Tabula Rasa: iPad’s blank slate

The biggest surprise from yesterday’s unveiling of Apple’s iPad was that print publishers and journos weren’t terribly excited. “Waiting to be surprised. That hasn’t happened yet,” said Jim Roberts, the only New York Times wonk who didn’t confuse Steve Jobs with Moses. Valleywag has a good take on Print Media’s Big Tablet Letdown. Our enthusiasm […]

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Who will create the news experience?

New technology spawns new ways to tell stories. That’s the exciting part of Apple’s new tablet, an old idea whose time has apparently come. Now comes the hard part: creating the content and designing the experience for the next wave of consumer devices that deliver our stories. We’re about to discover whether incumbent publishers and […]

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Homage to a machine and a visionary

Before we’re swept away (oops, but that seems to have happened already) by the unveiling of Apple’s tablet we ought to pay homage to technologies before the iPad and visionaries before Steve Jobs. The original messiah machine: the Mac Plus. Introduced in 1986, this little beauty brought a revolution in publication design. It came standard […]

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Oops, there goes local

A few months after three, young software architects launched an obscure social networking and microblogging service, students at a rural Virginia university sent short messages to their friends from their PCs and cell phones as they hid from a gunman who opened fire in classrooms and a dorm. “Everything you thought you knew about media […]

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We Media conversations with Associated Press CEO Tom Curley

Update Feb. 8, 2010 Sorry, the New York breakfast mixer planned for March 2, 2010, with Tom Curley has been canceled. Please join us for a conversation with Mr. Curley at We Media Miami. What’s in store for the business and enterprise of news – and for the Associated Press, the world’s biggest news-gathering cooperative? […]

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Vote for a We Media conference keynoter

We’ve just posted the Community Choice finalists for the 2010 We Media Game Changer Awards. Check them out, share, tweet, add your comments and cast your vote! Your vote for the winner counts and will make a difference. The Community Choice winner, selected strictly by online voting, will make a keynote presentation at our upcoming […]

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FCC gets into the act

Going boldly where everyone has gone before, the Federal Communications Commission has launched an investigation into the future of news. Yesterday the FCC issued an 11-page request for information about the state of the news business and announced it plans to examine the current state of the news industry, industry trends and what the agency […]

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We Media matters in Haiti

Two projects featured at We Media ‘09 are leading the use of digital media and technology in Haiti’s rescue efforts. Ushahidi, which was named a “Game Changer” at last year’s conference, is utilizing digital mapmaking technology and social media to map and verify vital information in Haiti. Ushahidi plots key information on a Google map […]

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Did social media save Haiti, or did Haiti save social media?

Maybe I was just wary of thin networks, shallow relationships that have become “friends,” the shameless self-promotion of celebrities, opportunistic brands suddenly going social, and a collective culture that celebrates the trivial above the meaningful through the madness of crowds. I was having second thoughts about collective awareness and the promise of unifying knowledge through We Media. Then this happened: #Haiti at 90999.

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An Extraordinary effort in Haiti

Among the many extraordinary efforts to provide aid and relief for the people of Haiti comes this one from The Extraordinaries, winner of last year’s We Media Pitch It! competition: the Haiti Earthquake Support Center utilizes crowdsourcing and facial-recognition to help locate the missing. Anyone can post photos of a missing person or loved one, […]

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Seed investments for media startups

Spread the word, and don’t forget: The deadline for submissions to the We Media PitchIt! Challenge is Jan. 20, 2010. The challenge offers $50,000 to help launch two new ventures that use media and communication technology. We’ll help one commercial and one non-profit idea get off the ground. Click here for details. Click here to […]

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Final call: Who’s a Game Changer?

Which digital media people, projects, ideas or organizations have rocked your world – or changed the way you view it? We’re honoring Game Changers at We Media Miami, March 9-11, including one nominated and selected through online voting. This is our final call for nominations. The finalists will be invited to our annual Miami innovation […]

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Tweet this: Pay us or else.

It seems that every story begins as a Tweet or a post. The amateurs use them to source and update stories in newspapers and on news broadcasts. They link to our Twitter feeds, blogs, photos and video. They’ve created their own Twitter accounts and started blogs. They publish streams and comments. They link to our […]

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