So, Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists is closing down, apparently. The ring, part of the excellent journalism.co.uk site, was intended to be a place where future journalists could share ideas and discuss the future of journalism with one another: a vibrant community where those most affected by the rapid changes in journalism could have their say.

If you visit it today, that’s not what you’ll see.

The site’s barren, and the lack of interest in supporting it has left journalism.co.uk editor Laura Oliver with no option but to shut it down. I used to be a contributor, and popped along recently to catch up on the debates and maybe start writing a little again. After all, it’s driven more traffic to this blog than any other activity of mine. But what’s there is little changed since I left. Worse, a lack of maintenance appears to have left the site with a bunch of broken links.

But the most disheartening thing is that Laura, who took on the job when previous editors went and got hired by major news organisations, did her part getting the word out there and recruiting interested parties, and they just didn’t care enough when it became clear it would actually involve sitting down and writing. She claims that she had more than enough sign-ups, and that people just didn’t deliver.

@davemolloy Hi Dave - Oct debate q was posted but had no responses despite 100s of sign ups - unfortunately am going to have to kill it
...
@davemolloy it’s a real shame, but it may be a time thing - lots of interest, then people went back to uni/training

Now, I’ll accept that I haven’t contributed a post in a long time. But this really, really annoys me. I should have been pushed out due to inactivity by brighter, better, younger stars. On one of the most prominent UK industry sites, they can’t attract people willing to contribute a few hundred words once a month? And this business is supposedly over-saturated with talented people who just can’t get a break?

Bullshit.

I’m seeing this elsewhere, too. At Una Mullally’s excellent Dancing About Architecture (a music journalism lecture series) over the past four weeks, I’ve seen the apathy so-called hopeful journalists have in abundance. The venue was packed to the rafters on week one with an extensive waiting list, yet by the end, the wind and rain of a cold November meant that many didn’t bother to turn up. I was sick myself one week, but it was clear that many people who had reserved a place simply didn’t bother. And they missed some excellent stuff, with week three being positively inspirational.

I’m working a day job 9-5 to pay the bills and not spending nearly as much time as I would like, and really, as I need to, on my fledgling journalism career. I’m not working hard enough, and that’s my own fault. But when I see this kind of lark, I stop worrying and kicking myself, because I’m probably still doing more than most of these people. It’s easy to say you’re going to work in the industry, but clearly, many just aren’t that interested.

Jokers.

If you’re looking for an excellent young journalist’s discussion/blog/source of info, I highly recommend http://wannabehacks.wordpress.com/, five lads trying to break into journalism by different methods.

Posted by Dave Molloy in •Journalism
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Two weeks ago, The Guardian‘s Martin Robbins took a hefty swing at popular science journalism, particularly that of BBC Online. The piece was pretty humourous, but astonishingly it accounted for 15% of all traffic to The Guardian that day. That’s a hell of a lot of people who could relate to the author’s complaint. So exactly what is so wrong with mainstream coverage of scientific issues?

Lots, actually. Thanks in the main to links provided by my scientifically inclined journalistic friend @martinjmckenna, I’ve been reading a bit about the issue. It seems like the scientific community as a whole is sick of journalists reporting new reserach in broad strokes and completely failing to comment on the value or validity of claims. As you can read in Robbins’ follow up article, the use of weasel words and ambiguity is driving readers of science journalism insane.

They’re called ‘Scare quotes’ and they are used by writers to distance themselves from the words inside, or to indicate paraphrasing – unless you’re a cynic, in which case scare quotes are a get-out-of-jail-free card that allows journalists to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the words mentioned.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Journalism •Tech
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I recently reawakened a relationship with an old flame of mine. For years, we’ve been on-again and off-again, since that time in college I thought I’d outgrown her. But we’re back together again, and she’s perfect. She’s silky smooth, reliable, and soaks up every word I say. And she’s currently wrapped in leather.

Her name is Paper.

See, I’m the type of person who needs to trick myself into working. I’d consider myself highly productive, but it’s not by nature. No, like many of us, I play games with my time, trying to make my calendar, my to-do lists and documents as fun as they can possibly be. Whether it’s my new favourite, the Pomodoro Technique, or the good old reliable Getting Things Done system, I’ve got an arsenal of anti-procrastination tools at my disposal that serve me well. And they need to be perfect.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Resources •Tech
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Geolocation, we’re told, is the future of social communication. But for anyone in Ireland who has tried using Foursquare, the location app that shares where you are with friends, it has likely been an enormous disappointment. Once you get past the novelty factor, the persistent questioning of non-smartphone friends (“what’s the point of it?”) begins to make a lot of sense. After all, there really isn’t even that much of a user base. Getting right to the point, Foursquare has no purpose in this country. There are no discounts for mayorships, and no local development officers to build the community. And your friends probably aren’t getting that much value out of knowing you moved from work to home. It’s a colossal waste of time.

But there is a geolocation service that offers real value to the end user, has a dedicated user base, and is tons of fun to use. And it’s the mobile version of the popular Yelp social reviews site.

This service provides value to the user by showing them top-rated cafes, bars etc nearby, nails the social element with weekly newsletters, check-ins and and tips/comments, and, best of all, is making a genuine effort with real live people to build a community. Which knocks the competition out of the park.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Business •Tech
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