(iverson's) currentbuzz

What’s interesting is that this underlines the commonality between writing songs and writing code, and how the same approach to financing can be used for both (something I've written about before.) I think that’s important, because it offers a new way of getting free software projects off to a good start. Rather than just hacking and hoping, projects that serve a real need can follow Diaspora's example and seek funding from the start, offering a range of rewards.

via Diaspora: The Future of Free Software Funding? – Community – ComputerworldUK.

The writer discusses Diaspora (note: I am one of the investors in Diaspora) which aims to be a privacy-safe Facebook-like site, once it is up and running. The folks behind it (NYU students) asked for pledges to make $10,000 but ended up getting more than $100,000 in pledges.

They had levels of pledging, with different premiums associated with each level. What a model that indicates there are ways to do Open Sourced work and still get paid.

Poynter Online – E-Media Tidbits.

Interesting reflection on how cellphones and Twitter would have affected Tianemen Square events and how tech can bring us closer to victims of catastrophes that happen far away. Viral games to sell your news – think about that one. Good job, Steve.

This is what we are looking to do in Chicago. Contact me if you have a Chicago-centric publication and want to meet to talk about forming a network.

With a little help from training at Knight Digital Media Center, The Sacramento Bee launches a lively network of sites and blogs that connects its users to other news sources and to each other

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, few established news organizations were thinking about befriending local news start ups and many probably wished they’d go away.

My own January 2009 post encouraging news organizations to make friends with local start ups and link to their content got lost the a fierce debate about whether aggregators were driving traffic to established sites or taking it away.

So today it’s exciting to see The Sacramento Bee in California launch Sacramento Connect, “a network of high-quality news providers and bloggers in the Sacramento region.”

via The Bee aggregates local online news sources with a new network, Sacramento Connect | Knight Digital Media Center.

In this future, both professional and amateur journalists will need to engage in more than just journalism, however. They must engage in new kinds of “news work” to serve their audiences. News work? Fact entrepreneurs? Credit goes to Columbia University doctoral student Chris Anderson for these new terms. They help us understand that journalism in the future must involve more than just gathering, validating and writing news stories. “News work” also requires such things sharing information, facilitating conversations, crowdsourcing, smart curation and aggregation, data mining and data visualizations, commissioning news games, gathering lists and resources and shouting out your good work to others.

via J-Lab | Entrepreneurship and the Future of News | Speeches.

ISN is a project of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that on its Web site emphasizes its support of “free markets.”

“Cash-strapped news organizations are cutting back in many areas including state government coverage, leaving voters less informed,” ISN said in its launch announcement. “ISN is committed to helping fill this void with objective, non-partisan news reports.”

via Non-Profit Launching Coverage of Illinois State Government.