“What emerging technology or digital trend do you think will have a significant impact on journalism in the year or two ahead? And how do you see it playing out in terms of application by journalists, and impact?”

I will take the contrarian position here and say “none.” We’ve got enough on our plate. And sometimes, it’s better to just say “enough.”

Journalists are already dealing with social media, geolocation, smart phones, constant updating, advertising woes, and corporations who don’t understand the Internet. What more disruption would really make a difference?

Here’s a thought: Let’s deal with the disruption that’s already occurred. Let’s get journalists to embrace blogs, datasets, Twitter and Facebook updates, smartphone photos, etc. Let’s embrace the mindset that says it’s not a print world anymore. That broadcasting has been turned upside down too.

And let’s get corporations to deal with the fact that they can’t keep 30 percent profit margins and pretend they care about journalism. And quit masking their rent-seeking as “innovation.”

Honestly, I am the first to jump on the next shiny thing, but this stuff is getting old. Have we forgotten what journalism is for? It’s not for the next shiny object. It’s not for a few more points on the balance sheet. It’s to tell the truth. To tell The Story.

And no matter what new disrupting technology crops up this year or next, the story is key.

We can deal with augmented reality and 3D environments later. And when we do, The Story will still be key.

For now, there’s a whole buffet before us. We should deal with it before tackling new challenges.

Image via CrunchBase

Today I marked every last item in my Google Reader account as read. Well over 500 of them I hadn’t read at all. I also unsubscribed to several blog feeds that I wasn’t reading anymore anyway. I’m sure the queue will fill up again by Monday, but it felt good for a while to flush all that information back down the series of tubes.

Today is Internet protest SOPA/PIPA day. You can read about the blackouts happening around the Internet in a variety of places I’ve linked to at the bottom of this post.

Related articles

• SOPA blackout shows little hope of peace with Hollywood (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Internet Blackout of the Day (thedailywh.at)
• Imgur Joins Reddit, Wikipedia, in Sopa Protest Blackout (inquisitr.com)

I’m not sure there will be a theme or anything. Perhaps that will develop over the next few weeks. As it is now, expect some writing and some photographs across a variety of subjects.

Here’s just one example:

I saw this tweet from @mediaite

The link leads to this story by James Crugnale.

At the bottom of the story, I find this: (h/t TP via Chicagoist)

To decipher that for those who don’t understand blog-ese, Crugnale found the story at ThinkProgress (the first link), hence the h/t (hat tip, a form of acknowledgement), and ThinkProgress got the story from Chicagoist.

With me so far?

Now, tracing the story to Chicagoist, I find a large photo of a McD’s application and two paragraphs explaining some of the history of antagonism between the protesters and the Chicago BOT traders. At the bottom of that story, I find this: Found via Windy Citizen.

So I click the link, and there’s that photo again (nobody knows how to correct white balance in Photoshop?). There’s no text accompanying this post, except Via @DeProgrammer (It’s really apparently @DeProgrammer9)

And here we arrive at the (apparent) end of the hat tip trail. A photo posted on Oct. 31 with the caption “The board of trade thought it would be funny to litter McDonalds applications on our heads at #occupychi. #WTF”

So to recap, here’s the chain of origin of the Mediaite tweet as I followed it across the web:

Mediaite > ThinkProgress > Chicagoist > Windy Citizen > @DeProgrammer9

Or, in visual form, from point of origin to my twitter feed:

I understand why these outfits repeat the story with their own slight modification. And I give each of them props for giving some credit to the site where they found the information, which is more than many traditional media outlets do. But I wish there were a better way to follow the origin of a piece of news other than running down the rabbit trail of hat tips to find the source.

It would be nice if someone could invent a “package” tool that would let you include the entire digital trail in a single link or something like that.

photo by Flickr user Zoriah. Use permitted under Creative Commons license. Click to see more images from this photographer.

This month’s Carnival of Journalism takes us on a tour of a truly frightful house of promise and peril: the world of new gadgets and software tools.

To refresh your memory, the prompt for this month was:

How do you decide to dedicate time to a new tool/platform/gadget? What is the process you go through mentally? And then later – how do you convince others to go through that process? And, last: How do you ensure that the tools you do adopt are used once the “newness” factor fades?

Without further delay, here are some of the responses (links open in new tabs):

Alfred Hermida writes, “The starting point for this discussion is the public, not the tools. Talking about tools is the last thing we should be doing..”

Joe Gullo looks for “the community factor” for new software tools, but says the results are often lackluster: “The hardest part is sticking with the product. It could be the most amazing service or product, but something has to keep me going back and using it.”

Dave Cohn makes an important distinction when evaluating any new tool: “Most platforms/tools/gadgets are tactical – not strategic. You should always keep your strategy in mind so that you can evaluate a tool about whether or not it’s helping to achieve that final goal.”

Carrie Brown focuses on the “evangelism” part of the question, and gives a list of ways to help others see the advantages of new things. This is important for college j-students, especially. “Contrary to popular belief, many of these so-called “digital natives” are often neither savvy about new tech nor exceptionally eager to go beyond their Facebook and Internet Explorer (?!) comfort zones.”

Lauren Rabaino walks through the process and provides examples of the best tools: “The best tools are the ones that solve a coverage  problem or put a significant twist on already-existing storytelling tools. Sometimes — and these are my favorite kind of tools — you stumble upon one that fills a huge need that you didn’t even realize you had.”

Jonathan Groves explains how he decides what products to stick with, providing examples along the way. As for convincing others? His approach is slightly different. Click the link to read it. “What’s important is that we choose what best fits us, not everyone else.”

Stijn Debrouwere makes his first appearance in the carnival this month (welcome!). In his post, he posits some fountational reasons why journalists don’t adopt new tools: “our industry is slowly amassing an unsettling amount of cargo cult behaviors: we’re imitating a 20th-century writing style and ethical code without the first idea about how these contribute to journalism that is informative, engaging and fair.”

Jack Lail reiterates that, although it’s painful, “… experiment you must, lest you end up still using a 14,400 baud model and Windows 98 for the rest of your, indeed, wretched life.”

Andrew Zaleski, another new carnivore, explains “Ultimately, I stick to one governing principle when it comes to social media: how will the respective tool improve (and make easier) my work as digital media editor for Urbanite magazine?”

Image via Wikipedia

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to learn a new way of typing using the Dvorak keyboarding method.

The Dvorak keyboard was developed in the middle of the 20th century to replace the QWERTY keyboard, which was originally designed in the late 19th century to slow down typists.

It is very easy to switch between the two layouts. On the Macintosh, you can enable Dvorak under System Settings > Language and Text > Input Sources. Be sure to leave U.S. checked and you can switch between them via the menu bar at the top of the screen. (see important note about keyboard shortcuts below)

A couple of things I’ve noticed about the new method:

First, the Dvorak method is more economical with finger movement: The most commonly used letters are located on the “home” row, allowing you to use different fingers to type them faster and more efficiently. Here’s just one example, using the word “sanitation.” Here’s how you would type the word in QWERTY:

And here’s how you would type the word in Dvorak:

That’s a rather obscure example, but the same applies to other common words like: these, hats, then, sent, tents, those, eats, eaten, notes, etc.

Second, the most difficult part of the process is not learning the new method, but unlearning the old method.

I spent 23 years typing in qwerty at a very fast clip. Starting over with a new method is like learning to walk again. I am now reasonably comfortable typing with Dvorak, but not fast by any measure.

Having written that, I think the change will be positive, once I gain speed, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in learning a new method of typing.

Here are some tips based on my experience:

Set aside time outside responsibilities to get started: This is not something you can do overnight, as it requires rewriting muscle memory that’s been built up over many years if you’re a reasonably competent touch typist. When you’re just starting out, practice for a short amount of time each day, then take a break and go back to normal typing.

Use a typing tutor program: I’ve been using Master Key, which is a simple program that steadily takes you through the Dvorak keyboard, with each lesson building upon the last. You can’t advance to the next level of keys until you’ve mastered the current level at a certain speed. Master Key is also very inexpensive – $20 – and available for Mac and PC.

Keep a reference keyboard layout handy: There are some very inexpensive key stickers available on Amazon, for instance. There are also dedicated keyboards, and if you’re brave, you can even manually remap your keyboard. I haven’t used these methods, but I have kept the Keyboard Viewer open on screen as a handy reference for some of the characters I use the least. Master Key has the layout in the tutoring screen as well.

Decide when/if to make the switch completely: After you’ve learned most of the key positions in the new method, you should notice something happening to your former touch typing abilities. Your fingers will experience some confusion when typing common words. This is the crucial point in the transition. You will have to decide whether to continue or abandon the process. There’s no “right” answer here, and going back to the familiar qwerty format isn’t a failure. But once you’ve made the decision to continue, this is the time to cut the safety cords on your qwerty usage. Switch all your keyboards to Dvorak and resist the temptation to switch them back.

Tip for solving the shortcut conundrum: I use keyboard shortcuts a lot for copy/paste, new tabs in a browser, etc. Trying to remap those was proving to be a major challenge with the new method. Fortunately, A Hat with a Geek has the solution for that problem:

Apple, in their infinite wisdom, has already solved that issue. It’s called “Dvorak + QWERTY ? (command)” and it’s great. Essentially, whenever I press the ? (command) key, the OS pretends that the keyboard is QWERTY. That means I can use the same shortcuts in their old locations!”

So there you go! Good luck and safe typing.

Extra: While researching this post, I came across the Colemak typing method. I’ve already switched once recently, so I’m not in the mood to guinea pig myself again right now, but it’s another possibility to check out.

Related articles

• Password Security and my Dvorak keyboard (pakos.me)
• Dvorakian (attackoftheirony.wordpress.com)
• I had to type in Qwerty today. And I hated it… (pakos.me)