:: LNR Journalism ::

Newark's mayor Cory Booker helps launch social media news site

NJ.com :: Being the mayor of Twitter was not enough. Now Newark Mayor Cory Booker is launching his own social media news site and he’s got some of online media’s biggest players in his corner. Over the next few weeks, "#waywire" — a news aggregation site geared toward the millenial generation — will test out its beta version.

A report by David Giambusso, www.nj.com

HT: Jeff Jarvis, here:

Newark Mayor Cory Booker in on launch of social news site. nj.com/news/index.ssf…

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) June 30, 2012

Without power, energy companies turn to Twitter following violent storms

CBS Local :: As D.C. area thunderstorms punished living conditions and have left about 2 million area residents without power, the major power and energy companies have taken to Twitter to provide updates on restoring power to homes. With phone lines still being spotty after wind gusts ranging between 60 to 80 mph tore through D.C., Virginia and Maryland, residents are turning to Twitter for answers of just when they will expect their power to be restored.

Continue to read washington.cbslocal.com

A majority or 55pc of adult cell owners now go online using their phones

Pew Internet (US) :: More than half of all adult cell owners now use their phones to go online as of April 2012. Our definition of a “cell internet user” includes anyone who uses the internet or email on their cell phone, and 55% of all adult cell phone owners use their phones for one or both of these reasons. Because 88% of U.S. adults now own a cell phone, that works out to 49% of all U.S. adults who go online using a cell phone at least occasionally. Three-quarters of these cell phone internet users (74%) say that they go online using their phone on a typical day - meaning that on a typical day fully 41% of all cell owners are using their phones to go online.

All findings - Continue to read pewinternet.org

HT: Niemanlab, here:

New Pew data: There’s a good (and growing) chance you’re reading this on your phone nie.mn/LzVVwm

— Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) June 30, 2012

Twitter's 'opportunity for developers' is a warning: We want a less fragmented world

Radard O'Reilly :: Twitter, long one of my favorite companies, has turned the corner. After creating a very healthy ecosystem of third-party apps (standalone, web, and mobile), they've decided they need to shut down the market. In a post to Twitter's developer forum, Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) clarifies Twitter's terms of service and says new Twitter clients are unwelcome and existing clients ought to watch their backs.

[Mike Loukides:] Restricting developers undermines the ecology that made Twitter valuable.

[Twitter:] ...we need to move to a less fragmented world, where every user can experience Twitter in a consistent way. ...

Continue to read Mike Loukides, radar.oreilly.com

Mike Loukides on Twitter

Don't put a (Twitter) bird on it: Innovation needs cultural change, too

Alexis Madrigal writes: "innovation needs cultural change," but does culture need innovation? And if yes, which innovation does culture really need?

The Atlantic :: Among the kids, there's a common way of noting a facile attempt to make something hip. They say, in reference to the numerous winged icons in hipsterdom, that you're "putting a bird on it." To overexplain: putting a bird on it isn't cool, it's merely the reproduction of coolness. We find ourselves, I think, in a similar position in thinking about what innovation is or can be. We just put a Twitter bird on it and forget about the entire universe of newness that exists outside of the limited number of hot technology companies.

Continue to read Alexis Madrigal, www.theatlantic.com

Where rock lives: Boston.com gets into streaming radio

Niemanlab :: Boston.com sees a future in radio. On Monday Boston.com announced plans to launch an alternative music station that would livestream from the Boston Globe’s headquarters. The kicker? They’re bringing on some of the dispatched talent from Boston’s WFNX-FM, the formidable independent rock station recently purchased by ClearChannel.

Continue to read www.niemanlab.org

Tumblr lets people "Pin Posts" for $5

Business Insider :: Tumblr has been toying with a few ways to make money, the latest of which are "Pinned Posts." Users can now pay $5 to have one of their Tumblr posts pinned at the top of their followers' blogs for 24 hours.

Continue to read Alyson Shontell, www.businessinsider.com

E-book bestsellers breakdown: Self-published romance climbs the lists

paidContent :: Here’s a good way for a book to become a New York Times bestseller: Have Jeff Bezos mention it on Amazon’s homepage. That’s what happened to self-published author Jessica Park, whose YA novel Flat-Out Love got a shout-out from Bezos on June 18. This week, it hits the NYT ebook bestseller list for the first time at #25.

Continue to read Laura Hazard Owen, paidcontent.org

Google+ History will come: Privately save moments to share with others

Computerworld :: Google quietly unveiled something this week called Google+ History. It's a feature that brings your activity from all over the Internet into Google+. Don't go looking for Google+ History. Right now, it's available only to developers so they can support it with their software. Google will make it available to users later.

[Google:] ... your site or app will be able to privately save moments, such as a listened song, or a visited restaurant, to your users’ Google+ history. From there, your users can, if they want, share those moments with others, directly to the stream and/or on their profile. In all cases, moments in history include attribution of your site or app ...

Google+ History in a nutshell - Continue to read Mike Elgan, www.computerworld.com

Lytro CEO Ren Ng to step aside

AllThingsD :: Lytro CEO Ren Ng said Friday that he is stepping aside as CEO of the light-field photography (shoot first, focus later) company, in order to spend more time on the vision for the company and less on its day-to-day operations.

Continue to read Ina Fried, allthingsd.com

"Meet the Stealthy Start-Up That Aims to Sharpen Focus of Entire Camera Industry" - Ina Fried, allthingsd.com