The paper laid off 31 more people in the newsroom, cutting the staff to approximately half the size of the 2000 peak, just before the first Internet bubble burst. So many good people are gone, and many remain. But the ones who are left can’t sustain the same excellent journalism that we once took so much pride in delivering — and people around Silicon Valley know it.
A sad day, but here’s the reality: There are most likely sadder days to come for this once-ambitious organization.
NY Times: Survey Finds Action on Information Requests Can Take Years. The Freedom of Information Act requires a federal agency to provide an initial response to a request within 20 days and to provide the documents in a timely manner. But the oldest pending request uncovered in a new survey of 87 agencies and departments has been awaiting a response for 20 years, and 16 requesters have been waiting more than 15 years for results.
Given the utter lack of incentive to cooperate with FOI requests, this should not be surprising. Some state laws do it better, forcing taxpayers to pay the legal bills when agencies break the law. The feds ignore it because they can.
The story also notes that the State Department declined to comment because no one had reviewed the study. I wonder if any journalist will bother to keep after the department for an answer. But somehow I doubt it.
New York Times Magazine: All the News That’s Fit to Print Out. Nothing is easier than taking shots at Wikipedia, and its many mistakes (most often instances of deliberate vandalism) are schadenfreude’s most renewable resource. But given the chaotic way in which it works, the truly remarkable thing about Wikipedia as a news site is that it works as well as it does. And what makes it work is a relatively small group of hard-core devotees who will, the moment big news breaks, drop whatever they’re doing to take custody of the project and ensure its, for lack of a better term, quality control. Though Wikiculture cringes at the word “authority,” in a system where a small group of people has the ability to lock out the input of a much larger one, it’s pure semantics to call that small group’s authority by any other name.
This is an important article, in part because it demystifies a process that many folks have found beyond bizarre. But the authority the author describes is a different kind than the top-down authority of traditional work. For the most part, the people exercising the authority are able to do so by general agreement in the community, not by fiat.
Anyone can take the Wikipedia content and create something new from it, anytime he or she wants to try. Yet people return to it, not because they trust it absolutely but because they have more faith in the processes used to get close to the truth.
Mark Glaser (PBS MediaShift): 10 Reasons There’s a Bright Future for Journalism.
UPDATED
So I’ve just helped a friend set up a new iPhone, and have played with it a bit. The experience has reinforced my decision to steer clear of the most shamelessly overhyped consumer product since Windows 95.
The simple fact is that for all its admirable features — and there are many — this feels like a beta product. That is, it strikes me as product still very early in development, with many flaws and needed upgrades. And that’s apart from the extreme control-freakishness of this device: Apple and AT&T have decided what you need, and that’s that.
As noted, there’s plenty to like about the thing, with the larger screen heading the list. The display icons are gorgeous to look at. The phone feels fine in the hand, though it’s quite heavy, and has a genuinely advanced user interface that (one hopes) will push other mobile device makers to dramatically improve their own products’ ease of use.
But not only is the iPhone lacking in some key features and only works with AT&T’s mobile system — see my previous posting — the features it does have leave plenty to be desired.
The setup ignored some of the instructions about which phone numbers to import into the phone. It sucked everything into the device despite an attempt to get only a small subset of contacts.
The wifi setup is flaky, at least on a home network that requires a logon and password. It insisted on using AT&T’s low-speed digital network even though the wifi was supposedly turned on. The setup screens offered no help on this. (Help, in general, is in short supply on the phone itself.)
The browser is nice enough in landscape mode, given the size of the screen. But it’s not all that much better than running the Nokia N95 browser in landscape mode.
One nice touch is the touchscreen’s ability to let you pull the browser window sideways, or up or down, using a finger. (Give the absence of other controls, of course, there was no alternative. I’d like to have the touchscreen on the Nokia.)
The on-screen keyboard isn’t bad if you’re “typing” in landscape mode in the Web browser, because the keypad is sufficiently large to help you avoid errors. But if you’re trying to create an SMS message in the phone’s portrait mode (it doesn’t adjust to the sideways view except in the browser, as far as I could discover), be prepared for major frustration; unless you have tiny thumbs you’ll keep hitting the wrong “keys” and then delete what you’ve typed.
Amazingly, there’s no instant messaging, not even Apple iChat. Not much doubt about what’s going on there: AT&T will make a bundle with SMS. (I tried Web-based SMS, but Apple’s refusal to let Flash run on the phone nixed the Yahoo IM, and despite multiple tries I couldn’t get my AOL IM to work, either.)
The sound quality of the phone was okay, but not great. I heard an echo on one call we made.
The mail feature is good. Still, as with everything but the browser, don’t bother to try to type on the thing in landscape mode.
None of the modes I used let me select, cut and paste text. That’s bizarre, to say the least.
The camera is adequate, and that’s the best you can say about it. There’s no video recording mode.
The onboard speaker was decent, but nothing special. The ring and alarm tones were excellent in variety and cleverness, but for now you’re stuck with those; no doubt Apple and AT&T will use their walled garden to wring dollars out of anyone who wants to offer alternatives.
But when I plugged my Bose headset into the device, it didn’t work. Apparently it needs an adapter — now that’s shabby.
Some of the device’s drawbacks can and no doubt will be solved with software improvements. Some can’t and won’t, at least not in the U.S. version, where AT&T is the only carrier and — unlike GSM phones most places on the planet — the phone is locked to a specific kind of SIM chip from that carrier only.
Even more amazing — and outrageous — is that the device is absolutely unusable in any capacity until it’s activated with the phone company. Want to use it just for WiFi-based Web browsing, plus video and audio and note-taking? Forget it. I can’t think of another phone, however locked to the carrier it may otherwise be for calling purpose, that is this locked-down. Plainly, this is Apple’s concession to AT&T, but it utterly stinks.
(One small favor from these control-freakish companies: If an iPhone customer has to send the device back for repairs — an all-too-common occurrence with early versions of Apple hardware — the SIM chip will work in a non-Apple GSM phone.)
Then there’s the non-removable battery, which is designed only for a few hundred charge cycles. That will steer people — no doubt this is idea — toward new phones in two years when the service contract runs out.
The New York Times’ Joe Nocera couldn’t get a straight answer from Apple on the battery issue, which is no surprise given Apple’s secretive and arrogant ways. All he did get, as he noted, was non-responsive spin from robotic PR minions.
So my bottom line is this: I would consider buying an iPhone when Apple starts selling it in Europe or Asia with 3G capabilities; when I can install a SIM chip from the GSM/3G carrier of my choice, not Apple’s; when the early software flaws get fixed; and numerous other improvements occur.
Meanwhile, I’d advise anyone considering one of these devices in the U.S. to wait for the next version. The initial product doesn’t come close to living up to the hype.
(Clarification: I originally said the SIM was locked away inside the phone. It turns out that it can be taken out and reseated if it comes loose, but the phone won’t work with another carrier’s SIM, which is the fundamental point.)
UPDATED
NY Times: New York City May Seek Permit and Insurance for Many Kinds of Public Photography. Some tourists, amateur photographers, even would-be filmmakers hoping to make it big on YouTube could soon be forced to obtain a city permit and $1 million in liability insurance before taking pictures or filming on city property, including sidewalks.
Combine money-grubbing officials with paranoia, and you get this absurd situation…
Update: Jon Garfunkel, in the comments and in an email, persuades me that I was unfair in this posting by assuming only one side. Nonetheless, the ACLU’s concerns (in the article) strike me as more believable than the city’s assurances.
Jack Shafer again nails the inane hypefest for the iPhone in “iPhone suck-up watch. Be sure to follow his link to Josh Quittner’s on-the-mark critique (though there’s a tinge of jealousy in the piece, as he didn’t get one of the phones for early review).
Look, the iPhone does look like something of a breakthrough in some ways. But its drawbacks preclude me from even considering it at this point:
1. It’s only available with AT&T’s crummy network and customer service, not to mention the company’s recent decision to become Hollywood’s partner in spying on customers‘ Internet activities, not to mention its outrageous coziness with government snoops.
2. Despite running a version of the Mac OS X operating system, the phone is locked down in its software capabilities, which means that third-party software developers — and therefore customers — are out of luck if they want the kind of applications that have made other smart phones so versatile. Apple’s claim that there’s enough flexibility in the Web browser for third party development is beyond ludicrous; it’s downright insulting.
3. Despite being a GSM phone — a good thing for international travel — it lacks the modern 3G capabilities that international travelers need. (This won’t bother most folks, but for me it’s yet another deal-killer).
4. As far as I can tell, it can’t be used as a modem with a PC or Mac, something I do on occasion with my current phone when out of range of a broadband or wireless network.
5. Did I mention AT&T?
Note: I’m currently using a Nokia N95, on loan from the company to test for journalistic possibilities. I’m going to buy it, even though it costs more than the iPhone. For now, the N95 is, in my opinion, the absolute class of the field when it comes to high-end capabilities.
In my keynote at the OhmyNews forum today, one of the things I cited as an idea with intriguing potential for news purposes was Twittergram, a service created by Dave Winer in the past few weeks. It connects audio with Twitter.
From my perspective the best part of it is the way it shows how Web APIs are making it increasingly possible to create new applications, quickly and relatively easily. Journalists are grossly behind the curve on this stuff, with a few exceptions, and they need to understand how many new tools they’re missing — but could use to great effect if they took the time to learn about them.
At the OhmyNews International Citizen Reporters’ Forum, I’d planned to be posting regular updates. Unfortunately, the wireless system requires a download that only works with Windows, which means those of us using Macs are out of luck. South Korea got in bed with Microsoft some years back, and this is the result.
Editor & Publisher’s headline is “Newspaper Legends Fire Away at Murdoch-Dow Jones Editorial Plan,” but it quotes at least one serious journalist saying people shouldn’t assume the worst.
Assume the worst. Murdoch, who is now very likely to own Dow Jones, has a long and extremely clear history. The “agreement” he’s made to assure editorial quality is absurd on its face. He will muck with the paper, and he will have a right to — because he’ll be the owner.
The Bancroft family wanted more money. That’s their right. No one else stepped up to buy the paper. That’s their right.
Journalism will be poorer if this deal takes place. And it seems it will.