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Edit Entry - Silicon Valley Watcher - at the intersection of technology and media. Edit Entry - Silicon Valley Watcher - at the intersection of technology and media. The Media Is Dying, Long Live The Media - The Media Tsunami Is Coming.... Posted by Tom Foremski - April 15, 2010 Did you know that the first printed books in England would leave a blank rectangle at the beginning of a chapter so that an illuminated capital letter could be written in?

The Media Is Dying, Long Live The Media - The Media Tsunami Is Coming....

It's a great example of a hybrid publishing system, and we can see the same, although in different forms, as publishers transition to an online model. This example, and other aspects of publishing's evolution over millennia, can be found in an excellent article based on a presentation by Guardian.co.uk Information Architect Martin Beam: Journalism in the digital age: trends, tools and technologies. But really it has been the development of the World Wide Web over the last 15 years or so which has utterly transformed the publishing landscape in our era. Yes, but there's the rub: readership going through the roof but revenues falling. Mr Beam sticks to describing the wonders of the modern age: We will have even more media being produced...

The Two-Way Internet... Posted by Tom Foremski - September 21, 2010 [Here is a draft of an article for the fifth anniversary of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) - a Palo Alto, California based think tank.

The Two-Way Internet...

I'm a founding fellow of SNCR.] It's easy to forget that we are still in the very early stages of the Internet -- a basket of technologies that continues to evolve and affect nearly every aspect of our business and personal lives. The first phase of the Internet emerged into the commercial space only in the mid-1990s, from military applications at first and then university research uses. In this first phase of the commercial Internet, the development of web browsers meant that we could now publish a page of content: text, photos, video, to any computer screen regardless of the platform. That was a significant achievement because you used to have to be on the same network, for example AOL, or CompuServe to be able to publish the same content to other users. We now have a two-way Internet. Social Media Is Not Corporate Media.

Posted by Tom Foremski - August 1, 2011 There's a gold rush going on as legions of self-proclaimed experts are working with corporations to help them monetize the potential riches in exploiting social media.

Social Media Is Not Corporate Media

I look at the links and articles that social media "experts" are sharing all day long on Twitter, Facebook, etc, and it all boils down to this type of message: "Here are ways to turn social media into a lucrative corporate marketing/sales channel. " There are lots of services such as Klout, etc, that help corporations identify the people in social networks that should be targeted as part of online marketing programs. And there are hundreds of books written about how corporations can and should use social media to boost sales, profits, etc.

SoDOMM Social Distribution of Media

Internet Devalues. Leaving Silicon Valley... Posted by Tom Foremski - July 6, 2011 Leaving Silicon Valley -- I highly recommend it.

Leaving Silicon Valley...

Curation And The Human Web... Aggregation Is Not Curation - There Is A Big Difference. Posted by Tom Foremski - November 2, 2010 Curation is becoming an increasingly important term and for good reason: the online world is increasingly messy, muddled and full of blind alleys.

Aggregation Is Not Curation - There Is A Big Difference

Search used to be the best way to navigate online but today it is only one part of an Internet user's dashboard. Finding things is fine if you know what to look for, but search is increasingly less effective in judging the quality of links, or putting those links into a context. Blekko, the recently launched search engine tries to provide a context for search terms but it's still not curation but aggregation So what is curation? Wow. Twitter's Response To Bad Press: Unfollow. Posted by Tom Foremski - February 22, 2011 Sean Garrett, Twitter's chief of communications (see picture demonstrating his media relations skills on me during happier times) has unfollowed me on Twitter.

Wow. Twitter's Response To Bad Press: Unfollow

This was his only response to a series of posts here on SVW critical of Twitter and its support for corporate social responsibility yet following tactics described as "corporate blackmail" in pushing for huge cuts in local San Francisco taxes. That's a lame response to an important local story. I'm sure Mr Garrett has unfollowed others who have been critical of Twitter. What a great response to dealing with unpleasant news -- stick your head in the sand.

New Media Business Models: How To Make $2K On $5m In Revenues. Posted by Tom Foremski - March 9, 2011 Business Insider, the popular news site founded by former Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget, this week revealed its 2010 finances.

New Media Business Models: How To Make $2K On $5m In Revenues

We only did only $5 million of revenue last year ($4.8 million, to be precise, of which most came from advertising). Muckraking: A Disappearing Form Of Journalism? Posted by Tom Foremski - March 9, 2011 The term muckraker has some negative connotations today but it used to be a noble term applied to a form of journalism that railed against injustice, corruption and the excesses of the high and mighty.

Muckraking: A Disappearing Form Of Journalism?

A muckraker is, primarily, a reporter or writer who investigates and publishes truthful reports involving a host of social issues, broadly including crime and corruption and often involving elected officials, political leaders and influential members of business and industry. ...The term eventually came to be used in reference to investigative journalists who reported about and exposed issues such as crime, fraud, waste, public health and safety, graft, illegal financial practices... As the journalist profession continues to suffer in the train wreck of the media industry, the amount of muckraking appears to be diminishing as quickly as the number of journalists.

In my own small way I've done my share of muckraking over the past few years. Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die! Posted by Tom Foremski - February 27, 2006 I've been telling the PR industry for some time now that things cannot go along as they are . . . business as usual while mainstream media goes to hell in a hand basket.

Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!

I've been saying this privately and publicly and having some very useful discussions on this topic. Support Good Journalism And 'Pay The Wall' Posted by Tom Foremski - March 30, 2011 I don't understand the current debate over the New York Times paywall.

Support Good Journalism And 'Pay The Wall'

Questionable Ethics And The Next Generation Of Entrepreneurs. Posted by Tom Foremski - April 19, 2011 The film "The Social Network" has helped to make startups popular among young people the world over. It's just one factor inspiring new generations of entrepreneurs hoping to succeed through innovation and hard work.