"Governments and companies should keep investing in IT if they want their economies to flourish, the WEF said." The UK really should pull it's socks up. Having seen what Government organisations do with money, spending far too much on completely the wrong solution, while the right solutions are far cheaper... I guess it's the same everywhere, or perhaps not.

United States Singapore Finland Sweden Denmark Canada Switzerland Norway Australia Iceland Germany Japan Netherlands Luxembourg United Kingdom Israel Taiwan Hong Kong France S.Korea

1487 Also posted to: Home page , warBlog . At: 12:20:50 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: US on top in tech competitiveness

In different shapes and forms, we now have Apple, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Napster, Pepsi, Coke and maybe even Wal-Mart hawking songs online. All of these companies are rushing to enter a business with atom thin margins at best and business sinking losses at worst. In almost every case, the motive is to link to a larger sale be it pricey iPods or placing a brand in the consumer's face for other, profit-making goods.

1483 Also posted to: Home page . At: 10:59:13 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Coke does music DRM in Europe

So what would I do if I was the editor of a major press title ?

• put all my content and articles in a permalink, blogging form in addition to print
• make it available in RSS, at least short transcripts
• give authors (journalists) credit under their name
• integrate advertising in feeds
• get my cost structure as low as possible and redistribute earnings to the authors according to the audience they get from what they write.

I'll have more to say on this in the morning, [past midnight here] but the business model won't work. They're too dinosaur to pull it off. Ads in RSS feeds would make me puke, and for Radio, I'd make a tool to delete them. Unless they're good like GoogeAds.

I'd get the advertisers to blog.

1482 Also posted to: Home page . At: 12:21:49 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Blogging will have the same effects to journalism as Napster & P2P to the music industry

Perfect! My arse. Much of the professional journalism I read these days, isn't well or thoroughly researched, and with their penchant for being easily swayed by advertising purchases, fancy PR releases, or nice lunches, I tend never to think of them as being authoritative anymore. I need consensus or fact checking of my own in a search of google with the word blog in the string. Collective thought, as smart as the smartest person in the network - which can be quite big on the net.

OK for sure some journalists look deep, hard into their stories, and they get good reps, but far too many ordinary joes are out there, under the guise of a seemingly  respectable title. It's a big world with many titles on the net, many covering the same stories.

But even these lesser journalists can find redemption in blogging, if they open comments, and 'grow' their knowledge, and the article. Changing or modifying or adapting the article live, as their knowledge grows. If only they too used the power of the network as a collective, collaborative effort to 'perfection.'

 This is much different then high quality newspapers where a complete hierarchy of editors slows down the publishing process, but also secures a perfect quality all over the paper.

There are millions of blogs out there now, when I need an opinion or help, there's usually something written in a blog or discussion group that I found in Google.

On-line journalists, these days, only bring me the TV headlines in more detail. (I gave up my printed newspaper over four years ago.) They have correspondents all over the world, these, we'll always need, but on the net, I also want to read the thoughts of the ordinary citizen, to check the facts, to add colour, perspective, 'the other side of the story.'

These things are far more important to me now I have been educated about the distortions of the media, the gagging and spinning, mis-direction, and the black art of misinformation.

Never trust that what you read in a newspaper. Or a blog. Check it yourself using millions of brains.

1481 Also posted to: Home page . At: 12:16:31 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Lunches and lies in newspapers