Wikileaks, Afghanistan & The New Rules Of Engagement
As of two days ago Wikileaks has released 92.000 documents about the war in Afghanistan, leaked (most likely) from within the US military. After discussing this with quite a few folks, we all agreed that this will be one of the biggest – if not the single biggest – story of 2010. As a former [...]
Google, the FTC and Germany: Public vs Private Media
There’s a war going on, and it’s not pretty. The old conflict between publicly funded and private media, and the fight about who regulates the whole sphere. Of course all of it was triggered by the internet. How could the net just allow information to be spread so easily and at such a low cost! [...]
Guardian: We need to become a platform!
Now here’s a bold move by a major newspaper: The Guardian is becoming a platform. And boy, is that a smart move compared to many other newspapers that try to lock up their content and try charging readers directly, be it by subscription model or pay-per-view. Quoting GigaOM: While some newspapers like the Times of [...]
TV shows at the barber shop & why the internet isn’t the end of political discussion
In a New York Times article about how the internet shapes political discourse, this lovely quote crossed my path (it paraphrases Professor Cass R. Sunstein’s ideas): In the mid-20th century, Americans got most of their news through a few big networks and mass-market magazines. People were forced to encounter political viewpoints different from their own. [...]
If Murdoch endorses the iPad, it’s bad
In the Guardian, soon-to-be-ex media mogul Rupert Murdoch continues to claim Google steals Murdoch’s journalistic content, while the iPad might save journalism. Faced with the statement that consumers are used to getting their news for free, he reacts as follows: Murdoch dismissed this fear, saying consumers could be forced to change their habits. “When they [...]
Google, Privacy, Germany
We’ve been discussing the unholy trinity of GPG – Google, Privacy, Germany – a lot recently. And by “we”, I mean in one swoop all the web scene, Germany and the media here as a whole, but also my friends and I. (One of those friends works at Google, so we can bounce ideas off [...]
New York Times getting ready to charge readers? Fail.
New York Times is supposedly getting ready to charge online readers: What makes the decision so agonizing for Sulzberger is that it involves not just business considerations, but ultimately a self-assessment of just what Times journalism is worth to the world. This fall, Keller told the Observer that at some point, the decision is a [...]
Two Takes On The Future of Media: Rubert Murdoch and Clay Shirky
Today I happened upon these two videos in which two experts share their take on (among many other things) the future of the media. The two experts are old-school media magnate Rupert Murdoch, often called one of the most influential people in the media industry; and NYU professor Clay Shirky, who I think is one [...]
Hamburg Declaration: Google Embarrasses Whiny Euro Publishers
Publishers are throwing a tantrum International publishers [list of names, PDF] recently signed the Hamburg Declaration (full text PDF, summary), a ridiculous, whiny document stating that content may not be freely available on the internet through the likes of Google News. It’s rather sad, really, as it shows so clearly just how badly prepared these [...]
Could Crowdsourcing Help Save the New York Times?
The New York Times is in trouble, big-time. That’s about all everybody can agree on. (The opinions on consequences and options differ widely. Check out The Atlantic’s judgement and Jeff Jarvis’ comments, for example.) To get an idea of how bad the newspaper is hit, here’s the figures quoted in The Atlantic: Earnings reports released [...]
