Concerned Citizens

Last week on Friday Apple Computer fixed a problem and, in doing so, garnered the attention of most of the technology media and even some of the mainstream media in the process. What is even more interesting is that prior to the press conference Apple had essentially been denying there was a problem to fix. However, when faced with proof positive from Consumer Reports of a potential reception problem while holding the iPhone a certain way Steve Jobs had to confront the issue. In doing so he made lemons out of lemonade by turning the conference into a marketing event. Only one other person comes to mind with that type of charisma – PT Barnum. Read more…

I’m sure several of you have seen the latest viral videos of soldiers in various conflicts letting off steam by lip syncing to some of the most interesting songs, usually by female pop artists. They’re hilarious at times and present a different side we don’t see beyond the news reports. Remember, these soldiers are in harms way most of the time so as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the mission I don’t care what they do and hopefully they are having fun doing the videos. Unfortunately some people in command don’t see it that way. All I can say is let it go and let them have fun. Read more…

This was my first Texas Democratic Party State Convention since I started blogging over a year ago. I wasn’t sure what to expect but knew it would be a different world. I was ready to go with a netbook and a convention center covered with wifi access. I had my blog, Twitter, and Facebook accounts at the ready for posting the latest information. What I found at the convention was even better than I expected. I wasn’t the only one. In fact, the convention had a new army of people just like me hitting the convention – the New Media folks. Read more…

This week kicks off public television’s annual shopping spree, Blazing Gavels. It’s a time when you can shop til you drop at home and do it knowing you are helping benefit public television in San Antonio. The TV auction helps benefit KLRN and provides about 8% of funding for the station. It’s a great place to find specials on many local San Antonio items donated by businesses and individuals. In some ways, it’s also a way to become aware of unique items and services you wouldn’t normal discover browsing around North Star Mall. Read more…

I’m spending the Memorial Day weekend in Arkansas visiting with family and friends and taking in Arkansas’s biggest festival called Riverfest. It’s a great place to get away to and relax. Sitting in the bench swing among the tall trees I remember as small is the best at recharging the soul. Yet, even with the desire to relax I still want to stay connected with San Antonio. After all, I’m coming back home on Tuesday and would like to stay in the flow. The problem is I’m having a challenge with my local newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News. Read more…

Day Two of SXSW Interactive was very productive and busy. After getting the devices (netbook and iPhone) charged for the day, which is critical for a full day, I was ready to hit the day. I drove down Saturday since I wanted the vehicle close by in case I needed to make a run anywhere. One of the challenges is keeping devices going to the end of the day. My iPhone was starving when I pulled into the room last night and netbook wasn’t much better. Read more…

Yesterday was a good day at SXSWi for a first day. I didn’t feel as lost yesterday as I did the first year I attended. I even felt like an old timer as I helped people find registration, gave some a brief tutorial on the Austin Convention Center, and staked out claim to prized seats in some of the more popular sessions. What made the day even better was that I learned some things yesterday and we’re just in Day One of the five day Interactive portion. So what did this old dog learn and what’s ahead? Read more…

Last year I was just learning my way around this megafest of social media and Web 2.0 and really felt like a newbie. Even with the overwhelming experience of meeting so many creative and talented people I came away with some new ideas and new friends. Now I’m back and ready for the five days of fun along with 15,000 others. Read more…

I’m in Austin this week for South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), the techy side of SXSW. It’s probably one of the biggest social media gatherings in the nation and brings together so many creative and talented people into one single location and conference. During the next five days I’ll be sitting in sessions dealing with everything from new media to mobile to touch interfaces. Yes, as you can see the schedule is going to be busy. No, I can’t be in two or three places at the same time but I always overbook and choose the session at the last minute based on participant feedback. Sometimes I’ll walk out of a dog session and hit another based on tweets in Twitter from friends. So why would I spend these five days in this big interactive festival? Read more…

Today in the NY Times’ Media and Advertising section an article discusses some of the new moves occurring in the media industry around media pay walls. The article starts to delve into the challenges faced by traditional media and some possible solutions. It’s become a hot topic, especially with the efforts by Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. to develop a pay wall system for his various publications. The problem is that Murdoch may be ahead of his time in developing such a system but at least it has started the conversation. Similar efforts have been launched by a consortium that inclules Time Inc., Conde Nast, and several others aimed at building a new delivery model that would leverage technology such as e-readers along with a paid subscription model for content delivery. But the bigger question is would people really pay for digital content? Read more…

Today I found this video at Mashable produced by Whirled Interactive providing a perspective on 2009 using Google Wave. In case you’re not familiar with the technology the perspective is a “wave” with a series of wavelet conversations. There are a lot of subtle nuances that are Wave specific so all you Wavers should watch for them, especially the RIP section. Regardless it’s just fun to watch. The thing to understand is that the only editing is audio. The Wave was built and replayed as is.

This past week some interesting developments have been occurring in the news industry that will probably help shape the future of news. The first involves how you may end up discovering news on USA Today, the Wall Street Journal or any of the other News Corp. publications. Rupert Murdoch is trying to craft a new model for finding and reading news, starting with his own set of publications. In a deal he appears to be striking with Microsoft, the content will no longer be available through Google searches or Google News but will be displayed through Microsoft’s Bing search engine. However, the other two may also shape the future of news as we know it. Those involve the concept of microblogging news and the possibility of an iTunes like store for news content. So how will these affect news delivery in the future? Read more…

Tuesday night Mayor Julian Castro hosted the first virtual town hall in San Antonio, a fulfillment of a campaign promise. For the first time it turned out great thanks to the hard work of Trinity University, several members of his staff, and his campaign office. During the hour session moderated by Elaine Wolff of the San Antonio Current people could e-mail, chat or tweet up questions for the mayor to respond to. A limited audience at Trinity was also provided the opportunity to ask questions. Hopefully we’ll see more of this type event as Mayor Castro works to bring more transparency and accessibility to city government through online resources. He is becoming one of the most connected mayors San Antonio has ever seen. Read more…

Today I got my bill for my subscription to the Express-News with a sizable price increase. After reviewing the options and the quality of delivery I have decided to end my subscription with the paper. The main reason is that while my subscription is electronic I will be paying the same rate as home delivery, something I find completely unreasonable and illogical. It’s not a choice I really want to make but the management at the Express-News fails to understand the issues and continues to miss what is really the problem at their organization. Read more…

Newspaper circulation continued to fall by 10 percent during the last 6 months according to an article by the NY Times quoting information from the latest report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The decline marked a steady decrease that has put circulation now at a level not seen since the 1940s. The largest drops occurred with the San Francisco Chronicle at 25.8 percent and the Dallas Morning News with a weekday sales drop of more than 22 percent. Many have heralded the steady decline of newspapers in America as the industry struggles to find its new business model. But as I look at the industry as a simple outsider it appears many within the industry still desire to hang on to old distribution models at the expense of content, something that takes on the appearance of cannibalism in a struggle to survive. Read more…