Center for Citizen Media

Interesting: MacMall is selling a Podcast Kit for podcast creators.

If you have the time and the inclination, our lunch-time discussion about citizen media at the Berkman Center is here (MP3 file). Ethan Zuckerman blogged it comprehensively and was unfazed by my tossing one of the questions to him (he knew much more about the topic). David Weinberger, who also has copious notes, decided that we’re heading toward the “end of coverage” (I disagree; but that’s for another time). In all, a terrific discussion…

Dave Winer has posted a Diagram for HyperCamp, which looks like a great way to hold a gathering. My only caveat: The blogging table may be too big. I’d have a few tables, with enough distance between them, where people could collect according to specific interest and hold a conversation while they were blogging.

I wonder what would happen if a traditional newspaper reconfigured its newsroom in such a way, even temporarily. Might produce some interesting journalism.

I’m at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society this week, doing paperwork, figuring out where to get coffee, getting a library card and Harvard ID, etc. Pictured are two of the Berkman Fellows, David Isenberg (left) and Ethan Zuckerman. (The photo is blurry on the right partly because I shot it with my Treo. Sorry.)

Denise Howell has a detailed blog posting about the American Bar Association panel I joined last week in southern California: “Who Owns The News? Attempts by sports organizations and entertainers to control coverage.”

My major point was that in the age of bottom-up media, controlling everything is impossible — and a lousy idea in any event.

Mark Glaser, one of the best journalists covering the emergent-media sphere, is launching MedaShift in conjunction with PBS. It’s bound to be terrific. More when it launches…

Danny Glover (National Journal): Beltway Blogroll: The Courtship Of The Blogosphere. The bloggers not only welcomed the lavish treatment and exclusive access bestowed upon them by the Republican National Committee and the Senate Republican Conference; they basked in it without reservation. They dropped names (White House adviser Karl Rove was the favorite), heaped praise on their news subjects and celebrated their chance to imbibe in the trappings of power.

Even for “independent” bloggers, access to power can be a heady experience. It doesn’t typically improve the journalism, as we’ve seen repeatedly.

Apple says no when I attempt to view one of its “Photocasting” pages with Firefox 1.5, the most up-to-date browser on the planet in most respects, and definitely the one that is becoming the browser of choice for many of us.

Photocasting with Apple’s iPhoto product is basically like podcasting with pictures — a relatively easy way to put your stuff on the Web for others to see. It’s a good idea.

But at the moment, Apple doesn’t want us using Firefox (and I don’t know what other browsers) to see the results. It insists on Safari, Apple’s own browser.

Kevin Yank calls Apple the “new Microsoft” — and in the case of online music there’s certainly some truth in that notion. I have to believe that in this case the problem is less mean-spirited. Apple probably rushed this product feature out the door, testing only on its own browsers. We’ll know soon, because if this exclusionary tactic persists, it will tell us mainly that Apple is more foolish than we might have guessed.

Joi Ito: Live Door raided last night. Horiemon has been rubbing old-school Japan the wrong way by challenging the establishment with clever financing and takeover attempts of the media etc. I can see how he would get targeted. On the other hand Japanese companies like his tend to be sloppy so I wouldn’t be surprised if they find something. It would be unfortunate if they end up slapping Livedoor down since I think he was serving an important function in Japanese business and this looks like a typical set-up.

The CEO of a company called Overstock.com turns the tables on Business Week by arranging Web publication of an e-mail interview:

Since you did nothing to indicate the interview was off-the-record I am treating it as on-the-record (that is the journalistic convention, I believe), and so have reprinted your letter below. I trust also that you do not mind me responding in this public forum, as you also failed to stipulate otherwise (as some reporters have when they interview me by email).

This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon. In We the Media I noted that the Pentagon has been posting transcripts of major interviews with the defense secretary (I cited this one in particular), and others have posted such exchanges as well.

But it’s a harbinger of a changed situation for journalists. They may think they’re working behind a curtain, able to make (what they choose of) what they’ve learned public when they wish. Increasingly, they’re not.

This strikes me as a new feature in the system, not a bug.