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A glimpse of Cuban blogging
Via the Vancouver Sun, a Reuters report: Cubans go to unusual lengths to post blogs. Excerpt: For Cuba's freelance bloggers, the difficulties in getting online can mean days, weeks and even months between one post and the next. "My access to Internet is very irregular," said the anonymous author of a blog called My island at midday. "Like all things in Cuba, one has to resolve the problem of scarcity...

Via the Vancouver Sun, a Reuters report: Cubans go to unusual lengths to post blogs. Excerpt:

For Cuba's freelance bloggers, the difficulties in getting online can mean days, weeks and even months between one post and the next.

"My access to Internet is very irregular," said the anonymous author of a blog called My island at midday.

"Like all things in Cuba, one has to resolve the problem of scarcity by hook or by crook, be it Internet or toilet paper," he told Reuters by e-mail.

The Cuban government blames the limited Internet access on the U.S. sanctions that bar Cuba from hooking up to underwater fiber-optic cables that run just 12 miles offshore, a highway of broadband communication.

Instead Cuba must use expensive satellite uplinks to connect to the Internet via countries such as Canada, Chile and Brazil.

Critics say that is just a pretext to maintain control over the Internet, a powerful tool that some believe could play the same role in spreading information in Cuba as the fax machine played in the dismantling of the Soviet Union.

The story has links to three or four blogs—all in Spanish. In general, they're pretty well designed. I understand Spanish fairly well, and these blogs' layouts make the text readable. Any comments on them?

An Important Lesson About Grassroots Media
Via Editor & Publisher, an excellent column by Steve Outing—an old friend and colleague with a lot of experience in online content. The experience hasn't always been happy, but Steve has learned (and taught) a great deal about it. Case in point: An Important Lesson About Grassroots Media. Steve describes the shutdown of his own efforts to create an online community whose members would create most of the content, and...

Via Editor & Publisher, an excellent column by Steve Outing—an old friend and colleague with a lot of experience in online content. The experience hasn't always been happy, but Steve has learned (and taught) a great deal about it. Case in point: An Important Lesson About Grassroots Media.

Steve describes the shutdown of his own efforts to create an online community whose members would create most of the content, and then goes on to analyze similar issues elsewhere:

If you look at the content that's on Backfence.com (and you can, since the servers are still running; there's just no new content being added to the site), it's predominantly press releases from local community groups, or local event announcements. Backfence staff did contribute content, but often of the same variety. There was some great content on Backfence.com, but to my eyes the bulk of it was pretty dull.

I see the same thing when I look at YourHub.com. The editors of YourHub can easily point to some great content that's been posted to the sites. But just as with our Enthusiast Group sites, the overall experience is a lot of average stuff punctuated by a lesser amount of great content.

As destination sites, I don't think that Backfence or YourHub work. My company's sites didn't work, which is why in hindsight I realize that a much higher level of professional content needed to be added into the mix. Quality matters.

Key in on that word, "destination," for a moment. If you're operating an online service that's keyed to user or citizen content submissions, I encourage you to think about how to utilize that content beyond just a destination website.

I don't expect YourHub-like sites to ever become huge traffic draws if they rely too heavily on user submissions. The quality just isn't there for them to be interesting -- especially in an Internet environment where there is so much high-quality news and information available elsewhere, for free.

It's a fine article with plenty of insights that web content developers should reflect upon.

An Online Editing Job in Canada
Just picked this up in my morning email: Editor / Curator Closing Date: August 10, 2007 Contract: Two to three days per week Location: Canada (virtual office) rabble.ca, Canada's leading alternative online news and analysis Web site, seeks a dynamic editorial curator to direct day-to-day operations, edit the site's features section and integrate multi-media and social media functions into the website on a daily basis. Responsibilities include assigning, editing and...

Just picked this up in my morning email:

Editor / Curator
Closing Date: August 10, 2007

Contract: Two to three days per week
Location: Canada (virtual office)

rabble.ca, Canada's leading alternative online news and analysis Web site, seeks a dynamic editorial curator to direct day-to-day operations, edit the site's features section and integrate multi-media and social media functions into the website on a daily basis.

Responsibilities include assigning, editing and posting stories, working with other editorial staff, planning
editorial calendar, image research, supervising editorial interns and volunteers, and some writing.

Candidates should have strong organizational skills, extensive editing experience, a demonstrated ability to
meet deadlines, a collaborative approach to teamwork, familiarity with Web editing, a creative approach to
working with limited financial resources, a knowledge of progressive politics and world affairs, combined with experience in progressive activism and a keen interest in the potential of Web 2.0 tools. At least three years experience in journalism or publishing, mainstream or alternative is required.

The editor works in a virtual office environment and can be based anywhere in Canada.

Please send cover letter, resume, references and a short writing sample outlining your vision for rabble.ca (one page max) by August 10th to rabble publisher Kim Elliott, jobs@rabble.ca. In the spirit of the virtual office, only electronic applications will be accepted. The subject line should read: rabble editor application.

Closing date for application: August 10, 2007
Start Date: early September 2007
Competitive remuneration rates

Please note: only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

rabble.ca is an employment equity employer.

Kim Elliott, Publisher
jobs@rabble.ca

$10,652.00 in Bonuses for Shawn Casey's "How To Make An Absolute Fortune..."

Is the Kindle the Next Big Thing?
According to Farhad Manjoo at Salon, no: Amazon's Kindle won't spark your e-book fire. But it's a very interesting description of a gadget that's almost got it right.

According to Farhad Manjoo at Salon, no: Amazon's Kindle won't spark your e-book fire. But it's a very interesting description of a gadget that's almost got it right.

How to Set Up a Portable Personal Nerve Center
There has been some debate the last few days about the merits of web-based vs. desktop applications. This was sparked by a big article in last weekend's New York Times about Google and Microsoft (an Edelman client). Ionut Alex Chitu...

Reader Integrates Google's Stealth Social Net: The Address Book
The trusty address book in your Gmail account (assuming you have one) is actually much more than just a simple database of names and contact info. It's Google's stealth social network. The reason is that the search engine is increasingly...

Naomi Klein's new Shock Doctrine website
The first I heard about The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein's new book, was in this morning's Globe and Mail, which gives her the front and back pages of the Focus section: a fetching photo on the whole front page, and a very positive profile by John Allemang on the back. The irony isn't lost on anyone. The foremost young critic of "disaster capitalism" is a...

The first I heard about The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein's new book, was in this morning's Globe and Mail, which gives her the front and back pages of the Focus section: a fetching photo on the whole front page, and a very positive profile by John Allemang on the back.

The irony isn't lost on anyone. The foremost young critic of "disaster capitalism" is a superb marketer. Her new website is a knockout too. It even offers the promise of a video by Alfonso (Children of Men) Cuarón, promoting the book, starting September 9.

My main objection to the site is in the text, which runs in overlong paragraphs. Even Klein's most loyal followers may find it hard going.

Here's an excerpt from the home page, but re-paragraphed to make the text more accessible:

In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically.

Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... New Orleans’s residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened….

These events are examples of “the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy.

Sometimes, when the first two shocks don’t succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets.

I would also consider turning the third paragraph into a bulleted list, for the same reason I've broken up the paragraphs: To increase the number of shocks or jolts the reader experiences.

The beginnings and ends of sentences and paragraphs are the hot spots where readers pay most attention and respond most strongly. In online text, end-of-sentence jolts lose impact in the middle of a paragraph. So short sentences, short paragraphs, boldface subheads, and bulleted lists work most effectively for most online readers.

Yes, some of us are more comfortable reading long, complex texts on paper. For those readers, the website should offer downloadable or printer-friendly versions.

I'll follow the development of this site with great interest.

Hazards of Online Writing
Via the New York Times: E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread). Much of the article applies, I suspect, to web text as well. Excerpt (but read the whole article and follow the links): The advantage of a phone call or a drop-by over e-mail is clearly greatest when there is trouble at hand. But there are ways in which e-mail may subtly encourage such trouble in the first...

Via the New York Times: E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread). Much of the article applies, I suspect, to web text as well. Excerpt (but read the whole article and follow the links):

The advantage of a phone call or a drop-by over e-mail is clearly greatest when there is trouble at hand. But there are ways in which e-mail may subtly encourage such trouble in the first place.

This is becoming more apparent with the emergence of social neuroscience, the study of what happens in the brains of people as they interact. New findings have uncovered a design flaw at the interface where the brain encounters a computer screen: there are no online channels for the multiple signals the brain uses to calibrate emotions.

Face-to-face interaction, by contrast, is information-rich. We interpret what people say to us not only from their tone and facial expressions, but also from their body language and pacing, as well as their synchronization with what we do and say.

Most crucially, the brain’s social circuitry mimics in our neurons what’s happening in the other person’s brain, keeping us on the same wavelength emotionally. This neural dance creates an instant rapport that arises from an enormous number of parallel information processors, all working instantaneously and out of our awareness.

In contrast to a phone call or talking in person, e-mail can be emotionally impoverished when it comes to nonverbal messages that add nuance and valence to our words. The typed words are denuded of the rich emotional context we convey in person or over the phone.

A Small Commercial Spot
You may have noticed a new link at the top of the right-hand column. It's a modest effort to promote The Tyee, a very good online journal published here in Vancouver. Full disclosure: I've been writing for The Tyee since 2003, and I take some pride in being a contributor. You may not agree with its point of view on all topics (I certainly don't), but you'll find it offers...

You may have noticed a new link at the top of the right-hand column. It's a modest effort to promote The Tyee, a very good online journal published here in Vancouver.

Full disclosure: I've been writing for The Tyee since 2003, and I take some pride in being a contributor. You may not agree with its point of view on all topics (I certainly don't), but you'll find it offers some of the very best online writing anywhere.

If you can add to its readership by becoming a free weekly subscriber to its newsletter, I'd take it as your vote of support for what I'm doing here.

Google Chairman Optimistic about Entrepreneurial Trends

Starting a new blog
I don't where I got this preoccupation with disaster. But when I'm not teaching business writing or blogging about H5N1, I try to follow the climate-change issue. After thinking about it for a while, I've started a new blog, Homage to Arrhenius to try to educate myself more systematically. Svante Arrhenius was the scientist who over a century ago identified the influence of greenhouse gases on the earth's climate. You're...

I don't where I got this preoccupation with disaster. But when I'm not teaching business writing or blogging about H5N1, I try to follow the climate-change issue.

After thinking about it for a while, I've started a new blog, Homage to Arrhenius to try to educate myself more systematically. Svante Arrhenius was the scientist who over a century ago identified the influence of greenhouse gases on the earth's climate.

You're welcome to pop over and take a look, and if you have any suggestions, I'd be grateful to have them.

Internet Audiences Growing: How Will You Respond?

Housekeeping
Spam has become such a nuisance that I've had to require TypeKey authentication for comments. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Spam has become such a nuisance that I've had to require TypeKey authentication for comments. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Microsoft Announces New Search Engine - opens war for Internet dominance

iPodder.org : What is podcasting?

How To Transfer Tapes

links for 2007-12-17
Marketing Charts: Top 10 US Social-Network and Blog Site Rankings Issued for Nov. (tags: Stats SocialNetworking Blogs) MatketingCharts: Top 5 Viral-Video Ads of 2007 Ranked (tags: Stats Video viral 2007) MarketngCharts: Nielsen Issues US Top-10 Lists for 2007 A yearend...

links for 2007-12-08
BBC - More Guidance - Employees - Introduction BBC Employees Personal Weblogs and Websites, Guidelines (tags: BBC Blogs Guidelines Policies) How I work: Disney's Bob Iger - Dec. 6, 2007 "Disney's CEO tells Fortune's Devin Leonard his efficiency tips: get...

A Few Positions Have Opened up at Content Site Builder