The Google Way

This is a very good read and poses some issues that many are fearful to face or comprehend.

Simply put, photography is becoming a devalued practice because of the simple prevalence of imagery.

Then you can follow that up with a rant about the notion of Creative Commons licensing eating away at the value of photography.

Where is the industry and the craft heading? Who knows, all I do know is that pricing for photography was stuck in neutral for over a decade before the flooding of the market with cheap digital camera equipment and tools and photographers. I'm thinking the yoke for the photo plane is pretty much stuck in the forward position and picking up G's.

Seattle P-I could be an interesting test

Seems as though one more two-newspaper town will soon see a drastic change in the media landscape. Hearst only offered a select few of present staffers opportunity to work on an online-only version of the historic newspaper. Those offers don't look at that appealing, regardless of the market trends and current national and local economies. You'll have to take a peek and see what you think.

According to Castro, Riddick said Hearst plans to start the site the day after the paper quits publishing, which Hearst has said will occur on a date not yet specified if no buyer has emerged by March 10.

The P-I site has already been evolving towards the notion of a news portal rather than a news source of information for Seattle and King County, by linking to alt-mags and other news outlets in the area. Could be an interesting science project.

Still haven't heard much on the media radar about the experiment in Detroit with the reduced home delivery days. At least those to markets are trying something that spineless Scripps Howard didn't even want to attempt in Denver.

Stewart calls out the media so easily AND so well

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CNBC's Rick Santelli – the "reporter" that went ape on the trading floor complaining about bailouts – was supposed to be a guest on The Daily Show, but was a no show. Well, like when McCain bailed on Letterman, you don't bail on high profile talk show hosts. Jon Stewart opens up a can of whoop @ss on Santelli and the entire network. Still find it amazingly saddening that it takes a comedian and parody show to reveal any freaking honesty in the media-on-the-media realm about issues that are impacting every single one of us, everyday now.

Transform

'nuf said.

Multimedia Stock Agency

Aurora Photos is launching a multimedia production company. The voracious appetite on the web for video and other multimedia elements could open up a very good opportunity here. Be interesting to see who mimics and who makes the model work effectively. Maybe there's a future there for somebody I know...he'll require he telecommute though. There's not enough open land and mountains in L.A. for the guy I'm thinking of.

Functional Photography Art Project

Photog JR has been creating a unique project in Kibera, Kenya - on of the largest slums in all of Africa.

Really cool idea and functional in how it helps the community the project is literally on. Check it.

Web 3.0?

Pretty interesting tool under development at Mozilla for better web usage. Should be interesting to see the lines start to blur more and more between web spaces.


Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Ira Glass and storytelling

Pretty interesting video of the This American Life producer and host explaining storytelling and the important elements needed for good stories at the Gel Conference.

Too bad it's not embeddable.
Found via Journerdism

Newsprint is REALLY expensive

"...we're trying to say is that as a technology for delivering the news, newsprint isn't just expensive and inefficient; it's laughably so."

The Kindle retails for $359. A rough estimate for the NYTimes's delivery costs would be $644 million per year. Do the math and selling a Kindle to the 830,000 loyal subscribers would cut delivery costs in HALF.

Cellular Obscura

Love this notion of getting back to making interesting photos and away from the hellbent technical and technological drive to have perfect pretty pictures.

Colbert Report spoofs NPPA and Amtrak

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Nailed 'Em - Amtrak Photographer

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Gotta love it when a real issue gets turned into comedy. I guess you can always laugh at it all. Here's the NPPA story with links to the real issue.

Fantastic stop motion video

Serious pre-planning here and attention to detail, but very cool production. Lots of possibilities with these cheaper tools (digital cameras, NLE video suites, etc.) to make content.

Life after newspapers

Pretty lengthy article about a non-scientific survey of former newspaper journalists. Lots of things to pick through in there. Some things are tough to take.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' count for all newspaper jobs -- from reporter to delivery truck driver -- shows the payroll shrinking from 336,000 at the start of last year to 313,600 through October, a drop of 22,400 positions. What happens to all of those laid-off and bought-out journalists?

Some folks are certainly struggling to find new work, even more so in the present economy. But there's also the seemingly consensus that most of those that were forced out of the newsroom, they might miss the idea of what it was to be a journalist at a newspaper, but that there is life after newspapers and it can be pretty rewarding.

Another site of collaboration

Some pretty good journos, including Meghann Ackerman, have compiled a collaborative site "after quitting my job a few weeks back, I got involved with some friends who started a site where we're putting up video, photos and stories that we've decided are worth telling."

Sweet Group Photo Project

Here's a link to A Photo A Day's blog posting about a group photo project on cyclocrossers in Portland by some rockstar photogs. They not only have a fantastic site but they compiled a book out of the sweet images. Just may have to see if there's a way to create such a project here in the 303. Not on psycho-crossers per se, but something with a passionate following.

The funniest Star Wars video ever

A video mashup of the plot and storyline based on a girl that has never seen the original Star Wars trilogy. Gotta watch this if you like Star Wars even just a little.

Exactitudes

Really interesting sociological documentary project using simple photos. Gotta look at the design and visuals of the site as well as the complex yet simple idea of people.

Finally a step in the direction

I get asked all the time what I intend to do when I get done with graduate school at the University of Denver. I really haven't been able to show anyone an example and I struggle to constructively describe the creations in my skull.

Here is one of the few examples I can point someone to when they ask that question again. The Las Vegas Sun has been making some of the most complete and creative multimedia experiential productions that I have seen. Many outlets seem to feel that putting video, text, audio and photo galleries into a page will be effective enough. And while that could be argued, they are all just stand-alone elements in the same coral. Thirst in the Mojave takes all those elements and makes each one act and react from the others.

One of the producers, Zach Wise who is now at the NYTimes, posted on his blog about the production as well. He was the brains behind Soul of Athens as well.

Obama's People

Here's a really interesting multimedia piece done by the NYTimes. As usual right? There's a gallery of the portraits made of the officials that will make up the new administration, but there is also a gallery documenting the creation of the portraits. There's some great photos all around and the premise is pretty fun.

Now if I only had an army the size of the 3rd Regiment to pull something off like this as well.

Front-Row View

Here's a NPR interview with Pete Souza, who has been announced as the the official chief White House photographer, talking about covering Barack Obama during the last several years.

Has a nice photo gallery as well.