TechCrunch have just reported that polling widget maker, Slantly, has launched today. I’ve tried it out and the widgets are nice and clean. Let’s see how it compares with one of our top tech markets.
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I just received an email to say someone was following me on Twitter.
Will the kitten return? Will she overcome her feelings of low self-esteem or will she spiral down into a mess of self-loathing and negativity? Or, will she just go back to watching TV? I am hooked - this is better than a sitcom! Catch the next installment here.
UPDATE: Turns out midwyke is a friend of our’s mum! Sorry Chris’s mum. I am following you now. Don’t be so down on yourself and we *do* want to hear more about the kitten. Here is a LOLcat to cheer you up:
More at ICanHasCheeseBurger.
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By Diana (General Category Editor)
Every now and then a news story breaks that shakes one’s faith in the integrity of the human race. How a man could rape and imprison his own daughter for twenty-four years is beyond explanation; yet, how Josef Fritzl was able to keep his horrific secret unknown for over two decades is another mystery waiting to be probed. As the days progress, more horrific details surrounding Josef Fritzl’s diabolical double life are being released.
Within the confines of a heavily secured cellar, Fritzl managed to hold his daughter Elisabeth hostage since 1984, fathering seven children with her in his subterranean bunker while leading a conspicuously different life above ground in Amstetten. At this point in the investigation, it is believed that the 73-year-old Austrian exclusively held the cellar’s many keys and codes and neither his wife Rosemarie nor his other children knew of the family beneath their noses. According to Rosemarie Fritzl’s sister, Fritzl would often stay in the cellar all night and his wife was not even allowed to bring him coffee. During this twenty-four year enslavement of her daughter, how did Rosemarie Fritzl not suspect something bizarre was occurring in her house and why didn’t she question the “discovery” of three of Elisabeth’s children on her doorstep?
Perhaps she knew what her husband was capable of doing and that his sexual behaviour crossed the line of normalcy. Reported by Austrian builder, Paul Stocker, the elderly couple was spotted in swingers clubs near Amstetten in the late nineties. Stocker, shocked by the spectacle, watched in disbelief as Fritzl forced his wife into a corner in order to witness him advance upon a young woman. Further investigation may show that Rosemarie Fritzl was always forced into a corner; however it may be discovered that she knew of her daughter’s torture and failed to inform the authorities.
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By Diana
Upheaval and protest have followed the Olympic torch since it began its worldwide journey on April 1, 2008. Reports of violence, numerous arrests, and coverage of the torch being extinguished is widespread. Pro-Tibet and human rights protesters have confronted torchbearers and security guards alike and with many days to go until the August 8, 2008 opening ceremony, there appears to be little sign of the demonstration’s slowing worldwide.
London’s April 6, 2008 portion of the relay was met with heavy resistance when protesters, voicing against China’s position on Tibet and Darfur, attempted to grab the torch and hinder the procession. It was also reported that one protester tried to extinguish the torch’s flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher.
Crowds along the torch route shouted “Free Tibet!” and “China, talk to Dalai Lama!”, wielding posters displaying anti-Chinese foreign policy slogans. 37 people were arrested for assorted offenses.
The following day, the Olympic torch faced more disquiet in San Francisco have already begun to experience protest prior to the torch’s arrival, which occurred this morning.
Two days ago, a pair of extremely large banners reading “One World One Dream. Free Tibet” and “Free Tibet 08″ were on display after three activists climbed a suspension cable of the Golden Gate Bridge. Rumor of a larger high-tech insurgency planned in association with The San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition is said to unveil a “viral video,” or a video clip, designed to raise awareness about China’s ties to Sudan and the Darfur conflict just in time for Wednesday’s parade in the Bay Area. Tensions are high for this afternoon’s two-and-a-half-hour relay along the San Francisco waterfront.
With over a hundred days to go until the torch’s arrival in Beijing, the emblem for the Olympic spirit, now a highly politicized symbol of international disunity, is threatened at every turn. Security agents and local police forces will struggle against waves of demonstrators and protesters hoping to extinguish and confiscate the symbolic Olympic vestige are expected. Whether the torch shall remain in torchbearer hands today or if the entire torch relay will be abandoned, has yet to be determined.
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By Nigel (Chief News Junkie)
Get Satisfaction is an amazing service for solving problems and communicating with your users. However sometimes I think we have a different class of problem to other sites…
Will the USA suffer another terrorist attack on their homeland before the end of the 2008 election?
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By Diana (General Category Editor)
Thirty-nine years following the Tate and LaBianca murders, Charles Manson and his notorious “Family” are once again making headlines.
Having served decades behind bars for murder and conspiracy, convicted Manson Family killers are awaiting the exhumation of their past misdeeds—literally.
Shortly following her captivity, Susan Atkins, alias Sadie Mae Glutz, had boasted to a cellmate that the Manson Family was responsible for three unsolved murders. Rumors of murdered hitchhikers and drifters passed with time, yet not until recently had the ghost of Atkins’ jail cell confession prompt a team of investigators and forensic experts to return to Barker Ranch in Death Valley, California, the central setting for the Manson Family’s havoc. In search of unmarked graves, investigators including Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, seek to uncover the Manson Family’s additional victims in what appears to be a never-ending saga. Their efforts may unearth lost chapters in the grim Manson Family history, but the question remains whether the team will find what they are looking for.
Ordered to life in prison in accordance to California’s abolishment of the death penalty, Charles Manson and company have been denied parole countless times—Manson’s latest parole denial occurring May 23, 2007. Imprisoned Manson Family members are by no means on the verge of release. The results of the current Barker Ranch investigation will make little difference in their condemnation; however, for grieving family member such as Debra Tate, justice is putting the past to rest.
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A guest post from my brother, Trevor, in response to the news consumption survey:
A couple of points in your article.
The first is your use of the word “consumption”. I think it might just be a suitable behind-the-scenes word for news, but I’m not sure if it’s the word “for the public, to the public”. To use an analogy that is closer to the word “consume”, you may consume drugs because you’re an addict, you may consume a Big Mac and fries because you’re hungry, but you wouldn’t “consume” a 500 dollar meal for two at a Michelin-starred restaurant. You’d taste it, you’d enjoy it, and you’d savour it.
Thus also for news. One broad division of “news” might be: things that could make a difference to our lives, private and professional, by knowing them, and things that definitely won’t. Glancing at a paper, it’s clear to me that nearly everything for nearly everyone falls into the second category.
And I mention this to explain the lesser popularity aggregators are facing. The “facts”, the events themselves, are not as important as the “story” or the narrative. We are not interested in purely in events – because they rarely directly matter to us in themselves – but rather in the manner in which they are presented. News aggregators tend to strip this all away. People say they aren’t interested in getting information from sources that reflect their viewpoints, but then they buy The Guardian if they’re leftwing, and The Telegraph if they are to the right. If they are supremely proud of their independent minds, they buy The Independent, which flatters them on that too. All this because the story becomes the entertainment, told in the way the reader likes.
Ok, don’t know if any of this helps, but “consuming” news doesn’t sound at all like something that’s in itself enjoyable. And if a thing is futile, which most “news” is, it had better be fun.
In general I agree, particularly on consumption; news consumption certainly doesn’t sound like much fun. Maybe instead of describing people as news consumers we should describe them as news connoisseurs? On whether readers want news that reflects their views I’m not so sure. US media blogger Steve Boriss notes here that he prefers our lively politically bias press to US newspaper’s dry liberal consensus. However, on the other hand, personalised news services seem to be a one way ticket to the deadpool (see Techcrunch write-up here). I guess we want our news channels to talk to us, but not only to us.
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This is part 3 of our online news consumption survey. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.
| Factor |
All respondents |
Heavy news consumers |
| Intuitive and usable |
91% |
100% |
| Filtering |
85% |
92% |
| Broad coverage of publications |
82% |
92% |
| Relevant top stories |
82% |
83% |
| Up to the minute coverage |
79% |
75% |
| Sharp summaries |
79% |
67% |
| Intelligent clustering |
78% |
75% |
Interestingly what respondents don’t want is ‘articles with a similar outlook on the world as myself’ (11% scored 4 or 5). In the comments respondents specifically asked for articles giving opposing views on the topic.
Thoughts: Basically, what everyone’s ideal is an easy to use site that selects relevant high quality articles from a broad range of publications in a timely fashion. This was a very positive result for us as this was exactly what we had set out to achieve! Also interesting is the needs of lighter news consumers is similar to heavy news consumers, which means that if we can develop a great product for heavy news consumers we will have a great product for lighter users as well. Comprehensive coverage of blogs was low down the list (44% scoring 4 or 5), suggesting again that this is a low priority.
When asked what one thing the site should do the response was:
| One thing |
Responses |
| Track interests and personalise |
8 |
| New and relevant news |
4 |
| Ability to track back to previous news stories |
2 |
| Multiple opinions |
2 |
| Sharp summaries |
2 |
| Mobile device friendly |
2 |
| Info on stance/bias of source publication |
1 |
| Identify genuine developments |
1 |
| Ability to choose sources |
1 |
| Most popular news |
1 |
Thoughts: The personalisation that most people wanted was a behind the scenes tracking of interests (much like the way Amazon recommends products) rather than them having to manually personalise. Many of the elements wanted raise deep questions about how news should be organised and presented. It will be fun working with everyone as we develop the product to see if we are hitting those wants.
The top news sources were:
The BBC and the Guardian both received significant praise for the design and usability of the site. Even though in general the respondents were very internet literate and higher than average online news consumers, use of news aggregators was low with only Google News getting a significant number of mentions. We will need to dig further to understand the underlying reasons for that.
Nigel
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We are currently working on an element in Hubdub which involves presenting news items linked to a chart showing price over time. The New York Times is a master at this and I thought I’d share a couple of great examples. The first example is Enron:
It is a really data rich graphic. Edward Tufte, the design guru, made it his ‘graphic of the day’ and gave a nice write up here.
The second example is from a recent article in the NYT on match fixing in tennis (how come it always malfeasance that generates nice charts?). Here they have show the news flow against Betfair’s odds on the match:
Article here.
Really nice chart however there is a problem: The odds are really confusing. Even the interpretation gets them wrong on the chart. In the second box, Arguello isn’t the 1 to 7 favorite he is the 1.70 favorite which means a $1 bet would win 70 cents (1 to 7 would mean you would win 14 cents). Also most people are used to thinking when the graph goes up it is ‘good’. However here it is bad. Davydenko’s odds lengthen which means the market thinks he is less likely to win. Very confusing isn’t it?
That’s why at Hubdub we are pooling our collective brainpower to come up with a simple intuitive chart that relates price information and news flow on one page. Here is the design, let us know what you think 
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