Grounded In Reality

I think this is amazing.  The capabilities of Google Earth continue to stack up, creating what I believe will change the way that history is kept moving forward.  This is Part 1 of 6 videos of a speech given to introduce Google Earth’s work with the United States Holocaust Museum to do similar mash-ups of Germany and Dafur representing history and loss of life in each region (Germany- past, Darfur- current).  I can only assume that Iraq will be an in-depth project like these pretty soon.

Video series and more information available through the United States Holocaust Museum Web site  http://www.ushmm.org/

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4/12 UPDATE:

MSNBC pulls the Imus in the Morning show, and it replaces with news. Imus pushes forward with Radioathon; what happens with CBS to be determinedafter his 2-week suspension, which starts next week.

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For those of you who follow the news on a regular basis, the names of Don Imus and Katie Couric need not be explained. They are two of the biggest names in radio and television and this week they are linked together for things gone awry.

Imus got himself in trouble when the now-suspended radio show host called the Rutgers women’s basketball players “nappy-headed hos” on his April 4 show. He’s lost sponsors and has been on every news show from coast-to-coast and on the web. He’s number two (Imus) and number five (Don Imus) on Technorati top searches and there are 20,913 results on blogs with any authority.  April 8-10, his name was getting mentioned in 500+ blogs a day, and as of April 11, he’s over 4,000 mentions. Mind you some folks are mentioning that it’s all getting blown out of proportion, but most are calling for his head.  

While Imus is dealing with his fun, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric is putting out her own fire for a producer who plagiarised from a Wall Street Journal column on the fading allure of library books.

 Newsweek has a great piece on the story where they say:

The problems began when an April 4 installment of  “Katie Couric’s Notebook”—a daily essay by the anchor that appears in video and audio form on CBS News’ Web site, among other places—was uncomfortably close to musings by Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow on the fading allure of library books.

Newsweek’s story goes on to say that the story came to light “when a Wall Street Journal reader who’d read, heard or saw “Katie Couric’s Notebook” alerted the newspaper, according to an insider at the Wall Street Journal.  Zaslow, the author, said two CBS officials phoned him to express regrets.”

What’s incredible is how the web plays a role in both of these cases.

Imus has been spouting off about all kinds of issues for years. He’s crossed the line many a time, but the world we live in isn’t the same as when I was growing up outside of New York City and he was just on WNBC-AM (you younger folks, you know what AM radio is, right?). 

Couric’s issue is deeper in the sense that plagiarism is deemed “journalistic suicide” and the producer in charge of the ‘Notebook’ has been fired. But once again, it’s an issue that can explode because of the mob on the web. 

 The sad part about Couric’s problems are that, I think, CBS News and Couric have done a wonderful job embracing new media into their broadcast and into their site. If you haven’t checked out their site, I recommend you do at: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/eveningnews/main3420.shtml 

It will be interesting to see when Imus comes back in two weeks if he has any sponsors left and if he will still have a job. The Couric issue will be gone in two weeks. It will be talked about, but they have fired the producer and now onto bigger and better things. The one interesting factor in my mind about CBS News is that they brought in Rick Kaplan to be the Executive Producer.

From Wikipedia entry for Kaplan:

Kaplan was at the helm of ABC’s Prime Time Live in 1991, when they aired an expose against the Food Lion supermarket chain using undercover producers who falsified their resumes and staged events. Food Lion was awarded $5.5 million by a jury in 1997. The award was later reduced by a judge to $316,000. The verdict was then overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA. According to the court, even though ABC was wrong to do what they had done, they felt that Food Lion was unable to show that they had been directly injured by ABC’s actions.

Just something to keep in your mind as CBS News tries to move out of the number three spot. They wish people were watching their televisions instead of watching the people and things that they do wrong.

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Update: Michael Arrington reports that Technorati has launched a CEO search.  Dave Sifry notes that he will remain with the company in a product role.

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Though many of my clients are surprised to learn that blog search engines exist, they warm up quickly to the concept, particularly when I encourage them to think of it as Google for blogs instead of the Web in general.

My colleagues tend to cut to the chase and inquire about which one to use–the context being “just tell me which one is the best available.” My response: A combination of Technorati and Google Blog Search ought to suffice for most clients.

As a heavy user of both engines, I have qualitative experience to account for Google Blog Search’s increased accuracy and timeliness of results. Plus, the fact that most of my clients are more comfortable and familiar with the Google user interface means that I need to pre-empt and manage their expectations of results from a Google Blog Search.

However, Google’s advancements beg the question of why and how Technorati, the ‘granddaddy of blog search,’ would give up its mantle to Google. Because corporations are hungry for data about the online chatter pertinent to their brands, one would think that it is in Technorati’s advantage to monetize their data. Two speculations for Technorati taking their eyes off the ball:

1. Online ad sales, Google’s forte, is a natural extension to monetizing this live data stream but it is not in Technorati’s DNA to execute.
2. Though still championing cool new technologies such as microformats, the reality of running a sustainable business is hitting home, thus inevitably causing a pause in the business and a slow down in commitment and dedication to improving the tool.

David Sifry’s State of the Live Web, April 2007, report was well received but came with speculations about a pending sale, fueled by this statement:

“Sifry says Technorati is now very much a media company, and that the growth in social media and use of the blog search engine’s tagged media pages has contributed to this growth.”

That said, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Tantek, CTO, Technorati, and his team for the free tool and for the good work of enabling my clients to search and make sense of the “live web.” 

Hello and welcome to the digital world of the voice of the web.

Back when I was just a young lad in school, I always carried around two books with me. One was (and still is) the AP Stylebook. It is the Bible of any writer. My old boss and dear friend, Steve Klein, used to make me keep one in every room in my house, including the bathroom.

The other book is William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. It was given to me by another old boss, Tom Eherenfeld. The subtitle is “An informal guide to writing nonfiction.” This book is important because he brings a very simple mantra of keeping it simple.

And there’s the rub about writing for the web – it’s the KISS method – keep it simple, stupid.

No one is going on-line to read War and Peace. If you have something to say, say it. Don’t clutter up your site or blog with a lot of words that you don’t need to tell your story. Say what you have to say and get out of it. Just like I am doing here…

Another thing to keep in mind is that writers in the digital world have two paragraphs to capture your reader. If you don’t give the reader what they are looking for in a short amount of time, you will lose them. People don’t have all day to read – so get them in, give them what they want and get them out of it as quickly as you can.

That’s not to say if you have a book or a white paper that people want to read, they won’t take the time to read it. Most of the time, they would print it out to take with them, or they will bookmark it and read it when they do have the time.