Alex Byers on journalists and programming

Alex Byers makes an interesting case for journalists not learning programming skills:

Writers will produce the best written word, photographers will snap the best pictures, and programmers will build the best apps. That’s not going to change, so don’t give up being awesome at something so you can be insufficient at a lot of things.

Perhaps, but this presumes a disconnect between writing and knowing the code that drives your platform of choice. I would argue that knowing the fundamentals of development allows you to fine tune your writing.

The best writer is one that hones the craft and pushes a medium’s boundaries. If you know the basics of code you’ll be best able to set yourself apart as a writer who does something exceptional with a platform.

Posted on July 22, ’10

Slow reading and poor content design

The Guardian published an article a few days ago discussing the concerns of some academics over modern reading habits. It centers around the idea that, for some, reading online is an inherently shallower process that leaves a person less educated than reading traditional print texts.

This misplaced concern does not account for the animated ads, commercial content, and constantly growing hodgepodge of buttons surrounding standard content online. Put this same interface garbage on a printed page and I would not be able to focus on a text either.

For a traditional media outlet to decry the perils of reading online it ought to at least place blame in the right space. The Guardian, and other media outlets, that plaster ads and irrelevant content around their articles are not innocent bystanders to this loss of attention span.

Posted on July 20, ’10

Why Eric Johnson is leaving ScienceBlogs

This wasn’t an easy decision but I fear it’s the only one I could have made. Seed Media Group’s decision to sell space on this network for a Pepsi infomercial was a slap in the face to everything I had believed in and worked so hard to attain. I wanted to be here because there was no better place to communicate science. The reputation that ScienceBlogs had built meant that you could trust the veracity and the integrity of those who appeared on the network. It was this reputation that Pepsi wanted to buy and which Seed was only too happy to sell them.

Eric Johnson explains his rationale for leaving ScienceBlogs. After the blowup last week over the Pepsi Co. deal Seed Media made it is no surprise. This is what happens when you attempt to use individual reputations to legitimate corporate public relations.

Posted on July 12, ’10

Mark Pesce at Webstock

Mark Pesce’s blog the human network is a must read and he just published the full video of his talk at Webstock. The transcript was posted back in February but the video is well worth watching.

Here are some scattered annotations on what Pesce discusses:

  • The arrival of the web as appliance (14:00)
  • The depth of a universally connected world is the individual (~18:00)
  • Once meaning is exposed it can be manipulated (20:00)
  • Books are standing on a threshold (23:30)
  • Personal health and medication management (or, the concept of a device as an interface to ourselves) (28:00)
Posted on July 10, ’10

Edit Flow 0.5 is in the wild

Version 0.5 of Edit Flow was released into the wild today. The improvements almost make me wish I was in a newsroom to implement them. There’s a lot of power now packaged into the plugin.

Posted on July 7, ’10