Monday, September 1, 2008

60 or So Sites in 60 or So Minutes

Always a Reporter: All the Place, All the Time
Where the hell are you and what are you up to?

Twitter: Don't answer the question, what are you doing all the time. Can be used for news gathering and reporting.
  • C-Span: Example. Twittering of political conventions
BrightKite: Your position in the world. Still testing this but has possibilities

FriendFeed: Everything your friends have been doing in one place

Facebook: How people are sharing information these days.

Tumblr: Lifeline feed. Great for tidbits, quick links.
  • Example: A California Girl in Kansas
Linked-In: Professional Facebook. On-line resume and connections.

MySpace: More popular, "blue-collar," great if you're forming a rock band. Some journalists like it better.

Ning: DIY social networking
Yelp: Restaurants, nightlife, events, reviews

Evernote: multimedia platform

Ping.FM Manage all your social media from one hub.

Video, audio, photos, podcasts
We can all report text, produce audio, video and publish stills

Vimeo: some like quality better

YouTube: More popular, bigger audience potential

Qik: Live streaming from your cell phone. Great live news potential. Doesn't work with all phones.

http://www.freeconferencecall.com/

Cover it Live Excellent way to do a live chat or live blog with a source or multiple subjects in various locations.

Flickr Can use Flickr widgets to create slide shows and to upload photos from photos in remote locations.

http://buzznet.com

Picnik Free photo editing app.

Picasa An alternative to Picnik that I use on my blog. It can also be used to create slide shows that can be embedded in your articles or blog entries. I'm seeing more and more Picasa slide shows on mainstream news sites.

YOUSENDit Great way to send very large files without having an FTP site.

Mogulus Live video broadcast platform

Blogging Platforms and Resources
How do I get started?
Blogger.com

WordPress

BlogRankings

Google Analytics

SiteMeter An alternative to Google. I use both on my site. Google Analytics isn't real time. SiteMeter is and, for a bit more, is even more robust.

Learning

How will this help me in my day job (or help me keep my day job)

Beat Blogging

Howard Rheingold
Mindy McAdams

Howard Owens

Stanford Digital Media Journalism Course notes

Poynter's EMedia Tidbits

Contentious.com Amy Gahran's (one of the tidbit authors) blog about communicating in the online age.

Knight Digital Media Center

News Videographer

Vocalo.org A citizen journalism site that aims to teach everyday Joes how to become radio broadcasters. Great resource for learning what audio equipment to buy and how to use it.

BBC Training Site


Getting the news

Google Reader The best Google's new browser (just announced this week) may mean the end to such sites because the browser will set it up automagically, kind of like how Amazon.com creates your page of recommendations & such.

Technorati Find blogs

All-Top Guy Kawasaki's new site. Collected it himself get blog suggestions from people on Twitter and perhaps other sources. He has a template that he plugs the info into, and bam... he's got another topic covered. Notice, too, that each topic has a couple of suggestions of related topics that might interest you (on the right side of the colored bar toward the bottom of the page).

Addict-o-matic Similar to All-Top but more than just blogs. Dave Pell, Founder: The victim of internet overuse, a short attention span and a dwindling social life, Dave has been working with, investing in, and getting addicted to internet companies for more than a decade.

OpenPress (making news) An alternative to releasing your own statements outside of for-profit orgs like PRNewswire and Business Wire.

Social Networking
Find it, save it, share it with others

Digg It: social bookmarking One of the more popular news sharing sites. What are you reading? What are others reading? More entertainment geared. Comments can be annoying: flaming is sometimes the order of the day.

StumbleUpon: more passive readers, fewer comments, more socially based. What are people with similar interests reading.

Delicious: easier to organize, tag and share with others.

Reliable research
Oldies but goodies
Library of Congress

Centers for Disease Control

Census Bureau

CIA Library

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Drug Enforcement Administration

ICE

Criminal Searches

Supreme Court of the U.S.

Edgar

Google Maps

Google Earth

Google Alerts

The Smoking Gun

WhoIS

Wikipedia (Use with caution. Great starting point)

Newspaper Association of America (great way to find local papers)

Workflow

Life hack

Getting Things Done

Basecamp
or
BackPackIT

Fact Checking

Merriam Webster Dictionary Online

Internet Movie Database (pop culture references)

HighBeam Encyclopedia

Snopes Rumor Busting/Confirming Site. This is my favorite site for debunking the hordes of email forwards my cousin passes along about conspiracy theories and supposed true crime warnings.

Check These Out
If You're Not Overwhelmed By Now

Google Guide for Advanced Operators

Chris Brogan's 50 Online Applications and Sites to Consider


Internet Scout Report