I enjoyed reading Wayne MacPhail's article on rabble.ca today about how easy video is to get online using tools from startups like ooVoo and Utterz (both are in public beta). Wayne describes how he and co-host Roz Allen prepared to produce a live rabbletv program from Toronto's Centre for Social Innovation. While walking with their equipment down the street, Wayne used his cell phone to shoot a short video clip to let viewers waiting for the show on rabble know they were on their way. Within minutes, the video was viewable worldwide.

Recently, I've been looking at a service called qik, which lets you stream live video from a cell phone. qik is in public alpha testing right now, so only certain Nokia models are supported, and you need to have an unlimited data plan from your wireless carrier due to the high bandwidth requirements. Other manufacturers' handsets will expected to be supported later this year. Imagine having a tiny broadcasting platform with you every time you carry a cell phone!

As Wayne notes in his rabble article,

It's important to pay attention to this shift and to adapt to it early. Large corporations and mainstream media outlets will be slow to catch on to the shift of video from broadcast to conversation. All too often they're interested in using online tools to get out their own messages, and control their own spin. Groups that let the audience turn the cameras on themselves and help amplify the diverse voices around them will be early winners.

I added an Utterz widget to this page this morning. It's in the rightmost sidebar, and right now it just has a short (but in-depth) investigative feature about my blue pen. I hope you enjoy it. :)

An excellent post by Chris Brogan on Media Bullseye today about "Establishing Reputation Online." He talks about the importance of being yourself online, because

If you’re looking to be someone you’re not, the velocity at which this gets exposed online is astounding. If you’re pretending to be a people person, it shows. If you’re trying to be “one of the guys” and you’re not, it shows. Just be the person you are, and find the way that this connects with the people you need to reach online. Don’t waste calories trying to put on a show. It just isn’t sustainable.

Great advice! I've been enjoying Chris's own blog for a couple of months now, and he has good insights into the changing world of social media. (He also just got a spiffy site redesign by Snowy Day Design and a new masthead logo by Stress Limit Design - nice work, Nico and Justin!)

Media Bullseye - Chris Brogan - Establishing Reputation Online

Angry journalists now have a place to go to let off some steam. Editor & Publisher's Steve Outing talked to the moderator of an new online forum, AngryJournalist.com, in today's column.

Kiyosha Martinez started the site only three weeks ago and is already over 50,000 pageviews and has over 1300 comments as of this morning. The anger of those who post is aimed at multiple targets: management, "citizen journalists," technologically-challenged editors, each other. All of the comments are anonymous and held for moderation to prevent spammers and off-topic comments, and Martinez works through them each evening.

When Journalists Aren't Happy, the Industry Isn't Happy

Sarah Braun posted today about the increased presence of new media in the television and movie industry. The income from online versions of TV shows and movies was a major sticking point in the recent Writers' Guild strike against the networks and producers, and the importance of these new media will continue to grow. Sarah describes the website for NBC's "Heroes," which, like many TV shows today, is regularly mentioned during promos for the broadcast episodes. Sarah describes the site's many attractive features (which include an interactive graphic novel), and concludes:

"I think that this sort of digital content is EXACTLY what a television show’s website should be, particularly for a show like Heroes. Lost’s website is similar, though not nearly as expansive. Promises of online exclusives that turn into hours of extra content and an experience that truly immerses the viewer into the show is a surefire way to keep them coming back for more. I think as technology continues to expand and the entertainment industry continues to move towards digital media, we’ll begin to see more and more websites of that quality."

Quality content keeps eyeballs on the site, interacting with the content - and reading and watching the advertising.

(BTW, Sarah also drops a reference to The Spot in her post, just a week after our New Tech Heroes flashback on the original "webisodic fiction." Spotfans, another blogger shows the love! :) )

Sarah's post is well worth a complete read.

A follow-up to yesterday's post about the deathwatch for offline media:

The (London) Sunday Times has an article today about a brewing battle between minority New York Times shareholders and the Sulzburger-Ochs family, which has controlled the paper since 1896. The dissidents want The New York Times Company to move more aggressively toward online distribution of news content, claiming that the slow pace currently being pursued by management is putting the long-term future of the paper and its other holdings at risk. In the article, reporter Dominic Rushe describes a familiar situation at North American newspapers:

"Readers are migrating online but advertising revenues are failing to keep up with the shift. Last month the company announced 100 layoffs at the 1,332-strong New York Times newsroom."

Rushe also quotes journalist and blogger Jeff Jarvis, who advocates big changes at the New York Times and even more dramatic changes at the Boston Globe, also owned the The New York Times Company. Jarvis described the changes he would recommend on his blog BuzzMachine on Saturday:

"It clearly should be more online than print — soon or immediately exclusively online. It must focus on great reporting. It should be open to all media. It should become the host of opinion and discussion about all issues — which will be tough for them. The Times will have hearty competition from both the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal but it should bravely leap ahead and recognize that Dow Jones management is scared of change (thus their mewling and successful efforts to convince Rupert Murdoch not to take down the pay wall . . . for now). It will also have competition from international news brands coming to America: the Guardian, the BBC, and possibly others."

One of the biggest assets any news media organization has is its pool of journalistic talent. The reporters, researchers, photographers, producers, and editors who report the news are hard to replace, and their years of experience, resources and contacts are even more so. While online freelancers and bloggers (such as myself) can add to the virtual conversation by expressing opinions and observations, few bloggers have the access to the same resources and contacts as professional journalists, nor do we have the same experience. The New York Times Company has to decide where the winds of change are taking the paper before technology and financial constraints make the decisions for them, at the risk of losing more of their prized assets - experienced, professional journalists.

The battle for the business direction - and perhaps the soul - of the New York Times will begin next month. As Dominic Rushe says in his Sunday Times article, "It is shaping up to be a spectacular battle."

Following up on my "Controlling the online conversation" post from last Monday, I read a good article by Tamar Weinberg on Lifehacker today. She discusses tools to monitor what's being said about you online and strategies to counter negative impacts on your reputation through personal blogging and participation in social networking sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Digg.

She also has some good - and honest - advice for anyone who has found themselves the subject of unfavorable comments or publicity online: "Sometimes you'll just have to deal with Internet meanies and grow that thick skin. When direct methods fail, take the opportunity to be proactive and to create web pages and social media profiles search engines will find and use to push negative inaccuracies further down in the results."

Worth reading and taking to heart.

Are your ears burning? Chances are good that they should be, because you're being talked about right now. Have you done a Google Search on your name lately? Or your company's name? Do it now, I'll wait....

Were at least a few of those results about you (and not somebody else with the same name)? Did you know that you were listed on those sites? And even if the results were about another person with your name, consider the potential damage to your own reputation if that person isn't exactly an upstanding member of society. Could your friends and customers tell the difference?

Information about you is already public knowledge. Probably - and hopefully - not your bank account numbers, social security number or your important usernames and passwords. But it's likely that, even without your participation, someone has mentioned you online, perhaps on a user group or forum or in a blog post, or included your name on a club or organization website. Asking to be removed from those online references is unlikely to be successful, because:

1. They're too busy to delete information from web sites or other online sources;
2. They don't want to, feeling they have the First Amendment right to talk about you;
3. The original author can't be found;
4. The information has been cached by Google or other search engines, and has reached data nirvana (it's eternal!).

So what's a person to do? If we can't get others to stop talking about us, how do we defend ourselves online?

The key is to control the conversation. Accept that your business and your professional and personal reputation are going to fair game for others online, and be aggressive in establishing yourself as an authority on the one person you know best - YOU. Here's a checklist of ideas to stay one step ahead of the social media revolution, so you can put these tools to use for you in your efforts to control the online conversation about yourself.

• Learn about personal social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, and consider establishing a presence there for yourself and your business.
• Get connected through business social networking sites like LinkedIn and XING. These sites have become an online alternative to the "black book" or Rolodex, especially among professionals who depend on a large number of contacts for their business success, such as salespeople, recruiters and purchasing professionals. Of course, every business owner, manager or anyone looking to move up professionally can benefit from a strong personal network, so these sites are worth considering for all but the most isolated.
• Do a regular check of yourself and your company or organization on Google, at the least. Yahoo! and Ask.com are also worth checking. Know what results others are seeing if they search for you online.
• Consider starting a business or a personal blog. Regular writing about your professional and personal accomplishments will help establish your control over your online reputation. Yes, it can be difficult at first, especially if you've never been much of a diary-keeper or if you are naturally shy. But if you can set the tone about what people read about you online, and you'll have a ready method to respond to things other people say about you.

You did a search about yourself earlier. Now consider that anyone else typing your name or your company's name into Google are seeing the same results. If they're making a decision about doing business with you, are those results going to influence that decision positively or negatively?