Below is my website...It's a iist of beloved, time-wasting websites. Very useful for finals week.

http://www.users.muohio.edu/karchld/IMS/

Have a great summer!

This article from Space.com may not be about breaking personal technology, but it does highlight the significance of seemingly trivial interactive internet features. NASA will be announcing the name of a new section of the international space station tomorrow on the Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert has mentioned the new module numerous times, hoping that it will be named for him. NASA held an online poll in which those interested could vote for or suggest names for the new module. Colbert's fans voted for the comedian more than 230,000 times.

I thought this story was interesting due to the viral aspect of a goofy cause like naming part of the space station after Stephen Colbert. Anything can reach cult status online.

ITunes' repackaging of songs and other downloads made for an interesting story on British news source The Guardian and other major news sites.

While the majority of downloadable songs will still be sold at 99 cents, a certain number of new hit songs will now be raised to $1.29. Many older catalog songs will now go for 69 cents. In addition, music retailers can now sell songs and albums packaged with videos, ringtones, and the like through iTunes' new, three-tiered pricing system.

This may not be the most exciting story (unless you, like me, know that all your favorite tunes will probably end up in the discount bin), but I find shifts in the online music industry interesting. The Apple brand seems to have helped iTunes survive the rise of illegal download sites, in part due to "exclusive" content. Somehow, the music industry may remain profitable.

I found this article interesting and kind of amusing. It discusses the use of blogs as a kind of relationship counseling, with people posting online what they really think about their significant others.

Some of the bloggers featured in the article find that blogging helps them sort out issues in their relationships and other areas of their lives. One woman claims that her husband reading her blog and responding in person has truly helped their marriage. Others have stories of breakups after a "secret" blog was found.

This seems a pretty risky game to me. Although writing down thoughts or feelings may be therapeutic, putting said feelings online may create a serious case of oversharing. One of my friends set up an online blog talking about her husband and their relationship, and, I'm ashamed to say, I check out their dysfunctional relationship whenever I'm feeling down. However, some people say blogging about personal issues helps them tremendously. It will be interesting to see if the trend in personal postings continues.

This article from Politico discusses "new media" in relation to the Obama administration. Unlike previous presidents and cabinets, this one is more than willing to address less traditional media sources. In recent press conferences, bloggers and reporters from distinctively liberal news organizations were given front row seats, and the president has paid more attention to reporters from blogs like the Huffington Post. In the article, communications officers discuss the advantages to speaking to niche news sources and target audiences. I find it interesting that this is one way that the shift to new media is manifesting itself.

My Favorite Things

Here's a list of some of my favorite things (and it's not even set to music)!

• The first day of spring


• Peach rings


• Bright c olors


• British late-80s punk rock


• Sending witty text messages to my friends


• The Onion

The blog .">Romanesko was one source featured in my annotated bibliography. Romanesko is an online news blog written by Jim Romanesko of the Poynter Institute, one of the most highly respected institutions in the journalistic world. The blog covers news in the media industry, and provides up-to-the-minute information on what is happening in news companies. There are usually a number of articles on advertising and revenue; the most recent crop includes stories such as the Associated Press’ decision to consider requiring subscriptions for web access to some news, news sites’ attempts to get their information linked to Google, and other business propositions in the news industry. Including some of these stories in the paper would integrate extremely timely examples of revenue-hunting in online world. I check it whenever I hear of a breaking story in the news industry - the blog is all over the Seattle Post-Intelligencer this week.

Here's my album cover...I used the "Speckle" tool to add interest to the image. I also highlighted layering - a new skill for me! - by placeing the edited photo onto the Photoshop page at an angle.

In a follow up to last week's post: Facebook retracted its policy changes pretty quickly. This article, from a blog linked to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, discusses the revocation of February 4's rulebook rewrite. Facebook is now using its old version of the user agreement, with no reference to the website owning users' personal information. The company is now working on making a new, "clearer" verson of the rules.

I find this speedy change telling of Facebook's relationship with its users. One advocacy group threatened to file a federal complaint, but really, would the federal government have forced changes upon a private company? It seems that the very fuel that makes the social networking site run, its relationship with the public, suffered because of the policy changes, and that the reversal was a simple result of the people speaking.

I found this article from cnet connected to our recent discussion about the rights of Facebook and other social networking sites. Recently, Facebook announced changes (or, rather, clarifications) to its policy regarding material posted on the site. The new policy has fewer limits on what the site can do with material posted by users, even after the users delete that material. The Consumerist, a blog site dealing with consumer advocacy issues, claims that the new rules seem to be saying, "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever." In addition, some artists, authors, and musicians are closing their Facebook accounts out of fears that work from which they hope to profit will be shared outside the site.

This all seems somewhat murky to me. Facebook officials say they are not claiming ownership of posted materials, and privacy settings still apply. With Facebook being a free application open to the public, it seems that people should be careful with what they post regardless of slight policy changes. It will be interesting to see where Mark Zuckerberg and the gang go with new rules in effect.

Voter disclosure laws, such as California's Political Reform Act of 1974, have made the names of donors to charitable and political causes public for years. However, the Internet makes this information easier to find than ever before, and websites such as the one discussed in this New York Times article, are creating controversy by flaunting donor information.

The article discusses eightmaps.com, a website listing the names, approximate locations, and employers of people who donated money to fund Proposition 8, the ballot measure to stop single-sex couples from marrying in California. With a few clicks, you can find the measure's backers in any ZIP code. Some of the donors have received threats and hatemail, and some of their businesses have been boycotted.

This is an issue that I have mixed feelings about. Although I understand that transparency is both necessary in the political system and required by law, there are some serious privacy issues here. However, information made public through sunshine laws is available for anyone to post on their blog, or, in this case, interactive website. There is some discussion of raising the minimum donation that must be reported, protecting the identity of donors of small amounts. There have also been suggested that state websites providing donor information request downloaders' indentity. I don't forsee huge changes coming to transparency law any time soon, however.

While checking out programmableweb.com, I really liked the Congress Spacebook mashup. It's like a parody Facebook for Congress members. I look up information on these people frequently for class, and I enjoyed seeing all their "stats" displayed in a humorous way.

While browsing for a news story, I found this opinion blog from Techdirt.com and felt that, although it isn't a new issue, the topic of copyright laws and technology is an interesting one. The blog's author contends that copyright laws will soon be obsolete due to the extensive file-sharing capabilities the Internet offers. 

I felt the blog post had a good point: when consumers can fileshare at will, what difference will copyright laws make? However, he also stated that "the average consumer" hasn't felt the full effect of online file availability, but that copyrights will be obsolete within a year. Certainly nearly every "average consumer" must know something about file sharing. Even those that don't participate are aware of the fact that iTunes isn't the cheapest place to download music if you're ignoring copyright laws. In addition, corporations in the media and entertainment industry are constantly striving to limit file piracy. It appears that, though copyrights will continue to be violated at an increasingly fast pace, they're not going anywhere any time soon.

You have a paper due, and though your bibliography fills pages, you're still not exactly sure of the difference between a republic and a democracy. You're on the phone with a friend, hearing about her plans vacation in Monteray...is that in California or one of those other warm states? You place a bet with a friend when you're sure that that song is by Led Zepplin and he says it's the Rolling Stones and you say the two bands don't even sound the same. Where do you turn when your grades, your reputation, or even ten dollars stands on the line?

Wikipedia, of course.

But this article from MSNBC points out that Wikipedia isn't always the ultimate source for the ultimate truth. When Senator Ted Kennedy was hospitalized after suffering a seizure Tuesday, Wikipedia was the first to post the news...of his death. It took several editing tries for Wiki's avatars to correct Kennedy's entry and lose the section of his life story where he died. 

The article's author poses an interesting claim here: even though Wikepedia serves as an encyclopediac reference, it's the first place people look when they want to know whether something's true. Why check CNN or MSNBC for late-breaking news when the information you want is available (though at the end of the entry) on Wikipedia? The piecing of information from multiple sources into single comprehensive entries appeals to us. However, incidences such as this serve to remind us that Wikipedia isn't infallible. 

In class today, Ms. Hartsell-Gundy mentioned that watching live streaming coverage of the presidential inauguration supported the objectives of IMS 201 through showing the power of the Internet. Although it seemed a bit of a stretch, I think that she had a pretty good point. After class I returned to my room, where my roommate and I discussed whether we should watch CNN on our television or online. She considered buying a podcast of the ceremony on iTunes. The array of viewing options for this historical event is certainly wider than they have been for any inaugurations in the past. This blog from the BBC discusses these new coverage options and ways in which news corporations and viewers will use them.

The author says that some events, such as this one, are "classic television events," the kind of story that audiences want to sit back and watch. However, viewers increasingly want to participate in events. I found the ways in which audiences can interact with online coverage very interesting. Blogging, Twitter messages, photo posts - the Internet can make every citizen a news correspondent. CNN's request that people in attendance at the inauguration send in photos taken at exactly noon is one example of the way that media companies are using interactive technology and the everyman to enrich their broadcasts and online material. It aslo seems that online media allows more accessibility and archivablility than prior media, granting anyone with Internet access lasting access to historical recordings.

In work for another class, I recently read this article highlighting one writer's work for the Huffington Post, a liberal news website and blog. The Post offers material written by freelance, unpaid bloggers as well as links to other, more traditional news sources.

The above article discusses the changing face of news reporting and work in the field. Since readers are increasingly checking sites like the Huffington Post instead of sites with articles by paid reporters, the job market for professional  journalists is narrowing. New voices are being heard in news reporting, as anyone can publish their ideas and observations online. 

The article also discusses one aspect I see as a downside to the Internet's reinvention of journalism: the "buffet-style" form of news. Individuals can search for news on websites of a single political persuasion (such as the Post) or search "buffet-style" for stories that confirm, instead of argue against, their own beliefs.

As a journalism major, I check the Huffington Post and other news blogs frequently. This article reminded me of some of the many ways that online publishing affects the field of journalism.