Month: July 2017

I’ve been meaning to do it for quite a while, but I’ve finally started a stub in the Indieweb wiki for the topic Indieweb for Journalism.

There is a rapidly growing group of writers and journalists who have been joining the Indieweb movement, and it’s long overdue to create a list of resources specific to the topic to help out ourselves and others in the future.

I invite others like Dan Gillmor, Richard MacManus, Bill Bennett, Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen, Aram Zucker-Scharff and others to feel free to add to, change, or modify the page to add resources they’re aware of as well. Not on the list? Feel free to add yourself too!

I’d also welcome everyone to join in the conversation online via webchat, IRC, Slack, or Matrix. Hopefully we can all make each others’ sites better and more useful for our daily writing work. (If anyone needs help logging into the wiki or getting set up, I’m happy to help.)

👓 Some Trump supporters thought NPR tweeted ‘propaganda.’ It was the Declaration of Independence. | Washington Post

Read Some Trump supporters thought NPR tweeted ‘propaganda.’ It was the Declaration of Independence. by Amy B. Wang (Washington Post)
Some Twitter users reacted angrily to the thread, accusing NPR of spamming them or pushing an agenda.
HA!

👓 Media Companies Are Getting Sick of Facebook | Bloomberg

Read Media Companies Are Getting Sick of Facebook (Bloomberg)
News outlets are complaining about Facebook’s terms for TV-quality videos meant to compete with YouTube.

Working Facebook’s Land

Liked Media Companies Are Getting Sick of Facebook (Bloomberg Businessweek)
News outlets are complaining about Facebook’s terms for TV-quality videos meant to compete with YouTube.

It’s getting tougher for CNN and others to view these arrangements as mutually beneficial. “Facebook is about Facebook,” says Andrew Morse, general manager of CNN’s digital operations. “For them, these are experiments, but for the media companies looking to partner with ­significant commitments, it gets to be a bit of whiplash.” Morse says the financial compensation Facebook offers isn’t enough to convince him that working directly with the social network will be worthwhile in the long term.

Jason Kint, chief executive officer of the industry trade group Digital Content Next, was more blunt. “Media companies are like serfs working Facebook’s land,” he says.

Yet another prime example why people should be owning and controlling their own content.

(h/t: iwantmyname.com)

👓 A Former Politico Editor Is Using Ethereum to Help Fix Journalism | CoinDesk

Read A Former Politico Editor Is Using Ethereum to Help Fix Journalism by Michael del Castillo (CoinDesk)
A new project staffed with media heavyweights envisions how news outlets could be disrupted and decentralized by blockchain tech.

👓 SoundCloud, Which Rose to Stardom on Indie Talent, Lays Off 173 | NYTimes

Read SoundCloud, Which Rose to Stardom on Indie Talent, Lays Off 173 by Ben Sisario (New York Times)
The layoffs cut the streaming music site’s work force by about 40 percent and could be a way to make it more attractive to a buyer.
Yet another reminder to own your own data and have your own website. Exporting and hosting all this data won’t be easy and if it goes under, it’s a huge hole in the internet.

👓 Carrie Fisher’s final assets revealed, Billie Lourd named beneficiary of the estate | Entertainment Weekly

Read Carrie Fisher's final assets revealed, Billie Lourd named beneficiary of the estate by Mike Miller (Entertainment Weekly)
The Star Wars actress’s assets, outlined in court documents obtained by PEOPLE, include several bank accounts, a 2016 Tesla S, full ownership of several LLCs, and a life insurance policy. Personal and household belongings like jewelry, artwork, and collectibles will also go to Lourd, Fisher’s only child from her relationship with talent executive Bryan Lourd.

👓 How to Talk to Famous Professors | The Chronicle

Read How to Talk to Famous Professors (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
A cheat sheet for making a potential contact without gushing or embarrassing yourself.
Most people just wanted to be treated like people…

👓 Republican Lawmakers Buy Health Insurance Stocks as Repeal Effort Moves Forward | The Intercept

Read Republican Lawmakers Buy Health Insurance Stocks as Repeal Effort Moves Forward by Lee Fang (The Intercept)
JUST AS THE HOUSE Republican bill to slash much of the Affordable Care Act moved forward, Rep. Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican and member of Speaker Paul Ryan’s leadership team, added a health insurance company to his portfolio.
Aren’t there ethics rules to cover nonsense like this?