Serious Construction
I’m working on a redesign of my site using Drupal. Once I get this down, I’ll be building another site for my Computer Assisted Reporting project. Much to come. Patience, por favor.
Hear Us Roar
Picture in your mind a young, savvy Internet user. This person pays attention to the news, owns cool gadgets, attends all the important technology conferences and is somewhat of a nerd. Now imagine that this person is not the angsty, Best Buy Geek Squad, no-I-will-not-fix-your-computer-for-you type. This person is a woman, and she’s part of the biggest movement to the Web since its creation.
A study by comScore in 2007 showed that the popularity of women’s community sites online is soaring, as is the number of women using the Web. Legions of XX chromosome carriers haven’t grouped together like this since Midol was created.
My reasoning for this is as good as anyone’s, I suppose, but I mainly have two explanations. (These are mainly geared at American women since A. I am one and B. I don’t know what the trends are for women in other countries).
First, women are social creatures. They naturally like to gather and discuss topics with their peers, whether it be about technology, politics or family life. The Internet has provided a huge platform for ladies to share ideas and respond to others. It was a natural progression… as life sped up and there was less time to gab at the grocery store or on the subway, they took the conversations online. Men, this is a huge resource for you. Ever wanted to know what we think about? Google it. You don’t need to sneak past issues of Cosmo anymore.
Second, young women are extremely tech savvy. They grew up pushing buttons on computers and cell phones and expect high performance and quality from these everyday objects. The Web is just another tool to them.
I remember growing up and being surprised by the lack of computer software and games geared towards young women. My parents did their best and bought whatever they thought I would like, including one game about a garden that induced a Stepford-wife-like coma. It was supposed to teach about ecology, but today I can’t keep plants alive for more than a week.
In my blog, I hope to take a closer look at events, new gadgets and women in technology. Expect a decent write-up of the DC Media Makers event later this week.
Disclaimer: No I’m not some crazed feminist.
Let’s lay it out.
These are basically my notes from David Johnson’s first Saturday interactive journalism class. Excuse the choppiness.
Why the turmoil?
- Anyone can publish.
The cost of entry of the newspaper business is very large. Just to buy a printing press you can expect to spend $50 million. The Washington Times only recently paid off their presses that they bought in the early 80s. However, with a computer, an Internet connection, a domain name and a hosting plan, anyone is able to publish their ideas/stories/photos/video for arguably a teensy fraction of what it would cost to break into the traditional publishing business.
But, that doesn’t mean that everyone knows how to publish effectively.
- Relevancy & Timeliness
The Web is an immediate form of information. We (the webbies) offer the immediacy of broadcast with the depth of print. The newspaper prints an article at 11 pm from a wire that came in at 5 pm that was edited for two hours after being written by someone at the wire service at 3 pm. You’ll see it tomorrow morning, but you could have seen it at 3, when the story was originally written.
- Advertising
The only thing that defines how long a newspaper can be is the amount of advertising sold for that issue.
The huge push right now is to create video content, which Johnson says is one of the most inefficient ways to bring content to your audience. It takes people to go out and gather the video, then time to edit, etc…
As if you haven’t seen this already: O’Reilly’s What is Web 2.0 (yay 2005!)
Here’s the bottom line: The key job of an interactive journalist will be to tune out the static of all the voices of the Internet and tune in what’s relevant. Forever the gatekeepers, huh?
20th Century Oregon Trail
My friends and I were sharing this little gem with each other yesterday. It’s one of McSweeney’s Short Imagined Monologues, this one entitled “No Son of Mine Plays Oregon Trail Like That.” Any child of the early 80s must remember Oregon Trail… you choose your character, buy your supplies, and head off down the Oregon Trail, making choices along the way on which way to travel, what time of year to leave, rations to give your family, etc… It’s a great classic computer game. The McSweeney’s essay was particularly entertaining to read as it brought back many memories… mainly of a small group of us at Bowen Elementary playing the game during keyboarding class.
Those were good days.
Jake and I had a conversation about it yesterday:
Jake: hahaha i had this idea a few years ago where the idea was to be the banker, outfit yourself pretty well but be frugal at the same time make it to one of the better forts and just camp outfor days and days at a time just keep it going… basically, decide for your family that you know what, oregon doesn’t really have that much going for it, and Fort Kennard in wonderful Utah would make a great place to settle down me: haha Jake: and see how far it will let you go… a generation? two? me: I wonder what would happen… Jake: into the 20th century? me: oh man. Can you imagine the 20th century Oregon Trailers? Ones that settled in Utah… I think I’ve heard this story before…. Joseph Smith.Jake: haha
New Resolutions
Generally, I don’t make resolutions for the New Year. It just seems a little silly to wait for a certain day to roll around to start improving oneself, but this year I do have a few in mind.
As some of you may know, I am a graduate assistant at the J-Lab here in Washington. It’s a great organization, doing some really good stuff for citizen media across the country. However, I think they seriously lack a strong presence in popular social media, which is messed up considering the goal of the non-profit. It’s understandable, though. J-Lab has a really small staff and they just don’t have time to stay on top of everything. That’s what grad assistants are for. Ha.
This week we will have a mini-retreat for new ideas, and I’ll be pitching my thoughts on Twitter and Facebook. One of the things J-Lab does is find Cool Stuff and news articles for KCNN. However, I don’t think we do it often enough nor bring enough attention to it. I want to solve that problem this year.
Additionally, if you couldn’t tell, J-Lab is in desperate need of a site redesign. This has actually been a long, challenging process for the people who work there full time. We are hoping to launch everything in January, but along with that will come editing and formatting little things that can sometimes be overlooked when redesigning such a huge site.
On a personal note, I will turn 25 in May. I always told myself I need to have done something awesome by 25… call it a quarter-century goal or some such. Luckily, eight days after my birthday, I will have my MA. That’s a pretty decent accomplishment, I think.
My other personal goals include busting butt during this semester in order to land in a great internship over the summer and an even better job come August. Also, I want to focus a little more on fashion. I know, I know, geeky journalists aren’t expected to dress super well, but I like to think I have a decent eye for what like; I want to incorporate a little more of my eclectic tastes into my daily outfits.
Don’t worry. This won’t turn into a style blog. I couldn’t keep it going.
