Seth Godin: "This snapshot of popular YouTube videos makes it super clear exactly what the phenonemon is about: people talking. One person, one camera, one story."

Jay Rosen: Introducing NewAssignment.Net.

Very interesting…

Ze Frank: "Ugly when compared to pre-existing notions of taste is a bummer. But ugly as a representation of mass experimentation and learning is pretty damn cool."

I keep hearing about Ze Frank - this is the first one I’ve checked out. I’m intrigued…

Just found this on YouTube - Al Gore pimping his new film on Futurama:

(for all y’all using RSS readers - read the post online to see the video)

The Podcast Network launches Treading Lightly: “Two Aussies discuss how we can take better care of the world we live on.”

The Democrats have released the results of their latest youth survey, reported by AAP.

It’s interesting that water in the Murray, refugee detention and global warming are high on the mind of young people. I knew that trust in the mainstream media was low, but the last two sentences even had me surprised:

The survey also uncovered an overwhelming distrust of politicians among Australia’s youth, with only four per cent saying they trusted politicians.

However, politicians beat the media, which came in last in the trustworthy stakes, with a paltry three per cent of the vote.

What I think is the warning bell for media companies is that this is their future audience speaking. Perhaps they think they can just keep putting out entertainment masquerading as news and get away with it. But with the advance of social media and citizen journalism, maybe they need to think again…

(for all y’all using RSS readers - read the post online to see the video)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working with the comms and fundraising teams at work to develop our plan for the next 12 months. Obviously I can’t go into the details too much (nor would you probably be interested), but one of the things that I’ve been focussed on is how social media (aka “participant media”, “social networking”, “web two point oh”) might play a role. Or, to flip that around, how WWF can become part of that community.

I’ve presented twice now on the various types of social media out there, and by and large the response has been positive. When we’ve explored how we might be able to engage with sites, and their attendant communities, like flickr, YouTube, myspace and del.icio.us the response has been on the whole positive and enthusiastic.

However, when the topic of weblogs comes up, the response has been missed. Although most of the people I’ve had dialogue with have seen the tremendous opportunity, many can also see the “dark side” of blogs - specifically how a seemingly innocent post could cause a storm (political or otherwise), how trolls might become a time sink etc…

The process, and the pushback, has been invaluable in learning how to present weblogs to an audience that is risk-aware, and more specifically how reputation can be so easily tarred.

However, I think, in the end, the opportunities outweigh the risk, and the more I work with the team at work, the more I’m learning about how to manage the risks, and cover off the valid concerns that are raised.

And hopefully this means good things in the year to come

Update: I was actually just thinking how cool it is that the ideas that have been brewing since as far back as 2003 (and probably before) are starting to come to fruition. Very exciting!

Jaron Lanier: Digital Maoism - The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism:

The beauty of the Internet is that it connects people. The value is in the other people. If we start to believe the Internet itself is an entity that has something to say, we’re devaluing those people and making ourselves into idiots.

It’s a long essay, but worth the effort if you’re interested in social media/networking and “collective mind” type issues…

John Quiggin: Factoid check:

The obvious question is, if readers of this blog can find this kind of thing out for free, and in a matter of minutes, why is Albrechtsen getting paid for not bothering to make such obvious checks?

Reminds me of another recent incident at The Australian… Welcome to citizen media.

Update 17-May: John reports that a correction was included in the paper.