As my handful of readers should already know (as per the title/caption) eStablishment is meant to be a forum used to discuss the new and developing world of eVerything. I was thinking about it, and although the "e-world" is eVer so present, so is the "iWorld."

Yes, we all know of iPod, iPhone, and iTunes, just to name a few, but there is actually an entire iWorld, not directly related to Apple. There is iRace, a company that created virtual horse racing where subscribers worldwide can place bets, we have iLight, a company dedicated to perfecting accented LED lighting technology, and the list continues...

*Note: I actually just searched the lowercase letter "i" in front of random words. Most were plug-ins and add-ons for Apple products, but I suppose the "i____" format isn't patented.

There actually is an iWorld that exists, but unfortunately the site gives little insight on what their product is. Actually, all they say is that it will be a high speed, highly functional search engine.

See for yourself...iWorld.

But beyond all of the accented lighting/virtual horse-betting nonsense, the most important thing to realize is that a trend is quite obviously being set. People have been picking up on it more and more rapidly and soon enough our entire lives will be prefaced with "i."

So be sure, if you choose to follow the trend, you do it with true intentions (I had a friend who attempted to start up the website "iPorn"--self-explanatory). And no, money and fame are not true intentions.

how long do we have to wait to see...

How do you think the internet is affecting the way news organizations cover events? We've heard it hundreds of times now that the meaning of timeliness has come to describe events that are happening RIGHT NOW. No longer can you print something that happened 12 hours ago. No way, the readers have already read it 2-3 times by then. The change in meaning can either go one of two ways:
1) We develop ways to get what is important directly to the reader ASAP. I think in the near future, journalists will be writing their stories via mobile phones while they are in the heat of the moment and then upload it directly to a server. Actually, I would be surprised if this wasn't already occurring.
or 2) Simply put, chaos. The entire business goes down the drain. Everyone will be putting eVerything on the web and good content will be indistinguishable from the bad.

Now I consider myself quite cynical, but I actually wonder what would follow if the latter happened. The concept of the fourth estate aka watchdog would disappear entirely. Broadcast companies would spew lies to the public and no one would know the difference. Maybe that's already happening. I guess in some sense I believe in Murphy's Law: whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. But at the same time we could be heading to an undeniably futuristic and intellectual period of journalism.

Only time will tell...

Clear and Present...

I dug up an article on Digg.com entitled "What the Social Web Looked like in the 90's."  Pretty much the general idea was to compare and contrast some specific aspects of the futuristic lifestyle we lead to the closest possible correlation in the 90's.  Here are my 2 favorites:

1. Before YouTube... there was "America's Funniest Home Video's"--That made me laugh because I was just watching a Bob Saget stand-up special and by God

does he have a dirty mouth.  

But think about it, not that I think YouTube is the new America's Funniest, but YouTube is the second most visited site on the web.  AFHV was up there on TV, but it was mostly, if not all  nonsense.  YouTube has social value.  There is nonsense, but there's also some of the highest valued content on the web.  

2. Before Digg... there was your local newspapers "Top Stories of the Year" issue--What now?  Now we have a website in which the most popular stories of the moment are constantly being put up for everyone else to read.  It is slightly cyclical if you think about it... if everyone is checking out Digg and Digg displays the most read articles, then the most read articles will be read by everyone checking out Digg... I hope that makes sense to anyone else but me.  But it's genius.  The only questionable step in the process is how to make people knowledgeable about the website.  

These are just some reminders of the good ol' days.  

To relate this to online journalism (I'm going to start calling it OJ), change is occurring.  We are living a transition and we are part of the transition.  We can assist the transition or make it a rocky road to success.  It is up to us.  The next generation of journalists are here and they're here to make a difference.  We have grown up with this technology and understand how to make it work.  We will make it work. 

Communication Week 2007 10am Panel

I'm going to try something new...I believe Greg Linch has successfully attempted to "live-blog" before, so why not give it a go? (updates have been going on throughout the weekend, so it is not technically live... but it was at the time)

10:02am-The morning after Thursday night is bright and hot. The sun warms the drunken soul and brings it back to life. Ricardo Lopez is setting up what seems to be a multimedia presentation. Students are awaiting anxiously for the workshop to begin...

10:07am-Panelist introductions:

Ricardo Lopez-Miami Herald Visual Journalist

Will Payne-current.tv Outreach Associate

Brent McDonald-New York Times Video Journalist

10:25am-6 or 7 of us followed current.tv employee Will Payne outside to talk about video. Beyond the technicalities, there are four main guidelines to creating a stimulating video/documentary:
1) Character
2) Information
3) Movement
4) Conflict
As self-evident as this may seem, few people are aware of these basic guidelines than one may think. At the end of the day, storytelling is something that is communicated orally, so when submitting or editing a video, close your eyes and listen...does the audio make sense logically? Do jumps from one interview to another make sense? These are some questions to ask yourself according to Payne. The only thing that matters, he said, is content. "When you have great content, people take notice."

11:00am- Re-group in Wolfson 2055. Panelists had a chance to show us some of their own work. It may seem obvious that 3 "new media" journalists would all show video, but I was surprised that little else was mentioned (ie. Print).

11:30am-Part II of the panel begins. Joining the previous three panelists are Suzanne Levinson, who graciously treated CNJ442 with her presence only 2 weeks ago, and Phil Lewis, Vice President of the Naples Daily News.

The next 1 1/2 hours consisted of the panelists sharing their ideas and opinions on the future. It seems as though there is nothing else to think about but what comes next. The fact is that we do not know and we will not know until it actually arrives. But for now, we should all accept the fate that things are changing, and all of those old timers in the media world that refuse to assimilate will soon be retiring and making way for next generation. The kids of this next generation will change the way news is portrayed, sold, and consumed. The one common thought amongst all the panelists, and myself, is that content is the key to success. If you hustle to get the best content, you will be an incredible journalist.

In the Now

I was contemplating life yesterday, and among all of its infinite wonder, I realized that the most important thing is the present. Yes, global warming may destroy Mother Earth, and yes, we probably should not have been dumping toxic waste in the middle of the country, but as a man wiser than myself once said, "Such is life."

Such is life, such is life, such is life. The reason this thought sped across my mind came from a combination of my public speaking class as well as the almighty Instant Messenger. In class, we did an exercise in which each student stood up and had to speak for 1 minute without using a filler. A filler is something you subconsciously say such as "uh" or "um" or "like" or "you know," etc. (Believe me, you use them more than you think...). So 60 seconds is quite a long time when consciously trying to do something you didn't even realize you do. Anyway, it made me think about how mangled colloquial American English has become and how I want to do something about it.

Back to Instant Messenger: I was talking to a friend and she was using all these fillers in her typed messages (I will put the fillers in bold).

Me: Hey, how are you doing?
Her: I mean, I'm ok.
Me: Ok doesn't sound good...
Her: These girls are like being so rude to me

etc. etc.

It really made me sad to see the language written out like this. In the same conversation I was also thinking about the fact that each message is an instantaneous portrayal of oneself through written language. That girl, for example, was made to look like a "dits" or a "bimbo" in those two messages when in fact, she has a 4.0 GPA and was valedictorian of her graduating high school class. Who would've known.

Online journalism takes hold in a similar way. These blogs, for example, are instantaneous responses to the outside world that are being shared with anyone and everyone. Each reader is making a momentary observation which will, in turn, evoke emotion about the writer.

I don't believe that I have any answers to give, or even questions to bring up at this time, but the instantaneous portrayal of oneself is something interesting to think about.

So what is next? It seems as though the entire universe is rotating in the same direction, in complete unison. Let me explain: originality is fading. Movies for example--if I were to take a guess at what percentage of new films released are remakes, I would say 50-60%. I think there is one of two explanations:

1) People are lazy

2) There are only so few ideas floating around this universe and they have all been thought up before.

That may be little extreme, but take technology--we cannot even comprehend what is coming next, but no matter what, there will always be what I like to call "combo-ventions." Quite simply a combination of multiple inventions. I think it started with the camera-phone, but maybe that is when I first picked up on it.

I'm rambling...

Convergence Journalism (back on track)--there is no better way to combine all of the incredible technologies that society has been perfecting over hundreds of years, than to jumble them up in a logical sense and create a multimedia story.

Allison Diaz has perfected all the skills needed to create one of these sensational stories. Using Audio, and still photography, she is able to tell a story emotionally and honestly. It was interesting to talk with her and hear first hand what it is like to be a recent graduate trying to make ends-meat.

The use of audio in a multimedia story can not only compliment the still photography or video that it is layered upon, but also act as the glue holding together the entire story.

The Significance of Insignificance

To explain the title:  I've always liked opposites and the way things work for and/or against each other.  I was thinking about blogs recently and how there are millions upon millions of people out there on the World Wide Web typing away everything from nonsensical gibberish to intensive political analysis.  Most of the blogs out there are not and will never be read by another human being, (hence the insignificance) but the simple fact that there are millions upon millions of people needing to express their mind is, in fact, significant.  It represents a trend that is being followed by so many out there.  Why write something that no one will read? Because at the same time everyone might read it!

I was reading a New York Times article about a song that Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am produced in support of Barak Obama; the star-studded music video was released on YouTube and was an instant success.  Here's what the Time's editorial observer Andrew Rosenthal said:

"This song is a prime example of how user-generated content sites are undeniably affecting voter engagement this election cycle.  Purchasing four and a half minutes of national airtime would have been near impossible, but the Internet can reach that highly sought youth audience gratis." 

And boy is he ever correct!  Added just three days ago, the video already has over 1.3 million views on the initial post alone.  What more could a presidential candidate ask for than free, unrequested advertising by 30 recognizable Hollywood faces.

Check out the video here

It is real

I found it interesting to find out the other day that the "comments" section of The Miami Herald website is the second most visited part of the site.  This proposes an excellent and progressive concept that moves one more step closer to citizen journalism.  I believe that more and more the voice of the common man will want to be heard, and eventually, need to be heard.  It will be the watchdog of this country.  

For some reason I have this strange belief that although the media is supposed to be the fourth estate, the government has some hand in what they say.  It goes completely against the the idea of the first amendment and negates the watchdog concept, but  if this is true, which I am not saying it is, then the public will search long and hard for an outlet; that outlet being blogs (possibly).