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Friday, May 25, 2007
Online Venom or Vibrant Speech?
By Deborah Howell
Not so long ago, the only way to talk back to The Post was to write a civil letter to the editor, with a verifiable name and address, or to contact the ombudsman.
Now, click on "view all comments" at the end of a story, column or blog on washingtonpost.com and enter a new world that challenges long-held practices and that can unnerve some journalists and readers. The online comments are immediate, use only e-mail addresses as identification and can be raw, racist, sexist and revolting. Jim Brady, washingtonpost.com's executive editor, said, "It's much more of a free-for-all."
Washingtonpost.com is one of the first major newspaper Web sites to include comments, which are linked to most stories and columns. The intent was to build reader loyalty by making the Web site "more of a conversation than just a lecture. We've started to build a community to talk about the news and not just read it," Brady said. "Every [newspaper] Web site will have them before too long."
Complaints first came from the newsroom. Reporters don't appreciate the often rude feedback, which I get, too. (A sample reader comment on my column last week: "I think we can all agree after reading Howell's lame comments week after week that the Post should save money by eliminating her position entirely. She is worse than a dupe.")
The Web site draws about 4,600 comments a day. But not all readers are happy about this feature. Philip J. Celeste of Danvers, Mass., wrote: "The Washington Post is an excellent newspaper . . . it has the most informative, current, up-to-the-minute and objective news that is happening in our nation's capital. I think the comments section after all news stories should be eliminated. They are like an open sewer."
Amanda Poindexter of Silver Spring wrote: "I find it unbelievable that a newspaper with the resources of the Washington Post cannot do a better job of monitoring the postings to articles. You have a few posters who use racist and bigoted attacks on a regular basis. Requests to remove their postings take an inordinate amount of time to be acted upon, if [they are] at all."
Two full-time staffers monitor comments, but they can't get to every objectionable post quickly. "The requests for removal [a link accompanying every posted comment] are the first line of defense, and certain story topics, such as the Iraq war and local crime, can be ugly, and we keep an eye on those," Brady said.
Software on the site censors profanity. Personal attacks and "inappropriate comments" also are forbidden, though "inappropriate" is not defined. "It's obviously subjective," Brady said. "We have to make judgment calls about what's an attack and what isn't. It's kind of like the old line about pornography: You know it when you see it."
A reader in McLean was disturbed that the Web site did not honor his request to remove comments on a story about the debate over building a Metro tunnel under Tysons Corner. Tunnel supporters were called "stupid" and "a bunch of idiots." The reader said the comments were "insulting. You would not publish such remarks in the paper -- why online?"
Brady said, " 'Idiot' isn't polite, obviously, but it doesn't rise to the level of removal. Not every comment will add to the debate in a meaningful way, but that doesn't qualify them for removal."
If there's a technical glitch -- and there have been a few lately -- readers get frustrated when they can't post comments. Several readers have complained that the comment software prevents them from writing words that contain the letter combination "ck." The software also blocks the use of punctuation marks such as parentheses, percent signs and quotation marks.
One reader who appears to post comments frequently wrote, "I beg you to do something. . . . For months there have been comments throughout the comments sections complaining about this [and] . . . the problem has become much, much worse." Brady said the "ck" and punctuation mark problems will be resolved when a new system is installed next week.
Web site comments appear in the print edition, too. Excerpts from Sports reporter Dan Steinberg's blog appear most days with comments attached; they have generated no complaints.
But I got a complaint Tuesday about comments attached to the print debut of Metro columnist Marc Fisher's blog "Raw Fisher." The blog entry was on speeding. Reader Patrick Jasperse of Silver Spring wrote: "I'm a big fan of Marc Fisher. . . . But if [the blog] is simply going to provide a forum for anonymous, venomous diatribes, I hope this new feature comes to a quick end. This morning's debut featured comments from someone who 'hates' slow drivers/truckers/bicyclists, a bicyclist who flaunts his disregard of traffic laws, and someone who hopes to retaliate against that bicyclist by hitting him with a moving car."
The comment on hitting the bicyclist disturbed me but not Fisher: "It would be wrong to filter out viewpoints that are antagonistic or aggressive simply because some readers might disagree with them. The good news is that the comment boards are remarkably self-correcting. The ugliest comments get shouted down pretty fast."
Two important journalism values -- free, unfettered comment and civil, intelligent discourse -- are colliding. My two cents: Monitor the comments much more vigorously and use the old journalism rule: When in doubt, take it out.
Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050401904.html
Not so long ago, the only way to talk back to The Post was to write a civil letter to the editor, with a verifiable name and address, or to contact the ombudsman.
Now, click on "view all comments" at the end of a story, column or blog on washingtonpost.com and enter a new world that challenges long-held practices and that can unnerve some journalists and readers. The online comments are immediate, use only e-mail addresses as identification and can be raw, racist, sexist and revolting. Jim Brady, washingtonpost.com's executive editor, said, "It's much more of a free-for-all."
Washingtonpost.com is one of the first major newspaper Web sites to include comments, which are linked to most stories and columns. The intent was to build reader loyalty by making the Web site "more of a conversation than just a lecture. We've started to build a community to talk about the news and not just read it," Brady said. "Every [newspaper] Web site will have them before too long."
Complaints first came from the newsroom. Reporters don't appreciate the often rude feedback, which I get, too. (A sample reader comment on my column last week: "I think we can all agree after reading Howell's lame comments week after week that the Post should save money by eliminating her position entirely. She is worse than a dupe.")
The Web site draws about 4,600 comments a day. But not all readers are happy about this feature. Philip J. Celeste of Danvers, Mass., wrote: "The Washington Post is an excellent newspaper . . . it has the most informative, current, up-to-the-minute and objective news that is happening in our nation's capital. I think the comments section after all news stories should be eliminated. They are like an open sewer."
Amanda Poindexter of Silver Spring wrote: "I find it unbelievable that a newspaper with the resources of the Washington Post cannot do a better job of monitoring the postings to articles. You have a few posters who use racist and bigoted attacks on a regular basis. Requests to remove their postings take an inordinate amount of time to be acted upon, if [they are] at all."
Two full-time staffers monitor comments, but they can't get to every objectionable post quickly. "The requests for removal [a link accompanying every posted comment] are the first line of defense, and certain story topics, such as the Iraq war and local crime, can be ugly, and we keep an eye on those," Brady said.
Software on the site censors profanity. Personal attacks and "inappropriate comments" also are forbidden, though "inappropriate" is not defined. "It's obviously subjective," Brady said. "We have to make judgment calls about what's an attack and what isn't. It's kind of like the old line about pornography: You know it when you see it."
A reader in McLean was disturbed that the Web site did not honor his request to remove comments on a story about the debate over building a Metro tunnel under Tysons Corner. Tunnel supporters were called "stupid" and "a bunch of idiots." The reader said the comments were "insulting. You would not publish such remarks in the paper -- why online?"
Brady said, " 'Idiot' isn't polite, obviously, but it doesn't rise to the level of removal. Not every comment will add to the debate in a meaningful way, but that doesn't qualify them for removal."
If there's a technical glitch -- and there have been a few lately -- readers get frustrated when they can't post comments. Several readers have complained that the comment software prevents them from writing words that contain the letter combination "ck." The software also blocks the use of punctuation marks such as parentheses, percent signs and quotation marks.
One reader who appears to post comments frequently wrote, "I beg you to do something. . . . For months there have been comments throughout the comments sections complaining about this [and] . . . the problem has become much, much worse." Brady said the "ck" and punctuation mark problems will be resolved when a new system is installed next week.
Web site comments appear in the print edition, too. Excerpts from Sports reporter Dan Steinberg's blog appear most days with comments attached; they have generated no complaints.
But I got a complaint Tuesday about comments attached to the print debut of Metro columnist Marc Fisher's blog "Raw Fisher." The blog entry was on speeding. Reader Patrick Jasperse of Silver Spring wrote: "I'm a big fan of Marc Fisher. . . . But if [the blog] is simply going to provide a forum for anonymous, venomous diatribes, I hope this new feature comes to a quick end. This morning's debut featured comments from someone who 'hates' slow drivers/truckers/bicyclists, a bicyclist who flaunts his disregard of traffic laws, and someone who hopes to retaliate against that bicyclist by hitting him with a moving car."
The comment on hitting the bicyclist disturbed me but not Fisher: "It would be wrong to filter out viewpoints that are antagonistic or aggressive simply because some readers might disagree with them. The good news is that the comment boards are remarkably self-correcting. The ugliest comments get shouted down pretty fast."
Two important journalism values -- free, unfettered comment and civil, intelligent discourse -- are colliding. My two cents: Monitor the comments much more vigorously and use the old journalism rule: When in doubt, take it out.
Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050401904.html
Monday, May 21, 2007
Reporters must ‘be there’ in more than spirit
BY CHIP MINEMYER
The Tribune-Democrat
This is a real job advertisement: “We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.”
Has outsourcing – already carving its way through manufacturing, information technology and other industries – set its sights on journalism?
The notion is as frightening as it is absurd. But it is real.
The Web site pasadenanow.com is turning to reporters based in Asia to cover local news in California.
The labor will be cheaper than U.S.-based reporters, figures James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the Web site.
Individuals sitting in front of computers in India can watch government meetings online and write up stories, just as if they were seated in the audience, he says.
Macpherson sees the outsourcing plan as “a way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications.”
Less expensive? Perhaps.
Better quality? No way.
It is true that the world seems to grow smaller by the moment. Someone in Thailand can call me in Johnstown and ask me if I want to subscribe to a magazine published in London. I can go online and read newspapers in Utah and Uzbekistan, Canada and Cambodia. I can receive an e-mail from someone in Nigeria offering to make me rich if I’ll just make a small contribution to a bank account in Switzerland.
But journalism – especially local journalism – is best when done through eyewitness experience.
Reporters don’t go to meetings merely to tell readers what happened; they go to tell readers why and how it happened.
They talk to the newsmakers and also to the people affected by the news. Reporters attempt to chart and describe the nuances, the discourse and the mood of a event. You can’t do that unless you’re in the room.
Readers rely on journalists to provide context. To answer the big question: What does it all mean?
Macpherson contends: “Whether you’re at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you’re still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview.”
It’s hardly that simple, as any reporter who has attempted to contact a source during off-hours can attest. But that’s not even the point.
Journalists need proximity to the news to be effective.
They must be able to ask questions, to challenge decisions, to write about what officials say and what they don’t say. And whether they’re uncomfortable or poised, angry or confident, as they say it.
To fulfill their watchdog role, journalists must be more than information conduits.
They must report with firsthand knowledge, and write with a level of authority.
Sometimes they ask difficult questions and report information that public officials would prefer was downplayed or ignored.
Reporters who spend even a short time on a beat come to know what really matters to those affected by the news.
They develop an understanding of how things work and can place events in the spectrum of ongoing history.
They know that there is a cause and consequence for every action and decision that is based on what has happened in the past and ripples forward into the future.
And they realize that local news events – even seemingly mundane council meetings in California – can’t be covered from India.
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/editorials/local_story_138145039.html
The Tribune-Democrat
This is a real job advertisement: “We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.”
Has outsourcing – already carving its way through manufacturing, information technology and other industries – set its sights on journalism?
The notion is as frightening as it is absurd. But it is real.
The Web site pasadenanow.com is turning to reporters based in Asia to cover local news in California.
The labor will be cheaper than U.S.-based reporters, figures James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the Web site.
Individuals sitting in front of computers in India can watch government meetings online and write up stories, just as if they were seated in the audience, he says.
Macpherson sees the outsourcing plan as “a way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications.”
Less expensive? Perhaps.
Better quality? No way.
It is true that the world seems to grow smaller by the moment. Someone in Thailand can call me in Johnstown and ask me if I want to subscribe to a magazine published in London. I can go online and read newspapers in Utah and Uzbekistan, Canada and Cambodia. I can receive an e-mail from someone in Nigeria offering to make me rich if I’ll just make a small contribution to a bank account in Switzerland.
But journalism – especially local journalism – is best when done through eyewitness experience.
Reporters don’t go to meetings merely to tell readers what happened; they go to tell readers why and how it happened.
They talk to the newsmakers and also to the people affected by the news. Reporters attempt to chart and describe the nuances, the discourse and the mood of a event. You can’t do that unless you’re in the room.
Readers rely on journalists to provide context. To answer the big question: What does it all mean?
Macpherson contends: “Whether you’re at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you’re still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview.”
It’s hardly that simple, as any reporter who has attempted to contact a source during off-hours can attest. But that’s not even the point.
Journalists need proximity to the news to be effective.
They must be able to ask questions, to challenge decisions, to write about what officials say and what they don’t say. And whether they’re uncomfortable or poised, angry or confident, as they say it.
To fulfill their watchdog role, journalists must be more than information conduits.
They must report with firsthand knowledge, and write with a level of authority.
Sometimes they ask difficult questions and report information that public officials would prefer was downplayed or ignored.
Reporters who spend even a short time on a beat come to know what really matters to those affected by the news.
They develop an understanding of how things work and can place events in the spectrum of ongoing history.
They know that there is a cause and consequence for every action and decision that is based on what has happened in the past and ripples forward into the future.
And they realize that local news events – even seemingly mundane council meetings in California – can’t be covered from India.
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/editorials/local_story_138145039.html
Monday, May 14, 2007
Web 2.0 'distracts good design'
Hype about Web 2.0 is making web firms neglect the basics of good design, web usability guru Jakob Nielsen has said.
He warned that the rush to make webpages more dynamic often meant users were badly served.
He said sites peppered with personalisation tools were in danger of resembling the "glossy but useless" sites at the height of the dotcom boom.
Research into website use shows that sites were better off getting the basics right, said Mr Nielsen.
User tests
Describing Web 2.0 as the "latest fashion", Mr Nielsen said many sites paying attention to it were neglecting some of the principles of good design and usability established over the last decade.
Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written.
Sadly, said Mr Nielsen, the rush to embrace Web 2.0 technology meant that many firms were turning their back on the basics.
"They should get the basics right first," he said. "Sadly most websites do not have those primary things right."
Most people just want to get in, get it and get out
Jakob Nielsen
There was a risk, he said, of a return to the dotcom boom days when many sites, such as Boo.com, looked great but were terrible to use.
"That was just bad," he said. "The idea of community, user generated content and more dynamic web pages are not inherently bad in the same way, they should be secondary to the primary things sites should get right."
"The main criticism or problem is that I do not think these things are as useful as the primary things," he said.
Well-established patterns of user involvement with sites also led Mr Nielsen to question the sense of adopting Web 2.0 technologies.
Research suggests that users of a site split into three groups. One that regularly contributes (about 1%); a second that occasionally contributes (about 9%); and a majority who almost never contribute (90%).
By definition, said Mr Nielsen, only a small number of users are likely to make significant use of all the tools a site provides.
While some sites with particular demographics, such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, have large involved communities of users that will not hold true for all sites, he said.
"Most people just want to get in, get it and get out," said Mr Nielsen. "For them the web is not a goal in itself. It is a tool."
Web firms rushing to serve the small, committed minority might find they make a site far less useful to the vast majority who come to a site for a specific purpose.
Mr Nielsen also questioned championing teenage use of the web as a harbinger of what people will continue to do when they were older.
Although people in their late 30s make very different use of the web to those in their teens, Mr Nielsen expects that when those teenagers grow up the time they spend online will diminish.
"It's because they are 20 years old that they act differently to 40-year-olds," said Mr Nielsen.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6653119.stm
Published: 2007/05/14 09:30:20 GMT
© BBC MMVII
He warned that the rush to make webpages more dynamic often meant users were badly served.
He said sites peppered with personalisation tools were in danger of resembling the "glossy but useless" sites at the height of the dotcom boom.
Research into website use shows that sites were better off getting the basics right, said Mr Nielsen.
User tests
Describing Web 2.0 as the "latest fashion", Mr Nielsen said many sites paying attention to it were neglecting some of the principles of good design and usability established over the last decade.
Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written.
Sadly, said Mr Nielsen, the rush to embrace Web 2.0 technology meant that many firms were turning their back on the basics.
"They should get the basics right first," he said. "Sadly most websites do not have those primary things right."
Most people just want to get in, get it and get out
Jakob Nielsen
There was a risk, he said, of a return to the dotcom boom days when many sites, such as Boo.com, looked great but were terrible to use.
"That was just bad," he said. "The idea of community, user generated content and more dynamic web pages are not inherently bad in the same way, they should be secondary to the primary things sites should get right."
"The main criticism or problem is that I do not think these things are as useful as the primary things," he said.
Well-established patterns of user involvement with sites also led Mr Nielsen to question the sense of adopting Web 2.0 technologies.
Research suggests that users of a site split into three groups. One that regularly contributes (about 1%); a second that occasionally contributes (about 9%); and a majority who almost never contribute (90%).
By definition, said Mr Nielsen, only a small number of users are likely to make significant use of all the tools a site provides.
While some sites with particular demographics, such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, have large involved communities of users that will not hold true for all sites, he said.
"Most people just want to get in, get it and get out," said Mr Nielsen. "For them the web is not a goal in itself. It is a tool."
Web firms rushing to serve the small, committed minority might find they make a site far less useful to the vast majority who come to a site for a specific purpose.
Mr Nielsen also questioned championing teenage use of the web as a harbinger of what people will continue to do when they were older.
Although people in their late 30s make very different use of the web to those in their teens, Mr Nielsen expects that when those teenagers grow up the time they spend online will diminish.
"It's because they are 20 years old that they act differently to 40-year-olds," said Mr Nielsen.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6653119.stm
Published: 2007/05/14 09:30:20 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Sunday, May 13, 2007
StumbleUpon!
Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
We Media Takeaways: The Why and the How
The third annual conference organized by Dale Peskin and Andrew Nachison provoked useful chatter about the essentials of participatory publishing.
go to http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=118220&sid=26 for full story
go to http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=118220&sid=26 for full story
Google searches web's dark side
Google searches web's dark side
One in 10 web pages scrutinised by search giant Google contained malicious code that could infect a user's PC.
Researchers from the firm surveyed billions of sites, subjecting 4.5 million pages to "in-depth analysis".
About 450,000 were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads", sites that install malicious code, such as spyware, without a user's knowledge.
A further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer, the team report.
To address the problem, the researchers say the company has "started an effort to identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious".
Phantom sites
Drive-by downloads are an increasingly common way to infect a computer or steal sensitive information.
They usually consist of malicious programs that automatically install when a potential victim visits a booby-trapped website.
"To entice users to install malware, adversaries employ social engineering," wrote Google researcher Niels Provos and his colleagues in a paper titled The Ghost In The Browser.
Finding all the web-based infection vectors is a significant challenge and requires almost complete knowledge of the web
Google researchers
Avoiding attacks
"The user is presented with links that promise access to 'interesting' pages with explicit pornographic content, copyrighted software or media. A common example are sites that display thumbnails to adult videos."
The vast majority exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install themselves.
Some downloads, such as those that alter bookmarks, install unwanted toolbars or change the start page of a browser, are an annoyance. But increasingly, criminals are using drive-bys to install keyloggers that steal login and password information.
Other pieces of malicious code hijack a computer turning it into a "bot", a remotely controlled PC.
Drive-by downloads represent a shift away from traditional methods of infecting a computer, such as spam and email attachments.
Attack plan
As well as characterising the scale of the problem on the net, the Google study analysed the main methods by which criminals inject malicious code on to innocent web pages.
It found that the code was often contained in those parts of the website not designed or controlled by the website owner, such as banner adverts and widgets.
Widgets are small programs that may, for example, display a calendar on a webpage or a web traffic counter. These are often downloaded from third-party sites.
The rise of web 2.0 and user-generated content gave criminals other channels, or vectors, of attack, it found.
For example, postings in blogs and forums that contain links to images or other content could unwittingly infect a user.
The study also found that gangs were able to hijack web servers, effectively taking over and infecting all of the web pages hosted on the computer.
In a test, the researchers' computer was infected with 50 different pieces of malware by visiting a web page hosted on a hijacked server.
The firm is now in the process of mapping the malware threat.
Google, part of the StopBadware coalition, already warns users if they are about to visit a potentially harmful website, displaying a message that reads "this site may harm your computer" next to the search results.
"Marking pages with a label allows users to avoid exposure to such sites and results in fewer users being infected," the researchers wrote.
However, the task will not be easy, they say.
"Finding all the web-based infection vectors is a significant challenge and requires almost complete knowledge of the web as a whole," they wrote.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6645895.stm
Published: 2007/05/11 11:37:08 GMT
© BBC MMVII
One in 10 web pages scrutinised by search giant Google contained malicious code that could infect a user's PC.
Researchers from the firm surveyed billions of sites, subjecting 4.5 million pages to "in-depth analysis".
About 450,000 were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads", sites that install malicious code, such as spyware, without a user's knowledge.
A further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer, the team report.
To address the problem, the researchers say the company has "started an effort to identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious".
Phantom sites
Drive-by downloads are an increasingly common way to infect a computer or steal sensitive information.
They usually consist of malicious programs that automatically install when a potential victim visits a booby-trapped website.
"To entice users to install malware, adversaries employ social engineering," wrote Google researcher Niels Provos and his colleagues in a paper titled The Ghost In The Browser.
Finding all the web-based infection vectors is a significant challenge and requires almost complete knowledge of the web
Google researchers
Avoiding attacks
"The user is presented with links that promise access to 'interesting' pages with explicit pornographic content, copyrighted software or media. A common example are sites that display thumbnails to adult videos."
The vast majority exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install themselves.
Some downloads, such as those that alter bookmarks, install unwanted toolbars or change the start page of a browser, are an annoyance. But increasingly, criminals are using drive-bys to install keyloggers that steal login and password information.
Other pieces of malicious code hijack a computer turning it into a "bot", a remotely controlled PC.
Drive-by downloads represent a shift away from traditional methods of infecting a computer, such as spam and email attachments.
Attack plan
As well as characterising the scale of the problem on the net, the Google study analysed the main methods by which criminals inject malicious code on to innocent web pages.
It found that the code was often contained in those parts of the website not designed or controlled by the website owner, such as banner adverts and widgets.
Widgets are small programs that may, for example, display a calendar on a webpage or a web traffic counter. These are often downloaded from third-party sites.
The rise of web 2.0 and user-generated content gave criminals other channels, or vectors, of attack, it found.
For example, postings in blogs and forums that contain links to images or other content could unwittingly infect a user.
The study also found that gangs were able to hijack web servers, effectively taking over and infecting all of the web pages hosted on the computer.
In a test, the researchers' computer was infected with 50 different pieces of malware by visiting a web page hosted on a hijacked server.
The firm is now in the process of mapping the malware threat.
Google, part of the StopBadware coalition, already warns users if they are about to visit a potentially harmful website, displaying a message that reads "this site may harm your computer" next to the search results.
"Marking pages with a label allows users to avoid exposure to such sites and results in fewer users being infected," the researchers wrote.
However, the task will not be easy, they say.
"Finding all the web-based infection vectors is a significant challenge and requires almost complete knowledge of the web as a whole," they wrote.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6645895.stm
Published: 2007/05/11 11:37:08 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Friday, May 04, 2007
Jimbo Wales thinks that professional journalism still has a place on the web
Wikipedia takes on the world
Jimbo Wales thinks that professional journalism still has a place on the web
Andrew Clark in New York Friday May 4, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
Jimbo Wales: 'If you compare the quality of search products -
Google, Yahoo! and Ask - they're very similar'.
Slim, bearded and slightly fidgety, the Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales
is known as the "god king" to his online followers. He seems to quite
enjoy the adulation.
"I'm not really such a businessman - I'm a revolutionary trying to
destroy an entire industry," he declared at a talk in New York this
week, before hastily adding: "I'm joking, of course."
Since its creation six years ago, Wales' online encyclopedia has
become an internet sensation. It is one of the 15 most visited
websites worldwide and has 7m entries in 251 languages.
The simple idea behind the site is that any visitor can edit, or
extend, Wikipedia's entries and the ultimate outcome will be a
gravitation towards accuracy. It works, albeit with the odd flaw:
recently, wags kept altering the entry on Kazakhstan to say that the
nation was ruled by Borat.
Irrespective of the glitches, Wales reckons Wikipedia's democratic,
free access, principle is central to the internet's culture. He is
working on a new project - Wikia - which is intended to challenge the
online establishment and will be properly up and running by the end of
the year.
Wikia is a hosting site for online communities to read, discuss and
share information. It is intended to be a more leisurely,
magazine-style format to complement the reference material on
Wikipedia.
Central to his plan is the creation of a "democratic" search engine -
Wiki Search - in which users will collaborate to produce good quality
results.
Wales, the 40-year-old son of a grocery manager from Alabama, reckons
the internet needs an alternative to the like of Google and Yahoo!.
"If you compare the quality of search products - Google, Yahoo! and
Ask - they're very similar," he told reporters at New York's Foreign
Press Centre this week.
"No one has clear leadership. Five years ago this wasn't the case but
the production of good quality search results is getting very close to
being a commodity - any mid-size company can do it."
His idea is for the results of any search to be controlled by a broad
community of sensible people without any commercial interests. As he
puts it, "thoughtful people coming together and developing
'compromise' results".
A search for a hotel in a particular city, for example, could then
throw up genuine recommendations of promising places to stay rather
than the glut of accommodation booking services delivered by Google.
It sounds a good idea - but can it work?
Open source
The code behind Wiki searches, he says, will be open and available for
others to copy - along the lines of the co-operatively developed web
browser Firefox, which is available for free tinkering and download.
Firefox is a big success - according to research firm NetApplications,
it has snatched a global market share of 15% from establishment rivals
such as Internet Explorer since its creation in 2004.
A big difference between Wikia and not-for-profit Wikipedia is that
Wales wants to make money out of his new project. Wikia has venture
capital funding and has attracted an investment from the online
bookseller Amazon.
He is a little vague about exactly what his business plan is, except
that revenue will come from advertising. It is not entirely clear,
however, just how many advertisers will be attracted to Wikia's own
site if the search concept is freely lifted and copied on other sites
widely around the web.
Insistently, Wales professes his lack of business knowledge. When
asked whether Google's $500-a-share stock price is over the top, he
replies: "I have no idea or opinion on what Google's stock price is."
As for the idea that he is snapping at the search giant's heels, he
says: "It's just funny. Google's huge and enormous. I'm just me."
This doesn't quite ring true. Wales used to work as a futures and
options trader in Chicago. He has a master's degree in finance and
worked towards a doctorate in the same subject - although he never
completed a dissertation.
Indeed, Wales' suggestion that Wikia is "just me" is a bit misleading
- he already has 33 full-time employees and is opening a programming
centre with 15 people in low-cost Poland.
Nevertheless, the project is just a start, he hints broadly.
"There's a major movement just beginning to get underway - the
democratisation of media, the democratisation of knowledge. I believe
people can collaborate together freely and produce very, very good
quality work - I want to push that forward."
The establishment shouldn't worry too much. He is friendly with
Google's founders and says he admires their work. And he doesn't see
democratisation as wiping out the professional world - newspapers, he
points out, cannot entirely be replaced by casual bloggers.
"Everybody tells jokes," says Wales. "But we still need professional
comedians."
http://business.guardian.co.uk/onamerica/story/0,,2072597,00.html
Breaking News, Blog-Style
News organizations used a nontraditional approach to cover the Virginia Tech shootings.
By Leann Frola
Naughton Fellow
Old-school journalists, brace yourself. The inverted pyramid's taken a new twist.
One of the most popular ways news organizations covered the Virginia Tech shootings wasn't through the traditional 15-inch article. They didn't abandoned this format. But some gave priority to the blog-style story.
Virginia Tech's student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, took this approach -- posting continuously updated, time-stamped reports -- largely out of necessity.
The Collegiate Times' temporary homepage
Christopher Ritter, CT's online director, said the paper's site crashed on the day of the shootings around 10:30 a.m. So the site moved to what Ritter called an "emergency information page" -- a blue background with text, hosted by its parent company, College Media. With that format to work with, the best thing to do was just to get out the basics, Ritter said.
"We thought getting the information out was more valuable than an analysis," he said. "After we got the information out, then our reporters would do a story on it."
That day, the CT updated about every 10 to 15 minutes. The paper fact-checked with university relations or Virginia Tech police, and then posted. Making sure the paper put up accurate information was a major concern, Ritter said.
"One thing we've done really well is just reported the facts and not create a bigger issue than what's already been created by the tragedy."
The Roanoke Times took a similar approach to its Web coverage. Take a look at this string of updates.
Roanoke Times' blog-style story
Until more than 24 hours after the shootings, the blog-style snippets were the homepage's dominant story. They then moved to the top link under "Virginia Tech Shooting News." Online editor John Jackson said that's still a hot spot for users, and he wanted to make way for an overview in the centerpiece spot.
But in the heat of the story, Jackson said, leading with the blog format was the best approach.
"When this occurred, that was sort of our knee-jerk reaction to do that," he said. "It just made it easier for us to get information back from reporters in the field, as well as designating a person making the entries."
Updates came quickly -- some as fast as one- and two-minute increments. Here's an example from the day of the shootings:
1:06 p.m.
Virginia Tech campus is quiet, with few students walking about. Most buildings are evacuated and police are telling people to leave and not come back today. Dormitories are locked down.
A heavy police presence is evident, with armed officers visible all around the Drillfield.
Freshman Hector Takahashi said he'd been in a class in Pamplin Hall, near Norris Hall, around 9:30 a.m. Students were talking about a shooting in West Ambler Johnston.
"Then all of a sudden, we were like, 'Whoa -- were those shots?'" he said. There were two quick bangs, then a pause, then a fusillade of at least 30 shots, he said.
1:05 p.m.
Multiple people in the Virginia Tech athletic department have said all players have been accounted for on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, softball, golf and men's tennis teams. Reporters are trying to contact coaches of the other teams.
The next scheduled on-campus athletic event is a baseball game Wednesday against William and Mary.
Blacksburg town offices are closed for the day.
From the calls and e-mails he's received, Jackson said readers have been appreciative of the fresh, easily digestible information. The blog-style story brought in 261,258 page views that first day. Jackson said a usual heavily trafficked day is passing 7,000 page views. And a story classified as "most read" on a normal day has about 2,500 page views.
The Times used this format for several breaking-news stories in the past, including a carbon-monoxide leak last July at Roanoke College and a manhunt for William Morva. The paper found it worked well, because the browser-based site allows only one person at a time to update an article.
Using Existing Blogs to Cover the Story
The Roanoke Times and The Collegiate Times created a blog-style string to cover this story. But several national news organizations used existing blogs to report it. And those blogs go a step further than the stories from the two Virginia papers -- by pulling together information from other news organizations.
The New York Times uses this technique with its blog The Lede.
The Lede began almost a year ago to "fill vacuums in our coverage in the continuous news cycle," according to Mike Nizza, a reporter for the blog and the site's former homepage editor.
Nizza described it as "connecting dots on stories out there of wide interest." But since the day of the shootings, when he started reporting for The Lede full time, Nizza's taken more of a breaking-news approach.
the lede
nytimes.com
New York Times' blog The Lede
"I think we take whatever approach works for whatever's out there," he said. "Obviously this is a pretty special story. Developments have been coming in fast and furious."
The Lede appeared under the dominant photo on nytimes.com until the day after the shootings, when it was bumped down the list.
USA Today's blog On Deadline had similar placement on the homepage -- underneath the dominant photo, although in smaller type.
On Deadline aims to mesh as many resources and news organizations' information as possible into a form readers can better interpret, network editor Patrick Cooper said.
"We're working very quickly, summarizing what people have to offer and shooting people off in those different directions," he said.
The Virginia Tech shooting incident was its biggest story ever.
on deadline
usatoday.com
USA Today's blog On Deadline
On Deadline set a blog record for the site on the day the shots were fired. Although USA Today keeps its traffic numbers confidential, Cooper said a significant amount came from outside sources -- especially Fark.com and Google News, which placed the blog high on its page early that day.
The post that provided a link to the blog on Fark.com described On Deadline as a "shot by shot" blog. Cooper said it really didn't offer a minutia of the campus, but it did detail the information in a "tick-tock format" with a mix of local and national content.
Blogs like these, he said, really offer their audiences a new avenue for how they approach stories.
"The breaking-news blog is developed to fit the situation," he said. People are "looking for more, they're looking to be informed, and the blog format is a way that's approachable. At the same time, it gives them almost unlimited depth to explore."
Here's a final thought from Cooper on the role of breaking-news blogs:
The information, the links and the context go hand in hand. It's our job as journalists to piece the story together, whether the deadline is this evening or as soon as possible. That hunt for information not only turns up the links, but it also builds perspective. We can see how people are playing stories, how they're wording things the same or differently, what angles make their coverage unique. The more we can expose that process to readers, by giving them context for what's out there, the better off everyone is. And, for sure, all of online news should be working in that direction. But breaking-news blogs have a critical challenge here. Playing in a world where everyone's fast, the story you tell along the way matters.
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=121679
By Leann Frola
Naughton Fellow
Old-school journalists, brace yourself. The inverted pyramid's taken a new twist.
One of the most popular ways news organizations covered the Virginia Tech shootings wasn't through the traditional 15-inch article. They didn't abandoned this format. But some gave priority to the blog-style story.
Virginia Tech's student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, took this approach -- posting continuously updated, time-stamped reports -- largely out of necessity.
The Collegiate Times' temporary homepage
Christopher Ritter, CT's online director, said the paper's site crashed on the day of the shootings around 10:30 a.m. So the site moved to what Ritter called an "emergency information page" -- a blue background with text, hosted by its parent company, College Media. With that format to work with, the best thing to do was just to get out the basics, Ritter said.
"We thought getting the information out was more valuable than an analysis," he said. "After we got the information out, then our reporters would do a story on it."
That day, the CT updated about every 10 to 15 minutes. The paper fact-checked with university relations or Virginia Tech police, and then posted. Making sure the paper put up accurate information was a major concern, Ritter said.
"One thing we've done really well is just reported the facts and not create a bigger issue than what's already been created by the tragedy."
The Roanoke Times took a similar approach to its Web coverage. Take a look at this string of updates.
Roanoke Times' blog-style story
Until more than 24 hours after the shootings, the blog-style snippets were the homepage's dominant story. They then moved to the top link under "Virginia Tech Shooting News." Online editor John Jackson said that's still a hot spot for users, and he wanted to make way for an overview in the centerpiece spot.
But in the heat of the story, Jackson said, leading with the blog format was the best approach.
"When this occurred, that was sort of our knee-jerk reaction to do that," he said. "It just made it easier for us to get information back from reporters in the field, as well as designating a person making the entries."
Updates came quickly -- some as fast as one- and two-minute increments. Here's an example from the day of the shootings:
1:06 p.m.
Virginia Tech campus is quiet, with few students walking about. Most buildings are evacuated and police are telling people to leave and not come back today. Dormitories are locked down.
A heavy police presence is evident, with armed officers visible all around the Drillfield.
Freshman Hector Takahashi said he'd been in a class in Pamplin Hall, near Norris Hall, around 9:30 a.m. Students were talking about a shooting in West Ambler Johnston.
"Then all of a sudden, we were like, 'Whoa -- were those shots?'" he said. There were two quick bangs, then a pause, then a fusillade of at least 30 shots, he said.
1:05 p.m.
Multiple people in the Virginia Tech athletic department have said all players have been accounted for on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, softball, golf and men's tennis teams. Reporters are trying to contact coaches of the other teams.
The next scheduled on-campus athletic event is a baseball game Wednesday against William and Mary.
Blacksburg town offices are closed for the day.
From the calls and e-mails he's received, Jackson said readers have been appreciative of the fresh, easily digestible information. The blog-style story brought in 261,258 page views that first day. Jackson said a usual heavily trafficked day is passing 7,000 page views. And a story classified as "most read" on a normal day has about 2,500 page views.
The Times used this format for several breaking-news stories in the past, including a carbon-monoxide leak last July at Roanoke College and a manhunt for William Morva. The paper found it worked well, because the browser-based site allows only one person at a time to update an article.
Using Existing Blogs to Cover the Story
The Roanoke Times and The Collegiate Times created a blog-style string to cover this story. But several national news organizations used existing blogs to report it. And those blogs go a step further than the stories from the two Virginia papers -- by pulling together information from other news organizations.
The New York Times uses this technique with its blog The Lede.
The Lede began almost a year ago to "fill vacuums in our coverage in the continuous news cycle," according to Mike Nizza, a reporter for the blog and the site's former homepage editor.
Nizza described it as "connecting dots on stories out there of wide interest." But since the day of the shootings, when he started reporting for The Lede full time, Nizza's taken more of a breaking-news approach.
the lede
nytimes.com
New York Times' blog The Lede
"I think we take whatever approach works for whatever's out there," he said. "Obviously this is a pretty special story. Developments have been coming in fast and furious."
The Lede appeared under the dominant photo on nytimes.com until the day after the shootings, when it was bumped down the list.
USA Today's blog On Deadline had similar placement on the homepage -- underneath the dominant photo, although in smaller type.
On Deadline aims to mesh as many resources and news organizations' information as possible into a form readers can better interpret, network editor Patrick Cooper said.
"We're working very quickly, summarizing what people have to offer and shooting people off in those different directions," he said.
The Virginia Tech shooting incident was its biggest story ever.
on deadline
usatoday.com
USA Today's blog On Deadline
On Deadline set a blog record for the site on the day the shots were fired. Although USA Today keeps its traffic numbers confidential, Cooper said a significant amount came from outside sources -- especially Fark.com and Google News, which placed the blog high on its page early that day.
The post that provided a link to the blog on Fark.com described On Deadline as a "shot by shot" blog. Cooper said it really didn't offer a minutia of the campus, but it did detail the information in a "tick-tock format" with a mix of local and national content.
Blogs like these, he said, really offer their audiences a new avenue for how they approach stories.
"The breaking-news blog is developed to fit the situation," he said. People are "looking for more, they're looking to be informed, and the blog format is a way that's approachable. At the same time, it gives them almost unlimited depth to explore."
Here's a final thought from Cooper on the role of breaking-news blogs:
The information, the links and the context go hand in hand. It's our job as journalists to piece the story together, whether the deadline is this evening or as soon as possible. That hunt for information not only turns up the links, but it also builds perspective. We can see how people are playing stories, how they're wording things the same or differently, what angles make their coverage unique. The more we can expose that process to readers, by giving them context for what's out there, the better off everyone is. And, for sure, all of online news should be working in that direction. But breaking-news blogs have a critical challenge here. Playing in a world where everyone's fast, the story you tell along the way matters.
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=121679
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Dow Jones Confirms Receipt of Unsolicited Acquisition Proposal from News Corporation
Dow Jones Confirms Receipt of Unsolicited Acquisition Proposal from News Corporation
NEW YORK (May 1, 2007) — Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) today confirmed that its Board of Directors has received an unsolicited proposal from News Corporation to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Dow Jones common stock and Class B common stock for $60.00 per share in cash, or in a combination of cash and News Corporation securities.
The Board of Directors and members and trustees of the Bancroft family, who hold shares representing a majority of the Company’s voting power, are evaluating the proposal. There can be no assurance that this evaluation will lead to any transaction.
http://www.dj.com/Pressroom/PressReleases/Other/US/2007/0501_US_DowJones_625.htm
NEW YORK (May 1, 2007) — Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) today confirmed that its Board of Directors has received an unsolicited proposal from News Corporation to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Dow Jones common stock and Class B common stock for $60.00 per share in cash, or in a combination of cash and News Corporation securities.
The Board of Directors and members and trustees of the Bancroft family, who hold shares representing a majority of the Company’s voting power, are evaluating the proposal. There can be no assurance that this evaluation will lead to any transaction.
http://www.dj.com/Pressroom/PressReleases/Other/US/2007/0501_US_DowJones_625.htm
MySpace News
MySpace News aggregates news from around the web and provides MySpace users with the ability to vote on what they think is most interesting.
http://news.myspace.com/
http://news.myspace.com/
Jabber Founder Jeremie Miller Joins Forces with Jimmy Wales to Build Open Search Platform
Miller to spearhead development of a new search platform combining human intelligence with open protocols.
San Mateo, Calif. (PRWEB) May 1, 2007 -- Wikia, Inc. (www.wikia.com) the leading provider of community resources for building and organizing free content on every topic, today announced that Jabber founder Jeremie Miller has joined forces with Wikia founder Jimmy Wales to collaborate on building a new search platform founded on open-source search protocols and human collaboration.
Miller is widely recognized as the inventor of Jabber, an open instant messaging community and the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), which is an open protocol that allows instant messaging platforms to interoperate and users to communicate freely and safely. Building on the same principles, Miller hopes to combine the transparency and power of an open protocol with the efficacy of a user-editable search experience.
The Internet and Web are founded on completely open principles, I’ve championed this philosophy for instant messaging and believe that the awesome power of search should be based on the same fundamental rules,” said Jeremie Miller. “The power of a simple protocol is that it enables networks of resources to collaborate openly, to be constructive instead of competitive. I'm eager to work with Jimmy and empower everyone in the search industry with a transparent collaborative open protocol, from researchers, to developers, vertical search startups, and most importantly, end users.”
The conversation is evolving at Wikia’s search.wikia.com (www.search.wikia.com) community wiki, through which Wikia is funding and supporting the development of something radically new. Together Miller and Wales aim to build a new economy for Internet search that relies on absolute transparency, collaboration, and human intelligence to complement search algorithms.
“Jeremie is a brilliant thinker and a natural fit to help revolutionize the world of search,” said Jimmy Wales, founder and chairman of Wikia. “I believe Internet search is currently broken and the way to fix it is to build a community whose mission is to develop a search platform that is open and totally transparent. This is exactly what we’ve set out to do at search.wikia.com and we’re thrilled to have Jeremie helping evolve this vision.”
For more information or to get involved, please visit: www.search.wikia.com
About Wikia, Inc.
Since Wikia’s launch in November 2004, over 500,000 articles on 2,000 topics have been created and edited by over 100,000 registered users in 66 languages. In addition to working on open-source search, Wikia is currently home to several computer programming-related wikis such as, WikiaPerl at www.perl.wikia.com, the Visual Basic Wiki at www.vb.wikia.com, and the PHP Wiki at www.php.wikia.com.
Wikia enables groups to share information, news, stories, media and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia. Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley launched Wikia in 2004 to provide community-based wikis inspired by the model of Wikipedia -- the free, open source encyclopedia founded by Jimmy Wales.
Wikia is committed to openness, inviting anyone to contribute web content. Authors retain their own copyrights and allow others to freely reuse their content under a variety of GNU and Creative Commons Licenses, allowing widespread distribution of knowledge and ideas.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/5/emw523078.htm
San Mateo, Calif. (PRWEB) May 1, 2007 -- Wikia, Inc. (www.wikia.com) the leading provider of community resources for building and organizing free content on every topic, today announced that Jabber founder Jeremie Miller has joined forces with Wikia founder Jimmy Wales to collaborate on building a new search platform founded on open-source search protocols and human collaboration.
Miller is widely recognized as the inventor of Jabber, an open instant messaging community and the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), which is an open protocol that allows instant messaging platforms to interoperate and users to communicate freely and safely. Building on the same principles, Miller hopes to combine the transparency and power of an open protocol with the efficacy of a user-editable search experience.
The Internet and Web are founded on completely open principles, I’ve championed this philosophy for instant messaging and believe that the awesome power of search should be based on the same fundamental rules,” said Jeremie Miller. “The power of a simple protocol is that it enables networks of resources to collaborate openly, to be constructive instead of competitive. I'm eager to work with Jimmy and empower everyone in the search industry with a transparent collaborative open protocol, from researchers, to developers, vertical search startups, and most importantly, end users.”
The conversation is evolving at Wikia’s search.wikia.com (www.search.wikia.com) community wiki, through which Wikia is funding and supporting the development of something radically new. Together Miller and Wales aim to build a new economy for Internet search that relies on absolute transparency, collaboration, and human intelligence to complement search algorithms.
“Jeremie is a brilliant thinker and a natural fit to help revolutionize the world of search,” said Jimmy Wales, founder and chairman of Wikia. “I believe Internet search is currently broken and the way to fix it is to build a community whose mission is to develop a search platform that is open and totally transparent. This is exactly what we’ve set out to do at search.wikia.com and we’re thrilled to have Jeremie helping evolve this vision.”
For more information or to get involved, please visit: www.search.wikia.com
About Wikia, Inc.
Since Wikia’s launch in November 2004, over 500,000 articles on 2,000 topics have been created and edited by over 100,000 registered users in 66 languages. In addition to working on open-source search, Wikia is currently home to several computer programming-related wikis such as, WikiaPerl at www.perl.wikia.com, the Visual Basic Wiki at www.vb.wikia.com, and the PHP Wiki at www.php.wikia.com.
Wikia enables groups to share information, news, stories, media and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia. Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley launched Wikia in 2004 to provide community-based wikis inspired by the model of Wikipedia -- the free, open source encyclopedia founded by Jimmy Wales.
Wikia is committed to openness, inviting anyone to contribute web content. Authors retain their own copyrights and allow others to freely reuse their content under a variety of GNU and Creative Commons Licenses, allowing widespread distribution of knowledge and ideas.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/5/emw523078.htm
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