from Reuters Editors:
Giant shoulders and the chain of knowledge
The new world is not so different from the old world – it just moves faster and in different ways.
As early as the 12th century, the image of dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants came into discourse to mean that all knowledge advances based on the discoveries of the past.
In academia and in journalism that notion has been coupled with the doctrine of attribution – you need to acknowledge the shoulders you’re standing on, to give due credit but also to allow others to search out that perch and see if their view from it is any different.
To me, the current debate about the “Link Economy” in content terms is about:
Are you part of the conversation? Are you adding to the debate or just playing postman and passing others’ views on? Are you adding value and … Are you getting rewarded for adding the value you do?
As head of a journalistic army of 2,700 professionals I obviously have an intense vested interest in ensuring that their work is valuable to readers and valued by them.
Part of that involves ensuring that they are in the centre of the action and that they fill their reports with their expertise and experience. Part of that involves ensuring that they are part of the debate, that their reports inform the debate and that the debate, in turn, informs their future reporting.
Axed Porsche CEO tries Robin Hood tactics to bolster blue collar image
Germans love to see the mighty fall just a little bit more than the rest of the world, and freshly ousted Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking is a perfect candidate. Yes, he made tiny, almost bankrupt Porsche successful again but did he have to be so smug about it? And was he really worth the millions of euros he raked in every year in a country where executive pay is a thorny issue? His salary, which made him the best paid German manager by far, was a topic of endless fascination in the German media. Wiedeking never divulged how much he made but unapologetically said he deserved what he earned — estimated to have been 80 million euros last year. Even before his dismissal was official, speculation swirled about how extraordinary his severance payment would be, with some putting the figure at 250 million euros. In the end it was less but still a handsome sum of 50 million euros, considering he leaves Porsche with a huge mountain of debt. As Wiedeking climbs off the throne, he is eager to burnish his blue collar credentials and in Robin Hood style announced he would donate what’s left of his payment after taxes to charity. Some of it will go to a foundation for Porsche staff, some into projects to create new jobs and, in a final swipe at his critics, he promised to give to a charity for “elderly and suffering journalists”. Take that, hacks.
Twitter has journalists chirping
News organizations are all a-twitter about Twitter: Is it a friend or a foe? Should it be embraced or eschewed? Will Twitter kill journalism or revive it?
As journalists learn about Twitter and how they can use it, they also write more about it. In the past day alone, there have been a handful of stories about Twitter.
The Miami Herald wrote about CNN’s Washington bureau chief David Bohrman talking about the importance of newer technologies like Twitter and YouTube. Bohrman said CNN has been using YouTube and Twitter to attract the more elusive younger audience, and had great success with the presidential-primary debates.
The Financial Times, meanwhile, writes a novella-length piece on Twitter that asks whether the “trendy little short-message service really be the next YouTube or Facebook?”
And then, as search giant Google sent out its first official Tweet yesterday, bloggers and reporters began speculating madly about whether Google might buy the micro-blogging site. PC World wondered if Google will pull a YouTube on Twitter, while San Jose Mercury News’s Chris O’Brien discussed whether Twitter could actually become a threat to Google.
Meanwhile, guess who’s on Twitter now?
Keep an eye on:
If journalists sense something more here than the latest geek or celeb-spotting fad, they’d be right. Twitter is the glue that sticks all the conversations and bits of information and media on the Internet together, ensuring they reach the people who might be interested in them, at the time they’re needed, on whatever device they’re using. I’ve been using the service since June 2007 and so a lot of newly Twittering business and journalistic associates have been asking me what all the fuss is about. I couldn’t fit the answer in a 140-character tweet. Indeed, it took me a whopping 3000 words to explain what the service is and why it’s important. My response, “Twitter without the twaddle” is at:http://mortleman.net/?p=31It's irrelevent whether Twitter ends up the dominant ‘market player’ – the fact is a system (or set of interconnecting systems) that does what Twitter does, and builds on it, will now always exist – the public will demand it – and it’s going to change fundamentally the way we connect, communicate, collaborate, organise and work.
from Davos Notebook:
Knowing one’s place in Davos
The big, big question for the hordes of journalists churning up the fresh, Davos snow is not how to end global economic turmoil, but where their hard-won World Economic Forum accreditation allows them to roam.
A record cast of more than 40 heads of state and government, more than 30 finance ministers and central bankers, as well as 1,400 business executives, will be hotly pursued by 400 journalists, colour-coded into white and orange badge holders.
The 200 snow-coloured badges are the most highly prized. Anyone holding one is considered a participant, who can contribute to the great debate on setting the world to rights. They can follow World Economic Forum delegates anywhere, provided the security guards allow.
Their footsteps will be measured by pedometers handed out to every white-badge holder who enters the running for The-One-Who-Can-Walk-The-Furthest contest as they attend this year's relatively low-key dinners and comparatively demure cocktail parties.
Another 200 orange badge holders, whose footsteps will go uncounted but who did receive coveted WEF laptop cases, are allowed into press conferences and the Davos Congress Centre where the debates and panel sessions will unfold. But, orange badge holders will not be able to listen to the great debates. They will also be excluded from the best parties unless they can gate-crash their way in.
Last and definitely least, although not in number, is the army of "tech badge" holders, whose precise size has yet to be disclosed by blue-badged WEF officials when contacted by Reuters. They have extremely limited rights of access, and no pedometers or laptop cases -- but at least they have been allowed up the snowy mountain.
