Twitter and the future of journalism

twitter logo On Friday, David Schlesinger from Reuters posted an entry to his blog discussing Twitter and the future of journalism. David had been tweeting from the World Economic Forum, and found that his updates beat the Reuters newswire. No big surprise, but it prompted a bunch of questions:

Is it journalism?

Is it dangerous?

Is it embarrassing that my tweets even beat the Reuters newswire?

Am I destroying Reuters standards by encouraging tweeting or blogging?

David’s answers are: Yes, Potentially, No, and No. I love that someone in the “mainstream” media is able to answer these questions honestly and openly!

His entire post is filled with wonderful quotes, such as:

I have no idea what journalism will look like in five years except that it will be different than it is now. That’s a great thing, I believe.

Fantastic outlook on things, in my opinion. Twitter is changing journalism and news media for the better. Ignore it at your own peril. I can’t say it any better than David himself:

If I don’t beat the Reuters wire with a live tweet because I deliberately hold back, someone else will. If I don’t beat the Reuters wire because I’m slow or inattentive, someone else will.

There’s something to be said for holding back, providing context, and thoughtfully articulating a story or idea. But when you’re talking about breaking and spreading the news, speed is the name of the game, and nothing at the moment does it faster or more effectively than Twitter.

Another way to look at it is chunking. Give me bite-sized chunks as the news happens, and when I have time later, I’ll explore the topic in more detail. Twitter is perfect for chunking news.

Take a couple minutes and read the entire post. I’m looking forward to reading it again in a year – I suspect it won’t seem so unique and refreshing by then!

Notes for 2/1/2009

Here are my weekly notes:

  • Didn’t watch all of the Super Bowl today, but caught most of the second half. Quite entertaining! Now I’ll have to go watch all the commercials online. One thing I already watched was the Transformers 2 teaser! It’s gonna rock!
  • Also: It should be called Handegg.
  • On Friday, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) announced a 20-year deal with Wi-Fi Rail Inc., to outfit 104 miles of track and 43 stations with wireless Internet access by 2011. It won’t be free to use, but it’s not too expensive – yearly access will cost $300 when fully complete.
  • I think this is cool: TripIt has an API! Now I want a WordPress widget.
  • CoverItLive is a service that helps you live-blog an event. On Wednesday, it was announced that they raised $1.2 million. One to keep an eye on, I think.
  • Long Zheng posted about a potential security issue with the way Microsoft has implemented UAC in Windows 7. I agree with Long, I think it’s something they should change, even if it is by design as they claim.
  • On Tuesday, Liz at Three Bright Stars gave me a “Lemonade Award” for my post about Free WiFi. Thanks Liz, much appreciated!
  • I’ve run into rate-limiting issues with Twitter’s API this weekend. I requested whitelisting on Tuesday, but still haven’t heard back. Kind of annoying.

Edmonton Notes for 1/31/2009

Here are some Edmonton-related things I found interesting this week:

I appreciate my iPod touch more now that I have a BlackBerry

I recently became a member of the CrackBerry crowd. My last three year contract ended in November, and I figured it was time to get something better than my old Motorola phone. I was thinking about the iPhone, but since I already had an iPod touch, I ended up going with the BlackBerry Curve. So far, I love it. Text messaging is much better, email access is fantastic (obviously), and I can hop online from anywhere if need be.

It hasn’t been a perfect experience however. I’ve run into a number of issues trying to figure out how to do things – simple things that took no time at all to figure out on the iPod touch. Here’s a small list of them:

  • One of the first things I did was open up the browser. It took me a ridiculously long time to figure out how to enter an address though! Eventually I figured out the menu button and the “Go to” option, but I found the iPod much easier – just scroll up and there’s the address bar.
  • Another problem was deleting messages. Very quickly I figured out how to delete a single message, but I couldn’t figure out how to delete multiple messages at once! I ended up searching for it, and found the CAPS button trick. The iPod was much easier – nice big edit button, which reveals checkboxes beside each item. Just really intuitive.
  • Settings are another issue. Changing the background on my iPod took barely any effort at all, but I once again had to Google for help with the BlackBerry. The menus just seem to make more sense on the iPod.
  • I like to keep the unread messages count cleared, and one day it was stuck at one. I checked the email inbox, the text messaging inbox, and both were empty. I once again turned to the web and found out that missed calls show up as unread messages! I then opened up the Call Log, but it didn’t clear! Turns out they show up as messages in the combined inbox. Confusing design.

There have been other issues of course, but these few stuck out. In general, I think the interface on the iPod/iPhone is just much more intuitive. I guess that’s not surprising, given Apple’s reputation for good design, but it still caught me off-guard.

Most of my searches end up at the the CrackBerry.com forums. I’m clearly not the only one who has run into these issues! Thanks to everyone who has contributed there – you’ve made it much easier for me to get up-to-speed with the BlackBerry!

STIRR in Edmonton

stirr canada Tonight we held the first ever STIRR Canada event here in Edmonton. About sixty of the city’s entrepreneurs, investors, and other tech professionals came together at The Hat downtown to chat with one another, and to meet and learn from Greg Zeschuk, one of the founders of BioWare.

I think “STIRR” was new to most people, so near the beginning of the event Patrick Lor from the STIRR Canada team explained how he got introduced to the organization and brought it to Canada.

STIRR Canada is a networking community for high-tech startup founders, founding teams, former founders, angel and VC funders, and technology journalists. Our events are designed for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.

The idea is to bring new and experienced entrepreneurs together. We do a bit of that at DemoCamp of course, but the audience tonight was a bit different. There were definitely more guys wearing suits! I think it all comes down to access – busy guys like Greg simply can’t make it out to every DemoCamp, so to be able to have him present tonight was pretty cool.

Greg from BioWareSTIRR in EdmontonRandy & Cam

Founded in 1995, BioWare is a major Edmonton success story. Greg and his colleagues Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip realized early on that, in Greg’s words, “no one likes a creative doctor.” They decided to put their creativity into video games, and BioWare was the result. After a string of hits, BioWare became an acquisition target and was eventually scooped up by Electronic Arts in late 2007. Today the company continues to produce popular games, and has grown to about 500 employees.

Here are some of the highlights from Greg’s talk:

  • Early on, BioWare didn’t see the need for a board of directors or advisors. Looking back, they wouldn’t recommend that strategy to anyone!
  • Greg figures that the cost of making their first game was less than the cost of a single month of development at the company today. It’s become a much more expensive industry.
  • Greg says to be prepared for the long haul. He pointed to Google as an example: most people think about their success in recent years, but the reality is that they’ve been running in some form or another for more than a decade (since 1996).
  • Another piece of advice from Greg: don’t be afraid to get a second opinion. And if something doesn’t make sense, be suspicious!

Greg’s presentation was really interesting, and seemed to be well-received by everyone in attendance. Of course, the major focus of an event like this is the networking that followed. There were lots of interesting discussions taking place all evening long!

Thanks to The Hat for running a wonderful service this evening, and to Cam, Pat and the other organizers for bringing this event to Edmonton. I’m glad I was able to help. Most importantly, thanks to everyone for coming out!

You can see the rest of my photos from the evening at Flickr.

Twestival Edmonton – February 12th, 2009

I’m excited to announce the latest Twitter event taking place in Edmonton: Twestival 2009! More than 100 cities around the world are hosting Twestivals on February 12th to raise money and awareness for charity: water. When I heard about the idea, I knew that Edmonton had to participate. After all, we’re known for our support of community and charitable causes, and the Twitter community here is second-to-none! It’s going to be an evening of great fun for a great cause!

Here are the details:

WHO: You and your friends!
WHAT: Edmonton Twestival 2009
WHEN: Thursday, February 12th at 6:30pm
WHERE: Vintage Lounge, 10124 124th Street – map
WHY: To have some fun while supporting a great cause!
COST: We’re asking for a $20 donation which will go entirely to charity: water.

Click here to register for the event. If at all possible, please use the donate online option when you book your ticket as that’ll simplify things for us.

Here’s a bit more information on Twestival:

The Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects. Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. By rallying together globally, under short timescales, for a single aim on the same day, the Twestival hopes to bring awareness to this global crisis.

Needless to say, I think it’s a cause worth supporting. The cost of funding a well project in a developing country starts at $4,000 USD. Together with our friends in Calgary, I think Alberta can definitely raise enough to fund an entire well!

Some cities have organized elaborate programs for their Twestival, which is cool. Here in Edmonton, we thought it would be better to keep things simple. Here’s what we’ve got planned:

  • Come anytime after 6:30pm to Vintage Lounge. If you’ve registered online, we’ll have a special nametag waiting for you. Meet people who are new to you, and reconnect with people you already know. Put faces and real names to Twitter usernames!
  • Also if you’ve registered online, you’ll have a shot at winning one of our door prizes! We wanted to highlight local organizations on Twitter, so have asked a few for donations. Our first supporter is SassyCakes! Let me know if you’d like to donate something.
  • Connect to the free wireless provided by Vintage Lounge and chat with Twestival-goers in other cities. We’ll have a screen setup thanking our supporters, and showing real-time Twestival chat from around the world!
  • Feel free to bring friends who are currently missing out on Twitter – we’ll get them registered on the spot!

Beyond that, let’s just have a good time and raise some money for charity: water!

If you’re interested in sponsoring the event, or donating a door prize, or otherwise helping out, please let me know. Stay tuned to the wiki and the @edmontontweetup account for news and updates.

Major thanks to Sharon (@sharonyeo) for helping me get this off the ground, and to everyone else who has provided input and support so far (@dibegin, @Roger, @amanda etc.)

See you there!

UPDATE: Here is charity: water’s official Twestival page.

Budget Day 2009 in Canada – track it online

Though a lot of information about the new budget has already been released, there are sure to be some surprises and of course, interesting discussions taking place throughout the day. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will deliver his budget speech in the House of Commons at roughly 4 PM EST (2 PM MST) today. All the major Canadian media outlets will have coverage, and some even have unique online coverage too.

Here’s how to track Budget Day 2009 online:

And a few other interesting links:

Here in Edmonton, the federal wish list comes in at $2.4 billion. I’m sure the capital notebook blog and Dave Cournoyer will have more on today’s news from a local perspective.

It’ll be interesting to see how the day plays out! I’ll update the post if I come across any more useful links – leave me a comment if you have one to suggest!

UPDATE: There’s a word cloud of Flaherty’s speech available here, and you can read the full text of the speech here.

UPDATE2: Here’s a PDF of the budget, courtesy of The Globe and Mail.

UPDATE3: The official Budget 2009 site also has the PDF and some other information, but is very slow.

UPDATE4: A number of responses from organizations (CUPE, CFIB, etc.) are available at Canadian Newswire.

Help Edmonton’s Free WiFi Project grow!

free wifi project As some of you know, I’m involved with the Free WiFi Project here in Edmonton (along with Eric, Rob, and Stephen). We’ve been slowly progressing things, trying to figure out how we’d like to grow the project and spread free wireless Internet access across the city. There are a few initiatives in the works, but one I’d like to point out is that anyone can now order a community router from our website!

It’s pretty straightforward. Just head over to the Help Us Expand page to learn more about how the whole system works and what the costs and benefits are (each community router costs $60). When you’re ready, simply click the order link and follow the instructions. You’ll first have to enter some personal details, such as your name and address. Next you’ll be taken off to PayPal to make a payment to us. Finally, we’ll confirm the address we’re going to ship the router to. Within about a week you should receive a package from us with some simple instructions on how to connect your new community router!

Simple right? We’d love to have you join the network! If you give it a shot and have any feedback for us on how to improve the process, please let me know in the comments below or contact me. We want to make it as easy and painless as possible.

Stay tuned for more good news from the Free WiFi Project. As always, you can see a list of our current locations here. Thank you in advance for supporting us!

Notes for 1/25/2009

Here are my weekly notes:

Edmonton Notes for 1/24/2009

Here are some Edmonton-related things I found interesting this week: