Technology360

Mobile content

Mobile apps are definitely the most exciting thing going on in the media space right now, so I'm going to try to track some of these things under this headline.

• This morning I'm in Minneapolis and I left the hotel about 7:30 to go to a convenience store.  I noticed 7 or 8 people lined up outside a nearby T-Mobile store.  Hmm, what's going on here, I thought.  Turns out today is the public release of the Google-branded G1 phone.  So, sounds like they have a hit on their hands.  Katherine Boehret tests some G1 apps on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal D Section.
• I've been having problems with getting a "Page Not Found" error when trying to access the tinyurl.com link on NPR's @nprnews Twitter feeds using my Nokia N95.  Worked fine in a regular browser and on my old N82 and other @npr... feeds worked fine.  So they've switched at least one of the RSS feeds that go into @nprnews to bit.ly and that fixed the problem.  The problem related to something about the linked pages not being true permalinks.  The other feeds will move to bit.ly also.  Thanks to Andy Carvin for the fix.  Weird problem.

--Dennis

NPR's Planet Money podcast #2 on iTunes

Thanks to Jeff Jarvis for the well-deserved nod (link: BuzzMachine) to the journalistic innovation of NPR's Planet Money podcast from  Alex Blumberg, Laura Conaway, Adam Davidson and David Kestenbaum.  It's become must-listening for me and, apparently, for thousands of others because it's now #2 on iTunes podcasting hit parade.  This is particularly significant, because it's doing so without the broadcasting horsepower of Chicago Public Radio/Public Radio International's This American Life (#3) or NPR's Fresh Air (#8), Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me (#11), Talk of the Nation (#16) or Car Talk (#23).  The Planet Money crew is doing a great job of doing what NPR does best -- explaining important but complex things.  I'm grateful both as someone who is vitally interested in their topic and as one of the people they make look good every day.  Thanks to Rob Paterson for the heads up on Jeff's post.  --Dennis

"Analog?" So funny, and yet not

The Ides of March come about a month early for television broadcasters next year when millions of over-the-air viewers -- many of them elderly -- must deal with receivers that, without converter boxes, become livingroom plant stands.  Having just installed a new HD set in the livingroom and moved the analog set to an upstairs bedroom and installed one of the coupon converter boxes there for a technology-intimidated friend, I can testify that it's a challenging task.  FOX's Talkshow with Spike Ferensten has a great send-up of the various television spots on the conversion that are now playing on stations across the country.

Do yourself a favor and watch this piece.  But have a Kleenex handy.  It will make you laugh big time, but when it's done, if you're a broadcaster, it might also make you cry.  Link:  MSN Video.  Thanks to Karen Olstad for that link.  --Dennis

More digital developments at NPR

The best electronic media journalism organization in the country and our stations' nearly 12 billion listener hours each year deserve the best response possible to the challenges of multiple emerging digital platforms.  OK, that's bragging, but true.  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote here about Seven ways to use public radio on your smartphone.  Earlier last month, I posted about NPR's digital distribution strategy.  In early August, we announced that we'd brought Public Interactive to NPR.  July brought NPR's open API announcement (about which see a longer post here and also Todd Mundt's post).

But since "the times, they are a changin'," there's more:

Hibbing, Minnesota's favorite son, Bob Dylan, is giving NPR.org listeners an exclusive one-week free preview of his new two-disc recording, Tell Tale Signs.  Check it out here.

Current notes that NPR hires USA Today editor to run its Digital Media wing.  That would be Kinsey Wilson, who starts later this month with a lot of enthusiasm from myself and our staff (Link:  paidContent.org; Link: NPR press release).

NPR's Dick Meyer writes, NPR Launches Online Community, in his blog.  Check out the post, then check out the new features of NPR Community.  See the  review of it on Ars Technica.

See also Jennifer Dorroh's The Transformation of NPR in American Journalism Review's Oct./Nov. 2008 number.

Finally, check out Anick Jesdanun's NPR boosts online offerings, seeks larger audience for the Associated Press.

Ya think those reports in March that NPR was slowing its commitment to digital may have missed the mark?

Updated 3 October, 2008:
Also, see Chris Snyder's NPR's Digital Evolution: Social Networking, Open API, and Training the Dinosaurs at Wired.com.

And, Sam Churchill's NPR Mobilizes in dailywireless.org:

... NPR management is reimagining the company, and its journalists are learning to reimagine their stories. ¶  NPR has an intense, seven-week training course in multimedia journalism that encouraged reporters to expand their repertoire of reporting and storytelling skills. As of October, NPR will have started or completed the training of about 40 editorial staffers in three groups, and aims to bring the other 410 up to speed in multimedia by next fall. ...

Updated 4 October, 2008:
And, NPR opens the doors on its social network in Zooped.com.

--Dennis