February 13th, 2009 by mhjones

I live for moments of clarity, when all those passing thoughts and observations suddenly collide and create something new. And this time it was during a chance encounter on ustream.tv, the free video channel community.

One of my twitter buddies had linked to a test broadcast by ABC personality James Valentine. He was in a radio studio with an engineer (off air) and trying to figure out how to possible weave a live video feed into his radio show.

And here we were, some 92 people who had caught wind of the experiment and buzzed by to see what the fuss was about. James was engaging directly with the assembled onlookers. He wanted to get the sound working. Technical stuff. As an aside, it was fun to discover one of the ustream participants was an old friend who I’d not seen for years – the online equivalent of bumping into someone in the street.

Meanwhile, I had other stuff happening while ustream’s live comments unfolded. I was glancing at my twitter stream (you can find me here, btw), reading email, doing some online research ahead of a social media workshop I was to host the following day, synching my ipod and smartphone. Just your regular Joe with an digital attention deficit disorder. Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: Aussie media, New media, Social media, Twitter
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May 14th, 2008 by mhjones

Media and tech industry veteran Mark Hollands is the new PANPA chief executive. SMH story here.

For those unfamiliar with PANPA, it’s the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association - think of any newspaper in the country and there’s a very good chance it’s a PANPA member.

Mark is of course well known for his roles at News Ltd., Gartner and Dow Jones. But of course, we all know the one that made him most famous was regular appearances on The Scoop. Right? Heh.

One of the biggest challenges facing Mark, and PANPA, is the Big Story in the media business - navigating a way through the disruption caused by a boom in online media spending.

But Mark’s seen the media business from just about every angle so he’s an inspired choice. And I’m not just saying that cos we’re mates either :).

Tagged: Aussie media
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May 12th, 2008 by mhjones

So I was half-watching the 7.30 Report tonight. Health Minister Nicola Roxon found herself responding to Kerry O’Brien’s taunts about the Government’s spate of pre-budget leaks.

Kerry was rightly suggesting that the Government was being too blatant in it’s time-honoured strategy of strategically leaking news to the media in order to get the electorate on side. His question was code for “you guys don’t seem to be playing the media game very well.” That is, we’re all supposed to pretend these leaks are real leaks and not tools to manipulate the masses.

Roxon responds (to the best of my memory): “Media management is like sausage making. You don’t really want to know what goes on behind the scenes.”

Funniest thing I’ve heard on current affairs TV for a long time.

Tagged: Aussie media
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April 18th, 2008 by mhjones

The team at misaustralia.com has given the site a fresh look, and I’m enjoying the result. I was part of the team that developed version 1.o, so it’s great to see the evolution.

As online editor Chris Jenkins writes, one of the biggest changes is they have dispensed with the flash viewer. In its place is the DRM technology that’s found on afr.com.

DRM aside, I do like the “latest news” box in the news stories; the multimedia viewer; bigger and clearer photos; the whole top nav bar with drop down menus; and all the social media tags.

What are your thoughts on the site?

(John Laws clause: I continue to do lots of work for MIS and the AFR)

Tagged: Aussie media
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April 14th, 2008 by mhjones

I’ll confess to being more than a little proud of the journos at The AFR and MIS Magazine last Friday night at the annual Sun Microsystems IT Journalism Awards:

[Ben] Woodhead was a frequent visitor to the winner’s podium, collecting individual honours as Best Industry Journalist and the top gong of Best Journalist. While he collected those awards for his work at The Australian, he also represented Fairfax Business Media, who had another successful night with MIS Magazine winning Best Business Technology Title while the Financial Review won Best Industry Title. Paul Smith was also judged to be the Best Business Technology Journalist while Julian Bajkowski won Best News Journalist.

Also, congrats to all the other winners. I was one of the judges in the “Best New Journalist” category, and it was really interesting to read around 12 nominations from this year’s crop. The winner, Elissa Baxter, is a worthy winner, and it will be interesting to follow her career.

And beyond Elissa, there’s some incredible talent out there. In my humble opinion, it bodes well for the future of IT journalism in this country.

Tagged: Aussie media
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March 26th, 2008 by mhjones

So here are a couple of interesting social media sites I stumbled across in recent days.

I’ve been reading a truckload of nominations lately for IT Journo’s annual Lizzie Awards Best New Journalist category (tech industry awards given out by Media Connect). And as a quick aside, it’s really encouraging to read the work of new IT journalists who’ve dived into the industry fresh from Uni or made the career switch. There’s a whole bunch of really talented people out there, but I digress.

The first site I came across while reading these nominationed was Laurel Papworth’s Bloggerati.  Don’t ask me how I’ve managed to miss this site to date, but it’s worth a look, and worth supporting. Think of it as an Aussie version of Digg.

The second is more controversial. RateMyTeachers is a global site that, as the name suggests, lets students rate the performance of their teachers. Follow the links to your country (Australia is included), select your state, enter the name of your local school and bingo! - there’s a good chance you’ll find some candid feedback from anonymous students or parents on individual teachers.

Personally, if I was a teacher this would freak me right out. I can understand why people in the US are trying to get it wiped off the Internet.  But if you’re a good teacher and love your work, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. The only problem I have with the site is that it doesn’t seem to give teachers an official right of reply, or a way of appealing your rating without simply writing a comment in response.

But the bottom line is that’s its a really innovative approach. As a Dad who’s faced with choosing a school for our daughter next year, all of a sudden services like this have an immediate appeal.

Gotta love social media that breaks the mould.

Tagged: Aussie media, Social media
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July 19th, 2007 by mhjones

If I’ve got any excuse for being so slack on the blogging front for a while, I could blame MISaustralia.com - the AFR and MIS Magazine’s new site for the CIO and IT professional community. It’s been advertised the AFR for the past few days in case you’ve missed the marketing.

It’s really satisfying to see the site up and running. I’ve spent months working with Fairfax Business Media’s online, editorial and publishing teams in a consulting capacity, and on the pure editorial front I’m also wearing the online editor’s hat for a short time. We’re in the process of hiring a full time online editor, which will be great. Actually, necessary. I’m about to resume my studies after a break between semesters, and when I’m not studying I expect my podcast and the series of video interviews I’m doing for the site will soak up a good chunk of time. And the video shoots are coming thick n fast. Tomorrow I’ll be down in Canberra talking to government types at the AFR’s Govtech.

I’ll endeavour to write more about the site, the thinking behind it, and some of the other fun stuff I’ve been doing like setting up a podcasting studio with broadcast quality gear in the near future. But for now, lemme know what you think about MISaustralia.com.

Tagged: Aussie media, The Australian Financial Review
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March 29th, 2007 by mhjones

Amanda Meade took another shot at the AFR today in her media column, due to a number of resignations. It’s worth noting for the record that I have not "become a Christian pastor." It’s an odd statement given that she interviewed me a couple of weeks ago. What is true is that I have begun my studies, a Bachelor of Ministry degree. When completed some 5 to 7 years from now it will qualify me to become a pastor, which under the traditional model means you are employed by a church. Until then, I’m really excited about my freelance journalism career which starts on the other side of Easter.

Tagged: Aussie media
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March 18th, 2007 by mhjones

The ABC’s Geoff Thompson reflects on the Indonesian air crash, and expresses some of unspoken sentiment that’s permeated the media, and our office, in recent days.

The questions of "why?" and "why not me?" could drive you mad if you let them but that’s not really what’s been bugging me, though it is just as inexpressible. It’s the really hard question of what, and how much, one should feel when another person dies.

I knew two people who died in that crash. What does it mean to know someone exactly? How do you quantify knowing somebody, especially once they are dead?

I really didn’t know Morgan that well. But his loss still affected me in ways I’ve struggled to understand. I think that’s part of being human. Thanks Geoff for getting us closer to understanding those emotions.

Tagged: Aussie media
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March 9th, 2007 by mhjones

Hugh Martin’s report that Ron Walker (chairman of my employer) was in London visiting the Daily Telegraph does indeed beg a few questions.

A bit of gossip: the day before I was there Ron Walker had been in the building, sitting in on news conference, touring the floor, hobnobbing with the big cheeses. Does this have something to do with the imminent newsroom moves at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age? Is it about digital integration or commercial real estate (the Telegraph has a uniquely large floor space, something which is hard to come by)? Or perhaps he was just dropping in on some mates?

Tagged: Aussie media
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