Blogs

Microformats (web-based metadata-formatting)

OpenID (open source metadata platform)

SIMILE project at MIT (seeks to enhance inter-operability among digital assets, schemata/vocabularies/ontologies, metadata, and services)

OrgNet (social network analysis software and services)

Archive.org (not-for-profit internet library)

CurrentTV (Al Gore’s collective online-to-television media project)

Daylife (News, image, and quote aggregator)

All Voices (open news, image, discussion aggregator organized graphically by location or catergory)

TubeMogul (online video analytics and distribution)

ooVoo (video conferencing and IM application)

Yahoo Live (allows users to broadcast video in real time)

Mogulus (live online video switcher and streaming tool)

Operator11 (live online video switcher and streaming tool)

Citizen Media Law Project (law guide for citizen media creators with or without formal legal training)

Kiva (transparent lending platform to 3rd world entrepreneurs)

Mashable is looking for a Co-Editor and a handful of investigative reporters
to be based in the Bay Area and New York.

Job Descriptions:
__________________________________________________________

CO-EDITOR FOR MASHABLE

With more than 160,000 RSS subscribers, Mashable.com is one of the world's
largest blogs focused on the latest Internet trends with a focus on social
media and Web 2.0 news.  Mashable is currently hiring a Co-Editor who will
report directly to Mashable's Editor-in-Chief.

Job Responsibilities Include:
- Assisting the Editor-in-Chief in making editorial decisions
- Assigning stories to other members of the Mashable team
- Writing breaking news stories
- Reviewing new Web 2.0 sites and services
- Interviewing executives from companies that Mashable covers
- Routinely discovering scoops that are relevant to Mashable's audience
- Administrative duties (email, scheduling, etc.)

Requirements and Qualifications Include
- 3+ years of working in the social media space in an editorial role
- Exceptional writing skills and news judgment
- A strong social media presence (Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Ability to source your own stories via your own network of contacts
- In-depth knowledge of key companies and figures in the Web industry
- Strong technical savvy and acumen that shows in your writing
- Familiarity with WordPress and Photoshop (or a comparable image software
package)
- Journalism degree preferred

______________________________

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER FOR MASHABLE

With more than 160,000 RSS subscribers, Mashable.com is one of the world's
largest blogs focused on the latest Internet trends with a focus on social
media and Web 2.0 news.  Mashable is currently hiring an Investigative
Reporter who will report directly to Mashable's Editor-in-Chief.

Job Responsibilities Include:
- Writing breaking news stories
- Reviewing new Web 2.0 sites and services
- Interviewing executives from companies that Mashable covers
- Routinely discovering scoops that are relevant to Mashable's audience
- Administrative duties (email, scheduling, etc.)

Requirements and Qualifications Include
- 3+ years of working in the social media space in an editorial role
- Exceptional writing skills and news judgment
- A strong social media presence (Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Ability to source your own stories via your own network of contacts
- In-depth knowledge of key companies and figures in the Web industry
- Strong technical savvy and acumen that shows in your writing
- Familiarity with WordPress and Photoshop (or a comparable image software
package)
- Journalism degree preferred

*For immediate consideration, please send resumes and cover letter to
adamo@mashable.com.
 

Tuning into the NewsTools2008 conference has been an inspiring experience to say the least, as journalists and tech geeks combine brainpower to brainstorm new ideas about the future of journalism.

But at the end of the day, I can't help but think... is all this brainstorming, time and effort all worth it? Will our audiences actually care?

Let's look at two questions I discussed with some bloggers yesterday:

1)  Did you get the audience?

2) Did you get the advertising dollars?

Journalists can plop all their best news content online, but if they’re not addressing the above two questions – it just doesn’t matter. Afterall, what pays for journalism? Advertising dollars. And what brings more advertising dollars? A larger audience.

This causes a dilemma, as we look at what content tends to get the most hits on the Internet. It's not news, that’s for sure.

Celebrity gossip? Porn? Yes. Yes.

Perhaps that's why I overheard one blogger at NewsTools 2008 say the following:
“If I really wanted traffic, I’d post porn.”

Vanity Fair had one of it’s biggest days, hits-wise, when the juicy story about childstar Miley Cyrus (character: Hannah Montana) broke last week. The 15-year-old Disney actress and pop singer, posed nude with a bed sheet in the June issue of the magazine. So the masses read that story the most – they didn’t turn to election coverage, local news, or even sports stories as much as they turned to a naked 15-year-old.

Even today, four days later, Miley Cyrus is still the top Yahoo! search and Annie Leibovitz, the celebrity photographer who took the image, is eighth in Yahoo! searches.

So how do journalists, who want to cover important stories compete? How does information compete with entertainment?

Do we turn to salacious, sensational journalism to be competitive, or do we stick to our traditional journalistic values and sink into oblivion?

How do you stick to your standards and still put food on your table at the end of the day?  It's a bothersome, but true dilemma. Journalists have to deal with the challenge of balancing information with entertainment.

We at the NewsTools2008 conference can sit around all day discussing promising new journalism tools that will benefit democracy… but is that even what the public wants?

After we invest all this brainpower, money and time into creating better journalism, will anyone tune in?

Is it worth it?

Let’s be optimistic, but realistic as well.