The white picket fence

The world wide web is an open platform where anybody can create a page using the standard hypertext markup language and users are free to move across locations on the web and visit any other site without restrictions. Openness and equality, which guided the early web, was lost in its later years to walled gardens which eventually fell. Now openness is being sacrificed again, not to the extent of the early walled gardens but to their successors, the social networks who have erected their own walls directing users to see only selected and ranked content. Read the rest of The white picket fence »

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Posted in Major Blog Posts News by Joshua I. Altman. 20,192 Comments

What’s in a name

On the Internet, nobody knows your a dog

Cartoon from The New Yorker | Published July 5, 1993

A now famous cartoon from July 5, 1993 proclaimed “On the Internet, nobody knows your a dog.”  Eighteen years later that mentality of anonymity is being challenged as social media platforms adopt and enforce real name policies, often to the dismay of users. Read the rest of What’s in a name »

Posted in News by Joshua I. Altman. 21,331 Comments

Simplicity

I wrote before about the benefits of the low tech solution, how sometimes repeatedly clicking until the right result appears on screen is not the best approach. At times technology does create more complications than it solves, webmail blurs the line between home and work and people outsource our connections with other humans to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. These tools can provide ease and convenience but the tradeoff is added complications in the lives of their users. Read the rest of Simplicity »

Posted in News by Joshua I. Altman. 2,445 Comments

Associations created

Nearly a year ago Facebook launched a new group feature, no longer were groups created by an individual and then controlled by him/her and whomever he or she designated an administrator, now groups would be the collective effort of its members. Joining groups changed as well, with the launch of “new groups” a user need not consent to join a group, “friends” could add a user to whatever group they wished creating an unwanted and possible damaging associati0n for the person added. Read the rest of Associations created »

Posted in News by Joshua I. Altman. 18,196 Comments

An expectation of privacy

When embracing a new technology reporters have a responsibility not to do so in a way that would infringe on the privacy of the public at large. Each new tool presents opportunities to expand coverage, but it also creates a situation where the public can unknowingly be on the front page of the newspaper and immortalized online without their knowledge and consent and as such user submitted images must be avoided. Read the rest of An expectation of privacy »

Posted in News by Joshua I. Altman. 19,813 Comments

One place you should not visit

Approximately one year ago Facebook launched Places, a location based service allowing users to alert Facebook connections of their location, the service has 750 million potential users, more than any other geolocation network, but the nature of Facebook’s network, and the way users share on the platform make it unpalatable for individuals and unethical for reporters. Read the rest of One place you should not visit »

Posted in News by Joshua I. Altman. 2,859 Comments

Breaking News

Technology changes how news breaks, in the era of two-a-day papers important news from the day would appear first a late edition of a major newspaper. Radio and TV brought images of breaking news events into living rooms where people could watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. In the internet age late edition newspapers are relics and news breaks online with cellphone cameras on platforms that did not exist ten years ago, and in some cases are less than a month old. Differences in these platforms necessitate a different approach to breaking news.
Read the rest of Breaking News »

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Posted in Major Blog Posts News by Joshua I. Altman. 19,458 Comments

I am what I social network

Matching the social network to the content is an ongoing discussion which changes with each change in social media, but less frequent is matching the person to the social network. On her WashingtonPost.com blog, Alexandra Petri tackled the question of “Which social network are you?” Read the rest of I am what I social network »

Posted in News by Joshua I. Altman. 3,447 Comments

Live-tweeting Facebook’s ‘awesome’ event

It happened almost accidentally, I was waiting to watch Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook announcement on July 6, 2011 which he pitched as “awesome” and I had my Tweetdeck open. As a tech person, who often tweets about technology I decided to announce that 1) I was watching the event and 2) that he had begun.[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/JoshuaIAltman/status/88657182425485313"] Read the rest of Live-tweeting Facebook’s ‘awesome’ event »

Posted in Live Tweeting Major Blog Posts News by Joshua I. Altman. 2,691 Comments

Archiving social media

Social media is instant and ever changing, users post, others comment and content gets pushed further and further down the feed, a challenge that must be overcome for users to fully exploit the potential of any medium. Read the rest of Archiving social media »

Posted in News by Joshua I. Altman. 3,005 Comments