silencematters

The future of information includes the future archive of our books and printed material – a matter not often talked about in the drive to educate ourselves online. That is why I found Robert Darnton’s On the Media interview and article in the New York Review of Books about Google’s plans to for Book Search really relevant to the chatter that is going around about the future of news and information.

He says,

“To digitize collections and sell the product in ways that fail to guarantee wide access would be to repeat the mistake that was made when publishers exploited the market for scholarly journals, but on a much greater scale, for it would turn the Internet into an instrument for privatizing knowledge that belongs in the public sphere.”

“Yes, we must digitize. But more important, we must democratize. We must open access to our cultural heritage. How? By rewriting the rules of the game, by subordinating private interests to the public good, and by taking inspiration from the early republic in order to create a Digital Republic of Learning.”

Umair Haque begins to define the interaction rules that are starting to define the 21st Century.

(via swissmiss)

Kenny Hyder has put together a collection of sites/tools that plug into the Twitter API and give you a clearer picture of your twitter-sphere.

If Twitter is like being blind in a candy store, these tools let you know which candy to try.

Photo by Juliette Cezzar“Our Mairiage Proposal”

One year ago today on Valentine’s Day I proposed to my wife, Juliette, through a crossword puzzle in her copy of The New York Times. Jim Horne, the writer behind WordPlay, the New York Times Crossword Blog was kind enough to publish our story. Read more…

Every problem in life should be approached under the assumption that the solution is this easy. The real work is letting yourself see the solution.

I love it when you come across an analogy, or you see a movie and it seems to color the way you see aspects of the world for days to come. That is just what happened when I read the start of this post by James Bennett.

There’s an old joke, so old that I don’t even know for certain where it originated, that’s often used to explain why big corporations do things the way they do. It involves some monkeys, a cage, a banana and a fire hose.

You have to read the whole first part of the post. It applies to everyone. The rest talks about the release of Python 3.0 – and I have to say, I have never been inclined to learn Python, or really even look into it until now – until someone has taken the care to present it in a smart way. Even if I never do anything with Python, I am now more inclined to think of it in favorable terms.

Also, the post generally highlights the work of competent people, and the world needs more of those. Great Work!

Start by reading Derek Powazek’s post on the ethics of online advertising. It quickly explains the story of a video that went viral, an then later was found to of been made by an advertising firm.

We all appreciate a good hoax from time to times, but being duped by someone with an agenda solely for the good of a brand, not only sets up a betrayal of trust, but adds very little depth to the brand itself.

“One thing pretending to be another is always a betrayal of trust. If these brands really want to engage communities online, they’re going to have to learn how to stop lying to us and start interacting honestly with us.” – (Derek Powazek)

There is no doubt that this is exciting and we all want to be in on the experience of figuring out where this came from, but when the joke is over, we are not left with anything meaningful to speak of, and someone put their time into this. It’s flat, depthless, and plain boring. Moving on to something else.

I completely agree with Jason Fried in that The Drudge Report is one of the most timeless designs on the web. To hell with all the design purists out there! The key point of the Drudge design is that is is lacking style, and 99% of the time, style gets in the way of information. Even if you go so far as to say that Drudge’s lack of style is his style, you have to acknowledge the fact that it works really well for both the content and the reader.

The Drudge Report is exactly the same as it was back in ‘96 when I wrote a report in my high-school English class on The Future of News on the World Wide Web. In fact, I do believe the quality of the content was just as pedestrian as it is today – which by the way, the design compliments very well.

“The site feels like a chaotic newsroom with the cutting room floor exposed. I think that’s part of the excitement — and good design.” – (link)

I was asked recently if I could think of a successful blog or site that purely existed on the web, and wasn’t tied to another medium. The first example that came to mind is Drudge.

Thanks to Jason for the well written piece.

Hundreds wait in line for a copy of The New York Times, the day after Barack Obama is elected President

On the day after Barack Obama was elected President, people began lining up out side the New York Times in hopes to get a copy of the actual newspaper. As Khoi noted, Print’s Not Dead. As Brian Stelter posted, that they are printing and additional 50,000 copies for the late run for the P.M. rush.

More photos from Nedward.