Andy Carvin on Twitter as a newsroom and being human

By now, many people are familiar with the story of how NPR editor Andy Carvin used Twitter to create a kind of crowdsourced newswire during the Arab Spring revolutions in the Middle East last year, inventing a brand-new kind of journalism on the fly and in full public view. In a discussion with me on Thursday in Toronto about the lessons that can be learned from his experience, Carvin made some interesting points about the value of such an approach — including the importance of being transparent about the process, and the virtues of being human.

The discussion at the Mesh 2012 conference (full disclosure: I am a co-founder) touched on a number of different elements of what Carvin did during the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, including two important factors that allowed him to take on the role that he did. The first was the nature of his job at NPR, which — as a senior digital strategist — allowed him to experiment with new tools and take risks. The second was the fact that he already had a number of contacts in the Middle East through his work with Global Voices and other social advocacy groups (Harvard researcher and author David Weinberger, whom I also interviewed at the conference, live-blogged the session with Carvin).

Both of these meant that Carvin was perfectly positioned to do what he did when dissidents started revolting in Tunisia, and then following that in Egypt and Libya. He also noted with a laugh that “it helps when you have ADHD” (which he does), because for several months during the height of those revolutions, he was spending almost every waking minute reading or posting on Twitter, managing several lists of dissidents and thousands of responses from followers. His peak output reached 1,400 tweets a day at one point, whereupon Twitter blocked his account as spam.

Not a newswire, but a crowdsourced newsroom of public editors

But Carvin also talked about how he approached the reporting of real-time events on Twitter, and how he doesn’t really like having what he did called a “newswire.” Instead, he says he prefers to think of it as a crowdsourced newsroom — with him as the reporter, or the anchor (or “news DJ,” another term he likes to use) pulling in reports from different places, and then relying on his followers to act as editors and sources, fact-checking and verifying and also distributing the news that he was curating. As he put it:

I get uncomfortable when people prefer my twitter feed as a newswire. It’s not a newswire. It’s a newsroom. It’s where I’m trying to separate fact from fiction, interacting with people. That’s a newsroom.

In many cases, Carvin says, this process worked remarkably well — and quickly. In one photo of Egypt, for example, someone he asked for an opinion said that the corner of a building in the background was clearly a prominent local landmark, and then sent a link to a Google Earth view of the building, allowing Carvin to confirm within minutes that it was the same location. He also gave his followers what he called “fire drills,” in which he would ask them to fact-check photos that he knew were fake and then he would look at how many errors they found.

And what happened when he made a mistake and posted something that wasn’t accurate? In one case, he distributed a photo he thought was of a woman who had been shot in battle and was being attended to by nurses — but it turned out she was actually dead, his followers told him, and her body was being prepared for burial. Carvin says he admitted his mistake multiple times, and then retweeted both the criticisms and the corrections as broadly as possible:

You have to be prepared to be accountable in real time. When I screw up, my followers tell me.

News as a process, and the virtues of being human

The NPR editor, who is now working on a book about his experiences, says he believes in the “news as a process” approach, as author Jeff Jarvis and others have described it — in which not only is the reporting of an event crowdsourced in real time, but new information is added and mistakes are also corrected by readers, who journalism professor Jay Rosen has called “the people formerly known as the audience” (recent events have also shown how social networks like Twitter and Reddit can act as fact-checking engines).

As I tried to argue in a Twitter debate on Friday with a number of people (which Craig Silverman of the Poynter Institute curated with Storify) I think there is a lot of public value in doing what Carvin did, by assembling and fact-checking and correcting information in real time. That’s not to say editors don’t have value, or that reporters shouldn’t try to report things as accurately as possible. But when errors are made, I think admitting them publicly and being seen to correct them (not something traditional media is very good at) actually builds trust.

For me — and I think for Carvin — doing this is connected to a larger principle, and that is the value of being human, and of expressing that humanity, even if it means acknowledging a mistake. The NPR editor also admitted that in some cases he was so disturbed by the videos and images he was seeing from Egypt and elsewhere that he responded on Twitter in a way that he says might not have been professional — but he still felt was justified. As Weinberger noted in his live-blog: “Andy perfectly modeled a committed journalist who remains personal, situated, transparent, and himself.”

This is the kind of thing that mainstream media outlets discourage, just as many try to avoid admitting that they have made mistakes. Restrictive social-media policies put in place by many of these outlets seem designed to remove as many of the elements of being human as possible from the practice of being a journalist — which I think is the exact opposite of what needs to happen if traditional journalism is to survive. And I think Andy Carvin is a pretty good example of what one possible future of real-time, crowdsourced journalism actually looks like.

Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Flickr users Luc Legay and personaldemocracy

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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2012/05/25/andy-carvin-on-twitter-as-a-newsroom-and-being-h...

Jon Loeliger offers some practices to use with Git

After finishing the second edition of "Version Control with Git," author Jon Loeliger talked to me about some of the advice he offers and how to use Git effectively as changes to code pile up.

Highlights from the full video interview include:

  • What's new in Git since the first edition of the book? [Discussed at the 0:38 mark]
  • Importance of understanding concepts behind Git [Discussed at the 2:40 mark]
  • How to manage complicated branching [Discussed at the 3:33 mark]
  • Aspects of Github beyond storage [Discussed at the 6:22 mark]

You can view the entire conversation in the following video:

OSCON 2012 — Join the world's open source pioneers, builders, and innovators July 16-20 in Portland, Oregon. Learn about open development, challenge your assumptions, and fire up your brain.

Save 20% on registration with the code RADAR

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from O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies. http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/05/git-best-practices.html?utm_source=feedburne...

Comcast Xfinity TV Player app brings VOD streaming to Android devices

Comcast Xfinity TV Player app brings VOD streaming to Android devices

After introducing video on-demand streaming for mobile devices on the iPad early last year and iPhone last May, Comcast has finally extended the courtesy to Android users as well. Unlike its iOS counterpart however, on Android there's a separate Xfinity TV Player (simply labeled "Player" in the launcher) app from the Xfinity TV remote control app. It's a free download from Google Play for devices running Android 2.3 or higher and when we checked it out just now it was smooth but plain looking, although it a native tablet interface at launch is a nice touch. Beyond the usual VOD selections (including HBO Go and more) there's also support for Comcast's Streampix subscription service within the app as it promised back in February. One odd quirk noted by Android Police is that on rooted devices the app apparently requests root permissions, but still works if they are denied (could be worse). There aren't many other details available yet, if you want to try it out grab your Comcast account info and hit the source link to give it a shot.

Comcast Xfinity TV Player app brings VOD streaming to Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 May 2012 14:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/25/comcast-xfinity-tv-player-vod-android/

Fox, NBCUniversal sue Dish over ad-skipping DVR service

Fox and NBCUniversal have both separately sued Dish Network in a Los Angeles federal court over its new service that lets consumers skip TV ads. Dish's AutoHop service, which debuted earlier this month, has “irked” entertainment executives, according to the Associated Press.

Fox attacked Dish in fairly harsh terms in a statement today.

"We were given no choice but to file suit against one of our largest distributors, Dish Network, because of their surprising move to market a product with the clear goal of violating copyrights and destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem," the statement read. “Their wrongheaded decision requires us to take swift action in order to aggressively defend the future of free, over-the-air television."

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/fox-nbcuniversal-sue-dish-over-ad-...

Minecraft Mod Adds Emulated 6502 Processor

New submitter Direwolf20 writes "The Red Power 2 mod for Minecraft has recently been updated, and it adds a fully emulated 6502 processor that can be programmed in assembly, but comes with a Forth interpreter. From the article: 'Eloraam calls it the 65EL02, because "it supports all the 6502, 65C02, and part of the 65C816 instruction set" as well as "a set of completely new instructions and two addressing modes. Since the 65EL02 is an 8-bit CPU, Eloraam didn't have as many options for programming environments as we have on today's 64-bit computers. While it's possible to program the 65EL02 in assembly language, for general use she chose to implement a Forth interpreter. Further technical information about RedPower Control's 65EL02 is available on Eloraam's blog RP Control Internals, and on the RedPower wiki's page for Red Power Control.' (Fair disclosure: The video linked in the article is mine.)"

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from Slashdot http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/05/23/217204/minecraft-mod-adds-emulated-6...

‘American Idol’ Sets Four Social TV Records [STATS]


Despite a 27% dip in viewers for Wednesday’s American Idol finale compared to last year’s, the reality TV singing competition managed to break or set new social TV records.

Viewers generated 1.2 million comments across social media websites during the two-hour finale, making it the most talked about season finale ever, according to data from Bluefin Labs.

The season 11 Idol finale’s numbers catapulted over finales for Pretty Little Liars (804,000 for season two), The X Factor (391,000 for season one), The Voice (370,000 for season two) and The Bad Girls Club (289,000 for season eight).

Idol also incited the most comments for a full TV show season with 5.9 million. The Voice netted 2.7 million.

“Reality singing competitions are definitely a key driver in social TV,” Bluefin spokeswoman April Conyers told Mashable. “This format is a sweet spot for social engagement.”

SEE ALSO: Summer TV Guide — 20 Social Shows to See | ‘Top Model’ Adds Online Voting

Idol crowned Phillip Phillips as champion and set the stage ablaze with performances from the finalists as well as Aerosmith, Rihanna, John Fogerty, Neil Diamond, Reba McEntire, Jennifer Lopez, Jordin Sparks, Fantasia and Jennifer Holliday. Check out Bluefin’s data below to see the moments that got viewers chatting online.


More About: american idol, celebrities, Entertainment, Facebook, Music, social tv, the-voice, TV, Twitter

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/05/24/american-idol-finale/?utm_source=feedburner&ut...

Reveal Makes iOS Notifications Scrollable and Easier to Read [Video]

iOS (Jailbroken): Have you ever gotten a notification on your iPhone and wished you could just see the last few words of the message instead of having to open up the app? Reveal will make your lock screen and banner notifications scrollable and expandable, so you you can read the whole thing at a glance. More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5912823/reveal-makes-ios-notifications-scrollable-and-e...

Google leads $35M funding round for Machinima

Gaming-focused video programmer Machinima has received another round of funding, this one totaling $35 million and led by distribution partner Google.

While Google has given what amounts to seed money to its video production partners in the past, this contribution marks the first time the company has offered major capital backing for one of them.

Redpoint Ventures and MK Capital also contributed to the Los Angeles-based production company’s fourth funding round. Through three previous rounds, all led by MK Capital, Machinima raised $14.6 million.

Machinima has emerged as Google-owned YouTube’s third most popular video channel, commanding 23.1 million unique viewers in April, according to research company comScore. Notably, Machinima offers better engagement than any other top YouTube channel, with viewers, on average, spending 65 minutes in April viewing it, comScore said.

Machinima said the funding will be invested into its “content and global sales operations, international expansion, distribution strategies, and product and technology initiatives, as the company strives to create a global video programming brand that transforms the way a new generation.”

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from GigaOM http://paidcontent.org/2012/05/21/google-leads-35m-funding-round-for-machinim...