Real Journalists
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/04/2007 - 12:52Below is my letter sent to the Connecticut Post in response to Ken Dixon's opinion piece, Plenty of fingers can be pointed in Krayeske issue
I read, with amusement, Ken Dixon's opinion about the Ken Krayeske case, "Plenty of fingers can be pointed in Krayeske issue", Feb. 4, 2007. He states, "First, beware of people who call themselves `journalists.' It's a highfalutin appellation. Real journalists are too busy working, gathering information to share with readers, to cop existential 'tudes."Dixon is right. We do need to beware of people calling themselves journalists. I do hope that Dixon doesn't call himself a journalist, or if he does, that he doesn't mislead many people. He seems to be too busy copping his own existential attitude to get beyond name calling and provide any real information about the important issues of what constitutes journalism in the twenty first century and what that means for our democracy.
What do you think?
(Cross posted at MyLeftNutmeg. Please vote in the poll there.)
R.I.P. Jo Wheeler
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/02/2007 - 22:46At around 9:30 on a Friday evening, my daughter looks over to me from her computer. She has been reading notes on Facebook from her classmates from The Long Ridge School. She tells me that they are saying that Jo Wheeler has died. I check the local paper and find this obituary.
JOSEPHINE STALDER WHEELER - creative and beloved teacher of young children, died peacefully Jan 28 at home and surrounded by family. She was 81. She had for several years suffered from COPD and lung cancer.
My mind goes back to the numerous times my children brought treasures to school for Jo to talk about in class. You never knew what you would find in her classroom. I thought of the urgent phone calls I would receive from her about some important physical phenomena that I should show the kids.
Long Ridge School always spoke about giving children a life long love of learning. It was more than just a marketting line, it was embodied in the life of Jo Wheeler, and it is now carried forward in the lives that she touched.
In the song Joe Hill, Joe tells young labor activists, that he didn't die, "Where working men are out on strike Joe Hill is at their side, Joe Hill is at their side." Well, perhaps something similar applies to Jo Wheeler.
Whenever a teacher joyfully accepts a little discovery, a dead beetle or a piece of animal dung that some child brings to the the teacher with urgent fascination, Jo Wheeler is at their sides.
Hope is Presidential
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/02/2007 - 21:32As we wade further into the 2008 presidential primary season, we are seeing more and more candidate videos and more and more commentary on such videos. Yet I wonder if somehow the whole point is being missed.
Matthew Bernius talks about a tale of two candidate’s video distribution strategies, comparing Obama’s use of BrightCove with Edwards use of YouTube. He notes that “YouTube offers tools to manage posting comments, [but] you cannot control what content your page links to. In going to ‘where the people are,’ you leave yourself open to direct commentary from the people” and contrasts this to “Brightcove’s promise of control”. He carries it further to note “Edwards’ decision to speak extemporaneously, on location in New Orleans versus Obama’s use of a controlled backdrop and a prepared speech and teleprompter” Brian Russell, and Coturnix have also commented on this.
Edwards appears to understand the nature of online video much better than the other candidates, however, I still think there is a long ways to go.
Today’s Hotline takes a different look at issues with online video: On The Download: YouTube Does Pay-To-Play. While the article focuses primarily on the FEC issues of YouTube’s Pay-To-Play plans, it also has an interesting comment from Mike Hudack, CEO of Blip.TV where he observes, “political content is on the lower end of the viewership scale”.
Why is this? Perhaps it relates back to the discussion of distribution. Too many people are looking at online video as simply another means of distributing the 30-second spot. People have attributed some of Ned Lamont’s early success on his advertisements which, unlike most political advertisements of the day, weren’t stuck in a 1960’s style of TV ads.
Sen. Edwards’ announcement video on YouTube was a step in the direction of recognizing the different language of online videos, but there is still much further to go. What are the popular online videos? Ask a Ninja, Hope is Emo, Lonelygirl115 and various coke and mentos videos come to mind. Perhaps the 2008 candidates can learn from these videos.
Edwards and Obama can duke it out to see who gets ‘Hope is Presidential’. Sen. Clinton, after her webcasts might think about engaging the folks at Ask a Ninja to come up with Ask a Candidate. The lesser know candidates can struggle to see who will be the next Lonely Candidate 2008. The real question is whose videos will be the coke and mentos of the 2008 campaign season. I haven’t seen any like that yet.
One of the things that is special about the coke and mentos videos is the participatory nature of them. They were fun and everyone could make one. I did the coke and mentos thing in my backyard, but didn’t put it online.
Personally, I am hoping that videos of regular people working together to fight the war on poverty and to find new ways of dealing with dependence on foreign oil and global warming will be the coke and mentos, but we need to find ways of making this fun and exciting. Sen. Edwards’ Day of Action is a good start but they haven’t found their viral fun yet. Let’s hope they do.
(Full disclosure: I’m in talks with the Edwards campaign about possibly working for them.)
(Cross posted at Greater Democracy)
The Libby trial meta-discussion
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/02/2007 - 11:13Back in 2004, I was one of the bloggers credentialed to cover the Democratic National Convention in Boston, and was surprised to find how much we bloggers were part of the story. Some of that is because of the scripted nature of conventions with their outcomes already predefined. There wasn’t much for uncertainty, other than about the bloggers. There is much less certainty with the Libby trial, but still there are some interesting discussions of the role of bloggers.
Somehow, during the convention, these discussions seemed misplaced. Yet as I wander deeper into discussions about media reform, I am thinking that the meta-discussion about bloggers may be an important part of the story.
Yesterday, I wrote a blog post asking How should Media Bloggers cover the Libby Trial?. I received quite a few different replies.
Managing Transitions
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 01/31/2007 - 08:43(Cross-posted at Toomre Capital Markets)
Over the past few months, many people have wondered why Ned Lamont lost to Joe Lieberman in last November’s general election. There are many possible explanations which have been discussed extensively elsewhere. One that hasn’t been discussed much is based on the idea that a campaign, in many ways, is much like a business startup.
Campaigns usually start with a lot of enthusiasm and great ideas, but without a lot of funding or necessarily a clear idea about where things will go. They try to build a strong organization out of nothing. If they are successful, at some point they need to manage the transition from an insurgency to front-runner, similar to how a startup needs to manage the transition from startup to a major corporation. It is a difficult transition for many campaigns to make, just as it is for businesses to make that transition.
I’ve often hoped that some day, a group will come along with the expertise necessary to help campaigns make this transition, and I imagine that many investors in startups have similar hopes for a similar sort of group for technology firms.
My thinking about this has been shaped by my work as a technology executive on Wall Street. During my tenure in two different leadership roles, I used the services of Sharon Horowitz, PhD. as an executive coach and organizational consultant. I learned a lot from her about things like managing corporate politics and getting technologists to work better together. It was a great help as I moved into leadership roles. She has now teamed up with some other interesting luminaries to form CenterNorth, an advisory service helping technology organizations and companies in all stages of development, including startups.
While CenterNorth does not consult to political campaigns, I wonder why there aren’t companies out there helping campaigns better manage their growth cycle. I believe it would have helped the Lamont campaign and other campaigns I’ve been involved with.
CenterNorth appears to be offering a valuable service to technology firms. I wish the folks there well and will be interested to track their success.
