• Blogging detective Night Jack joins Orwell Prize judges
  The detective whose eloquent, award-winning blog illuminated the darker corners of 21st-century law enforcement – and landed him in trouble with his superiors – is returning to the literary beat to judge the prize that made his name.
  (tags: blogging)
• C&binet: The mice that roared. Or at least wrote some things on Post-Its
  "For me, it is significant that this happened at all. Normally these sorts of events are dominated by large publishers with lobbying muscle. Yet here we had a group combining hyperlocal bloggers, successful startups like Facebook, Ground Report, Global Voices and the Huffington Post, social media figures like Nick Booth and Jon Bounds, and traditional organisations like The Guardian, BBC, RSA and Ofcom. Jeff Jarvis pitched into the mix via Skype."
  (tags: citizenjournalism hyperlocal)

• Watch Free Online Free Movies | blinkbox
  (tags: video)
• Jeff Jarvis: 'The future is entrepreneurial not institutional'
  "We have to support the means for entrepreneurial journalism," Professor Jeff Jarvis argued at the 'Is World Journalism in Crisis?' event at Coventry University on Wednesday.
  (tags: future journalism business)
• UK journalists on Twitter Update
  Really useful list.
  (tags: twitter journalism)
• Outside.in
  Local news in 57,830 neighborhoods
  (tags: community hyperlocal)
• NowPublic Blog – NowPublic.com
  NowPublic is a participatory news network which mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In twelve short months, the company has become one of the fastest growing news organizations with thousands of reporters in over 140 countries.
  (tags: citizenjournalism journalism collaboration community)
• Spot.us – Home
  Hyperlocal example
  (tags: community hyperlocal)
• Baristanet
  Hyperlocal example
  (tags: hyperlocal community)
• Curbed : The New York City neighborhoods and real estate blog
  Hyperlocal example
  (tags: community hyperlocal)
• Gothamist: New York City News, Food, Arts & Events
  Hyperlocal example
  (tags: hyperlocal community)

• noticings : the game of noticing things around you
  "You play Noticings by uploading your photos to Flickr, tagged with 'noticings' and geotagged with where they were taken. We've got some instructions to help you out. "
  (tags: flickr social gaming)
• Building Rome in a Day
  "In this project, we consider the problem of reconstructing entire cities from images harvested from the web. Our aim is to build a parallel distributed system that downloads all the images associated with a city, say Rome, from Flickr.com. "
  (tags: flickr geotagging mapping crowdsourcing photos)
• Gawker Scammed By Malware Crew Pretending To Be Suzuki
  "Gawker–no babes in the woods on this issue–have been kind enough to share their correspondence with the scammers… Publishers have been warned!"
  (tags: advertising internet marketing)
• PicTranslator Turns Your iPhone's Camera into a Language Translator
  You just take a picture of the text you want translated, choose the language you want to translate from, and let PicTranslator work its magic. Once you know the (hopefully correct) translation, you can even ask PicTranslator to help you pronounce the foreign-language version.
  (tags: iphone mobile translator)
• 118 118 signs first brands to advertise in targeted text messages
  "The service is looking to capitalise on the high volume of calls it receives from mobile phones – around 50% – by selling ads in the courtesy SMS messages it sends each customer. Ads will also be included in its text question-and-answer messages."
  (tags: advertising)
• Most young people are open to brands on social media
  "More than three-quarters of people under 35 are happy for brands to contact them on social media sites, but half would leave a site if it became too commercial."
  (tags: marketing socialmedia)
• Happy birthday banner ad…bet you wish click through rates were still 78%
  "How times have changed. 78% click-through? I now usually use the figure of 0.83%. But it seems if anything I was being generous as a Comscore blog post cites an even lower figure – 0.08%."
  (tags: advertising business)
• News Corp and News International in first joint targeting push
  "Using behavioural targeting specialist AudienceScience, whose technology runs individually across each site, the campaign targets high net-worth rugby fans. Through the sponsorship, England captain Steve Borthwick will tweet his thoughts before and after games, which will be shown within the ads."
  (tags: newscorp advertising business)
• Sony Ericsson kicks off first online flash mob
  "At 3pm on Thursday the Yahoo portal will see thousands of user-created Space Hoppers jump out of a Sony Ericsson MPU and move across the page."
  (tags: marketing)
• Yahoo in talks to offer real-time search, according to reports
  "Yahoo is believed to be in the final stage of talks with OneRiot, a real-time search engine that aggregates results from social networks to integrate real-time results into its existing search engine."
  (tags: search)
• Hechinger announces new nonprofit to cover education
  "Quoth the release: “The Hechinger Report will collaborate with print, broadcast and online news organizations and also produce coverage on its own for broadcast and publication and for distribution on a new website to be launched next spring.”
  (tags: journalism business)
• Social Media and Advertising – The State of the debate
  4. Community Management
  "Not just about moderation, more like being a host at a party, creating conversation, external outreach"
  (tags: socialmedia)
• Twitter Multiple Users and Accounts | TweetFunnel
  "TweetFunnel will put you firmly in control of your organization’s Twitter use and help you to generate more consistent and varied content for your audience."
  (tags: twitter socialnetworking business socialmedia marketing tools)
• Don't let BSkyB avoid pay-TV regulations, urge rivals
  BSkyB should not be allowed to use Project Canvas, the venture to bring video on demand programming to Freeview and Freesat viewers, as a loophole to avoid proposed pay-TV regulations, Virgin Media and BT have said in a submission to Ofcom.
  (tags: newscorp business video)
• Wall Street Journal continues European push
  "From 17 November, the edition gets an editorial revamp while europe.wsj.com will expand with more online-only news, blogs and email alerts. Dow Jones is also stepping up its events strategy for the UK and Europe. "
  (tags: business newspapers websites)
• The Sun pays damages to Labour MP Tom Watson
  "Lawyers for Sun publisher News Group Newspapers, a subsidiary of News International, said today that the paper accepted the stories were untrue. The Sun has agreed to pay Watson's legal costs and "a substantial sum" in damages. Watson, a former minister who serves on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, was not in court today, but his solicitors, Carter-Ruck, confirmed the settlement."
  (tags: Law)
• A Graphic History of Newspaper Circulation Over the Last Two Decades
  "Some surprising trends: the New York Post has the same circulation it had two decades ago! Also, the once-captivating battle of the New York City tabloids has become completely moot."
  (tags: newspapers journalism business)

I write this with extreme trepidation and it is for this reason that I want to make the following clear from the start:

I personally do not condone the opinions or actions of Jan Moir or AA Gill.

Got it? Good. Right.

Now I am hoping there might be people out there who can help me to get to the bottom of my discomfort with regard these two recent events.

I’ve seen many use the Jan Moir affair as an example of democracy in action. It is certainly true that the will of many people led to the removal of advertising from an offensive and homophobic article and an apology from its author.

Now you can’t say that’s a bad thing… can you? So why do I feel so uneasy about it?

I think it’s not about the events themselves, but the implications of online collective action.

I’ve found it a hard thing to unpick. Having spoken to a few people about it, I can still only come up with fragments that go some way to explaining it.

These are:

• The appearance of collective action is remarkably easy online, with many individuals able to contribute in small ways (a retweet, joining a Facebook group, writing a short blog post). But this also means responsibility for this action is fragmented. This puts such action in a strange space where it can wield huge power, but no one has ultimate responsibility for it. So what happens if the consequences of a collective action are severe?
• While the internet offers the chance for everyone to speak, it generally favours the voices of a particular socio-economic, digitally literate group of people who communicate on some specific platforms that those in power seem to listen to.
• The internet is a very public form of protest and, because these outcries are seen to be published and can have implications on search results (now a huge part of an individual or organisation’s reputation), authorities seems to react to them quicker than traditional forms of protest.

I’m aware I’m opening myself up to criticism. After all, I work in “the media”. If you ever wanted to find an example of collective action wielding unintended consequences, you are going to find it in my industry. I’m not defending it and I’m certainly not suggesting this rapidly growing form of protest should be banned. It’s a powerful and useful tool.

But, with anything that’s powerful, there is always a dark side and, while not a perfect system, I guess with the media there is still an editor to sack, a product to boycott, a PCC to complain to.

If those who had taken online action had got it wrong, if their action resulted in libel, invasion of privacy, injury or death, what would have happened?

• News consortia must redraw local news map, forge partnerships, says ITN
  Speaking at a Westminster Media Forum event yesterday on the future of local media, John Hardie said the government's plans for a series of independently funded news consortia (IFNC) – made up of newspaper, radio and television groups – should involve separate contracts for England, Scotland and Wales.
  (tags: hyperlocal)
• What Jan Moir can teach us about handling an Internet brand crisis
  This shift for media organisations isn't going to go away. In fact, with ubiquitous mobile broadband not far over the horizon, a hyper-connected society might also turn out to be a hyper-indignant one. The question is, as a business, what are you doing about it?
  (tags: reputation pr socialmedia twitter newspapers internet)
• 100 notable multimedia professionals
  Included are 100 notable data visualization specialists, graphics artists, videographers, photographers, interactive designers, programmers, storytellers, visual journalists and Web developers.
  (tags: multimedia journalism)
• How much should a newspaper cost?
  "…how about regarding newspapers as a premium product, based on the idea that those who want them are prepared to pay – as much as a fancy cup of coffee?"
  (tags: business newspapers)
• Social Media Time Management: Resource Allocation
  (tags: community socialmedia social)
• Facebook and MySpace in talks over content-sharing deal
  If the deal goes ahead, Facebook users will be able to share MySpace music and video footage using the Facebook Connect platform.
  (tags: socialmedia socialnetworking myspace)
• Sky launches on-demand service via Xbox Live
  Microsoft today unveiled a new update for its Xbox 360 video game system that will bring Sky TV to UK subscribers to its paid-for Xbox Live service.
  (tags: video gaming)
• Google launches Social Search
  Google Social Search will serve content in search results taken from social networks including Twitter, YouTube and Blogger when users are logged into their iGoogle profile.
  (tags: google launches social search)
• Fear of apples
  People are afraid of tax accountants, iPods, chiropractors, non-profits, insurance brokers and fancy hotels. They're afraid of anything with too many choices, too many opportunities to look foolish or to waste time or money.
  (tags: marketing business training brand)
• Associated Newspapers plans to close London Lite
  "There were profitable weeks for the London Lite since the closure of the London Paper, but taking everything under consideration they can't see their way forward to long-term profitability," a source said.
  (tags: newspapers)
• I have volunteered to leave the Birmingham Post after 21 years
  "Last week Trinity Mirror, the company that owns the Birmingham Post, announced 41 journalists in the Midlands are to lose their jobs by the end of the year. I am offering to leave as part of the cull.
  Why?
  I want to leave so I can become a writer who is as competent in the digital arena as I currently am in print."
  (tags: journalism employment)

• Passport photos for free – ePassportPhoto.com
  ePassportPhoto.com is the Internet passport photo booth, empowering people around the world to make free and valid passport photos. We put an end to the passport photo rip-off – join our revolution today by following 3 simple steps for making free passport photos!
  (tags: photo photos tools)
• Task.fm – Free SMS and Email Reminders
  task.fm is the worlds fastest productivity tool. create smart reminders right from your email
  (tags: tools personal mobile)

• The post-crisis consumer
  John Gerzema speaking at TEDxKC, he identifies four major cultural shifts driving new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending.
• Marc Koska: 1.3m reasons to re-invent the syringe
  Reuse of syringes, all too common in under-funded clinics, kills 1.3 million each year. Marc Koska clues us in to this devastating global problem with facts, photos and hidden-camera footage. He shares his solution: a low-cost syringe that can't be used twice.
• The danger of the single story
  "I can also understand why the lady is so annoyed of the fact that people refer to her as from Africa and refer to Africa as a country rather than a continent. Eastern Europe is also often referred to as an entire region where all citizens in general have problems. And during the in former Yugoslavia many tourists avoided Bulgaria for I don’t know what reason. We did not feel any impact of the wars here."
  (tags: journalism story culture)
• Newspaper economics – all you need to know
  A very informative two pages from "The Story of Newspapers" – A Ladybird 'Achievements' Book
  (tags: business newspapers)

• Google Wave, transparency* and engagement
  "A journalist using a wave is asking people to collaborate wiki-style in information-gathering – in fact, s/he should be writing the article in the wave, so contributors can participate in living, breathing news-making – a space where they can throw questions, facts and comments in themselves – not be served up a flat, one-dimensional statement of facts that ends when the story is thought to be the required amount of words."
  (tags: google)
• Beatblogging – what is it?
  "…any potential applicants are invited to put their questions during a forum I’m taking part in about developing journalism roles which will be held next Thursday, October 22 between 1pm and 4pm at http://careers.guardian.co.uk/forums."
  (tags: hyperlocal journalism)
• Why Your Idea to Save Journalism Won't Work (a checklist)
  I love this!
  (tags: journalism future business)

• Comments sections can bring readers together
  "Lovely example of fans using a venue's comments section to arrange a meetup before a gig"
  (tags: socialmedia socialnetworking)
• Happn.in | Local Twitter Trends
  "When you buy an ad on Happn.in, you are buying both a full Tweet Ad that will go out to all the followers of that city and space on that city's page and trend lists for the day."
  (tags: advertising)

• Trendsmap – Real-time local Twitter trends
  (via @blockbusterbuzz)
  (tags: twitter maps socialmedia)