NorthStarNerd.Org

The New Media vs The Old Media (and in between)

People often like to talk about old vs new media. What are the ramifications?  Are the news stories the same? While I don't pretend to have the answers, I did decide to use a "new age" web tool named Wordl, which takes the content from any web page (or text you submit) and builds a graphical representation. In other words (or in other Wordls), this service turns text into a graphical representation.

Thus, I bring you the news as reported on March 29, 2010 at 6:45 CDT from:

• The NY Times (the old)
• CNN (the in between)
• Google News (the new)

In the case of each media site, I used their "vanilla" United States root page (i.e. no user preferences). I thought it would be intriguing to compare a news service / web site which is built upon an old line newspaper (NY Times), a web based new age media site (CNN), and finally a computer service built news service (Google News). The only comment I'll make is that CNN and the NY Times seem to present less content and stress some items more on their home pages (number and size of graphics). I'll let you draw any other conclusions yourself. Thus, here are the three Wordls: (click upon any image to view full sized)

NY Times

 

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CNN

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Google News

Research ... Not Just Another Twitter List!

Although I've been a HUGE advocate of RSS technology over the years via this blog (still am), I realize that Twitter is here to stay. Like many of you, I've experimented with Twitter and am still learning the value proposition. I have found that one Twitter List which I have created, my Research List, has been a great way for me to stay informed about new reports in the knowledge domain of collaboration, systems and technology. I've restricted the membership to high quality research groups. I've included the initial list below along with their Twitter account links. Any like groups I should add, and why?  Thanks. 

NorthstarNerd Twitter Research Group:

• APQC (American Productivity & Quality Center)
• Burton Group I.T.
• EcolLab
• Forrester Research
• Gartner Research
• IBM Alpha Works
• MIT Sloan Management Review
• Microsoft Office Labs
• Pew Research

Google Fiber Duluth Search Engine

My home town of Duluth, Minnesota is trying to win the competition to have Google install a high speed fiber network for the entire community. You may learn more about our effort via Google Twin Ports. If you happen to be a Google employee who is evaluating Duluth's application, I've created a Google Custom Search Engine which provides you a nice extract of what makes the Northland great. While you could use Google local search, even using that delimiter you would be presented with 304,000 results (a very high number with lots of "noise").

• Google Fiber Duluth Search Engine
  (custom search engine)

The web content classifications for the search engine index are:

• Arts
• Civic
• Education
• Government
• Leisure
• Media

If desired, link to the search engine index to view the site list. You may browse from the index directly to any web site listed.

• Index Last Updated: March 22, 2010 (39 sites)
• Submit a site for inclusion

LinkedIn Direct Ads .. A Threat to Google?

Earlier this week upon logging in to my LinkedIn account, I noticed their Direct Ads. While I normally don't get excited about advertising, for some reason, I was curious. I decided to explore the service and ended up creating a short tutorial. The logical question is ... Why am I so intrigued with LinkedIn's direct advertisement service?

Consider, what if you had the ability to dramatically focus your ad campaigns by key demographics, and only pay for actual "click throughs"? In addition, using the power of social networking your target populations could learn about you, the advertiser, as a person. That message is powerful, and new. Google Adword campaigns can not deliver this kind of interaction. Thus, could a strong LinkedIn be dangerous for Google's primary revenue base? Take a few minutes and watch my latest Northstar Nerd Tutorial, and you be the judge. I've included one screenshot below from my tutorial:

• Northstar Nerd LinkedIn Direct Ad Tutorial

Biathlon

As many of you know, I raced in my first Biathlon recently, and even placed first in the masters novice division. The sport impressed me with its demands for conditioning (skiing) and precision (shooting); however I'm not sure I'm ready for competition at the international level. This battle between the skiers from France, Russia, France and Germany for the top three places is truly amazing (video is only 46 seconds long).