Merry Christmas a day late, friends. Some of you have noticed that I have been unusually quiet on my blogs, my facebook, my phone ... yes, I have been incommunicado.
I am up at my parents' place in central-northernish Ontario in a small town called South River. My parents have internet, but it is dialup. They have a phone, but they have to pay for each long distance call.
I don't know whether my expectations have changed, or whether their internet is not working right. Regardless of the reason, I can't do a thing with their internet except read other people's webpages. I can receive, but even doing a simple email is a big challenge. (Some applications do work .. I've been trying to see which of my various transmission tools still work .. for some reason I can get into Blogger but not into Facebook. I can get into my Gmail account but my Magma account is hit and miss).
It's frustrating not being able to be a transmitter, but it's also a good reminder that the digital divide exists. And not just in the third world, but here in our own country. Things that we take for granted in the wired city just don't always work as well .. or at all .. out in the woods.
I hadn't really thought too much about this before my trip to Kenya. One of the panels I cohosted at the conference I attended was "Bridging the Digital Divide". The focus of the panel was to discover what the issues around connectivity were between journalists in the first and the third worlds ... I didn't do a lot of prep before I got over there because I really had no idea how big the digital divide really was.
What I found out in Kenya was: a) high speed isn't necessarily high speed .. there is not much fibre optic cable to get the signal out so they rely on satellite. Which isn't always fast b) most people go to internet cafes run by the private sector to access internet, which means that people have to pay for internet access and c) most phones are cell phones which don't work so well for internet. So most people don't have internet access. And the other thing which stands in the way of equal access is the size of websites ... many websites are now too big to load properly. I am becoming much more aware of why small is better ... some websites may contain vital information, yet can't be read properly because they're too big for the pipe to handle.
Up here in South River, there are also connectivity issues. There is dialup, but high speed is just coming to town in the new year. It hasn't been here yet because it's in a less populated area. The town will be connected to cable internet, but out here on the lake, it will be satellite, connected via a tower a couple of roads over. But we still don't know if we can get it because we may be too far or at the wrong angle from the tower. So even in a wealthy country like Canada, connectivity is not guaranteed.
Why should we care about whether or not people have access to the internet? For a lot of reasons ... but mostly because the internet is not a niche interest anymore ... it has grown to the point where it is now an essential technology to connect with the rest of the world. And if we have two different standards, some people are going to be shut out.
Like I am right now. This holiday with only a bit of internet is very nice .. I am glad I can't spend all my time on the internet. And I am developing much more of an understanding of the challenges of communicating from semi-connected places on the planet. (Facebook doesn't work at all up here! But I am also looking forward to getting back to the city so I can communicate in the ways I'm used to.
Until then .. email me at vlfenner@gmail.com ..that one seems to work .. it was also my best bet in Africa.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Editorial jobs in China
This could be an editorial challenge ... check your ideas about objectivity and freedom of the press at the door??
The China Daily newspaper group is looking for English-language copy editors and writers to beef up its international team. We offer a competitive salary package, free accommodation with utilities paid for, medical coverage, and annual ticket to country of residence.
Senior copy editors
You will assist the editors of the National, Business, International, Features and Sports departments in setting goals and working on achieving them.
You should be an excellent team person who can generate ideas and think creatively, be able to rewrite totally if needed and mentor junior staff.
Ideally, you are working, or have worked, in a position of responsibility and understand what leadership entails.
You should be familiar with computer programs used in the industry.
Copy editors
You’ll work on shifts in different departments and usually have the last word before the page is sent to print.
You have to edit or rewrite copy and give snappy headlines and captions.
You would have had at least two year’s editing experience working on editing desks and be familiar with industry software.
Writers
You would have been a writer/reporter in a newspaper for at least two years and, depending on your skills, you will be assigned to one of the major departments.
If you’re interested and think you fit the bill, write to job@chinadaily.com.cn, and send your CV and samples of your work.
The China Daily newspaper group is looking for English-language copy editors and writers to beef up its international team. We offer a competitive salary package, free accommodation with utilities paid for, medical coverage, and annual ticket to country of residence.
Senior copy editors
You will assist the editors of the National, Business, International, Features and Sports departments in setting goals and working on achieving them.
You should be an excellent team person who can generate ideas and think creatively, be able to rewrite totally if needed and mentor junior staff.
Ideally, you are working, or have worked, in a position of responsibility and understand what leadership entails.
You should be familiar with computer programs used in the industry.
Copy editors
You’ll work on shifts in different departments and usually have the last word before the page is sent to print.
You have to edit or rewrite copy and give snappy headlines and captions.
You would have had at least two year’s editing experience working on editing desks and be familiar with industry software.
Writers
You would have been a writer/reporter in a newspaper for at least two years and, depending on your skills, you will be assigned to one of the major departments.
If you’re interested and think you fit the bill, write to job@chinadaily.com.cn, and send your CV and samples of your work.
Monday, December 17, 2007
More adventures in Web 2.0
I just got back from Ottawa where I did a workshop on podcasting and was able to talk to others who might be interested in hosting this workshop in the future.
My suitcase is still packed, it's a snowy day and I need to get to work. Since I'm not really geared up to get working yet, and thinking about the results of the last couple of days. It's a good time to collect some of my thoughts about the work I'm doing and the results of the last couple of days.
The Ottawa experience was a great way to find out why people are interested in these new technologies, and also why maybe they're not. My meetings were full of people both supportive and skeptical ... some very good questions were asked, which helps me understand what people know and don't know, where they're receptive and not.
a) who's listening to podcasts? Stats are needed. Those of us in the business know that this medium is growing, but hard information is needed for those who aren't in the loop. So I, and anybody else working in this field, need to do a lot more work on looking at the numbers. Who is listening, where are the areas of growth in terms of distinct sections of the population? More research. I'm working on it.
b) There are so many fads on the internet ... things come and go all the time. So how do we know this has staying power? I was more prepared for this one .. it is true that individual things come and go .. ie. last year it was Facebook and Youtube. No doubt its effect will diminish in the new year when the next big thing comes along. Likewise with all the individual services and applications.
Regardless of which applications come and go, it is clear that the internet will be increasingly used for moving images and sound. What we know as TV and Radio is going to be changing and a lot of the things we go to TV and radio for now are going to be moving over to the internet. Podcasting and vodcasting as we know it now may not be "the thing" in a couple of years. But people will still be listening and watching things on the internet in increasing numbers, regardless of what we call it.
What I am teaching is production skills ... and a good grounding in media production is becoming more and more necessary for people in the communications business.
c) Why should I, as a communications director, spend my money on internet multimedia production? I'll follow up later today with the stats once I crunch them. Overall, though, I would say it's because that's the way communications is moving. More and more is moving over to the internet. From a cost perspective, it's cheaper than spending money on traditional media and print. And anybody working in media relations these days knows it's getting more and more difficult to grab the ear of editors and producers in traditional media. Organizations and businesses will do well to take charge of their own message and bypass the gatekeepers. For a whole bunch of reasons ... you can send out WHAT you want to send out WHEN you want to send it out.
All good questions. For those of you who asked them, thanks for keeping me on my toes. I'll get back to you .. and you'll want to book a workshop .. it's a good time to start your journey on the learning curve.
My suitcase is still packed, it's a snowy day and I need to get to work. Since I'm not really geared up to get working yet, and thinking about the results of the last couple of days. It's a good time to collect some of my thoughts about the work I'm doing and the results of the last couple of days.
The Ottawa experience was a great way to find out why people are interested in these new technologies, and also why maybe they're not. My meetings were full of people both supportive and skeptical ... some very good questions were asked, which helps me understand what people know and don't know, where they're receptive and not.
a) who's listening to podcasts? Stats are needed. Those of us in the business know that this medium is growing, but hard information is needed for those who aren't in the loop. So I, and anybody else working in this field, need to do a lot more work on looking at the numbers. Who is listening, where are the areas of growth in terms of distinct sections of the population? More research. I'm working on it.
b) There are so many fads on the internet ... things come and go all the time. So how do we know this has staying power? I was more prepared for this one .. it is true that individual things come and go .. ie. last year it was Facebook and Youtube. No doubt its effect will diminish in the new year when the next big thing comes along. Likewise with all the individual services and applications.
Regardless of which applications come and go, it is clear that the internet will be increasingly used for moving images and sound. What we know as TV and Radio is going to be changing and a lot of the things we go to TV and radio for now are going to be moving over to the internet. Podcasting and vodcasting as we know it now may not be "the thing" in a couple of years. But people will still be listening and watching things on the internet in increasing numbers, regardless of what we call it.
What I am teaching is production skills ... and a good grounding in media production is becoming more and more necessary for people in the communications business.
c) Why should I, as a communications director, spend my money on internet multimedia production? I'll follow up later today with the stats once I crunch them. Overall, though, I would say it's because that's the way communications is moving. More and more is moving over to the internet. From a cost perspective, it's cheaper than spending money on traditional media and print. And anybody working in media relations these days knows it's getting more and more difficult to grab the ear of editors and producers in traditional media. Organizations and businesses will do well to take charge of their own message and bypass the gatekeepers. For a whole bunch of reasons ... you can send out WHAT you want to send out WHEN you want to send it out.
All good questions. For those of you who asked them, thanks for keeping me on my toes. I'll get back to you .. and you'll want to book a workshop .. it's a good time to start your journey on the learning curve.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Amazing Small World ...
I am constantly amazed when people from my past pop up in surprising places. It happens all the time. And these days, not just in my own hometown. This morning, I reconnected with someone in Africa who I had met in the Netherlands.
I was trying to set up an account with an organization called One World Radio
One World Radio is an international radio exchange where producers can post material to have other stations use it. I emailed the Editor, whose name is Kelvin Chibomba to ask him some questions.
I got an email back from him this morning saying "Do you realize that you are talking to someone you tutored in The Netherlands 2001? I am kelvin Chibomba guy from Zambia. This is a small world indeed. I owe you a lot, you and Bruce Girard. I have since moved from Maz Community Radio to OneWorld Africa as Radio Editor."
When I first saw Kelvin's name and the fact that I was sending an email to him in Zambia, the thought briefly crossed my mind. But it was a quick thought because .. after all, Africa is a very big place.
The course that I facilitated was a three day intensive training for community radio station managers in the developing world. It was at the Radio Netherlands Training Centre, a division of Radio Netherlands which focusses specifically on training media people in the developing world.
Out of the ten people in the class, I have heard from/about three of the participants .. Kelvin; Fernando who moved to Toronto a couple of years after the workshop; and Diana who works with a women's radio station in Ghana (Ghana has amazing community radio).
I just love it when this happens ... and this also reminds me I should send off another CV to Radio Netherlands because I would love to do this again ...
I was trying to set up an account with an organization called One World Radio
One World Radio is an international radio exchange where producers can post material to have other stations use it. I emailed the Editor, whose name is Kelvin Chibomba to ask him some questions.
I got an email back from him this morning saying "Do you realize that you are talking to someone you tutored in The Netherlands 2001? I am kelvin Chibomba guy from Zambia. This is a small world indeed. I owe you a lot, you and Bruce Girard. I have since moved from Maz Community Radio to OneWorld Africa as Radio Editor."
When I first saw Kelvin's name and the fact that I was sending an email to him in Zambia, the thought briefly crossed my mind. But it was a quick thought because .. after all, Africa is a very big place.
The course that I facilitated was a three day intensive training for community radio station managers in the developing world. It was at the Radio Netherlands Training Centre, a division of Radio Netherlands which focusses specifically on training media people in the developing world.
Out of the ten people in the class, I have heard from/about three of the participants .. Kelvin; Fernando who moved to Toronto a couple of years after the workshop; and Diana who works with a women's radio station in Ghana (Ghana has amazing community radio).
I just love it when this happens ... and this also reminds me I should send off another CV to Radio Netherlands because I would love to do this again ...
Saturday, December 01, 2007
"The People Formerly Known as the Audience"
"The people formerly known as the audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the platform shift you’ve all heard about.
Think of passengers on your ship who got a boat of their own. The writing readers. The viewers who picked up a camera. The formerly atomized listeners who with modest effort can connect with each other and gain the means to speak— to the world, as it were."
An excerpt from an excellent article on a website called Pressthink
I think the writer was Jay Rosen, but it said "posted by" .. not sure if that meant "written by" as well. Whoever wrote it, brilliant!
It's one of many compelling articles about the changes in journalism that are happening .. despite the protestations of the traditional media machine. Well worth a read if you're doing any thinking about the changes that are taking place in our industry.
More things to think about from the article:
The people formerly known as the audience are those who were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another— and who today are not in a situation like that at all.
* Once they were your printing presses; now that humble device, the blog, has given the press to us. That’s why blogs have been called little First Amendment machines. They extend freedom of the press to more actors.
* Once it was your radio station, broadcasting on your frequency. Now that brilliant invention, podcasting, gives radio to us. And we have found more uses for it than you did.
* Shooting, editing and distributing video once belonged to you, Big Media. Only you could afford to reach a TV audience built in your own image. Now video is coming into the user’s hands, and audience-building by former members of the audience is alive and well on the Web.
* You were once (exclusively) the editors of the news, choosing what ran on the front page. Now we can edit the news, and our choices send items to our own front pages.
* A highly centralized media system had connected people “up” to big social agencies and centers of power but not “across” to each other. Now the horizontal flow, citizen-to-citizen, is as real and consequential as the vertical one.
Amen to that!
Think of passengers on your ship who got a boat of their own. The writing readers. The viewers who picked up a camera. The formerly atomized listeners who with modest effort can connect with each other and gain the means to speak— to the world, as it were."
An excerpt from an excellent article on a website called Pressthink
I think the writer was Jay Rosen, but it said "posted by" .. not sure if that meant "written by" as well. Whoever wrote it, brilliant!
It's one of many compelling articles about the changes in journalism that are happening .. despite the protestations of the traditional media machine. Well worth a read if you're doing any thinking about the changes that are taking place in our industry.
More things to think about from the article:
The people formerly known as the audience are those who were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another— and who today are not in a situation like that at all.
* Once they were your printing presses; now that humble device, the blog, has given the press to us. That’s why blogs have been called little First Amendment machines. They extend freedom of the press to more actors.
* Once it was your radio station, broadcasting on your frequency. Now that brilliant invention, podcasting, gives radio to us. And we have found more uses for it than you did.
* Shooting, editing and distributing video once belonged to you, Big Media. Only you could afford to reach a TV audience built in your own image. Now video is coming into the user’s hands, and audience-building by former members of the audience is alive and well on the Web.
* You were once (exclusively) the editors of the news, choosing what ran on the front page. Now we can edit the news, and our choices send items to our own front pages.
* A highly centralized media system had connected people “up” to big social agencies and centers of power but not “across” to each other. Now the horizontal flow, citizen-to-citizen, is as real and consequential as the vertical one.
Amen to that!
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