Media News

New FCC team aims for accessibility (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:32:28 +0200

The media team is using the Internet to help turn the commission into a consumer-friendly agency.

The media team is using the Internet to help turn the commission into a consumer-friendly agency.

Opera Mini Serves One Billion Daily Page Views (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:31:33 +0200

Despite the fact that popular smartphones such as the iPhone and Android already have great web browsers, Opera’s Java ME-based mobile browser Opera Mini is constantly growing. According to Opera, on July 25th it served one billion page…

The mobile browser, which recently dropped the beta tag from the already quite polished version 5.0, has been growing steadily over the past couple of years. In June 2008, it was serving 100 million page views every day; in June 2010, this number was 910 million.

Opera Mini’s distinguishing feature is its compression technology, which compresses web page content up to 90% on Opera’s servers before sending them to the actual device, which saves time and bandwidth.

To try out Opera Mini, point your mobile browser m.opera.com.

More About: opera, opera mini, web browser

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StinkyJournalism's New PollSkeptics Report: 'Pew's Credibility Gap: A Strange ... - PR Newswire (press release) (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:11:38 +0200

StinkyJournalism's New PollSkeptics Report: 'Pew's Credibility Gap: A Strange ...
PR Newswire (press release)
The strange tale begins in April, when Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism released a poll and report titled "News Leaders and the Future: News ...

and more »

Michael Shaw: Reading the Pictures: An Eye on Haiti's Rapes (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:10:28 +0200

Angelie, age 14, poses for a portrait on July 14, 2010 in Port-au-Prince. She was raped by four men and two women, all of...

Shelly Palmer: Amazon's New Kindle As Low As $139 (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:58:42 +0200

July 29, 2010 - Today's most interesting stories in technology, media and entertainment: Hacked ATMs: Do you think hackers are just interested in your computers?...

Capital New York Plies Tough Market With Earnest Journalism - AdAge.com (subscription) (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:03:11 +0200

AdAge.com (subscription)

Capital New York Plies Tough Market With Earnest Journalism
AdAge.com (subscription)
"It's just it can feel sometimes that the economics of the web have provided the obvious base for people to do the stuff that we want to do. ...

AdAge.com (subscription)

The New Kindle: Smaller, Faster, Cheaper (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:50:12 +0200

Today, Amazon announced the newest generation of Kindle, its popular e-reader.

As hardware is wont to do, the newest version of the Kindle has become smaller and lighter while retaining its 6-inch reading area. Contrast on the screen has improved…

Today, Amazon announced the newest generation of Kindle, its popular e-reader.

As hardware is wont to do, the newest version of the Kindle has become smaller and lighter while retaining its 6-inch reading area. Contrast on the screen has improved by 50%, and page turns are 20% faster. Storage on the device has doubled, and battery life is up to an entire month. And for you type geeks, new custom fonts and hinting on the device mean that words and letters will be more crisp, clear and natural-looking.

What more consumers will be interested in, however, is the price on the WiFi-only version of Kindle: a cool $139, which undercuts Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader by $10.

Kindle with 3G wireless connectivity will still retail for $189, and Kindle’s larger, newspaper- and magazine-oriented DX model is selling for $379.

The new devices will ship to customers in more than 140 countries and 30 territories starting on August 27.

We last saw some significant Kindle price cuts in June, when the device’s price tag dropped $70 from $259 to $189. At the time, we chalked this move up to a price war with the Nook, which is Kindle’s closest competitor in terms of price and features. Although the iPad is competing with e-readers for consumer dollars and is a popular hypothetical choice among this blog’s readers, single-purpose e-readers are priced to win this particular battle.

And Kindle’s not doing too badly in terms of selling e-books, either. One author has already sold a million copies of his novels in the Kindle Store. And Amazon says their Kindle editions are now outselling their hardcover books.

Given the low new price of the WiFi-only Kindle, would you be more inclined to purchase this device, either for yourself or as a gift, than you would have been previously? Ultimately, do you think consumer demand is broad enough to continually support both tablets and e-readers indefinitely, or will the does-it-all functionality of tablets win out in the long run?

More About: amazon, e-reader, ereader, ipad, Kindle, Tablet

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Google Makes Custom Web Typography Ridiculously Easy (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:15:31 +0200

Google has once again given an excellent new tool to designers and developers (and even CSS-savvy “common folk”) who long for better, more diverse typefaces on the web: a cool Font Previewer that makes adding a new font…

Back in May, Google rolled out its Font Directory and the Google Fonts API. The idea was that these tools would make it simpler for designers and devs to embed a wider range of fonts in their sites and applications.

The previewer takes a few steps out of that process by giving you an idea of how a given typeface will look on your site; letting you adjust the font size and weight; letting you tinker with the leading, kerning and tracking; generating a number of drop shadows if you require them; and generating the code you need to make the magic happen.

It’s pretty hot. Here’s what it looks like:

If you click “Toggle controls,” you can see what the typeface looks like sans-grid, sans-controls on a plain white screen.

Once you’re done tinkering, you’ll see a dynamically generated code sample beneath the preview area. Your code will look something like this:

Then, just copy and paste the stylesheet link and the CSS into your pages. That’s it; you’re done, and your site has a lovely, interesting new font. We tried it out ourselves, and it worked even better than expected.

All the fonts in Google’s library are open source. Previously, Google’s Font API could be integrated into websites using HTML or a JavaScript WebFont Loader that the company co-developed with Typekit.

Give the Font Previewer a try, and let us know what you think in the comments. We’re particularly interested to see if any of our readers can find bugs in this new tool.

More About: font API, font previewer, fonts, Google, web fonts, web typography

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Pac-10 Commissioner Envisions a Premier TV Channel (nytimes.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:00:32 +0200

Commissioner Larry Scott wants to diverge somewhat from the strategy that the Big Ten followed when it carved out a schedule of football and basketball games for its network from the rights it sold to ESPN in a long-term extension.

Commissioner Larry Scott wants to diverge somewhat from the strategy that the Big Ten followed when it carved out a schedule of football and basketball games for its network from the rights it sold to ESPN in a long-term extension.

Advertising: Fox Uses Previews to Give ‘Lone Star’ Wide Exposure (nytimes.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:00:16 +0200

Some issues of Vanity Fair will contain the first episode of “Lone Star.” Some issues of Vanity Fair will contain the first episode of “Lone Star.”

Mexican Journalists’ Captors Demand Broadcast of Videos (nytimes.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:50:20 +0200

Three television cameramen and a newspaper reporter were being held by kidnappers in the state of Durango.

Three television cameramen and a newspaper reporter were being held by kidnappers in the state of Durango.

5 Ways Facebook Questions Can Be Improved (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:21:21 +0200

Facebook’s newest feature, Questions, has the potential to bring social Q&A into the mainstream. But like most beta features and apps, Questions is somewhat fragmented, and suffers from usability issues and apparent bugs. It could also benefit from a…

Perhaps most notably, the feature could be more effectively integrated with Facebook Pages, which are used by millions of users and brands worldwide. To better engage their audience and customers, brands and publishers will look to take advantage of the feature with their pages – a place they have built their following, their social Facebook hub. Though Facebook told Mashable’s Ben Parr that brands will eventually be able to answer questions using their pages, the current functionality is limited and disjointed.

Because the new feature is still in beta and not yet available to all users, we thought we’d provide feedback on what the feature is missing and how some of the gaps could be bridged. We’d love to hear what you think of the feature, its strengths and its faults in the comments or by answering our Facebook Question, “How do you think Facebook Questions can be improved?”

1. Easy Publishing to the Wall

The feature would be better if it was integrated with profile and page walls. Right now, if a user posts a question, a small link referencing the question shows up in the “recent activity.” At the moment, Facebook Pages are not able to publish the questions onto their walls, a place that showcases all of the page’s activity and is a resource for users. Being able to publish questions to the wall will let everyone to track a questions more easily and will feature questions in a familiar setting for easy interactions.

Before this feature was released, questions on Facebook were being asked by users in the form of status updates, which would be represented as the stationary status of the user or page, but also as a post on their walls for users to interact with. Following similar protocol for questions would make the experience familiar for users.

2. Responding to Questions on the Wall and News Feed

For seamless integration, users not only need to be able to see the questions in familiar places, but also respond to them in those places. This means being able to respond to questions on the Wall or in the News Feed without having to click-through to an unfamiliar Questions page. This will not only make interaction with Questions easy, but likely result in a lot more of the Questions being answered. Currently, Questions are teased in the form of a link, similar to the way links are often displayed.

3. Asking and Answering Questions Through the Tab Feature

The Questions feature enables users and brands to add a tab that organizes its Questions activity. Users navigating to a brand page are able to ask questions related to the page in the Questions tab, which holds the prompt, “What do you want to know about______?” However, the tab suffers from issues similar to the ones we’ve outlined above; your interaction with the question is limited to clicking through or commenting (and you can only comment if you’re connected to the user in question).

Also, when an administrator of a page posts a question, it currently lives elsewhere. This might simply be an issue of beta functionality. However, it would make more sense when a publisher posts a Question on their page that it would be referenced in the tab. As of right now, the questions shown in the tab are only questions from users, and not all user-generated questions are displayed. Also, publishers are not able to post questions through the tab feature at all yet, which is a feature we’re expecting will be released soon.

4. Commenting On and Liking Answers

Like any content on Facebook, users will expect to be able to comment on Questions and “like” them. Users are able to mark questions as either “helpful” or “unhelpful,” and these notes are tallied next to each question. But it isn’t the same as the familiar “like” functionality. Commenting is especially crucial, but is limited to answers of users your are friends with. However, users may want to interact with a specific answer or follow up with another question to a specific answer, but this sort of experience is currently fragmented. Because Questions is a more open product of Facebook, commenting would be more useful to extend beyond just a user’s immediate friends.

5. Analytics and Improved Search

Analytics will especially be important to brands using the feature on their pages, and we’re guessing it will be listed among the interactions in Facebook Insights. Brands will want to track and learn how to best engage their audience with Questions and most effectively use the feature. This would include tracking the number of people who responded to a poll question, how many followers a question received and similar metrics. Brands will also look for administrative control over answers to their questions, similar to comment moderation controls on a Facebook Page.

This also ties into an improved search within the Questions product. Questions and topics are difficult to locate through the current search functionality, which often shows empty results despite the availability of relevant questions and answers. For example, even searching for questions related to Facebook turned up zero results.

Conclusion

Because the feature has just been introduced to beta testers, it’s unclear how long it will take for some these issues to be resolved and how long Questions will be in beta. And you won’t yet find an answer to this inquiry on Facebook Questions either.

However, it’s clear that the product does have a lot of promising features, such as being able to create a poll or toggle between your personal profile and a brand page in answering a question or the predictive search function for when you start typing in a question. These are features that reflect a vision of a product that is being pieced together. We do believe Questions are a useful feature for Facebook, and we hope this feature can be executed effectively and seamlessly across Facebook.

More About: facebook pages, Facebook Questions, q&a, social media, social networking, social questions

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Georgianne Nienaber: Flyover at the Macondo Wellhead: Damage Control at "The Source" (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:37:01 +0200

I just love it when extremely brilliant women connect and get the job done. I also love the fact that being a writer gives me...

Around the Net In Media: Congress Doesn't Push To Involve FCC In Retrans (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:23:03 +0200

We'd probably survive a 500-character limit (Scripting News/Dave Winer)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:20:14 +0200

Xcv comments: "At the large tech company I work at there is an internal micro-blogging tool. The limit was recently increased from 140 to around 500.

"People are still writing concise things. It is just incredibly refreshing to not have to abbreviate things. And also you can include full links instead of shortened crap."

Interesting story.

Xcv comments: "At the large tech company I work at there is an internal micro-blogging tool. The limit was recently increased from 140 to around 500.

"People are still writing concise things. It is just incredibly refreshing to not have to abbreviate things. And also you can include full links instead of shortened crap."

Interesting story.

Multimedia E-Books, Adorned With Video Extras (nytimes.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:10:30 +0200

An “enhanced” “Nixonland” arrives Thursday.An “enhanced” “Nixonland” arrives Thursday.

Multimedia E-Books, Adorned With Video Extras (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:10:30 +0200

Like DVDs, electronic books for the iPad are now being loaded with extras, including video clips that are integrated with text.

Like DVDs, electronic books for the iPad are now being loaded with extras, including video clips that are integrated with text.

In Thailand unrest, journalists under fire (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:01:25 +0200

Two journalists died and several others were injured during the country’s political unrest. A CPJ investigation has found that both security forces and protesters engaged in reckless behavior—and in the aftermath, the government has done little to bring anyone to account. A CPJ special report by Shawn W. Crispin

YouTube Banned in Russia Over Racist Video (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:59:45 +0200

A court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia has demanded a Russian ISP block access to YouTube because the site hosted “Russia for Russians,” which was judged to be an extremist video.

The court’s decision also applies to the Internet Archive…

A court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia has demanded a Russian ISP block access to YouTube because the site hosted “Russia for Russians,” which was judged to be an extremist video.

The court’s decision also applies to the Internet Archive and three online libraries, Lib.rus.ec, Thelib.ru and Zhurnal.ru, all of which were found to host writings by Adolf Hitler.

With this ruling, Russian authorities join a long list of governments that have blocked access to YouTube at some point or another, including China, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. YouTube material has also been censored in the U.S. and U.K.

Generally, these bans are instituted because the videos on the popular hosting site show something a government would rather its citizens not see, from state police brutality at a protest to unflattering depictions of its leadership to “immoral” or sexual content.

However, this particular ruling stems less from a desire to protect a country’s internal PR and more from a desire to keep Russian media — including citizen-generated and social media — free from the possibly harmful influences of ultranationalist, racist and xenophobic speech. The phrase “Russia for Russians” itself is a slogan of hatred used against the multi-ethnic society that exists in Russia today, and searching for the phrase “Россия для русских” on YouTube will return a number of disturbing videos typical of the white nationalist movement around the world.

But intentions aside, this ruling still constitutes what many other governments would consider a prohibition or restriction of free speech.

The owner of Rosnet, the ISP affected by today’s decision, is Aleksandr Ermakov. He spoke to media today, saying essentially that the court had thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

“All of mankind is using this website. And providers like ours do not violate Russian law. But we are still being forced to close the website so that our users can not log on and watch the videos. This is absurd! According to this logic, we have to demolish all buildings that have swastikas on the walls. Or when two people are discussing a bomb over the phone, we have to take away the phones from all people across Russia.”

More on Rosnet’s legal position can be found at this website.

Moreover, a Google rep told the Moscow Times, “To limit access of Rosnet users to the whole YouTube.com site, not to a particular video, breaches the right for freedom of information, guaranteed by Article 29 of Russia’s Constitution.”

What’s your opinion of the court’s ruling? In attempting to safeguard ethnic diversity, did they go too far in the direction of inhibiting free speech and free information? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More About: ban, russia, trending, youtube

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Drug hitmen kidnap four Mexican journalists: report (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:44:01 +0200

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Suspected drug hitmen have kidnapped four Mexican journalists who were reporting on organized crime in northern Mexico, the latest attempt by cartels to silence the media, a Mexican media group said on Wednesday.

With Zuckerberg Gone Android, Will Facebook Get Better Mobile Apps? (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:08:32 +0200

Android users, rejoice! Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will now be forced to feel your pain.

The Android app for Facebook could be charitably described as less functional than the iPhone app. We’re sure there are good reasons for…

Android users, rejoice! Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will now be forced to feel your pain.

The Android app for Facebook could be charitably described as less functional than the iPhone app. We’re sure there are good reasons for this, the greatest of which is likely market share. With iOS-running phones composing more than half of all smartphones, according to recent research, it’s in Facebook’s best interest to focus on this segment first.

Still, for the ever-growing number of Android device users who also would like a little Facebook mobile action, the pared-down feature set of Facebook for Android makes us feel neglected — the redheaded stepchildren of Facebook mobile users. But now that “Zuck” is one of us, all that’s about to change… right?

Historically, Facebook has made fairly few gestures toward the Android platform. It launched its official Android app last fall and rolled out an SDK for Android devs just a couple months ago.

But Facebook’s iPhone work, which began with an official app launch in the summer of 2008, has been nothing short of fantastic. iPhone users can chat, watch videos and more all from within the app. Recent patents suggest even deeper app/hardware integration. And the app keeps up with Apple’s iOS updates, too.

For reference, we polled Twitter users on what they specifically would change or what they currently dislike about Facebook’s Android app.

The app’s notification system was by far the most-cited annoyance. Another common complaint was the app’s redirects to Facebook’s mobile touch site rather than having more in-app functionality. Users are having a hard time clicking and launching the links posted by their friends, let alone sharing links and items. One user said he’d like to have an easier way to view Pages, and several noted the lack of Facebook Chat features, which the iPhone app does have. Also, a few folks complained that the app is slow and prone to frequent crashes.

As a personal aside, and with my heartfelt apologies to the developer team working on Facebook’s mobile offerings, I have never found that the usefulness of the Facebook for Android app outweighed the frustration of trying to use it, and I’ve lately avoided using the app altogether.

So, returning to our original question: Will Mark Zuckerberg like the taste of his own dogfood? And if he doesn’t, will Android app users see fast-tracked changes and upgrades to the Facebook for Android application?

That’s really not a question we can answer, unfortunately. While we’d love to optimistically assume that Zuckerberg will find the current version of Facebook for Android as tedious and troublesome as some of its users clearly do, we can’t assume that he’ll demand immediate fixes and all Facebook’s other development will be sidetracked accordingly. But we are certain that Zuckerberg will continue to do what’s best for Facebook as a business, something he’s excelled at consistently.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment, but in the event that our questions aren’t answered, we’ll still be keeping an eye out for any releases to this particular application.

And hey, Mark, welcome to “the dark side,” and enjoy your new phone!

More About: android, Android App, facebook, Facebook app, mark zuckerberg, mobile app, social media, Zuckerberg

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Charity Just Got More Daring with New Website (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:30:20 +0200

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by…

Name: MyDunkTank

Quick Pitch: Anyone can do a dare to raise money for a cause they support, and their friends and family can vote with their dollars for the dare one has to do.

Genius Idea: There are already plenty of sites like JustGiving out there that help you get donations for a cause by hosting events or just straight up asking for dough, but MyDunkTank makes things more fun and lighthearted by making it into a dare.

It goes like this: You go to the MyDunkTank website and name the charity you want to raise money for and how much you want to raise, then make a short list of dares that you’re willing to do. Tell your friends, family and colleagues about it, and they’ll each vote with donations on which dare they’d like to see you do.

Go through with it after the dare’s been selected, and the money will go to the organization you selected. Founder Blake Jennelle did the very first dare on the site. He dressed up as a cowboy for a whole month to raise money, and documented the whole thing by posting YouTube videos to his Tumblr blog.

There are already several dares and fundraising campaigns in progress at MyDunkTank, and you can track the site on its Twitter account and Facebook page. Do you have any great dare ideas? Let us know in the comments, then go do them for charity!

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, pinktag

SABEW issues statement regarding new SEC regulations (Talking Biz News)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:19:40 +0200

Rob Reuteman, president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, issued this statement Wednesday in reaction to new laws allowing the federal Securities and Exchange Commission to ignore public and press requests for government documents in its possession: “The Society of American Business Editors and Writers is appalled at a little-noticed provision of the [...]

Kyle Daley: A Presidential Purpose on The View (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:46:21 +0200

The View is not necessarily a place where one would think to find the Commander-in-Chief chatting it up with a tag team of ladies. But that is exactly where President Obama will be found Thursday morning.

Robert Weller: Journalists As First Responders (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:33:52 +0200

How does a reporter square that with the fact that today's communications, and the spread of terrorism, may result in them becoming what amounts to the first responders to a disaster?

Top Chef DC: Season 7 Coverage & How Things Stand (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:16:55 +0200

UPDATE, 7/28 -- PREVIEWING TONIGHT'S EPISODE 7: Take it away, Bravo: For the Quickfire, the chef'testants attempt to create tiny culinary delights to be served...

Microsoft Has a New Take on Street-Level Maps [VIDEO] (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:13:59 +0200

Microsoft is working on a new technology, dubbed Street Slide, aimed at reshaping the street-level mapping space currently dominated by Google Street View and Microsoft’s Bing Streetside.

The company plans to present the technology at SIGGRAPH…

Microsoft is working on a new technology, dubbed Street Slide, aimed at reshaping the street-level mapping space currently dominated by Google Street View and Microsoft’s Bing Streetside.

The company plans to present the technology at SIGGRAPH 2010 later this week. The big advantage of Street Slide is that it allows users to position and change the viewpoint of the camera, rather than relying on the limited view panorama that current technologies utilize.

Multi-perspective is the name of the game with Street Slide and looking at the demonstration video, the difference between the old method and the new method is immediately apparent.

Check out this Street Slide video:

While the improved contextual viewpoints of Street Slide could be useful in any context, the real benefit is on the mobile side. MIT’s Technology Review spoke with the founder of EveryScape, a startup that captures panoramic imagery of buildings, who has already created a version of Street Slide that is compatible with the iPhone. According to EveryScape’s tests, Street Slide helped people find places on unfamiliar streets 17 seconds faster on average than on Google’s StreetView.

We look forward to seeing Microsoft’s full paper and presentation at SIGGRAPH, and hope that some of this technology makes its way into Bing Streetside soon.

What do you think of Microsoft’s latest take on street-level mapping?

More About: mapping, microsoft, street slide, streetview

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Audit Notes: Moody's Market, Revolving Door, Tables Turned on Zuck (Columbia Journalism Review)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:13:39 +0200

Kevin Hall of McClatchy has a great scoop on Moody's CEO's suspiciously timed stock sales. In one case, CEO Ray McDaniel sold 100,000 shares of Moody's stock on the same day that the Securities and Exchange Commission notified Moody's that it was under investigation. The notice followed months of federal inquiries into Moody's business practices. McDaniel, who somehow still...Kevin Hall of McClatchy has a great scoop on Moody's CEO's suspiciously timed stock sales. In one case, CEO Ray McDaniel sold 100,000 shares of Moody's stock on the same day that the Securities and Exchange Commission notified Moody's that it was under investigation. The notice followed months of federal inquiries into Moody's business practices. McDaniel, who somehow still...

Top Chef DC Coverage: Season 7 Contestants, Liveblogging, Clips, Photos & More (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:04:25 +0200

UPDATE, 7/28 -- PREVIEWING TONIGHT'S EPISODE 7:

Take it away, Bravo:

For the Quickfire, the chef'testants attempt to create tiny culinary delights to be served at a Congressional party. And during the elimination round, they experience the true D.C. "Power Lunch" when the chefs must prepare the perfect dish for some true media heavy-hitters at the city's elite Palm restaurant. Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois serves as the guest Quickfire judge, and Oprah Winfrey's former personal chef Art Smith is the guest judge for the elimination. D.C. power-players Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough & Mika Brezinski and NBC White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie lend their taste buds in this episode. Will the chefs be able to deliver for these uber-discerning diners? Find out this Wednesday 7/28 @ 9/8c on BRAVO's TOP CHEF D.C.

And here are some preview clips of tonight's action:

The Toothpick Rule: Politics and food come together in this tiny Quickfire Challenge with guest Congressman Aaron Schock.

A High Powered Meal: The chefs create dishes for a these high-powered inside-the-beltway political figures.

HOW THINGS STAND:

UPDATE, 6/31 -- RECAPPING EPISODE THREE :

Last night we went for a "picnic" at Mount Vernon with interns from Capitol Hill. But not before a curveball -- and quite good-for-TV -- Quickfire challenge: make a pie. It was judged by Johnny Iuzzini and Gail Simmons, hosts of Bravo's upcoming Top Chef spin-off Top Chef: Just Desserts. And the fact that Gail Simmons' home, Food & Wine, declared 2010 just yesterday "The Year Of The Pastry Chef" has nothing to do with any of this synergy.

Anyways, they made pies, and many were impressive. Kenny won immunity in the challenge with his Bananas Foster Pie With Currants and Chinese Five Spice. Also, Top Chef: Just Desserts, coming soon!

Off to the picnic. Here's Grub Street:

The picnic began by showing us those other great American traditions of croquet and badminton (what?), perhaps as a ruse to distract us from the fact that the editors forgot to show us a single second of footage of what the chefs were preparing as sides. They did include yet another tradition, sexism, with Tim arguing that only the men were happy to be grilling. Alex was definitely pleased to be outside cooking pork butt, remarking that he wanted to "eat the ass out of this pig all day."

Jonathan Waxman of Barbuto in New York served as the guest judge for the elimination challenge and was one of the best guest judges in recent memory -- past seasons included. Woudn't mind seeing him with Ripert (who returns next week) on the full-time panel. But we digress.

Angelo, Ed, Arnold and Amanda (who starred in an anti-smoking PSA with Stephen earlier in the episode) landed in the top, with Arnold named the winner for his sesame lamb meatballs with tabouli salad and gazpacho, even though he has an aversion to grilling because it clogs his pores.

Tracey, Stephen, Timothy and Kevin landed in the bottom, and although Stephen's bacon-wrapped Chilean seabass effort was universally panned (Waxman called it "inedible") and horribly executed, Tracey went home for her over-fenneled, sloppy, poorly-cooked italian sausage 'sliders' that Jonathan Waxman claimed his son could make, and that Colicchio said would be insulting to Italians, and therefore himself. Unmentioned was Stephen's choice of Chilean seabass, which probably should have sent him home regardless of how he cooked it. We were surprised to see the judges let him off the hook for serving a fish even most notoriously stubborn New York chefs don't have on their menus anymore.

Next week, TWO chefs get axed.

UPDATE, 6/30 -- PREVIEWING EPISODE THREE:

From Bravo:

The chef'testants are none too pleased when they must put their pastry skills to the test for the Quickfire challenge by constructing a delicious pie from scratch -will the curse of the Top Chef dessert get the best of them? Then for the elimination round, the chefs prepare a classic picnic feast for a group of Capitol Hill interns at the home of the first U.S. president, George Washington -will the remaining chefs wow the interns and guest judge, past Top Chef Masters contestant Jonathan Waxman, or will they get schooled by the discerning eye of these go-getters? Find out this Wednesday 6/30 @ 9/8c on BRAVO's TOP CHEF D.C.

Pastry! Curses! Interns! Tonight!

UPDATE, 6/23, 8:38pm -- CLICK HERE for HuffPost Food's Top Chef DC, Episode Two Liveblog

UPDATE, 6/23 -- THE AFTERMATH OF WEEK ONE; GEARING UP FOR EPISODE 2

The second episode or Top Chef DC airs tonight on Bravo, and we'll be liveblogging it right here, on this very page. Do join us! In the meantime, here's what we've learned about last week and the competition ahead:

Multiple chefs cut themselves in last week's Quickfire, and several contestants showed up with unsharpened knives, Tom Colicchio blogged over at Bravo:

In fact, you saw only one of three instances in which chefs cut themselves. (As a side note: I'm constantly amazed at the chefs who show up with dull knives! It's ridiculous - sharpen the things before you arrive, please.)

Tom also maintains that despite Angelo cleaning up in the first episode, it is an evenly matched field:

[N]otwithstanding the fact that [Angelo] won both the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges this week, I'd like to be clear that this is an evenly matched group. Remember: I tasted all of the food. I was glad to see creativity and skill across the board, despite the range in the nature and length of experience of the chefs, from a 51-year old instructor at the Culinary Institute of America to some whom I call "cooks' cooks" -- the type of line cooks who show up at the restaurant every night, roll their sleeves up, put their heads down and deliver excellent food. While these hardworking and reliable cooks are not always the most creative, you never know when one will suddenly emerge from the pack and distinguish him- or herself in a season of Top Chef!

Is Chef Colicchio alluding to a latter-season Cinderella upset? Who knows.

In a Top Chef video blog taped at Le Bernardin, new permanent judge Eric Ripert said, "What surprised me was a lack of humbleness from Angelo, who seemed to be very cocky..."

On John's departure, Ripert says he "really" did not like his maple dish and the presentation was "extremely sloppy." All judges agreed that he was the one who "really, really did not succeed that day." Watch:

But that's all in the past. TONIGHT, well, over to Bravo:

With the economy and childhood obesity among the nation's leading concerns, the Top Chef contestants are presented a unique challenge to help alleviate these issues. For their second test in D.C., the cheftestants have the important task of supporting First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign to fight childhood obesity. The chefs must take over the cafeteria at a local school to create healthy, kid-friendly meals spending only $2.68 per child! Will the contestants be able to make something nutritious and delicious with such a limited budget? And they get first-hand feedback when white House Assistant Chef Sam Kass serves as guest judge. Who will impress and who will crash and burn? Find out this Wednesday 6/23 @ 9/8c on BRAVO's TOP CHEF D.C.

Here are a couple previews of that action.

UPDATE, 6/18 -- THE RATINGS ARE IN:

The Washington Post reports on the ratings for the premiere episode of Top Chef DC and they are the smallest opening audience since the show premiered in 2006:

The cooking competition series' seventh edition opened inauspiciously when just 1.8 million people tuned in. [...]

This is the first time in its history that Bravo's "Top Chef" has not grown or at least remained flat-ish each cycle. Last August, for instance, 2.6 million people caught the launch of "Top Chef: Las Vegas."

UPDATE, 6/17 -- RECAPPING THE PREMIERE:

Reviews are coming in on the premiere of Top Chef DC last night. Here's a taste of the word on the street:

Hank Stuever at the Washington Post captures an element of paradox in the show's ever-growing success:

One has a Michelin star. The words 'James' and 'Beard' are thrown around so much, I've ceased to know what they even mean. There's no element of youthful striving (or, in fact, youth); it's become a show in which older chefs seek validation and buzzy PR.

Joshua David Stein with Gawker/Defamer's recap touches on the same issue and how it affects frontrunner Angelo (the "Most Gracelessly Arrogant Chef" as Slashfood dubbed him, who obnoxiously declared that he'd like to be the first contestant to win every single challenge this season:

Angelo Sosa from Xie Xie in New York -- who, by the way, is already a very established chef to the point that it would probably be detrimental to his career if he doesn't walk away with the win -- made Arctic Char with Pickled Shallots, Chillied Tapioca & Smoked Bacon Froth because that's what they eat in Connecticut where he's from. [Whereas I always thought of Connecticut cuisine as bits of Ritz crackers with a little bit of cheese spread on top and a couple very strong martinis.] Sosa won. His baby blue pants won. His little spoon of char and foam, his big city ways, his spiky hair, broad smile, mischievous eyes, arrogance, dimples and stubble won.

And Slashfood pays homage to the disappointing Top Chef debut for John Somerville -- the first 'cheftestant' sent home:

At first glance, Michigan's John Somerville had that tragic, middle-aged bohemian look so common to early-round rejects from previous seasons. Dreadlocked, wild-eyed and bespectacled, this babe-in-the-woods seemed ill-suited to the cutthroat hipsters that surrounded him. But his time at the acclaimed Lark restaurant -- and his James Beard nominations -- suggested skills far beyond the store-bought puff pastry he managed to burn in the fancy-schmancy Top Chef ovens in an attempt to make an ode-to-maple-syrup dish. At least the judges recognized that his dessert fell far short of his capabilities as they told him to pack his knives.

One thing everyone can agree on? Eric Ripert is a welcome addition to the judging panel in lieu of Toby Young. Alexandra Martell at Grub Street writes in her recap:

...Stephen, who overcooked his potato-crusted rib eye until it looked like "chicken nuggets," according to new regular judge Eric Ripert; and Tim, who messed up his fish so badly that Ripert commented on how terrible his technique was three times. Beware, all ye who cook seafood; Kenny wasn't kidding when he called Ripert the Seafood God. We're sorry, Toby, but you are not missed.

UPDATE, 6/16, 7:20pm -- CLICK HERE for HuffPost Food's Top Chef DC Premiere Liveblog

UPDATE, 6/16:

Top Chef DC premieres tonight (Wednesday 6/16) on Bravo at 9/8c. Join us on HuffPost Food for live coverage and commentary during the show. In the meantime, here are some preview clips to whet your appetite.

Previously, 5/13:

Top Chef has announced its contestants, judges and some details on the seventh season of the series, set in DC, and airing beginning June 16. The most interesting news: Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin in New York joining the longstanding judging panel of Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons. As always, the winning chef will "receive $125,000, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the Annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and will earn the title of "Top Chef."

More from Bravo:

The 17 new cheftestants come face to face in the nation's capitol for the ultimate power play that will determine just who has the chops to become Top Chef. This season captures the varied tastes of Washington D.C. and features appearances by some of the town's top names including Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, White House chef Sam Kass, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, CIA Director Leon Panetta and NBC White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie. The challenges featured will be some of the most creative and inventive yet: the chefs take over the concession stands at the Nationals stadium, go inside the CIA's closely guarded headquarters and literally receive out of this world direction on one challenge from a NASA astronaut orbiting Earth.

Top Chef DC, Episode Two Liveblog:

Top Chef DC: Episode 2 Liveblog

Episode Two Previews:

"Who Got High and Came Up with This?: This challenge will have the chefs check their egos and just get to work."

"The Birthday Curse: It's Arnold Myint's birthday and he is fully aware of what have become of past chefs who has had a birthday during the competition."

Top Chef DC Premiere Liveblog:

Top Chef DC Premiere Liveblog

Top Chef DC premieres tonight (Wednesday 6/16) on Bravo at 9/8c. Join us on HuffPost Food for live coverage and commentary during the show. In the meantime, here are some preview clips to whet your appetite.

Welcome to DC: The chefs enter their D.C. home

Represent: The chefs prepare dishes from where they are from in the inaugural competition

UPDATE, 7/28 -- PREVIEWING TONIGHT'S EPISODE 7:

Take it away, Bravo:

For the Quickfire, the chef'testants attempt to create tiny culinary delights to be served at a Congressional party. And during the elimination round, they experience the true D.C. "Power Lunch" when the chefs must prepare the perfect dish for some true media heavy-hitters at the city's elite Palm restaurant. Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois serves as the guest Quickfire judge, and Oprah Winfrey's former personal chef Art Smith is the guest judge for the elimination. D.C. power-players Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough & Mika Brezinski and NBC White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie lend their taste buds in this episode. Will the chefs be able to deliver for these uber-discerning diners? Find out this Wednesday 7/28 @ 9/8c on BRAVO's TOP CHEF D.C.

And here are some preview clips of tonight's action:

The Toothpick Rule: Politics and food come together in this tiny Quickfire Challenge with guest Congressman Aaron Schock.

A High Powered Meal: The chefs create dishes for a these high-powered inside-the-beltway political figures.

HOW THINGS STAND:

UPDATE, 6/31 -- RECAPPING EPISODE THREE :

Anyways, they made pies, and many were impressive. Kenny won immunity in the challenge with his Bananas Foster Pie With Currants and Chinese Five Spice. Also, Top Chef: Just Desserts, coming soon!

Off to the picnic. Here's Grub Street:

The picnic began by showing us those other great American traditions of croquet and badminton (what?), perhaps as a ruse to distract us from the fact that the editors forgot to show us a single second of footage of what the chefs were preparing as sides. They did include yet another tradition, sexism, with Tim arguing that only the men were happy to be grilling. Alex was definitely pleased to be outside cooking pork butt, remarking that he wanted to "eat the ass out of this pig all day."

Next week, TWO chefs get axed.

UPDATE, 6/30 -- PREVIEWING EPISODE THREE:

From Bravo:

The chef'testants are none too pleased when they must put their pastry skills to the test for the Quickfire challenge by constructing a delicious pie from scratch -will the curse of the Top Chef dessert get the best of them? Then for the elimination round, the chefs prepare a classic picnic feast for a group of Capitol Hill interns at the home of the first U.S. president, George Washington -will the remaining chefs wow the interns and guest judge, past Top Chef Masters contestant Jonathan Waxman, or will they get schooled by the discerning eye of these go-getters? Find out this Wednesday 6/30 @ 9/8c on BRAVO's TOP CHEF D.C.

Pastry! Curses! Interns! Tonight!

UPDATE, 6/23, 8:38pm -- CLICK HERE for HuffPost Food's Top Chef DC, Episode Two Liveblog

UPDATE, 6/23 -- THE AFTERMATH OF WEEK ONE; GEARING UP FOR EPISODE 2

Multiple chefs cut themselves in last week's Quickfire, and several contestants showed up with unsharpened knives, Tom Colicchio blogged over at Bravo:

In fact, you saw only one of three instances in which chefs cut themselves. (As a side note: I'm constantly amazed at the chefs who show up with dull knives! It's ridiculous - sharpen the things before you arrive, please.)

Tom also maintains that despite Angelo cleaning up in the first episode, it is an evenly matched field:

[N]otwithstanding the fact that [Angelo] won both the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges this week, I'd like to be clear that this is an evenly matched group. Remember: I tasted all of the food. I was glad to see creativity and skill across the board, despite the range in the nature and length of experience of the chefs, from a 51-year old instructor at the Culinary Institute of America to some whom I call "cooks' cooks" -- the type of line cooks who show up at the restaurant every night, roll their sleeves up, put their heads down and deliver excellent food. While these hardworking and reliable cooks are not always the most creative, you never know when one will suddenly emerge from the pack and distinguish him- or herself in a season of Top Chef!

Is Chef Colicchio alluding to a latter-season Cinderella upset? Who knows.

In a Top Chef video blog taped at Le Bernardin, new permanent judge Eric Ripert said, "What surprised me was a lack of humbleness from Angelo, who seemed to be very cocky..."

But that's all in the past. TONIGHT, well, over to Bravo:

With the economy and childhood obesity among the nation's leading concerns, the Top Chef contestants are presented a unique challenge to help alleviate these issues. For their second test in D.C., the cheftestants have the important task of supporting First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign to fight childhood obesity. The chefs must take over the cafeteria at a local school to create healthy, kid-friendly meals spending only $2.68 per child! Will the contestants be able to make something nutritious and delicious with such a limited budget? And they get first-hand feedback when white House Assistant Chef Sam Kass serves as guest judge. Who will impress and who will crash and burn? Find out this Wednesday 6/23 @ 9/8c on BRAVO's TOP CHEF D.C.

Here are a couple previews of that action.

UPDATE, 6/18 -- THE RATINGS ARE IN:

The Washington Post reports on the ratings for the premiere episode of Top Chef DC and they are the smallest opening audience since the show premiered in 2006:

The cooking competition series' seventh edition opened inauspiciously when just 1.8 million people tuned in. [...]

This is the first time in its history that Bravo's "Top Chef" has not grown or at least remained flat-ish each cycle. Last August, for instance, 2.6 million people caught the launch of "Top Chef: Las Vegas."

UPDATE, 6/17 -- RECAPPING THE PREMIERE:

Reviews are coming in on the premiere of Top Chef DC last night. Here's a taste of the word on the street:

Hank Stuever at the Washington Post captures an element of paradox in the show's ever-growing success:

One has a Michelin star. The words 'James' and 'Beard' are thrown around so much, I've ceased to know what they even mean. There's no element of youthful striving (or, in fact, youth); it's become a show in which older chefs seek validation and buzzy PR.

Angelo Sosa from Xie Xie in New York -- who, by the way, is already a very established chef to the point that it would probably be detrimental to his career if he doesn't walk away with the win -- made Arctic Char with Pickled Shallots, Chillied Tapioca & Smoked Bacon Froth because that's what they eat in Connecticut where he's from. [Whereas I always thought of Connecticut cuisine as bits of Ritz crackers with a little bit of cheese spread on top and a couple very strong martinis.] Sosa won. His baby blue pants won. His little spoon of char and foam, his big city ways, his spiky hair, broad smile, mischievous eyes, arrogance, dimples and stubble won.

And Slashfood pays homage to the disappointing Top Chef debut for John Somerville -- the first 'cheftestant' sent home:

At first glance, Michigan's John Somerville had that tragic, middle-aged bohemian look so common to early-round rejects from previous seasons. Dreadlocked, wild-eyed and bespectacled, this babe-in-the-woods seemed ill-suited to the cutthroat hipsters that surrounded him. But his time at the acclaimed Lark restaurant -- and his James Beard nominations -- suggested skills far beyond the store-bought puff pastry he managed to burn in the fancy-schmancy Top Chef ovens in an attempt to make an ode-to-maple-syrup dish. At least the judges recognized that his dessert fell far short of his capabilities as they told him to pack his knives.

One thing everyone can agree on? Eric Ripert is a welcome addition to the judging panel in lieu of Toby Young. Alexandra Martell at Grub Street writes in her recap:

...Stephen, who overcooked his potato-crusted rib eye until it looked like "chicken nuggets," according to new regular judge Eric Ripert; and Tim, who messed up his fish so badly that Ripert commented on how terrible his technique was three times. Beware, all ye who cook seafood; Kenny wasn't kidding when he called Ripert the Seafood God. We're sorry, Toby, but you are not missed.

UPDATE, 6/16, 7:20pm -- CLICK HERE for HuffPost Food's Top Chef DC Premiere Liveblog

UPDATE, 6/16:

Previously, 5/13:

More from Bravo:

The 17 new cheftestants come face to face in the nation's capitol for the ultimate power play that will determine just who has the chops to become Top Chef. This season captures the varied tastes of Washington D.C. and features appearances by some of the town's top names including Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, White House chef Sam Kass, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, CIA Director Leon Panetta and NBC White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie. The challenges featured will be some of the most creative and inventive yet: the chefs take over the concession stands at the Nationals stadium, go inside the CIA's closely guarded headquarters and literally receive out of this world direction on one challenge from a NASA astronaut orbiting Earth.

Top Chef DC, Episode Two Liveblog:

Top Chef DC: Episode 2 Liveblog

Episode Two Previews:

"Who Got High and Came Up with This?: This challenge will have the chefs check their egos and just get to work."

"The Birthday Curse: It's Arnold Myint's birthday and he is fully aware of what have become of past chefs who has had a birthday during the competition."

Top Chef DC Premiere Liveblog:

Top Chef DC Premiere Liveblog

Welcome to DC: The chefs enter their D.C. home

Represent: The chefs prepare dishes from where they are from in the inaugural competition

Live-Blogging Top Chef, Week 7 [Top Chef] (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:00:00 +0200

Top Chef, Week 7" alt="Click here to read Live-Blogging Top Chef, Week 7" src="http://cache-01.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/7/2010/07/160x120_ap08111709494.jpg"/>

Want to add some spice to you Wednesday night? Join our live blog of Top Chef in the comments section under this post! It has all the ingredients of a good time — and no monosodium glutamate! More »

Top Chef, Week 7" alt="Click here to read Live-Blogging Top Chef, Week 7" src="http://cache-01.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/7/2010/07/160x120_ap08111709494.jpg"/>

QR Codes Used to Help Clean Up the Gulf (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:30:14 +0200

BP may have been able to cap the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, but cleanup efforts are really just beginning. In an interesting intersection between technology and social activism, QR codes could prove instrumental in helping ensure…

Nonpartisan activist group Women of the Storm is rallying public support around Gulf restoration. They’ve started the celebrity-backed Be the One campaign to get signatures for their petition, which states: “I demand that a plan to restore America’s Gulf be fully funded and implemented for me and future generations.”

ScanLife, makers of mobile barcode scanning technology, has stepped in to support the cause and they’re bringing QR codes to the rescue.

ScanLife created a QR code that, when scanned, directs users to a mobile site where they can watch the Be the One video (embedded below) and sign the petition. Plus, a giant version of the QR code was put on display on the Thomas Reuters billboard in Time Square last week to help outreach efforts.

The code is also being distributed online and on t-shirts, the latter of which people can buy to further support the cause. To date, the petition has garnered more than 117,000 signatures with the help of the QR code call-to-action.

As QR codes make their way to mainstream audiences, we think action-oriented campaigns of this variety will go a long way in making the technology relevant to the average smart phone user.

More About: be the one, bp, gulf oil spill, Mobile 2.0, QR Codes, scanlife, women of the storm

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Obama to tout auto turnaround (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:22:22 +0200

The president will champion the revival of GM and Chrysler following billions in federal aid.

The president will champion the revival of GM and Chrysler following billions in federal aid.

Jarvis Coffin: John Battelle on "Going Google" (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:58:55 +0200

Google is back in the software business as a producer of applications that compete with Microsoft.

Philip Smucker: WikiLeaks Story Exposes Bad Intel From the Field and on Bin Laden (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:56:18 +0200

If there is any takeaway from the WikiLeaks embarrassment, it is that we need more boots and gumshoes on the ground and fewer blue suits on computers in air-conditioned offices in the States.

Stop Making E-mail Etiquette Errors: Here’s How (Mashable!)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:48:42 +0200

Composing an e-mail is kind of like making out: Everyone assumes they know what they’re doing, but in reality plenty of people could use some pointers.

We’re all pretty much constantly sending missives around the web. In 2009, worldwide e-mail…

Composing an e-mail is kind of like making out: Everyone assumes they know what they’re doing, but in reality plenty of people could use some pointers.

We’re all pretty much constantly sending missives around the web. In 2009, worldwide e-mail traffic amounted to 247 billion messages per day, according to market research firm Radicati.

But practice doesn’t make perfect, and myriad senders are horrifying recipients every day. Here are three big e-mail mistakes you’re probably making. (Sorry, we can’t do anything about your iguana-like kissing skills. Drag.)

And so begins my most recent Netiquette column over at CNN, which I write with Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger, Andrea Bartz. Check it out!

Check out the column at CNN.com >>

image courtesy of iStockphoto, hayesphotography

Reviews: iStockphoto

More About: cnn, e-mail, social media, Stuff Hipsters Hate

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How The WikiLeaks Story Got Published (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:48:10 +0200

You wouldn't be reading the coverage of the so-called Afghanistan logs--in The New York Times, Der Spiegel, and The Guardian--if Nick Davies, a senior contributor...

Yglesias and McArdle Miss on Interchange Fees (Columbia Journalism Review)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:46:28 +0200

Matt Yglesias is defending the interchange industry, which transfers money from the poor to the rich—all through hidden fees. Once you keep in mind the fact that the median household income in 2008 was slightly above $52,000 it’s not at all obvious to me that this is any kind of scam. Instead, it appears to be a classic positive...Matt Yglesias is defending the interchange industry, which transfers money from the poor to the rich—all through hidden fees. Once you keep in mind the fact that the median household income in 2008 was slightly above $52,000 it’s not at all obvious to me that this is any kind of scam. Instead, it appears to be a classic positive...

Pages -- Video: Eyder Peralta and Patrick Cooper: Building Online Community (Knight Digital Media Center)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:42:51 +0200

'The Talk': CBS Show With Julie Chen Gets Name (huffingtonpost.com)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:39:44 +0200

CBS's new daytime talk show, set to premiere in the fall, will be called "The Talk," according to reports from the 2010 TCA Summer Press...

WikiLeaks needs to learn that readers absorb drips better than torrents (Romenesko)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:37:36 +0200

Slate | Daily Beast | Democracy Now

"Leave the reader wanting more and then deliver the next day," writes Jack Shafer. "By pouring out [WikiLeaks'] material so quickly, the press caused a flash flood that has already cleared." || Daily Beast: WikiLeaks founder calls NYT "pusillanimous" and "unprofessional." || Listen to him.

Slate | Daily Beast | Democracy Now

What’s the Fastest and Best ISP in Your City? Look It Up Here (Epicenter)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:32:50 +0200

Want to know which ISP is the fastest and best rated in your U.S. city? Well, now there’s a crowd-sourced, Consumer Reports-like way to find out, thanks to the folks who run the online speed testing service Speedtest.net. On Tuesday, the company, which runs more than one million tests a day on its main testing page, updated [...]

The top ISPs in San Francisco by speed as of Wednesday, July 28, according to Speedtest.net rankings.

Want to know which ISP is the fastest and best rated in your U.S. city?

Well, now there’s a crowd-sourced, Consumer Reports-like way to find out, thanks to the folks who run the online speed testing service Speedtest.net.

On Tuesday, the company, which runs more than one million tests a day on its main testing page, updated its broadband statistics site NetIndex.com, to let users see comparative results sorted by city. For instance, Los Angeles sees an average speed of 7.2 Mbps, with the Road Runner service slight edging Charter Communications for the top speed — 16.97 Mbps compared to Charter’s 16.4 Mbps.

Moreover, since Speedtest.net asks users to rate their satisfaction with their ISP, you can see user rankings as well, with Road Runner clocking a 3.2 out of 5 stars, compared to 2.9 for Charter and 2.5 for third-place AT&T Worldnet.

The point, according to Speedtest.net’s co-founder Doug Suttles, is to make it easier for people to find a new ISP when moving to town, or when they want to find a better provider.

The speed data is compiled from the previous 30 days worth of data, and is updated daily, while the satisfaction ratings reflect votes placed over years. The rankings aren’t particularly easy to find. The best way is to start on the Net Index homepage, scroll down to the state map, click on your state. Then under Cities, click on the tab to change the listing to “By IP Address” to find your city. The city-by-city data currently focuses on the U.S., but will be expanding and there’s plenty of international data already.

New York City beats L.A. on average speed, with an average of 11 Mbps, raised in no small part since AT&T’s Worldnet service in the Big Apple registers an average 21.32 Mbp average, with Road Runner landing just behind at 17.29.

The data, Suttles argues, shows that broadband in the U.S. is better than many say think.

“For the most part our feeling is the ISPs get a bad rap,” Suttles said. “The government wants people to be convinced that broadband is terrible but we are pretty sprawled out country. We are hoping politicians look at this and realize it is not so bad in some places.”

Ookla, the parent company for Speedtest.net, is no newcomer to the world of broadband. It was founded four years ago as a spin-off from the ISP Speakeasy and sells versions of Speedtest.net’s testing service to nearly all the net’s top ISPs.

Speedtest.net was largely started a tech demonstration, according to Suttles, but has since grown to be the place people turn to when they want to test their connections. And now, the site provides more than half the company’s revenue, thanks to lucrative ads like those for Google’s Chrome browser.

Now the company is asking testers to tell the company what speeds they were promised and how much they are paying, in order to come up with a ranking of ISPs by value and by which ones deliver the speeds they promise.

The company’s preliminary data crunching results may come as a surprise to some.

“Nationally, 93 percent of people are getting the speed they signed up for,” Suttles said. “That’s definitively a different story than anyone else is telling.”

The company also has free mobile apps for Android and the iPhone as well, but data from those tests are not reflected in these results. Also not included are data from the testing suites the company provides directly to ISPs.

Some have questioned the methodology of the Speedtest.net tests and whether it’s tests are representative of the nation as a whole. In its defense, the company points to a recent M.I.T. evaluation of different methodologies that found Speedtest.net was the best of the currently available data sources (pdf).

Follow us for disruptive tech news: Ryan Singel and Epicenter on Twitter.

See Also:

McDonald and Shapiro of Fox Business go head to head over new SEC rules (Talking Biz News)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:29:20 +0200

Liz McDonald and Adam Shapiro of Fox Business Network got into it on the air Wednesday afternoon, disagreeing about what the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to do with its new rules regarding the release of information.

MediaDailyNews: Newspapers Hit New Low, Rank Below Internet, TV For Info (SPJ Press Notes)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:26:02 +0200

Print newspapers are losing their position as key sources of information in the minds of consumers, according to a new report from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism's Digital Future Project.Print newspapers are losing their position as key sources of information in the minds of consumers, according to a new report from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism's Digital Future Project.

You can still get a lot from the SEC (Talking Biz News)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:25:28 +0200

Zach Goldfarb of The Washington Post writes that the Fox Business Network’s story about new rules at the Securities and Exchange Commission limiting what public information it will release is a little overblown. Goldfarb writes, “While, as Fox notes, the law exempts the SEC from disclosing records derived from ’surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and [...]

What We Need is a “Slow News Movement” (Columbia Journalism Review)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:22:45 +0200

Walter Shapiro over at Politics Daily considers how quickly the Shirley Sherrod hackjob spread, viruslike, from Breitbart to Fox News to CNN, and declares that we—editors, reporters, bloggers and readers—need to slow the heck down. Spurred on by the “P.T. Barnum media age…where he who dies with the most clicks wins,” mistakes are made, careers are threatened, and...Walter Shapiro over at Politics Daily considers how quickly the Shirley Sherrod hackjob spread, viruslike, from Breitbart to Fox News to CNN, and declares that we—editors, reporters, bloggers and readers—need to slow the heck down. Spurred on by the “P.T. Barnum media age…where he who dies with the most clicks wins,” mistakes are made, careers are threatened, and...

Paul Lee, ABC Family Chief, Likely Choice To Run ABC Network: Can He Turn It Around? (huffingtonpost.com)

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:58:02 +0200

NEW YORK — As head of cable's ABC Family, Paul Lee turned an also-ran channel into a hip destination for teens as well as their...

Cisco Apes Old Spice Campaign, No One Notices [VIDEO] (Mashable!)

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:53:45 +0200

Hey, did you guys know that Cisco tried to replicate that super popular Old Spice video campaign yesterday? Neither did we.

The other week, Old Spice launched a genius campaign in which Isaiah Mustafa, the Old Spice Guy, made…

Hey, did you guys know that Cisco tried to replicate that super popular Old Spice video campaign yesterday? Neither did we.

The other week, Old Spice launched a genius campaign in which Isaiah Mustafa, the Old Spice Guy, made personalized videos for bloggers, fans and random folk on the Internet. The undertaking was a mammoth success — it was one of the fastest-growing online video campaigns of all time, helping increase sales 107% in the past month. At the end of the whole thing, we predicted that a wave of copycats would start rolling in. Well, here’s one of the first.

Yesterday, Cisco published a blog post titled “Cisco SP360 SPice Social Media Event: Get to know Ted From Accounting,” in which Director of Strategic Communications Doug Webster introduced the campaign thusly:

Basically, Webster and Co. were impressed with the Old Spice campaign, and decided to test out the method, which worked in much the same way as the deodorant/body wash company’s endeavor — except Cisco’s mascot was not a hot man in a towel, but the rather dour-looking “Ted from Accounting.” Cisco fans were encouraged to visit the Cisco Twitter accounts — @CiscoSPMobility, @CiscoSPVideo and @CiscoSP360 — and tweet at Ted with the hashtag #CiscoSPice. They could also comment on the blog in order to get a personalized video. In total, Ted made 18 videos, which got around 4,000 views in total (by my last count).

As Megan O’Neill at Social Times points out, there were a lot of issues with this idea: the fact that it was split between myriad Twitter accounts, the fact that it didn’t ape the original enough (i.e. the parody didn’t go far enough), and the fact that no one knew that it was happening because no one knew who Ted was.

I would assert that within her last claim is a major missed opportunity. Yeah, Cisco is not exactly known as a super sexy company or a major voice in the viral sphere — at least for the most part — but it could have ridden the coattails of a pre-established star, in much the same way as Old Spice. Who? Well, remember Greg Justice, a.k.a. “The World’s Most Interesting Intern”?

Justice made a rap video about working at Cisco about a month ago. Although the vid only has around 76,000 views, Justice is a heck of a lot more visible than some new character named “Ted.” Also, Cisco could have come out swinging — like Old Spice did — by posting videos to bloggers who had mentioned both Cisco and Justice in the past. (The company did make some response videos to writers who had covered Cisco.)

Honestly, we wouldn’t expect Cisco to reach the viral heights of Old Spice with this campaign — Old Spice had been building toward that fireball since February when the first Old Spice Guy commercial premiered. Still, Cisco could have utilized its assets a bit better.

Check out a sampling below — the rest of the vids are on YouTube — and let us know what you think: How could Cisco have maximized its viral success?

Reviews: Internet, Twitter, YouTube

More About: business, cisco, MARKETING, money, old spice, twitter, viral video, youtube

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Four Mexican journalists held hostage in Durango (SPJ Press Notes)

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:50:46 +0200

New York, July 28, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Mexican government today to do everything in its power to bring four journalists who are being held hostage by an alleged criminal group to safety. The group’s members have demanded press coverage of videos they made in exchange for the reporters’ release, according to international and local news reports.New York, July 28, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Mexican government today to do everything in its power to bring four journalists who are being held hostage by an alleged criminal group to safety. The group’s members have demanded press coverage of videos they made in exchange for the reporters’ release, according to international and local news reports.

Breitbart sets bar for unethical journalism - The Gamecock (SPJ Press Notes)

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:45:12 +0200

Breitbart sets bar for unethical journalism
The Gamecock
He edited video, posted it on a small Web page, and let the rest of the media spread it like wildfire. News outlets picked it up in a heartbeat, ...
Journalism or Breitbart — we must choose Baltimore Sun

all 9 news articles »

How Social Media Can Make Us More Productive (Mashable!)

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:30:27 +0200

T.A. McCann serves as founder and CEO of Gist. His past experience includes Vulcan Capital, Polaris Venture Partners, where he was an entrepreneur-in-residence. Prior to Polaris, he held senior positions at Microsoft.

To quote Eric Clapton: “It’s in…

To quote Eric Clapton: “It’s in the way that you use it!”

In the constant back-and-forth arguments about Millennials joining the workforce, we’ve heard countless times that managers think social media is a distraction and ultimately a productivity killer in the workplace.

In response, the social media community has fought back by saying that these tools actually help them get things done faster, or bring other value to the business. But there have been few substantive conversations about precisely how social media might help you get things done.

Beyond Millennials, the “new workforce” is being defined by a work style that blurs personal and professional time. That development has spawned professionals that craftily use social media to get things done. Yes, the initial draw was networking, but as those relationships become more essential to your professional responsibilities, social media becomes an area where you can get a lot of work done too.

The trick is to realize that it’s not about the tool itself, but your ability to step back and analyze the tool’s real value in helping you accomplish tasks. If you’re not evaluating the way that you’re using social media to get things done, then you’re probably becoming increasingly inefficient because of it.

Without further ado, here are a few areas where social media can make you a productivity rock star, if you use it well.

Scalable Networking

Ten years ago, “networking” was done in restaurants, bars, on the phone and at conferences. Today the majority of networking occurs online, in tweets, e-mails, LinkedIn invites, and more. To put it bluntly, the difference between networking in 1995 and networking today, is about two hours less face time.

For instance, you can initiate a relationship with a mere tweet on Twitter or a comment on a blog post that shares an opinion or compliments someone. The tweet or comment only takes a matter of seconds, and you’re off and running with the start of a new relationship. The other party will remember you, and is beginning to value your opinions.

There is a lot of time saved when networking is done online, and the process scales rapidly with today’s tools. You can meet hundreds and thousands of people online, forge relationships in a matter of minutes, and maintain them long-term with much less effort.

Actionable Information is More Valuable

Information overload isn’t a new problem, and some folks would argue that Twitter and other tools have only made information overload more of a problem. But the truth is that if you carefully use tools like Twitter, Yahoo Pipes, RSS readers, Google Alerts and bookmarking to discover content that’s pertinent to your job, you can become extraordinarily efficient in finding, consuming and cataloging an enormous amount of information in a very short period of time. The key to staying productive is to distinguish your personal time spent with social media from your professional use of it.

Think about financial advisers reviewing stock information, market trends and news on important companies. Imagine their advantage if they were to systematize their information discovery through social media and better leverage communities like StockTwits. They would find content that is recommended by trusted friends and professionals in real-time, rather than relying solely on proprietary finance software and what surfaces on Google.

And it’s not just about finding the information; it’s about finding actionable information. Google alone doesn’t always reveal actionable information — only relevant links. But real people participating in social media surface incredible amounts of actionable information, with limited barriers to acting upon it quickly.

The recent phantom crash on Wall Street was initiated by a series of minor errors in a matter of seconds. Trades were happening in milliseconds, but news coverage scrambled to catch up to what was going on. Imagine if your adviser was tapped into real-time feeds to stay ahead of the game.

The application of this concept is obvious for any employee in the services world. Knowledge is everything, and social media used properly, is a tool to find, consume and act upon the most relevant, reliable information on the web in real-time.

Social Data Means Collaborative Freedom

One of the challenging things about collaboration is that while in theory it’s a huge productivity booster, it’s equally as likely to be a productivity killer when abused. Collaboration is also closely associated to the tools and applications built to support it. So if you’re collaborating with a group, and some people don’t like or simply can’t get the hang of a tool, then it’s a huge problem.

That being said, the beauty of modern social media and embedded social functionality in applications is that they are built for easy data portability — the message doesn’t always have to be tied to the medium. Twitter and Facebook feeds can be dumped into an entirely different application that’s more suited for your personal taste and work flow.

Twitter and Yammer clients might be the very best example of this. Anyone can use the service without having to live with an application that doesn’t suit their tastes and needs. In another sense, FriendFeed was quite successful at tying together almost infinite services and displaying them in one easy to use location.

In a world where collaboration is most often supported by some type of software, social media can provide the functionality to make sure that everyone can be productive while using the tool that works best for them.

It’s Not What You Use, but How You Use It

As with any tool, there are benefits and there are drawbacks. But the question isn’t about the tool. It’s about you.

Map out the various social media apps and tools that you use in your daily work life and rank them in order of importance to you. If you could only keep one of them, which would it be and why? Ask yourself which tool helps you accomplish the widest variety of tasks on a regular basis. Is that the same tool as the one you couldn’t live without?

I’m willing to bet that after doing this, most people would find that their “can’t live without” tool is not necessarily a tool that helps them accomplish the widest variety of tasks, but it’s incredibly important to their single, top-priority task.

Social media has more potential distractions than your inbox, and that can become a huge problem if you’re not taking a step back to analyze and optimize your social media work flow to be productive.

Take the time to see the forest for the trees, analyze how you’re using these tools, and make the most of it. Social media can be a double-edged sword, and it’s up to the user to determine how it all plays out.

Disclosure: Gist is a sponsor of Mashable

More Productivity Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Ways to Reduce Social Media Distractions and Be More Productive
- HOW TO: Improve B2B Sales Productivity with Social Media
- 5 iPhone Apps to Boost Productivity
- HOW TO: Give Your Inbox a Master Cleanse
- 4 Steps for Managing Social Media Attention

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, borisyankov

Reviews: Facebook, FriendFeed, Google, LinkedIn, Mashable, Twitter, Yammer, iStockphoto

More About: business, facebook, friendfeed, linkedin, productivity, small business, social media, social networking, twitter, yammer

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More Productivity Resources from Mashable: