On known plagarist and hack Chris Anderson’s terrible business practices:

What he is actually proposing is the complete divorce of capital and earnings from those who make the product that is being sold. The only thing that is “Free” in this instance is the labor of the people who earn Chris Anderson money.

What he is literally saying is that the business side of an editorial operation—which is, in this case, the owners, not merely the part of the organization that handles the business of the site—is the complete authority of the editorial operation. That they retain all of the value, and that they have no obligation to share any of that income with any other part of the business. (In his description, this website in question “makes good money,” which then pays the people who make the website something “nominal; a few bucks,” or nothing at all.)

All of which is to say that the owners provide none of the product which is actually being sold and retain nearly all of the profit of that labor.

What he is proposing is down somewhere, on the scale of ethics, well beneath Wal-Mart’s policies of no longer hiring any full-time workers so as to avoid health and unemployment insurance. It is in fact some weird sort of neo-feudal, post-contract-worker society, in which he will create a dystopian and eager volunteer-slave system of “attention-paid” enthusiasts (which is to say, people with no other options, and no capital of their own) to create products from which rich people can get richer.

The Awl: Chris Anderson Is Worse Than Wal-Mart

(via Richard Metzger)

When I was at CD Baby, I’d be able to play with new ideas immediately. (“What if we had a $5 sale?” “What if I could co-op card swipers?” “What if I could go multi-lingual?”) Any time I had an idea, I’d be able to test it out within days.

But now, for the first time in 10 years, since I had no company, I couldn’t test out these new ideas! All I could do was read, think, and maybe write about it. Damn!

Then I realized why I need to start a new company. Not for the money. Not because I’m “bored”. But because a company is a laboratory to try your ideas. (The word “laboratory” is defined as a room for research, experimentation or analysis. I think of it as a sandbox or playpen.)

Derek Sivers: Why you need your own company

(via Josh Kaufman)

Under the circumstances, I think it may prove very difficult for commerce-oriented enterprises to succeed over the long term. Someplace like a dry cleaner is able to make money because it doesn’t need to worry about being undercut by competitors who aren’t trying to earn a profit. If for some reason Bill Gates decided to pour $5 billion into a foundation dedicated to offering not-for-profit dry cleaning services to Washington, DC then the existing dry cleaners would be in huge trouble. They don’t have that problem because nobody wants to run non-profit dry cleaners. But lots of people want to write about political issues for reasons that have nothing to do with profit-maximization. And my sense is that organizations are increasingly doing this. CAP/AF was a think tank early adopter in terms of building robust in-house new media capacity, but to the best of my knowledge just about every think tank and advocacy shop in town would like to get in on the action. And ultimately, a proliferation of content that’s not supposed to make money is going to make it even harder than it already is for those trying to make profits to do so.

Think Progress

(via Jay Rosen)

See also: Kevin Kelly’s article The New Socialism.

Sweden, Finland, Germany, Denmark and the UK are the Innovation leaders, with innovation performance well above that of the EU average and all other countries. Of these countries, Germany is improving its performance fastest while Denmark is stagnating.

Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and the Netherlands are the Innovation followers, with innovation performance below those of the innovation leaders but above that the EU average. Ireland’s performance has been increasing fastest within this group, followed by Austria.

Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy are the Moderate innovators, with innovation performance below the EU average. The trend in Cyprus’ innovation performance is well above the average for this group, followed by Portugal, while Spain and Italy are not improving their relative position.

Malta, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Latvia and Bulgaria are the Catching-up countries with innovation performance well below the EU average. All of these countries have been catching up, with the exception of Lithuania. Bulgaria and Romania have been improving their performance the fastest.

Beerken’s Blog: European Innovation Scoreboard

Some gadgets fail just outside of warranty because that’s exactly how they are designed. Products that last forever do not a profitable multinational conglomerate make. “With cars and lightbulbs, companies figured out they could increase sales by decreasing product lifespans,” says Giles Slade, author of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America. But manufacturers also don’t want to get a bad rap for shilling crap, so they engineer their hardware to last just long enough for consumers to feel like they got their money’s worth. They guarantee the gear for that period of time—and not a second longer.

Warranty calculation is a serious science. For 30 years, business professors have developed equations to determine the optimal length of a guarantee. They factor in everything from profitability to thermodynamics. And you’d better believe that tech companies have formulas of their own, too, ones that figure into the conception and execution of every product that’s died in your loving arms. “Some companies can actually predict down to the hour when their products will break,” Slade says.

Behavioral economists have a different explanation: You’re trippin’. Death’s bony finger doesn’t tap every 366-day-old iPod and transform it into a lifeless corpse of silicon and solder. “It’s really connected to two things: regret and memory,” says Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational. A gadget that dies a day out of warranty will piss you off a lot more than one that soldiers on until after you’ve lost the certificate. And years later, you’ll probably remember it more acutely, too.

The technical term is loss aversion: “We’re more attuned to losses than gains,” Ariely says. “Because of that, we have selective memories.” And if you believe that perception is reality, this proves that the Murphy’s Law of Gadgets is real—if only in your mind.

Wired: Does My Gear Know When Its Warranty Is Up?

This is worth reading, despite the author’s creating lots of new buzz words for established skills. Here they are, in older terms:

Ping Quotient - Responsiveness and Confidence - “Good Networker.”

Longbroading - Big Picture Thinking

Open Authorship - Cooperation, Collaboration. “Team Player.”

Cooperation Radar - A common leadership trait.

Multi-Capitalism - OK, I still have no idea what this means.

Mobbability - See “Open Authorship” above.

Protovation - Risk Tolerance.

Influency - Communication skills.

Signal/Noise Management - I guess this is as good a term as any for this.

Emergensight - Adaptable, Resourceful.

10 Workplace Skills of the Future

Before you get too wound-up thinking about the above list, don’t forget the mainstays: leadership, creativity, attention to detail, intelligence, work ethic, efficiency, self-promotion, etc.

Even as Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Tektronix and other Oregon tech stalwarts are slashing jobs, new companies are springing up by the bushel in Old Town, the Pearl and Portland’s inner eastside.

These startups are taking advantage of the social media craze to invent new Web tools that broadcast a user’s location online, for example, or stream advertising onto MySpace and other online communities.

But stalwarts they are not, and may never be, even as the state looks for ways out of its deepening recession. [...]

Oregon has long lacked the money, scale and leadership to be a great incubator for tech startups. Those weaknesses are less important these days, as the recession humbles big cities and mega-companies. The trend toward grass-roots technology and collaboration plays to Portland’s strengths.

Oregon Live: Tech entrepreneurs defy recession

(via Fast Wonder)

In relative terms, this recession has been much less hard on Oregon’s high-tech industries than the dot-com and telecom busts were early this decade. And though the state’s technology manufacturing base continues to erode, a new cluster of Web services companies have sprung up and created a vibrant culture around social-networking technology.

Hopes are high they could lead Oregon technology out of this latest downturn, though their economic impact is muted.

Many of these small companies have set up shop in previously rundown buildings downtown or on Portland’s inner east side. They share a passion for social media, which connects people online through a series of tools including wikis, blogs and the instant-messaging service Twitter.

Prominent examples include Jive Software, AboutUs and SplashCast. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of even smaller companies are bootstrapping themselves with just a handful of employees and their laptops, using low-cost open-source software to launch their businesses with a minimum of startup costs.

OregonLive: Oregon’s high-tech better off now than in dot-com bust

The article’s side panel lists a few companies that are “bucking the trend” during the recession:

Ensequence Inc.

Jive Software

TriQuint Semiconductor Inc.

I went to the Springboard Social Innovation Forum last night and watched presentations on some awesome sounding web projects:

Bright Neighbord - a Portland community site, broken up by neighborhood.

MiroMentor - a site connecting small business with volunteer mentors.

ChangeXChange - like Kiva, but for local businesses.

The Huffington Post announced today that it is launching a new initiative to produce a wide range of investigative journalism — The Huffington Post Investigative Fund. It is being funded by The Huffington Post and The Atlantic Philanthropies, and will be headed by Nick Penniman, founder of The American News Project, which will be folded into the Investigative Fund.

“The importance of investigative journalism cannot be overstated — especially during our tumultuous times — and we are delighted to be creating an initiative whose goal is to produce stories that will have a real impact both nationally and locally,” said Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post. “Everyone who recognizes the role good journalism plays in our democracy is looking for ways to preserve it during this time of great transition for the media. The Huffington Post Investigative Fund is one of the ways we are addressing that need, while also providing work and a platform for seasoned journalists downsized by major media outlets. We are grateful to the American News Project and The Atlantic Philanthropies for their generous contributions, and intend to engage with other donors as we continue to expand the Fund.”

Kenneth Lerer, co-founder and chairman of The Huffington Post, said, “There is no more critical reporting than investigative journalism. This nonprofit investigative journalism venture is a very important and logical next step for The Huffington Post. Our mission will be to produce and distribute distinguished, independent journalism made widely-available to all news outlets. We are proud to be working with our prestigious partners and look forward to expanding and building upon this venture with other investigative news organizations from around the country, and the world.”

Full Story: PressThink

On Monday, Seattle P-I owner The Hearst Corp. said that while it would end the print edition of the paper effective Tuesday, it would continue to maintain Seattlepi.com as a source of local news and opinion.

It marks the first time that a major metropolitan daily has attempted the switch from print and online to digital only. The shift could eventually be replicated in cities across the United States.

But at least in Seattle, the new digital product will be very different from the old operation — in both size and tradition.

Managers said the site will have an editorial staff of 20, down from more than 150. An additional 20 people are being hired to sell advertising. The staff writers remaining include columnists Joel Connelly, Art Thiel and Jim Moore, as well as cartoonist David Horsey.

Full Story: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Dan Gilmore guest post at BB:

That’s great. Except for one thing, which the article completely misses: You won’t find too many people in their middle ages or older in this category. Why? Because they can’t get health insurance. America’s health-care system makes it all but impossible for an older worker to try something new.

Even younger startup owners who are relatively healthy and have insurance are just a half-step from disaster. The insurance industry is in the business of not paying claims whenever possible, after all, and health insurers are working hardest to find ways not to cover people who might get sick even as they deny as many claims as possible from people who’ve been paying premiums.

The day we have national health care is the day that we unleash a wave of entrepreneurship the likes of which we’ve never seen before. That’s one of the best reasons for moving toward such a system.

Full Story: Boing Boing

William Gibson:

eBay is apparently doing everything it can to discourage the kind of auction-based digital flea market it so gloriously was in its beginning. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to use, that way, and many buyers and sellers of wondrous fifth-hand hyper-specialist gomi are getting very discouraged. A market is being created, thereby, for a purpose-built all-gomi auction site, optimized for people who want (nay, need) to buy and sell, say, anonymously designed 20th-century American workwear, one piece at a time. Or, really, whatever. Used. Gomi. Junk. Clinically otaku-searchable, no fuzzy logic messing with your carefully refined strings. Micro-transactions. For dropshipping of boring new merch, there’ll always be eBay.

The business model, basically, would be what eBay was about eight years ago.

From: William Gibson

Put simply, it’s getting too expensive to gather news.

So here’s a novel idea: Let’s get university professors to do it. For real. And, best of all, free of charge.

Remember, most professors aren’t paid for what they write now. When I publish an article in an academic journal, I don’t earn a cent. But I also don’t engage more than a handful of readers, mainly fellow specialists in my own field.

It wasn’t always that way. A hundred years ago, many of the leading lights in the social sciences and the humanities wrote for the popular press. If we want to revive the press – as well as our own struggling disciplines – we might look to their example.

Consider Robert E. Park, founder of the “Chicago School” of sociology and one of the most prominent intellectuals of the early 20th century. After earning his PhD in 1904 from the University of Heidelberg, in Germany, Park became secretary and press agent of the Congo Reform Association. Park’s muckraking magazine articles exposed Belgium’s vicious atrocities in the Congo, helping to turn world opinion against the colonial regime of King Leopold.

Full Story: The Christian Science Monitor

(via Ethan Z)

After a day or two of playing with the numbers, he came back to me with an interesting picture: Based on its current level of online ad revenue, he says, the L.A. Times could support a staff of about 275 people at their present salaries, and even offer a slight bump in benefits. This factors in office space, equipment, and all other major costs. And get this: The paper would be a solid moneymaker, boasting a profit margin of about 10%.

Of those 275 folks, Stanton figures, about 150 would work in the newsroom; the rest would sell ads, provide tech support, and handle various administrative duties.

This is far from a perfect solution, of course. Many older readers, in particular, are bound to balk at any arrangement that tries to force them online. What’s more, cutting the news-gathering ranks to just 150 would sharply curtail what the Times could do, while causing a great amount of pain to those who’ve lost their livelihoods. The paper today has about 625 reporters and editors around the world (a stable that’s down from the 1,000-plus when I was there just a couple of years ago).

But perfect isn’t an option for the newspaper industry anymore. “In turbulent times,” Drucker wrote, “the first task of management is to make sure of the institution’s capacity for survival.” And that’s just it: With 150 journalists, a paper such as the L.A. Times could indeed survive—and still provide an indispensable service to the community.

Full Story: Business Week

(via Jay Rosen)

Includes some notes about who got it right.

The Audit wants to know. What role did the press play in diffusing financial warnings in the years leading up to the current crisis?

We can’t answer that question in its entirety—especially not in one post—but we can offer an example for your consideration: the press’s supremely insufficient response to an important 1994 report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, warning about the dangers of derivatives—those largely unregulated financial instruments that have played such a central role in the current collapse.

The two-hundred page report, two years in the making, could have resulted in tough derivatives legislation, which is to say needed regulation. But it didn’t. The reasons why are complicated, and the press is certainly not the only culprit here, but it did play a key role. What happened is this: A triumvirate of the financial industry, misguided regulators and a passive press relegated the report to the dustbin almost as soon as it came out.

This despite the fact that the report was remarkably prescient in its strong warning about derivatives—almost a decade before Warren Buffet’s now-famous derivatives-as-WMD comment. [...]

Where was the press in all of this? Generally abdicating its imperative to shape the story—to sift through disparate pieces of information and put them in their places—and employing instead a false evenhandedness.

Let us explain.

Some articles merely summarized the report, avoiding the issue of significance entirely. But often reporters brought in opposing voices. That is standard, of course, and not a problem in and of itself. The problem is that reporters seemed at a loss over what weight to give opposition to the report. The result was that they gave it equal time—or more. And so the GAO, which had spent two years making itself an expert on derivatives, became just one voice among many, only to be gradually shouted down by a persistent opposition.

In reality, the GAO was the authority here, and unlike many of its opponents, didn’t have a horse in the race. Some opponents of the bill called the document politically biased in an effort to discredit it. But the problem with that accusation, which seems to have been aimed at Democrats, a few of whose members were at the forefront of the call for legislative action, is that—while solutions may have differed across party lines—concern over derivatives was not entirely limited to one party.

Full Story: Columbia Journalism Review

The Arizona Guardian and Heat City are two examples of web-only news sites started by recently unemployed journalists.

The Arizona Guardian is run by four Phoenix-based journalists who were recently laid off from the East Valley Tribune. The Guardian covers legislative issues and other aspects of the state capitol.

Heat City is run by Nick Martin, another journalist laid off by the Tribune. The website covers criminal justice and media issues, but the centerpiece of its coverage is the trial of accused serial killer Dale Hausner.

Full Story: Media Shift

(via Ethan Z)

Wikipedia is offering a new service allowing users to select articles from Wikipedia and have them printed as a book:

Step 1 - Creating the book from a collection of articles

The book collection menu, entitled “Create a book”, can be seen on the left hand side of the browser screen towards the bottom. It contains two links by default: “Add wiki page” and “Books help”. (See Fig 1).

By clicking on the “Add wiki page” link, the page currently being viewed is added to the collection. To add more pages you must navigate to the next desired page and click the “Add wiki page” link again. You can also add all pages in a category with one click. The number of pages in the book is shown in the menu on the left and is updated automatically.

If required, specific revisions (versions) of pages from their histories, can be specified in your book. See the experts page for details.

Step 2 - The book title

Once all the desired pages have been added, click the “Show book” button to review your book. Furthermore it is possible to add a book title and change the ordering of the wiki pages of the book (see details of how to do this in the Advanced functionality section).

Step 3 - Download or order a printed copy of your book

The finished book can be downloaded or ordered as a bound book. You can download the book, in PDF and OpenDocument format (viewable using OpenOffice.org software), by clicking the “Download” button (see Fig 3). To order the book as a bound book click the “Order book from PediaPress” button. Further information about printed books can be found in the FAQ.

More Info: Wikipedia

Wikipedia Books FAQ

(via Robot Wisdom)

This is one of the business models I suggested for newspapers.

Re-posting from klintron.com:

According to Forbes:

Madison, Wis.
Washington, D.C.
Boston, Mass.
Richmond, Va.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Baltimore, Md.
Seattle, Wash.
Houston, Texas
Dallas, Texas

Full Story: Forbes

Re-posting from klintron.com:

* Audiologist
* Biomedical equipment technician
* Clergy
* Curriculum/training specialist
* Engineer
* Firefighter
* Fundraiser
* Genetic counselor
* Ghostwriter
* Government manager
* Hairstylist/Cosmetologist
* Health policy specialist
* Higher education administrator
* Landscape architect
* Librarian
* Locksmith/Security system technician
* Management consultant
* Mediator
* Occupational therapist
* Optometrist
* Pharmacist
* Physical therapist
* Physician assistant
* Politician/Elected official
* Registered nurse
* School psychologist
* Systems analyst
* Urban planner
* Usability/User experience specialist
* Veterinarian

Full Story: US News and Report

I know I’m stating the obvious, but if I brought anything away from last night’s journalist mash-up, No News Is Bad News, it’s that West Seattle Blog is HOT, HOT SHIT right now.

The premise of the event was … well, I don’t remember. But, what it became was a chance for 150ish journalists and a few of their subjects to come together in one room, talk about the state of the industry, pontificate on how we got where we are and who’s to blame, and toss around ideas for how to save QUALITY JOURNALISM (not necessarily ink and paper). West Seattle Blog, perhaps more than any other voice in the room, is demonstrating an idea, a business model, and a way to preserve local journalism. They have skin in the game. They’re making it work. They’re not just talking about it, they’re doing it. And doing it well. But they’re not saying they’ve found the digital news solution, either. They’ve found something that works in West Seattle, not necessarily the rest of the country or even the city.

Full Story: Seattle Weekly

West Seattle Blog

(via Jay Rosen)

1. Public funds investigative journalism
2. Angel funding for investigative journalism
3. Government funds Journalism
4. A Non-profit Trust funds Journalism
5. Regular Donation Drives funds Journalism
6. Small, localized, Print on demand newspapers
7. Small, online only news teams
8. A mix of free papers for young people and special editions with analysis for an older crowd
9. Subsidize serious reporting with consumer service coverage
10. Subsidize serious reporting with non-intrusive business line extensions
11. Small Newsroom of Investigative reporters, brand name bloggers and community managers
12. Subscription based site plus free articles
13. iTunes type Pay for each article using micropayments
14. Newspapers consortiums join forces with distributors like Google or Yahoo

Full Story: Media Videa

(via Jay Rosen)

See also my article on new revenue sources for professional news media outlets

I’ve started a new wiki project: Recession Hacking.

From the intro:

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” Barack Obama said during his campaign. And yet, now that he’s elected most of us are waiting for a stimulus plan to save us.

The only problem: the stimulus plan sucks. There is no deus ex machina to save us from this deepening recession. It’s time to take what we have and start to rebuild the economy ourselves.

This wiki is dedicated to compiling tools, tactics, and strategies to both survive and thrive in these troubled times.

My hope to is help build a resource of information not just to save money, but information on creating economic prosperity for individuals and communities.

Also check out Recession Hacking blog and Unsummit - the folks I flat out stole the “recession hacking” meme from.

I’ve started a new wiki project: Recession Hacking.

From the intro:

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” Barack Obama said during his campaign. And yet, now that he’s elected most of us are waiting for a stimulus plan to save us.

The only problem: the stimulus plan sucks. There is no deus ex machina to save us from this deepening recession. It’s time to take what we have and start to rebuild the economy ourselves.

This wiki is dedicated to compiling tools, tactics, and strategies to both survive and thrive in these troubled times.

My hope to is help build a resource of information not just to save money, but information on creating economic prosperity for individuals and communities.

Also check out Recession Hacking blog and Unsummit - the folks I flat out stole the “recession hacking” meme from.

Related External Links

• Generated by LinkCurl
• LearnByDoing: Hacking the Recession
• catching dandelions: <h3><b>all the world's a sage</b></h3>
• Event: Hacking The Recession - PSFK.com

What I imagine is a newsroom that is also a cafe. Of course the reporters would have desks somewhere private to do work (a 2nd floor would be ideal), but the front of the newsroom would be a public space where people could get coffee, eat a bagel, use the wireless, etc. At least one reporter would be on-hand to talk with members of the public during business hours. These would be publicly announced “office hours.” We wouldn’t make a big pony-show of it, it would just be a part of the cafe’s appeal. You may just be hanging out - but perhaps you’ll end up in a news story!

Aside from being a revenue stream (coffee, bagels, etc) it would create a deeper connection between the news organization and the public. Could story tips be garnered this way? Perhaps it would be a great way to meet and encourage citizen journalism partners. Could a “Newsroom Cafe” take on MediaBistro in the workshops/training department? Could the space eventually be used to organize civilized public debates? Is this something that could be franchised and repeated in the following cities: San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, etc?

Full Story: DigiDave

And of course, see also: New revenue sources for professional news media outlets

Related External Links

• Generated by LinkCurl
• Interesting links for Tuesday by andydickinson.net
• What journalists can learn from weeklies « Save the Media
• DigiDave | Communication is Key: A Journo-Entrepreneur's Important …