Thoughts, Updates, & Happenings http://vocalnation.net/docs/blog/ Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:03:38 +0100 http://www.vocalnation.net/images/promote/vn_feed_image.png http://www.vocalnation.net Feed provided by vocalnation.net. Click to visit. Subscribe to this feed by copying the URL from your browser's address bar into your feedreader of choice. You may choose to use a web-based feedreader such as Google Reader, NewsGator, Rojo, etc. or one of the many browser-plugin feed readers. http://vocalnation.net/posting/376/Newspaper+Industry+in+Disarray/ OSCON (a yearly convention for open source software), where I sat in on a session called Shaping the Web Future of the Newspaper.  It was basically an open discussion between the techies that run the online editions of the major papers around the country (N.Y. Times, Washington Post, CNN, USA Today, etc).  While a lot of ground was covered, the underlying theme was that these entrenched dailies are loosing ground due to the sweeping changes occurring throughout the web.  Their profits margins are shrinking as more readers shift towards the web, and they feel that if they don't adapt quickly to this strange new media, they'll may be out of business in the next ten to twenty years.  Personally I'm sure there will always be a place for this traditional journalism, simply because it serves such an important function within society.  But it's role is certainly shifting.  I'd like to touch on a couple of the major points discussed.  

Firstly, a break seems to be occurring between the breaking of news stories and their distribution.  More people are getting news through aggregator websites, through RSS feed-readers, or filtered & spun through the blogging community.  This distributed nature of the web is particularly threatening to these papers who have no idea how to monetize their content when it's spread this way across the web.  The conversation became heated when this become a conversation on APIs, a feature that one of the reps said would never happen on his paper.  I personally feel that this is extremely short-sited, as advertising can be passed through the API embedded within the content.   This is FeedBurner’s strategy, who must be on the right track since they were just purchased by Google for around $100 million.

Another central theme was a fear of loosing journalistic integrity and objectivity in news sources due to the rise of blogging.  I strongly agree that the major dailies provide an essential service to society by dedicating huge resources to in-depth reporting to break these stories, and editors to uphold standards.  While there is a trend in cable news towards more superficial content (like all the Paris Hilton stories), institutions such as the New York Times and Washington Post are sticking to their guns, and reporting the facts.  Interestingly, these two papers may be regarded as respectively left and right leaning by traditional sources, but they are both pretty moderate when compared to the highly polarized opinions presented in blogosphere.

A few questions to ponder: Is the wide range of opinions from across the blogosphere complimenting these traditional sources? Do they just dilute and distort the discussion but putting a spin on every issue?  Are these old news institutions doomed to failure in the wake of Web2.0 news sites like NewsVine and independent journalists like TPM Muckraker?  Do these old school institutions really present a moderate, objective view?  Does the highly edited and controlled process of traditional news censor and limit the discussion, or is it an essential part of accurate reporting?]]> SnowLeopard Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:08:32 +0100 Posting376-1185430112 http://vocalnation.net/posting/3973/New+Features+-+Vocal+Nation%27s+Version+II+Release/
Here are some of the more notable additions:

Feed Digestion: Content from your favorite websites can now be automatically added to Vocal Nation via feed-digestion, just like feed reader.  All you have to do is enter the site's RSS feed address.  Of course, the typical manual submission is still available for submitting individual stories.

Hybrid Search: The site now combines a traditional keyword-based search with ratings for a unique kind of human-powered search.  You can also now search within categories, regions, and feeds.

Customize Your Info Stream: Want to exclude all but your favorite feeds?  How about just including the best postings from the last hour?  Want to just see postings from New Zealand, China, Iraq?  The new site's flexible interface lets you slice the data anyway you want so you can delve deeper and customize your news stream.  

Browse your Friends' Favorite Postings: Curious what your friends have been enjoying?  Check out their profile page to see their highest ranked postings.

The World Map: The site's world map has also been overhauled and now operates alot better.  The map is a great way to get an overview of stories and opinions from across the globe.

As always, feedback is appreciated, so let me know how it goes.  Thx.
]]> SnowLeopard Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:20:19 +0100 Posting3973-1204510819 http://vocalnation.net/posting/3916/The+Evolution+of+Social+News/
Despite the Internet's short history, there have already been some great attempts at revolutionizing how people get their news.  With the advent of RSS feeds, Feed Readers like Google Reader and BlogLines, were a huge step forward in the way they aggregated all you favorite news sources from across the web into one centralized point.  Meanwhile social-news sites like Slashdot, Digg, and Newsvine demonstrated the ability of the crowd to collectively determine the ranking of content.   Since the web 2.0 surge of new startups, there have been swarms of social-news sites hoping to capitalize the ideas of these predecessors.  But none of them have been able to carry the ranking of social news beyond just a system based on the number of votes.

Today's version II release of Vocal Nation attempt to bring social-news to the next level.  It breaks the mold of Digg-style of voting, incorporates the strengths of feed readers, and wraps it in a responsive interface that users to customize their news stream.  
]]> SnowLeopard Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:10:48 +0100 Posting3916-1204510248 http://vocalnation.net/posting/352/Edit+Postings%2C+New+Navigation%2C+and+Flat+Categories/
Firstly, some of you had requested the ability to edit your existing postings. You can now find an edit link below each of your postings. (Eventually I'd like to add wikipedia style version tracking too, but that's low on the list of priorities right now).

The "Add a New Posting" process has also been improved, and should allow you to add content a lot quicker.  You can now add links to external webpages that you find interesting, and link to videos instead of just embedding them.  

One of the biggest new changes is the hierarchy of categories has been flattened.  This was done largely to make adding new postings easier, but also because the old multi-level category system was not really practical (some of the subcategories should have belonged in multiple parent categories, a lot of subcategories didn't have much content, etc).

As it goes with programming, there are likely to be some glitches that come along with the changes, so please let me know if anything's not behaving right.]]> SnowLeopard Sun, 22 Jul 2007 01:27:23 +0100 Posting352-1185067643 http://vocalnation.net/posting/229/Behavior+Pepper+%28Plugin+for+Shaun+Inman%27s+Mint%29/ Shaun Inman called Mint. It's really well designed and I definitely recommend to anyone that wants a clean, intuitive way to check out their traffic. But as slick as it is, it is limited in its ability to track events that occur between pageloads. Since Vocal Nation uses some fancy ajax to load individual sections of a page and to open popups, these hits were not being recorded. Fortunately, Mint comes complete with a nicely done pluggin architecture for extending its base functionality.

To solve the problem mentioned above, I created the Behavior Pepper (within mint plugins are called pepper for some reason), which tracks javascript user events (like popups or ajax requests) occurring between pageloads that would otherwise slip through the gaps. After installation, you can specify which user events you'd like to monitor in one of two ways:

1) With Browser-Side Code: This method uses a seperate ajax request, and is triggered by a javascript function call within the client's browser. (Requires knowledge of javascript.)

2) With Server-Side Code: For logging an event from within your application's php code. (Requires knowledge of php.)

To download this pepper, head over to the peppermill at the mint site.
More information is available in the readme file once you download it.

Hope you dig it, and please keep me updated if you make any improvements.
]]> SnowLeopard Sun, 17 Jun 2007 01:39:15 +0100 Posting229-1182044355 http://vocalnation.net/posting/263/Watch+Active+Threads/ SnowLeopard Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0100 Posting263-1182384000 http://vocalnation.net/posting/264/A+Global+Perspective/ Regional Spotlight World Map that integrated with the site. You can click on each region marker to see the local issues. Hopefully it'll help emphasize the global conversation that Vocal Nation is trying to cultivate. (Thanks to google maps for providing this service).

I also wanted to say thanks to everyone for all of the great support and feedback we've had so far. There have been a lot of feature additions that I'm working hard to implement. The highest priority items are going to be those features that are most requested. ]]> SnowLeopard Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:47:39 +0100 Posting264-1181868459 http://vocalnation.net/posting/265/Going+Live.../ let me know if you see anything not behaving right. I'm going to try to grow this thing as organically as possible, just submitting it to a few bloggers and forums to start off. Hopefully this approach will help it generate it's own unique culture, and allow it to scale a bit more easily.  I'm curious to see how well this system will operate once it's live - Is it going to turn into one big flame war? This should be interesting... stay tuned. ]]> SnowLeopard Fri, 04 May 2007 00:47:39 +0100 Posting265-1178239659 http://vocalnation.net/posting/1451/A+Foundation+in+Thought/
Vocal Nation is founded upon this principle.  It seeks to provides a system for the free and open exchange of ideas from across the political spectrum. We hope the site encourages meaningful discussion, and will ultimately act as an incubator for some innovative ideas.]]> SnowLeopard Sat, 21 Apr 2007 04:10:57 +0100 Posting1451-1177128657 http://vocalnation.net/posting/1452/Redefining+the+Process/
Vocal Nation is seeking to take the internet's role in politics one step further by:

• Allowing the community to collectively decide which postings are most worthy of recognition,
• Providing a system to track bias opinions,
• Giving some organization to the huge range of issues and perspectives that are scattered throughout the web, and
• Providing an easy  way to focus on local issues and events.

Vocal Nation   attempts to level the playing field for all those involved in the political process: Bloggers, Organizations, Thinktanks, Scholars,  Journalists, Corporations, Politicians, and Citizens.  Each individual will offer their own area of expertise, their own values, and their own biases.  As this site becomes established,  certain categories or regions may become monopolized on one side of an argument. But this system was created to allow for the balancing of such trends.   If you feel that your particular perspective is under-represented, please speak up and get involved.  It's through the representation of opposing ideas that the many facets of each issue will begin to emerge.  If you value critical thinking and want to play an active role in improving  society, this website is for you.]]> SnowLeopard Fri, 04 May 2007 00:47:40 +0100 Posting1452-1178239660 http://vocalnation.net/posting/89/Why+Vocal+Nation%3F/ 4th estate isn't serving it's original purpose.  Cable news seems to be getting more superficial every year, just skimming over the issues, chasing ratings, spending more time on Ana Nicole and OJ than issues that really matter.  But that is why more and more people are shifting over to the web for political commentary.

Vocal Nation is attempting to use technology to take the discussion to the next level.  It provides a voting system that ranks ideas according to how well they resonate with the site's community.  We just officially launched on May 3rd 2007, so the categories are just starting to get populated.  But if you care about these issues, and you've got something to say, then speak up.  The direction the site takes is in your hands.]]> SnowLeopard Sat, 05 May 2007 22:35:08 +0100 Posting89-1178404508