Links 2-22-11: Libya, Zotero escapes Firefox, UberMedia, Klout controversy
Image via CrunchBase
Top of the Interwebs:
The quickly spreading unrest has now hit Libya, Iran and other locations. It is both inspiring and horrifying. I’d do a round up, but you are better off just scrolling Andy Carvin’s Twitter stream. I really hope someone is archiving everything he puts out.
Self-aggrandizement:
I continue my series of posts on story fragments by explaining how you can engage your audience and build a larger scope for your stories with narrative-parallel artifacts.
It’s a miracle (tool)!
It’s a dream come true! Zotero has finally freed itself from the oppressive environment of Firefox and come to join the rest of the world. With the release of Zotero Standalone Alpha the amazing internet citation machine now works on all the cool browsers.
Worth looking at today:
The other big story of the day is how UberMedia, a remarkably well-funded Twitter-focused company, had its applications blocked from using Twitter, thus rendering them all pretty much useless. Twitter has lobbed some serious accusations at UberMedia, including the claim that the company’s applications change the content of users’ Tweets. Suddenly people were starting to understand that building your business around someone else’s service comes with serious risks, especially when that service doesn’t know how to make its own money. In the end, everything seems to have worked out alright. The company’s applications were reinstated with the understanding that all policy violations had been resolved.
The New York Times has just published an article, full of interviews, talking about how the young are abandoning blogging for Twitter and Facebook. However, despite the length of the article, I find it a bit misleading. It seems to me that what’s really decreased is blogging about your life. I don’t think that topical blogs have really suffered.
Hey look, everyone is talking about Klout. First they released a Chrome plugin to make Klout scores show up on Twitter pages. Then everyone gets even more excited about the possibility of getting a free car or something if they Tweet enough. Then some people are like: ‘slow down dude, Klout != life.’ Then, as happens at the end of most big Internet revelations, people start wondering just how much they are going to get screwed now that they have given up their privacy. Congratulations everyone, we are one step closer to gamifying your life.
The Wall Street Journal has a post by a lady complaining that all young men are simply too immature, busy playing games and drinking beer, to keep up with the women who are busy overachieving. Why can’t we give them babies?!
Sorry lady, but I have to work for my money, we can’t all write books about our crappy dating lives to make a living. ……….. Oh wait… look at that, the Publishers Weekly book review smacks the unqualified journalist down so much better than I could. They refer to her work as “unpersuasive polemic” and state that “she conflates character with maturity, and her blaming feminism for the infantilization of men wrests more power and control away from men, suggesting that they can’t develop a sense of responsibility without a woman’s help.” I should write the mirror image of this book… wait, I guess Tucker Max has already done that.
AOL, now apparently Aol, (say that three times fast) has lost two Engadget editors, mostly due to their push for writers to create more content without more pay.
In a move that stinks of desperation even more than Larry King stinks of old man, Piers Morgan invites the talk-show king back to his old show, with much hype along the way. I wonder if he’ll ask Larry King for help becoming more dangerous?
Twitter advice for journalists: How to track. How to interview.
No weekend roundup this week. Too much on this page already.
Preview image via.
