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New Digg website shown off at SXSW

Matt Thomas — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:12:52 +0000

Fans of the increasingly popular social news website Digg were treated too a glimpse at the all new website this week at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Texas. Chief executive of Digg, Jay Adelson, addressed the fans at the aptly named “Bigg Digg Shindigg” at the SXSW interactive conference.

Adelson explained that the site had apparently been in production for the last five years, if this is the case fans should expect something vastly different and comparatively special. This would indeed appear to be the case as Adelson revealed a number of the new features. The new site, which will go live in spring, will include improved personalisation options, 1-click news submission , a clearer interface and a much improved ‘leader board’ for the real die hard Digg users.

The revamped site will have a much greater focus on recommended content and real-time news, whilst the ability to post news anonymously onto the site should make a big difference to the number of posts made per day which currently stands at around 20,000, Adelson is hoping that this change will see an increase of up to 1 million posts a day.

According to other Digg employees the new-look site is “blazing fast” which is good news as the original Digg page was quite cumbersome at times. Adelson also stated that the overhaul of the site and its new focus on personalisation options will prove a success as it should ensure that content providers and publishers get a much more predictable stream of traffic.

The problem of duplicate submissions should be eradicated when the revamp comes into place as all stories and posts will be tagged by web address.

It sounds like a worth while revamp that should increase the popularity of Digg, how long before one of the big boys try to buy it I wonder? Digg fans can sign up to alpha access to the new look site as of this week.

Murdoch wants us to pay for News

James Oliver — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:00:37 +0000

As any media student learns early on, Australian news magnate, Rupert Murdoch has been one of the most the most fundamental influences on how we view and use information over the last 20 + years. His revolutionary, and often deeply unpopular, innovations have forced the newspaper and television industries to evolve, often in the face of fierce opposition, and it looks like he’s at it again, with a plan to charge for online news content.

Newspapers have been haemorrhaging money and staff for years now and, thus far, the standard response has been to make all your articles free online and sell advertising. Unfortunately this technique appears not to be working, with the vast majority of newspapers struggling to make enough money to fund themselves.

Murdoch’s argument is that as a result of this cost cutting, the quality of journalism is suffering.

“Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting.” – Murdoch.

In an era where most newspapers have had to freeze recruitment of new reporters and even experienced journalists are having trouble finding work, it’s quite hard to argue with him. However, the question remains, are people ready to pay for news again?

The answer is probably, ‘not unless they have to.’ It probably is possible to make paid online news work, though it’s going to require all the outlets to be on the same page. If all papers started charging then there would be little choice other than to pay. It may just need someone to get the ball rolling… And who better?

Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales not out of a Job

James Oliver — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:19:08 +0000

Through a statement from their director of communications, the Wikipedia foundation, who run the hugely successful online encyclopaedia, have categorically stated that founder Jimmy Wales is not out of a job. There had been reports over the weekend, initially from popular Silicon Valley blog ‘Valleywag,’ that Wales had ceased to be a member of the board, though according to Wikipedia, “There’s nothing to it.”

Valleywag didn’t cite a single source, though the report was enough to spread rumours across the online world of board level unrest at Wikipedia, possibly because Owen Thomas, the blog’s editor seemed particularly sure, see below.

“Imagine an online encylopedia anyone can edit – and no one can run. Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s cofounder, is no longer a board member of the site’s nonprofit foundation. Who’s in charge here?”

The site apparently felt the situation was serious enough to warrant a very sturdy defence of their founder, with Sue Gardner publicly singing Wales’s praises, “Jimmy is a much-valued board member of the Wikipedia Foundation, and I expect he will hold that role permanently.”

Say what you like about the world of blogging but it’s actually fairly rare that a story is broken on an established blog with absolutely relation to the truth. However, I suspect that’s what’s happened here. Relax general knowledge fans, there is no melt-down at Wikipedia.