One of the questions raised at the ICA pre-conference on new media is over how hyperlinks can structure knowledge. Michael Zimmer, Microsoft Resident Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School for 2007-2008, offers a provoking idea, exploring how the French philosopher Diderot employed “textual hyperlinks” in his Encyclopédie. This was a work published in France between 1751 and 1772. Zimmer highlighted how Diderot sought to bypass censorship

I’ll be blogging from the International Communications Association annual conference in Montreal over the next few days. The proceedings started on Thursday with a range of pre-conference events, including one taking a historical perspective on new media, entitled the Long History of New Media. Some initial thoughts from the first session, discussing what is new in new media. Each presenter had five minutes so there was little time for detailed

Image by ToastyKen via FlickrResearching honeymoon plans for Thailand, I’ve been using a combination of legacy media in the form of a Lonely Planet guide, and new media, in this case TripAdvisor. The two fulfill very different purposes and illustrate the difference between static and networked media. The Lonely Planet guide is a good place to start. But, of course, it suffers from the limitations of being a paper guide.

Restaurant reviews are the sort of content that lends itself to the web, unless it is published on The Globe and Mail website. A review of a local restaurant in Vancouver, The New Bohemian, caught my attention for two reasons. Firstly, the negative experience of the reviewer contrasted with my rather more pleasurable visit to the place. But secondly, I was surprised by the lack of any web features on

Canadian TV network CTV is the latest to jump on the citizen journalism bandwagon with the launch of a site dedicated to user-generated content at MyNews.ctv.ca. A breathless news release from CTV headlined “Attention all Citizen Journalists!” told Canadians that: Now, anyone with a digital camera or video phone can contribute to CTV News. Beginning today, video footage and images from citizen journalists across the country will potentially be used

2008 EPpy Award Winners Announced in Las Vegas Awards for New York Times, El Pais and CNN (tags: newspapers newmedia innovation internet) Boating glory: BBC NEWS | The Editors The Bangladesh Boat Project was amongst the BBC World Service prizewinners at the Sony awards (tags: BBC multiplatform blog internet innovation journalism)

Canada’s broadcast watchdog, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), wants to hear from Canadians about what it how it should deal with the Internet. At issue is whether the CRTC should extend its mandate to the Internet, a medium that is free from regulatory oversight. The chairman of the CRTC, Konrad von Finckenstein, outlined the watchdog’s approach: “New digital technologies and platforms are creating opportunities for the broadcast of professionally-produced

The 16 winners of the $5.5m Knight News Challenge have been announced, with the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, among the recipients. The full list of winners illustrates how people are tapping into emerging trends in digital media to revitalise the news environment. Several projects – Free Fone, The News is Coming, News on Cellphones – focus developing mobiles as platforms for news, especially in parts of the world

A case involving photos from Flickr used by CityTV raises questions about the issue of copyright and fair dealing. The Torontoist reports that Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) found that CityTV had violated the Association of Electronic Journalists of Canada’s RTNDA Code of (Journalistic) Ethics by using the photos of an alleged burglar that Joel Charlebois had posted to his Flickr account. The full judgement explains that the issue not

Several chapters from Charlie Beckett’s forthcoming book, SuperMedia: Saving Journalism So It Can Save The World, are available online. The core of the book, published by Blackwell books on May 20, is the idea of Networked Journalism, which Beckett describes as: Networked Journalism is a description and an aspiration. It reaffirms the value of the core functions of journalism. It celebrates the demand for journalism and its remarkable social utility.