LESSONS NOT LEARNED

Kerry Northrup apparently learned 62 lessons from his stint with Newsplex, the experimental newsroom built two years ago at the University of South Carolina, but he may have missed a couple.

According to Douglas Fisher at Common Sense Journalism, Northrup, now publication director for IFRA, has published the 62 lessons in IFRA's newsletter newspaper techniques. (Ifra is self-described as "the world's leading association for media publishing.")

The article isn't available, though, unless you're a member of IFRA. It appears that two of the concepts central to an age of new media went unlearned: information wants to be free and news is a conversation. It's a new day and knowledge is only power when it's shared.

Fisher, to his credit, is doing his bit:

But I think what Northrup says is so useful and important, that for the next 30 days or so, I'm going to summarize the major points, one per day.

HAUNTING HEADS

With the BoSox up 6-1, I can feel the anticipation building on the sports headline writing desks across the country. Bad karma points for anyone who uses "Ghostbusters!" if the Sox hang on.
6:44:23 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

PODCAST POWER

If you've been here before, you've read blatherings about podcasting, most of them along the lines of "golly gee whiz." This morning, Adam Curry's Daily Source Code kicked my understanding of the power of this thing up a notch or three.

Curry spent the first part of his show explaining why there was no Daily Source Code yesterday — he spent the day with his sister and mother learning that tests confirmed his mother has lung cancer. It was a deeply personal story and what Curry said was heartfelt, even wrenching. I could hear the tears in his voice.

It seems to me that podcasting isn't merely some new variation on broadcasting information, of getting your stuff out there aurally. It's also about connecting. It's personal in a way that top-down mainstream media isn't. It's unmediated. It's one-to-one (and also one-to-many). It's conversation, which gives it a power and potential that a media that has become institutional no longer has and can't get back.

I think I may be starting to get this internet thingie.

(Curry's blog is here You can click on the item title to hear the latest MP3 encoded podcast. Or you can subscribe to the Daily Source Code podcasts here.)
12:32:48 PM  LINK TO THIS POST