Craig McGinty

Christian Payne, aka @Documentally, on creating stories with mobile tools

ICT in Education 2011 : Christian Payne : Mobile Story Making from StudioSix @ Tipperary Institute on Vimeo.

If you can find 50 minutes to watch this video of a presentation by Christian Payne, aka @Documentally, covering how he records stories using mobile tools please do.

And he has put together a collection of links highlighting some of the online destinations featured in the talk.

Twitter Lists for breaking news and more

NEWSROOMS in the US have been using the new Twitter Lists feature to cover the recent shootings in Fort Hood and draw together news sources.

Mashable takes a look at some of the early examples, and it is good to see that other news operations have been placed on the Twitter Lists of other newsrooms.

Twitter Lists have only been available for a short time and I, like many, put together a list (see @thisfrenchlife/france) but wondered what more could be done.

This example of using a list for breaking news is a great use of the service, but I could also see lists being created for other reasons:

- Conference or event coverage
- Local and national election campaigns
- Meet-ups and networking events

As an added extra it would be a simple task to run the list through the Twitter widget that lets people display their own and others' tweets elsewhere on the web.

It would require someone to gather together the Twitter accounts to place on a list, but it could also help people cut through some of the hashtag mayhem that can occur when people gather round a subject.

Fort Hood Shooting Shows How Twitter, Lists Can be Used for Breaking News - Poynter Online

Just some links from Twitter

WITH my broadband connection finally up and running I've been able to crack on with tackling the six week backlog that had built up.

I can also keep up to date with some of the interesting links and tweets that I've seen pass through my Twitter account (@craigmcginty) here's a bit of a pick:

Tips for teachers using Facebook
Although aimed at teachers in the US, many of the tips can still be applied not only by teachers, but by everyone with a Facebook account and who wants a little more control over how their information is displayed.

Only five per cent of readers would pay for online content
The first of a number of articles written by PaidContent following their commissioning of a study into how popular paid for content could be - or not as this article highlights.

Racing Post’s paid-for website approaches 10,000 subscribers
But it is well known that focussed, niche content, that can benefit readers financially, can be charged for, so we may see newspapers pick and choose which sections to put a pay wall around.

Google's mission to drive up newspaper revenue
A move from Google to try and get on the good side of newspapers and magazines who have been constantly saying that the search giant is taking more than giving.

Eleven more things I’d do if I ran a news organization
One of the first people I ever read about the changing news landscape was Dan Gillmor, and it's articles like this that have kept me reading ever since.

The Great Panto Review 2009: Oh yes it is
Another great fund raising idea from my pal Linda Jones, this time it involves bloggers reviewing pantomimes, with donations going towards the National Alliance of Childhood Cancer Parent Organisations.

Linda is looking for bloggers who are interested in doing a review, but also PR and marketing representatives of theatres staging shows who are able to offer review tickets.

Quick link round up

JUST a collection of interesting articles I've crossed in the past couple of days that might be worth a quick look:

Email campaign case studies (one good, one bad) - Seth Godin
I am sure a few people will have heard me rattle on about the importance of having a newsletter for your online publication or business website, here's why.

A permission campaign, on the other hand, only grows in value, until it gets big enough that you can build an entire business around it.

Twitter, marketing and the devil - Matt White
I've seen a lot of businesses jump onto Twitter and basically use it to put their products in front of people.

It just doesn't work because people decide to follow others, so really you are just tweeting in an empty room.

Instead use it as a method of discovery for both yourself and for those who follow you.

What would you call someone who uses a program to automatically send you an annoying volume of email? A spammer. So what makes you think that because it’s 140 characters and on some trendy web service that blasting away with soulless and automatic links isn’t spam?

Times Online flunks journalism 101 - Don Mills Diva
Another example of shoddy practice by supposed 'established' journalists. This time lifting quotes from a blogger's website, making them appear as if it was an interview and not providing readers with a link so they could find out more.

But I feel furious because I was never interviewed for the story and had no idea I even appeared in the story until my daily Google Alert for Don Mills Diva lead me there.

Contributing to the Landscape Juice 'Honesty box' - Landscape Juice Network
An idea we are trying on the Landscape Juice Network to raise income to feed back into the service and improve it.

Phil has asked that users of the site consider donating an amount from any business they've generated through the site, leaving it up to people to decide how valuable the network is to them.

The site will remain free to use, but members are well aware that it takes time to oversee, and that if they gain from the growth the network is enjoying then providing a way to say 'thanks' can hopefully provide more benefits.

The network has also launched quite a few partnerships, brokered business transactions and provided opportunities. Some press items released through Landscape Juice have secured businesses a high profile slot in search engine rankings.

Keeping a track of your online life

A FEW months ago I wrote that one of my biggest concerns for the internet was that a barrier to entry would be placed around it because of people's fears.

Internet users are already kept on their toes by online scams and spam email, but for me the biggest cause of fear would be attempts by government to snoop and look over the shoulders of people.

My thoughts weren't terribly original but it does look as though the UK government is keen to track email use and maybe even begin to approve websites with a cinema style certification.

Whilst this second idea is clearly ludicrous, for example, what happens for websites hosted outside the UK?

The gathering of email data is extremely worrying, because if people feel they are being watched creative thoughts, ideas and skills are often chocked.

One way to be aware of just how much information you make available online is get up to speed on how sites such as Facebook and MySpace allow connections to take place, but also enable your data to be 'leaked' elsewhere.

It is something that Google has looked at in a paper, which is covered on Read Write Web, and whilst developers of websites are asked to be aware of people's information, it is just as important for ourselves to take responsibility of what we allow online.

I hope I'm not scaremongering about all this information out there, because at the same time it can be damn useful if you learn how to corral it to your advantage.

So just to prove it, here is an in-depth piece on how to track down, and follow, the best blogs covering a subject or field.

It starts with delicious.com, which might be enough for some people, but then really pumps things up by drawing together different RSS feeds and even generating a focussed search engine.

A quick dive into the newspaper world now and if major publishers weren't already struggling as advertisers desert them, it looks as though local councils might be next.

The Scottish Parliament is to trial the publication of statutory and public notices on the web, a regular money spinner for newspaper.

As budgets are squeezed and the calls for more efficiency rise, we may even see the scrapping of rules forcing local councils, at their cost, to publish planning notices in the local press.

But there is still a need for news and how it will be funded in the future will be one of the questions at a meeting in London later this month that looks to draw on the experiences of independent publishers.

Regional sports journalist, Rick Waghorn, and the man behind My Football Writer - Norwich City, is looking to bring together people from different online backgrounds to see if a set of digital tools can be developed for people to provide a news service for postcode areas.

His VIP Club - the Very Independent Publishers Club is meeting on January 28, but numbers are tight so if you want to attend get your name down quick.

And finally if you were thinking all this blogging and online publishing was new, check out the date this piece I found on Clay Shirky's website was published, titled Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of Publishing.

TypePad's bailout program for journalists

I HAVE long had the belief that freelance journalists could use a blog to run a news service in their speciality and laid out some first steps in a piece called setting up a blog.

And it looks as though it is going to be something that journalists, both freelance and staff, are going to have to seriously consider as redundancy stalks many a newsroom.

So much so that when TypePad offered a Bailout Program for Journalists they were taken aback by the interest, as many, many people signed up to learn more.

Having used TypePad for around five years I do think it is the best option for people who want to spend time writing and not tweaking and updating code.

So if you do take up the option offered by TypePad and want an un-official answer to questions feel free to leave a comment below and I'll do my best to help.

If you want to take a look over what others are doing these sites that I've been involved with are run off TypePad:

Landscape Juice
IVY Paris News
Cheap Flight News

Blog posts and Twitter talk at Social Media Cafe

THE first Social Media Cafe (#smc_mcr) in Manchester turned out to be a great success with around 80 people turning up.

And the variety of skills, backgrounds and interests was also impressive and I am sure the networking and conversations generated have enabled some new connections to take place.

The event was hung around the talk of the death of blogging, with myself, Martin Byrant and Chi-chi Ekweozor ably guided by Sarah Hartley.

Also a thank you to Julian Tait for the organisation side of things as he made it very easy for people to chat and see where others were from.

On to the talk and clearly if you put a gaggle of bloggers in a room and ask them if blogging is on the way out, they are not likely to agree, although shorter forms of communication such as Twitter have enjoyed massive popularity.

Social Media Cafe in Manchester has a venue

A DATE and venue for the first Social Media Café get-together in Manchester has been agreed upon.

The meeting will take place between 6-9pm on November 11, at the The Northern pub, 56 Tib Street, Manchester.

More from Sarah Hartley: Social Media Cafe venue selected.

Blogging workshops in Manchester

TWO blogging pals, Kate and Chris, are offering people who want to start a blog a chance to test the water.

The two of them will be hosting blogging workshops being held at Gorton Library on November 22 and Crumpsall Library a week later, click on through if you want to get bloggy.

Is blogging dead? Not in Manchester

THERE has been much written in the past couple of days about the death of blogging after an article appeared on the Wired website saying blogs had been superseded by micro-blogging services such as Twitter.

Yikes, it even made the Today programme.

But if anyone was at the Manchester Blog Awards last night the news of the death of blogging was somewhat premature.

To applause and cheers winners of this year's awards offered up an interesting and varied mix of styles and genres, from creative fiction to useful locally based services.

Sarah Hartley has drawn together some interesting highlights from the night, and when you consider two bloggers from Manchester, Chris Killen and Maria Roberts, will soon have books published, I feel there is life in the old blog yet.