David Black

“Your audience is also sharing what they know, either informally, or via special-interest sources. The big question is, when your audience wants more and trusted information, are they going to find it on your web site as soon as they want it?”

“Widgets are a way to distribute content, via embeddable chunks of code. Widgets can live on any website, and include a variety of content types, including interactive content.”

“The easiest way to keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city — like restaurant inspections in Chinatown, crimes in the Loop or everything around 475 Kent Ave.”

“We aim to collect all of the news and civic goings-on that have happened recently in your city, and make it simple for you to keep track of news in particular areas. We’re a geographic filter — a “news feed” for your neighborhood, or, yes, even your bl

“I’ve always believed that the hyperlocal nut will be cracked with a technology solution, not a content solution. Why try to convince people to submit content when there’s already a ton of it out there that just needs organizing?”

Interview with Adrian Holovaty on EveryBlock.com

“In the spirit of aggregators, I’ve compiled the most important reactions to Adrian Holovaty’s new neighborhood site, EveryBlock.com. My thoughts are saved for last.”

“Yesterday outside.in launched a preview of our new discussion boards, where visitors can talk with people around them, ask questions, give answers, rant, weigh in, and so forth.”

“We’re fans of Twitter around here… while the format appealed to us it really just whetted our appetite for something more, like a way for each of us to share short messages about what we’re doing or working on internally, or private messages…”

US: “The Newspaper Association of America reported the number of unique visitors to newspaper Web sites last year rose more than 6 percent to a monthly average of 60 million. Monthly visits climbed 9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago.”

Great post from Paul Bradshaw: “In the final part of the Model for the 21st Century Newsroom I look at how new media has compounded problems in news organisations’ core business models - and the new business models which it could begin to explore.”

“The latest Nielsen Global Online Survey found that books account for 41% of all items bought on the web over the last three months, although clothes, shoes and accessories (36%) was the fastest growing vertical.”

“According to Hitwise, last week newspaper websites - “which includes the websites of national, local and international newspapers, as well as print magazines and trade publications” - captured 1.48% of all UK web visits, a new record.”

“we crawl the Web to find publicly declared relationships between people’s accounts, just like Google crawls the Web for links between pages.”

“I believe the killer social graph app will be the one that sniffs and understands our relationships without our having to take explicit action or by exploiting the actions we take for different reasons.”

“We wanted a CMS with the dual purpose of making online publishing faster, but also to rethink the horrible workflow of our print edition.”

“a study conducted by Ipsos Mori for Rajar - its first attempt to understand just what is going on in online - shows 8.1 million people listen to either streamed or catch-up radio in any given week, while only 1.87 million listen to a podcast.”

“Usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a web-site.”

How done is done?

“Instead of sinking literally millions of dollars/pounds/euros into content management systems… why not take one of the open-source systems and become part of the development community?”

“There is simply no substitute for real, sustained, dedicated participation in the conversation by editors and reporters. Without it, newspaper sites will continue to struggle to grow and retain audience.”