Playing Wikipedia at its own game January 30, 2009
Posted by David in The web.add a comment
That bastion of collected knowledge, the Encyclopedia Britannica, has been well and truly trumped online by Wikipedia, partly due to the breadth of subject covered by the latter but mostly, I suspect, because you get maybe 10 seconds to read most Britannica entries before a huge black box covers the text and tells you that you need a premium (read ‘paid for’) subscription in order to view it.
In a bid to revive its popularity, editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica have decided to take a virtual leaf from Wikipedia’s book and start to accept user submitted content as both new entries and additions to existing ones – but with a slight difference.
Whereas Wikipedia entries are immediately on the site and then peer reviewed some time later, Britannica, presumably wary of its reputation, has stated that user content will be checked by editors before going onto the site, claiming they can turn around submissions in 20 minutes.
If the idea becomes popular Britannica will need a staff army to keep up.
Twitter FTW January 23, 2009
Posted by David in Cool, The web.add a comment
When that American Airlines Airbus made its miraculous landing on the Hudson River last week, it delivered more than one amazing conclusion.
Primarily, of course, was the simple fact that a plane can come falling from the sky with no active engines, land on a freezing cold river and all but one passengers on board – who had the misfortune to break both legs – can literally walk away from it.
But secondly – and most importantly for a column dealing in technology – was the way that news and pictures of this incredible event were circulated around the world.
I have the feeling that my colleagues, the professional journalists of this fine publication, may not like what I’m about to suggest but, if it’s the job of journalism to get to the news first, on this particular occasion it was beaten by a bunch of regular Jo(e)s with mobile phones and Twitter accounts.
Twitter (twitter.com), in case you spent 2008 with your head in a bag, is the hugely successful ‘microblogging’ website that allows you to quickly publish mini articles including links to photographs.
Anybody who is following your account on Twitter will instantly receive your article. It’s a bit like text messaging to more than one person who has decided they want to get your texts.
The main and probably most dramatic picture taken of the plane event which showed the two wings of the floating aircraft jammed with people who had clambered out, was taken on a iPhone.
The person responsible had snapped the picture from onboard a ferry that was heading to the rescue and had immediately posted it to his Twitter account.
What is clearly happening is that we are becoming accustomed to two types of reporting and journalism.
The first, that of the citizen with a mobile phone or other means of instant communication who happens to be close (physically or emotionally) to the event or issue is usually written or photographed in a style that can best be described as ‘acceptable’ but is very quick to get out.
The second style of journalism is the more traditional type, written or photographed with skill and experience but which is only available some time later.
Both have the potential to be Earth shattering; both are incredibly important in this day and age and neither are going away any time soon.
A good way to manage lots of photos January 9, 2009
Posted by David in The web.add a comment
So the festivities are now over and all that’s left are the memories – and, if you’re anything like me, approximately half a million photographs, especially if Santa delivered a new camera this year.
I hear a lot of moaning from people (my parents in particular) that the problem with digital photography is that nobody ever gets to see the photographs because they can’t be handed around the room as they were back in the old analogue days.
This complaint, of course, completely fails to recognise that your snaps can be processed just the same as they ever were, either via a photo booth found in many high street shops or by uploading them to a website that offer the service.
The added benefit of digital photography is that we can all now be more like professional photographers who have always taken dozens of shots of a scene, safe in the knowledge that at least one of them should turn out half decent.
And that, I think, is actually part of the problem.
When a camera can store hundreds of photographs rather than the old 24 exposure reels, we tend to fill them up before dumping the lot onto a computer where they might get flicked through once and then effectively abandoned.
All modern computers come with terrific software for organising a photo collection and adding captions to make it searchable but it’s such an overwhelming task that we nearly always leave it until ‘later’.
I’ve found a good solution for those of us without the time required for organisation and it produces something that is actually worth looking at.
Stitching still photographs together into a movie isn’t a new idea. Both Windows Movie Maker and iMovie on a Mac contain picture montage tools but I’ve found the end results too much like something you’d see in a soppy segment on Oprah. All they need is some cheesy piano music in the background.
Then I discovered animoto.com and my faith in stills montages was rekindled.
Animoto is simple to use. Chuck it some photos and your choice of music and it creates a really interesting movie that’s low on cheese and high in quality.
It’s surely better to make a one minute clip of your favourite snaps that you’ll actually want to look at rather than confine the lot to a darkened corner of your computer.
Moderation? We’ve heard it all before January 2, 2009
Posted by David in Comment, The web.add a comment
The internet has undoubtedly seen a relaxing of censorship in this country and others.
Things that were once banned can no longer be controlled by individual states because of the open architecture of the world wide web.
Of course, this hasn’t stopped some governments from trying.
China infamously blocks access to huge swathes of the web, something it is almost uniquely able to do because of its complete control of the country’s telecommunication system. In order to avoid being blocked itself, Google controversially agreed to censoring demands from the Chinese government.
No doubt there are numerous technically savvy citizens who can and do risk getting around the blocks in place behind this new, virtual iron curtain.
Australia has recently revealed ambitious – and surely ultimately futile – plans to make demands on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to censor access to certain content.
Under the proposal, all ISPs would have to block their users’ access to certain websites and content – something that is not only extremely difficult to implement, but also extremely easy to circumvent.
Not only are the Australian government’s plans expensive and technically of dubious feasibility, they also call into question the whole issue of censorship and who would decide what its citizens can and can’t see and under what circumstances would those decisions be made.
Go back a decade or so in this country and there were regular censorship calls from MPs who didn’t understand the impossibility of what they were demanding.
These days, our politicians attempt to win credibility points by making more attainable but equally futile arguments.
The latest comes from culture secretary, Andy Burnham who has said the government is looking at the possibility of introducing movie-style age ratings to websites in an attempt to guide us on their content.
Such a plan is doomed from the start for so many reasons.
Because it is unenforceable, the government have said it will be ‘optional’ which probably means a handful of UK sites for children would use it for a short while before abandoning it when it fails to take off.
It’s also reminiscent of Channel 4’s red triangle which was supposed to indicate adult content in a program and instantly became the first thing kids would look for when channel hopping on their bedroom tellies.
Common sense, supervision where necessary and an acceptance of reality are all we really need.
Windows 7 January 30, 2009
Posted by David in Comment, Microsoft.add a comment
The company may just have done enough to buoy up its sinking credibility. The positive reviews for Windows 7 are so far as plentiful as the pounding negativity that hit Vista in its early life.
I’ve not used it long enough to warrant anything approaching a fair review but I’ll say this with honesty – it feels like Vista but with all the annoying things fixed.
As well as simply being ‘Vista done right’, Windows 7 does have one or two noticeable interface changes. For the first time since the introduction of Windows 95, Microsoft has changed the look and functionality of the taskbar which is now twice as deep and features icons for active applications – which have a slightly embossed look to distinguish them from the other icons of user-chosen shortcuts.
If that’s a familiar sounding concept, the chances are you’ve used a Mac at some point in the past 10 years as it’s a blatant copy of the dock in Mac OS X.
Windows 7 could be unleashed as early as the summer. If you fancy trying the beta for yourself, Microsoft is making it available for another couple of weeks.