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Typepad-to-WordPress migration
The Typepad-to-WordPress migration is underway. My friend Phil managed
to get most of the 4,000+ posts ported over with images and links
intact. I’ll have to re-post photos from the last six months but that
won’t take long.
You shouldn’t expect any visible dramatic changes. Most of the good stuff is under the hood. I’ve picked a rather spartan theme and expect to do a bit of experimentation in that regard. Sort of like coming home to discover your wife has repainted the living room. Every day.
Posting here will continue to be light until we point smays.com to the new home.
Twitter coverage of execution
Missourinet (a Learfield network) News Director Bob Priddy covered last night’s execution of Dennis Skillicorn. Reporters and witnesses can’t take cell phones past a certain point, but Bob was planning to use Twitter to file updates before and after the execution (he was a witness).
The wifi he expected wasn’t available so he took notes and posted to @missourinet when he got back on line (at the motel, I assume).
As I expected, Twitter was a very effective tool in the hands of good and experienced reporters. Here’s a screen shot from early this morning.
Had reporters been allowed to keep their Blackberrys and iPhones, this is probably as close to live coverage of an execution as we’re likely to get.
And in the hands of someone as responsible as Bob Priddy, I think this might be a good idea. As I understand it, the rationale behind having witnesses is to insure the people of Missouri “see” this ultimate punishment. Twitter might be the least sensational way to accomplish this on a mass scale.
I’ll make a prediciton here: If not in Missouri, some state will allow or provide this coverage.
Car radio now known as vehicle’s “entertainment center”
Jerry Del Colliano on what lies ahead for your car’s “radio” …
“In nine to 12 months, Ford’s Sync will enable Internet capabilities on a smartphone and allow the Internet’s most popular radio station – Pandora — to play throughout the car’s sound system. Want Live 365 — you’ve got it.
It’s not just Ford, the other surviving automakers will also be adding the most anticipated consumer audio feature of all time — Internet streaming. Delphi and Autonet Mobile are calling for companies to create Internet connectivity devices as standard equipment for new cars.”
We’re gonna need more buttons on that dial.
More at CNET. “We’ll be able to link you to your Internet in the car. If you brought an iPhone into the vehicle, you could interact with that through voice. You could then read your e-mail by voice,” said Joe Berry, Ford business and product development director for Sync, referring to a future version of Sync.”
Execution of Dennis Skillicorn
There’s a lot of interest in the scheduled execution of Dennis Skillicorn, scheduled for one minute past midnight. I assume that’s because it’s been a few years since Missouri’s last execution.
In March of 2000, I witnessed the execution of James Hampton. Here’s an excerpt from the case facts on MissouriDeathRow.com (a site I maintain for our company):
“At some point during their drive Hampton learned from his police scanner that the authorities were searching for Ms. Keaton. According to his trial testimony, Hampton decided to kill Ms. Keaton after learning that the police were looking for him. Hampton drove Ms. Keaton to the farm of the real estate agent from whom he had learned about Ms. Keaton. Hampton blindfolded Ms. Keaton and took her into a wooded area about one-half mile from the real estate agent’s farm. He then killed Ms. Keaton by repeatedly striking her in the head with a hammer. He then buried her and burned all of her belongings.”
Note the similarity (to me) of the final minutes of Skillicorn’s victim:
“They (Dennis Skillicorn and Allen Nicklasson) directed Drummond to exit I-70 at the Highway T exit. They proceeded four miles on to County Road 202 to a secluded area where they ordered Drummond to stop his vehicle. As Nicklasson prepared to take Drummond through a field toward a wooded area, Skillicorn demanded Drummond’s wallet. Knowing Nicklasson had no rope or other means by which to restrain Drummond and that Nicklasson carried a loaded .22 caliber pistol, Skillicorn watched as Nicklasson lead Drummond toward a wooded area. There, Nicklasson shot Drummond twice in the head. Skillicorn acknowledged hearing two shots from the woods and that Nicklasson returned having “already done what he had to do.” Drummond’s remains were found eight days later.”
The controversy surrounding Missouri’s execution protocol notwithstanding, I’ll always remember Hampton’s final moments as seeming much less terrifying than that blindfolded walk into the woods.
TweetSpin: “set it and forget it”
TweetSpin, a new Twitter application designed by a radio programmer named Rico Garcia. Among other info, TweetSpin can post "now playing" data from a station's website.
Here's a couple of snippets from a review in R&R, a radio trade publication:
From KHOP PD MoJo Roberts: "TweetSpin allows us to constantly have 'what's playing now' on our status and set appointment tweets to go out so we can set it and forget it."
In addition the "now playing" feature, Garcia is more excited about built-in scheduling that allows stations to set up hourly, daily or weekly messages to encourage listening appointments.
Hardly surprising that an industry in the process of automating itself out of existence would look for a way to automate social media, too. Of course, if there's really no one at the station…
“The Internet is a delivery system not the content”
Jerry Del Colliano offers 8 ideas for life after radio. Number 5 is particularly relevant for our company, which has half a dozen news websites:
It’s not news websites — that’s no business model. It will be blogs — special information on something that attracts a valued audience. But instead of monetizing it by selling ads (something I think has peaked even when the recession ends), sell a subscription. That’s right, I am nuts. I believe people will pay a reasonable fee for that which they crave — remember I said crave not like. In the past, if you are an expert on gardening, you would have done a radio show, TV or newspaper column. Now, you’ll do a blog. And if it has passionate followers and you price it right, you’ll make money and build revenue with your audience. Keep in mind I’m projecting this trend — it’s coming because it has to come. The Internet is a delivery system not the content.”
I should point out that we do not make any money from our websites. We are still very much in the radio network business (on the news side of our company). We sell 30 second commercials on affiliated radio stations. We have a few blogs and some Twitter accounts but –with a couple of exceptions– it’s more dabble than business. Exciting days ahead.
PS: My friend Jeff points us to a job opening at Chicago Public Radio. Under Experience/Skill Required:
Our ideal candidate will have five plus of relevant experience in radio or TV programming, broadcast media marketing or online community management. Strong knowledge of online communities, blogs, user generated content is required. Demonstrated team building and leadership skills. Clear written, verbal communication skills, with solid group presentation skills. The ability to merge organizational mission vision with strong creativity and tactical execution. Strong project management skills with an acute attention to detail. Should have a working knowledge of content management systems (CMS).”
Choosing what we don’t want to see
“For the first time in our lives we were being exposed to more information than we could consume. In the age of newspapers we had to choose what we wanted to see. But in 2004 we had to choose what we didn’t want to see. This had a devastating effect on the traditional forms of information. In the past, you could get people’s attention simply by making something. People wanted more choices, so you simply had to give them another choice. But in 2004 this changed. People started to have enough, and now you actually had to make something better. It was not enough that it was different.”
From Thomas Baekdal’s Where Is Everyone? A brief tour of the history of information.