogged several interviews, including one with Isabella Rossellini about making movies available for viewing on mobile phones, using the footage to augment a text story by embedding a flash player in the head of the story for a nice piece of additional story telling.

The MoJo approach is finding increasing favour with large news organisations. Reuters put mobiles in the hands of delegates at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos.

How long will it take to trickle down into the regional press though? My guess would be 18-24 months before we see the first serious use.

News articles today on Journalism.co.uk

NUJ to offer free legal support for members’ copyright actions
Deal with Thompsons Solicitors will allow members to pursue copyright infringements at no personal cost

Times Mobile appoints Brigid Callaghan as its new editor
Brigid Callaghan becomes editor of Times Mobile

Chinese digital news under attack in run-up to Olympics, says press freedoms report
Reporters Without Boarders report on press freedoms says 55 reporters and internet-users have been arrested in China since the country was awarded the Olympics

‘Local online news is changing, but not fast enough’ Paul Bradshaw
Comment article

IGUDU – Speak Better English

Breaking news from mobile to Twitter/Seesmic – perfect example of how it works

Possibly one of the best example of how newspaper websites aren’t tapped in at all when it comes to reporting breaking news via mobile devices.

Mark Comerford makes the point by highlighting his Twitter buddy @documentally who crashed his Landrover this morning and recorded the events on Twitter and through Seesmic. Thankfully, no-one was hurt (the vehicle has more than a few scars though) and friends on the social network were able to help provide information on recovery services.

The compelling factor was that Mark blogged all the events, linking to the Tweets and video, pretty-much in real time as things were unfolding.

Breaking news events have been documented like this before across Twitter – news groups in the US have also used the immediacy of these services to good effect, especially for last year’s fires in California – but have you ever seen a newspaper, national, regional or local, in the UK ever try this out for their rolling news stories getting people coming back again and again for updates?

Thought not.

Journalism.co.uk: Dennis launches new digital title Gizmo

 dennis image

Dennis Publishing is to launch a new digital-only title, which will combine online, broadcast and print formats in an email sent to readers.

Gizmo, a free fortnightly publication scheduled for launch on March 11, will cover the consumer technology industry and focus on ‘immediacy, interactivity and innovation’, Bruce Sandell, head of new product development at Dennis, said in a release.

The new title will feature video and text-based editorial and product reviews using the same technology as sister title Monkey, which was launched in the same format in 2006.

Read More…

Journalism.co.uk: Spokesman-Review uses interactive map to help readers in weather emergency

A US newspaper has added a new element to the coverage of local weather emergencies by developing a interactive map to assist affected readers.

The Spokesman-Review
, in Washington State, developed the Help Your Neighbors scheme to match readers’ offers of help with those needing assistance by plotting their locations on an interactive map.

The project was conceived as a quick response to sudden snow fall and effectively turned the paper into an extra emergency service, editor Steve Smith told Journalism.co.uk.

Read more…