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Posts tagged ‘blog’

23
Nov

Beebs College of Journalism to go live in December

Nearly five years ago the BBC launched a new virtual training service for its journalists called the BBC College of Journalism – or CoJo.

CoJo has evolved considerably since it first started but is basically a mixture of digital courses, face to face courses and information/best practice provided in the form of a blog and articles.

Their are focused exercises looking at things like writing that includes digital courses, videos, guides and advice from people within and outside the BBC.

There is also a very impressive, and fun, virtual newsroom application that throws story updates and tasks at you in quick order.

Well this incredible resource for BBC staff will be opened up to the wider British public on 14 December. It will be free for British users and under a subscription for people accessing it internationally.

The team behind the service have been busy “writing, editing, blogging” to get the content ready to launch the site to the wider public.

As well as the learning resources and blogs the team are also making use of feeds like twitter and delicious to pull in information from around the rest of the web.

According to Kevin Marsh of the team, there are currently around 2,500 pages within the site, a couple of hundred videos and dozens of virtual newsroom scenarios.

Once it has gone live I think this will quickly become an invaluable resource for journalists, bloggers, academics, students and even people sharing stories with their friends.

And hopefully it will be picked up and used by people contributing to message boards, comment systems and phone-ins as the libel courses would help make those platforms run more smoothly.

One to read

Story Curve: Emerging into the light

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29
Jan

The future of news?

This blog post started life as a comment on the blog of Birmingham Post Journalist, Joanna Geary.

However, having gone read the comment back I thought it was worth sharing with you as well.

Joanna ponders a world ‘beyond the parasitic news model‘. How news will be funded and organised online when the bottom falls out of the ‘mainstream’ media market.

My suggestion – let it go.

It’s possible that there is no way around the problem and we have to accept that we’re moving into a new era of journalism.

Journalism, distilled.
Image by sebFlyte via Flickr

We’ve had the coffee house era, the pamphlet era, the newspaper era and maybe now we’re moving into the social era – almost back to the idea of news spreading in coffee houses – but in this case from individual bloggers talking directly about their own story.

Instead of several newspapers employing journalists to tell stories and spread news – we’re moving to a time when people tell their own stories in their own space and those stories are in turn spread by search engines and aggregators.

Each blogger, twitterer, podcaster or even message board contributor could make small amounts of revenue from their story in their space – others could make slightly larger amounts of money by sharing the stories of others in their space.

But it’s all much more social, much more democratic and on a much larger scale globally but smaller scale in terms of where the stories are held and produced.

Local newspapers could still exist as papers of record – possibly on a public service model – reporting on local politics and big issues in each area – maybe part funded by advertising and part funded by a ‘local media tax’.

Just an idea

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3
Jan

A new Ego writer

Actually that isn’t really true – Up Your Ego hasn’t instantly become a blog network – its just that there is now a second blog hosted here.

The first is the one you’re reading – mine – the one written by Ryan Morrison – the second is my wifes.

When I first started Up Your Ego the goal was to create a blog all about life in the 21st Century – a guide to getting through the day to day in an overly technical and digitally social society.

From at least one perspective I think I’ve managed to achieve that – when I’ve got time I regularly write about the world of new media, media and society – but UYE does lack something of a female perspective.

Well now I’ve managed to convince my wife to write the odd post for the site – it will be under the Sammy Speaks section and usually come forth in the form of parenting tips, recipe ideas and rants about the world as a whole.

Also – it will help me keep up with at least every other day postings – something I’ve been struggling with lately – especially since discovering the world of alternative history fiction.

If anyone else feels like contributing the odd blog post feel free to send me an e-mail (ryan@upyourego.com).

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3
Jan

What’s happening to me?

When I was a teenager at school I was (and there really is no other way of saying this) a little git.

Homer at School

I was cheeky, I talked back to the teachers and would refuse to do things I didn’t like the idea of. I was suspended from lessons (but never school) several times – usually for refusing to go to those “pointless” detentions.

The main problem I had with school was that I just didn’t see the point in it. I was constantly being asked to do things I didn’t really see the point in and it didn’t help that the teachers got annoyed with me when I asked them to justify their reasons for asking me to do it.

Math - Teacher Education - 3D Shapes
Image by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr

I’ve always had something of a problem with authority and authority figures – especially being asked to do things I’m not convinced are of any real benefit to me.

I’m still a little bit like that but as I get older and (painfully) rapidly closer to the big 3 0 I can’t help but see things from the teachers point of view.

I now have two children in school – one in reception (foundation stage) and the other in year three (key stage two).

When my children were young, before they started school I was adamant I wouldn’t make them do homework – that, if they ever got a lot I would stand up for them and tell the teacher I disagree with homework and demand they don’t give my children any.

But  age, maturity – whatever you want to call it has mellowed me and actually I can see the point of homework – it also helps that my daughter (son is too young for homework at the moment) actually really enjoys it.

In fact some of the homework my daughter gets can be a lot of fun – I oft times enjoy making boats, creating simple animations, teaching her how to write articles and stories etc…

In fact – getting involved in parents evenings, school events and activities as well as helping my daughter with her homework and reading through some of her school work at the end of time has really made me wish I worked harder while I was at school.

I’ve decided that blogging for me is the chance to do those – home time – reports (remember I write for a living) that I never bothered with while I was in full time education.

Photo credit: Classroom Chairs (seen on homepage) by James Sarmiento – Creative Commons via Flickr.

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31
Dec

Happy New Year!

Well 2008 is finally coming to a close and I’m ending it in a house with no central heating, insulation or warmth in any shape or form.

But you’re not interested in that – only to know I’m sitting here wea3130693854_9ff4fa95a9_bring five layers and tight gloves while typing this blog post – so apologies in advance for any typos.

So what will the new year bring? Well I’ve already outlined some of the things I expect to see happen in the media world in 2009 – and some of the things that did/didn’t happen in 2008.

For me personally my show is going to increase from 45 minutes to an hour, will see the addition of live session recordings and hopefully the odd gig as well.

The BBC Jersey website will get a new look around March and with it I’ll be doing a lot more in the way of people features and leaving the office to go out and about.

And as for this blog – I’m hoping to organise the categories a little bit better – split things up along much more generic lines than I’ve previously used.

In the past I’ve been of the opinion that it is better to split things into a specific a groupings as possible – but as time has gone on I’ve come to the conclusion that categories are a bit of an irrelevance.

I would much rather have some very generic top level categories like Media, Technology, News and Thoughts then use tags to find things beyond that – than the current mess I’ve got at the moment.

I may also further tweak the look and feel of the homepage and sub-pages as well – oh and more video clips for the top right hand side as well as a new audio podcast.

Whatever happens – see you in 2009.

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30
Sep

They’re changing Gear

Actually that should be that they’re changing Top Gear – but the headline didn’t really work if I added the word Top before the Gear.

Basically the point of the post is that there will very soon be a new look TopGear.com – not sure if the public service site will be getting a make-over but the commercial one certainly is.

It looks pretty good – from the looks of the beta we’re in for wood panelling backgrounds, glassy effects and very web 2.0ey fonts and colours.

Top Gear Cars
See another picture of the homepage at the bottom of this post v

They seem to be taking the social media thing a lot more seriously as well – they’re splitting the blogs up into: Horsepower, Transmission, The Foreman, The Cupholder, Fast and Dangerous and Sunday Afternoon Club (F1 blog that looks like it may be tied to the BBC F1 coverage somehow).

Playing around with the beta for a while it looks like the blogs are WordPress hosted – which is an interesting departure for the BBC which uses MovableType for its public service blogs.

Interesting that the BBC public service blogs are hosted on a closed commercial platform and the BBC commercial blogs seem to be hosted on an open source free platform! Hmmm :)

Top Gear Cars

As well as the very good looking, branded blogs – which will see James May and Richard Hammond join Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Willman as TG.com contributors – there’s a new media player.

It isn’t exactly the same as the EMP (BBC Embedded Media Player) used on bbc.co.uk/topgear (for a start the volume only reaches 10) but it is flash based AND unlike the /topgear player – it actually lets you embed the video.

Top Gear Cars

Or at least that’s what the press release says: “nearly 300 new videos in a bright, big player that allows you to share or take away and out them on your own site.”

Although I haven’t actually been able to find the embed code yet – just a series of links to let you put the video on your social networking platform of choice. I’ll keep looking though.

You can of course just view the source code around the video player to get the embed code.

Episode Guide

There’s also something TopGear has needed for a while – something I started building myself (but got bored/lost interest/got to busy), something available in a very plane way on Wikipedia and something the good folks over at FinalGear are doing.

The most interesting feature of the Episode Guide on the new TopGear.com is the ‘The One With…’ feature – this makes it a lot easier for the more casual fan to find out about an episode.

Top Gear Cars

Top Gear Cars

There isn’t really much more to say about the Episode Guide – it primarily focuses on giving you video clips of that episode (which is what it’s all about really) and has a few little snippets of episode information.

For example: “The one where… Stig outruns a speed camera” and “This is also the one with… Clarkson reviews the Citroen Berlingo (and likes it) and Das Mazda6: Richard finds out if the Mazda6 can take on the Germans”.

Actually – quiz for you – without looking at the site can you tell me which episode this applies to: “The one with… all the poo”.

So back to the blogs

Instead of having the odd article (from the magazine) by Jeremy and James as an article under news and then the odd article by them in the blogs – they’ve now created a blog specifically for pieces by the ‘presenters’.

There is an outline of what each blog will do in the TopGear.com article about the new look site – due to launch on Thursday (although I’m sure it said Wednesday a week ago).

One of the blogs will be called ‘Horsepower’ and will include contributions from Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. There’s also the suggestion that they will respond to comments. Apparently “if what you write is interesting enough, they’ll respond to you.”

‘Transmission’ is all about TopGear the show and will be written by Executive Producer Andy Wilman – in much the same vain the existing TopGear Blog is written I imagine.

Then you have the blogs by the magazine team. ‘The Foreman’ is apparently going to be full of inside information and will tell you “everything the car makers would rather you didn’t know.”

Top Gear Cars

‘The Cupholder’ is the oppose and will be full of “is pure trivia, videos, links and general trivia from all over the world and all over the world wide web.”

Top Gear Cars

And then there is the non F1 racing stuff with ‘Fast and Dangerous’ and the F1 blog in the form of the ‘Sunday Afternoon Club’.

Speaking of the F1 Blog – apparently they “have big plans for that when the BBC takes over the F1 coverage next year.”

/topgear

Then there’s the BBC and the issue of what will happen to /topgear with the launch of the new look and fully interactive topgear.com.

On the FinalGear Forum – controlspecimen asked the question of the public service Top Gear site “So.. is bbc.co.uk/topgear defunct now?”

That’s an interesting question – the problem is that bbc.co.uk/topgear isn’t allowed to link to topgear.com for a lot of political reasons.

So there is a bit of a requirement/expectation that the BBC has at least some kind of public service site for one of its most popular shows.

I wonder whether they will just move it towards /programmes instead – a number of programmes just have their own branded /programmes site now. Seems to make more sense than building their own site.

But there might also be an expectation that /topgear is kept and includes advert free versions of all the videos on topgear.com for a UK audience.

More still

There’s also all the usual games, car news, car stuff and a car chooser.

Actually the car chooser is pretty cool – in stage one you tick a few boxes for what you want in a car, stage two you move a slider to show how much you want to spend.

Top Gear Cars

And in stage three you refine your choices.

Top Gear Cars

It then orders the cars and you can add as many as you like (I think) to your ‘car bar’ that you can then use to compare your shortlist and read a mass of technical details, see photos and read the TopGear review.

Top Gear Cars

It’s all very impressive and I can’t wait until its finished and live. It’s going to be great to have another place to regularly read the writings of Misters May, Clarkson and Hammond.

Oh and it looks like TopGear will be back on TV around 2 November – I’ll try and do a piece soon on what’s going to be in the upcoming series.

Speaking of which – there will also be a schedule that shows when TopGear is on TV – although most of the time it will just be repeating the word Dave over and over and over again.

Top Gear Cars

Top Gear Cars

Top Gear

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29
Sep

Growing a tash for charity

Throughout November (including while covering Jersey’s elections) I’m going to look like a bit of an idiot ;D

I’ve agreed to grow a mustache for a charity called Movember – it’s to raise money for Prostate Cancer (something my father in law came close to dying of last year – fortunately he recovered).

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I’m growing a Mo because I’m passionate about tackling men’s health issues and being proactive in the fight against prostate cancer.

If you think this is a worthy cause – and I know there are a lot of cause based calls on your wallet – you can donate to my Mo by:

Going to the donation page and donating online using your credit card or PayPal account.

The money raised by Movember is used to raise awareness of men’s health issues and donated to The Prostate Cancer Charity which will have an enormous impact on many men’s lives and the awareness will help us to fight prostate cancer on every front – through research, support, information and campaigning.

Thank you in advance if you do decide to support me and thank you for not laughing – too much – at me if you don’t.

I’ll be posting photos of my progress during the course of the month.

10
Sep

Cleaning out the drafts

Drafts and a bin

I have a pretty rigid routine for checking the web every morning. I always visit the same sites in more or less the same order – usually after checking my e-mail.

The routine basically involves going through message boards, blogs, news sites, reading columnists and visiting various other websites I’m into.

While I’m going through all these sites I’m making a note of things that spark my interest (I should probably add them to delcious but I never remember) so that I can do something with them later.

And then I open WordPress. When I have WordPress open I write new posts around the ideas and things I gathered during my morning trek.

But I don’t. I write a headline, I add a weblink and sometimes I even get as far as writing a couple of paragraphs – but I rarely ever actually finish them.

It’s got so bad that until a few minutes ago I had hundreds of draft posts just sitting there unlikely to ever be completed – but because I’m an ADHD, OCD riddled geek I couldn’t bring myself to delete them.

Well I’ve finally done it – I’ve gone from having hundreds of draft posts to just five draft posts. And as soon as I click publish – five will become four.

The other four posts I’ll be writing at some point (hopefully before I forget why I’ve saved them) are:
Bloggers: Saviours of local news?, Jelly as an art form?, Earning man points and British Cultural Expansion.

I think they fit the brief I’ve set myself with Up Your Ego, basically to ‘create a guide to surviving life in the 21st century’.

And in the meantime – I’ll try and remember to add my ideas to Twitter and Delicious instead of creating draft blog posts nobody will ever see!

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5
Sep

A lick of paint

PaintingI’m a big fan of the Revolution range of themes by Brian Gardner and as you may have noticed if you’re reading this at upyourego.com – I’ve implemented a new one.

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