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Showing posts from 2011

How News Organizations Can Create a Mobile-First Strategy

Came across an interesting post. This is a must for anyone wanting to survive in the media industry of the future. How News Organizations Can Create a Mobile-First Strategy by Steve Buttry Published Dec. 10, 2009 3:43 pm Updated Mar. 4, 2011 9:00 am I used to watch the crowds in airport lounges when I traveled, studying how people read newspapers. Even with circulation declining, you could see people reading newspapers intently. Especially after 9/11, people would have plenty of time to read while waiting for flights, and newsstands stocked a variety of papers to choose from. Look around an airport lounge now. You’ll see more people looking at their phones than holding newspapers. When I see people in the airport lounge, I know time is only accelerating with each tap of their thumbs. My concern over this acceleration pushed me last month to call for news companies to pursue a mobile-first strategy. New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen asked me to “describe wha

Google's Streetview hits a roadblock in Bengaluru

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For the uninitiated, Google (Google Earth) has a feature called the Streetview. The Google Streetview car roams around the streets, clicking pictures as it drives by. These pictures are then stitched together to give you a virtual walkthrough. It's an amazing application, but now seems to be creating a lot of controversy, raising privacy concerns. Citizens are demanding that their street, houses should not be photographed by the car. Pic source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217775/Google_Street_View_blocked_in_Bangalore The other issue is security. After 26/11 in Mumbai, there is generally a lot of concern over security issues. The Karnataka Government has refused to allow the Google Streetview car to photograph sections of Bengaluru. This is going to spark off a debate on technology, government, privacy concerns, freedom of speech, etc. Click here for an article that has appeared on the rediff.com com home page tonight. 

Microsoft puts Office 365 in the cloud, confronts Google

An interesting development. Click --->  Microsoft puts Office 365 in the cloud, confronts Google Recently Nokia chose Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS over Google's Android. Though I personally feel that they are a bit late, because Google is not going to sit idle till the new Windows powered Nokia phones come out (In 2012!). And now this development is going to generate a lot a heat. Let's enjoy the war, because whatever the outcome I am sure the consumers/users will benefit. Probably at a little extra cost, though.

Domain names - an interesting development

Till now we had to book domain names with generic Top Level Domain names. Which means we had to choose between .com, .net. .info, .in etc. Now the rules have changed at least for those who can afford it. Do read this article: http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_not-only-coms-as-internet-body-throws-open-domain-names_1557050

You don't need a high end camera to shoot a feature film...

A few months back, I took a decision to buy Kodak Zi8 cameras for my students. Many were apprehensive about these cameras when I revealed it to them during our study tour. I am sure some thought I had gone crazy. But these cameras are full high definition (1920X1080) with excellent picture quality and also took great stills (5.3 MP). Now that they have been used for projects, I suppose my students are happy. Though the lens of the camera is rather small, like that of a mobile phone and it's not so great in low light, in normal light, the results are fantastic. It also has an audio jack to attach an external microphone and facility to mount it on a standard tripod. Today I read an interesting article in the TOI. Here's the link: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW Electronic Media students should understand that this is the technology of the future. Our Department is rea

INDIA JOINS THE TABLET WAR

Source: www.indiatimes.com (Pl. click on blog title for the original article) Indian government backed ambitious low-cost tablet project is finally set to take off.  And the tablet comes with fantastic specifications especially when you look at the price tag of just Rs.2200/-. It is a   7-inch touchscreen tablet with inbuilt keyboard, video conferencing facility, multimedia content, Wi-Fi, USB Port, 32GB hard drive and 2GB RAM. The tablet will support Open Office, SciLab and Internet browsing.  I have been waiting for Indian companies start competing with the international firms in the market for a long time now. If this tablet lives up to expectations, we could be having a price war, benefitting the consumer. So let's keep our fingers crossed and wish the very best for this tablet.

10 things that will annoy the hell out of your Web site visitors

Making websites is one thing, making them work is another and then keeping those visitors on your site is one more art. Now here's an article that tell us what annoys the visitors. Click on the text below: 10 things that will annoy the hell out of your Web site visitors

World's biggest Internet test on Wednesday

Here is an interesting article I just read on rediff.com: If on Wednesday you find it difficult to connect to websites, such as Facebook or Google, don't worry these sites, along with hundreds of others, will be running the world's biggest test to make the Internet a much bigger place. Currently, the online world runs Internet Protocol version 4, but with new addresses, or websites, being added every day, the system is running out of space to host these addresses, therefore Internet companies will carry out a test on Wednesday to check IPv6 compatibility. According to Arin (the American Registry for Internet Numbers), the number of IPv4 addresses will be exhausted before the end of 2011. Think of it this way: When a telephone company runs of out of digits, it adds one more number. The same rule applies to Internet. Read this article on rediff.com here: http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-tech-worlds-biggest-internet-test-on-wednesday/20110607.htm

Mobile Journalism

Writing for mobile media is a trick every future journalist should learn. What we see today is that all journalistic content is still written for traditional media and is 'designed' in terms of layout and placement for the mobile media. By mobile media, I mean mobile phones, iPods, iPads, tablet PCs, etc. What is necessary is that not layout, but content itself has to be re-written for smaller spaces and lesser word limits. So how does one learn to write for these new media? I had gone to train media students in Tezpur University at the beginning of this month. One trick I suggested is as follows: Write your story as you would normally do so in about 300 to 500 words. Now edit it to about 200 words. Again edit it to about 100 words. Take care that you don't lose the context and the important facts in the story while re-editing it. Now consider this: Facebook allows  420 characters to share with your friends Twitter allows 140 characters Your SMS allows about 150