NACH.COM

My friend John Bell at Oglivy asked me to provide some feedback on what Jay Rosen is up to with NewAssignment.net, a new open source journalism project.

No need to re-post here – you can read what I said at John’s blog:

Digital Influence Mapping Project: Is NewAssignment New Media?

Newspapers are failing, and my friend and advisor Alan Webber knows why: the problem isn’t technology, shifting business models or all the other excuses newspaper executives like to talk about. The problem is lousy products.

From Alan’s Nov. 13, 2006 post:

What’s happened, I think, is that newspapers have stopped asking the right questions. They’ve stopped provoking public conversation about the great issues of our time. They’ve stopped seeing themselves as provocateurs of public discourse. … Why do movies, the Web, TV, get to have all the fun? Ask all the good questions? Carry all the inspirational, challenging, provocative answers?

Ouch.

cybersoc.com: walk the walk

• Tips for better blogging techniques
  

cybersoc.com: the death of online community as we knew it & i feel fine

• Good analysis of value in communities – in the communities themselves, not the systems that enable them.
  

business2blog: B2Day : Scoop: Inform Reboots to Help Online Newspapers Like Washingtonpost.com Fight Back Against Digg and Google

A VC: Are You Bored?

• Mark Cuban thinks the Internet is boring, Fred Wilson thinks otherwise – and this is my first bookmark with a Firefox extension called Diigo that sways me toward Fred’s perspective in terms of technology. But if we’re talking about content, utility, or creativity – then I’m with Mark. The volume of content has exploded, with diminishing returns. Blogs and same-as-the-other-guys big media sites dominate our attention, but I want to find sites that suck me in, that astonish and inspire me, that keep me up late. Yes, they are out there, and I’d have to think there are many more than I know about. But on a day-to-day basis, I don’t find them. COuld be I don’t try. And I find myself enjoying the Net less and less. - post by anachison