Values Day

1
The Internet Is Destroying Democracy
What You Can Must Do
Chris Herbert
Values Day
June 27, 2008
2
THIS IS WHAT IM GOING TO TALK ABOUT
Democracy Needs Newspapers

• Democracy requires a free and independent press

• Newspaper journalists are the backbone of the
  press

Newspapers Are Dying

• Newspapers are in danger of going out of business

• Who will watch the Watchmen?

The Internet Can Save Democracy

• The Chris Herbert 5 Step Action Plan

3
NEWSPAPERS ARE THE BEDROCK OF DEMOCRACY

• The USA was founded on the idea of a free press

and journalists have fought corruption for
hundreds of years

• Watergate
• Walter Reed

• Abuse In the Catholic Church

• Anne Arundel County Fire Chief Dismissed After
  Bumbling Reporter Stumbles On Corruption Story1

• Democracy does not require a majority to
  prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority
  to set brush fires in peoples minds.
• Samuel Adams

Heres the Pattern
Institutions Do Stuff
Most television reporters read the newspaper over
the air, and send a cameraman out for some
footage.
Newspaper Journalists Tell Us About Stuff
Stuff Changes
1 Some liberties taken with headline. See
Baltimore Sun archives at http//tinyurl.com/4mvan
2
4
NEWSPAPERS ARE IN TROUBLE READERSHIP IS DECLINING
Weekday newspaper readership by age group
1999
1987
1967
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65
Source Journalism.org Department of
Education Simmons NAA Facts About Newspapers
2000
5
NEWSPAPERS ARE IN TROUBLE CLASSIFIED REVENUE IS
EVAPORATING
10

• Typical Newspaper Company

100
Circulation
20
100
100
25
Classified Ads
35
We are just trying to give people a break.
Craig Newmark Craigslist.org
30
20
0
40
40
Display Ads
40
10
5
Online
20
1
10
Other
4
2015
2007
2000
Newspapers?
6
NEWSPAPERS ARE IN TROUBLE STOCKS ARE DOWN 75
OVER LAST 5 YEARS

• Stock Price History Last 5 Years
• Gannett, New York Times, McClatchy, Media General

75
Most experts agree that the major metropolitan
dailies will be the first to go out of business.
Source Google Finance
7
WHO WILL WATCH THE WATCHMEN?
The analogy doesnt work great. But it does give
me a chance to plug one of my favorite books
Plug The Watchmen, by Alan Moore, is an
excellent read. It is the only graphic novel on
Time Magazines Top 100 English Language novels
from 1923 to the present. And its coming soon
to a theater near you
Without journalists, who will check government
corruption? Who will inform the people?
The title, therefore, refers to the idea of
superheroes, police, the government, or any group
of people who assume the responsibility of
protecting others from themselves.
8
THE CHRIS HERBERT 5 STEP ACTION PLAN
Pass On The Good Stuff
Stay Informed
Take The Power Back
Create Original Content
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
9
STAY INFORMED
Use RSS Feeds to stay up to date on your favorite
stuff
Feed Readers

• Content Creators

• Your own personal customized newspaper
• Aggregates content from all your favorite sources
• Offline access for airplane reading
• Share feature creates The Internet, As Edited
  by Chris Herbert

Where do I start?

• Sign up for Google Reader
• Subscribe to a few feeds. See appendix for a
  list of recommendations
• Google stuff youre interested in, and just look
  for the RSS symbol

See http//www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.
html for an excellent description of how RSS
feeds work.
10
PASS ON THE GOOD STUFF
Where do I start?
Google Juice

• Search is king on the Internet
• Quote about Google Juice
• It is our responsibility to link to and talk
  about the best stuff, so it rises to the top

• Best product reviews on the Internet (way more
  than just books)

• Restaurants, shopping, nightlife

With great power comes great responsibility

• We may not be able to count on journalists to
  edit for us for much longer
• The best doesnt always rise to the top. We need
  to give it a push

• Vote content to the top

• Excellent tool for sharing content in your network

11
TAKE THE POWER BACK

• Democracy depends on the free flow of information
• 2 of my favorite websites, Kayak Zillow, are
  providing information to consumers that is
  actually useful and actionable.
• Others?

• Best site ever for planning travel

• Great site for stalking your coworkers
• Handy text message feature provides an instant
  estimate of a homes value (whether or not its
  for sale)
• 1 of many tools we used last year to sell our
  condo saved us a 12,000 brokers fee

12
CREATE ORIGINAL CONTENT

• Why should I blog?

• Responsibility to share ideas
• Society is becoming increasingly isolatedmost
  meaningful interaction is happening online

What about privacy?

• Dont share anything you wouldnt mind reading
  about on the front page of the WSJ

Where do I start?

• Easiest platform to learn not flexible

• Astronauts are blogging (_at_marsphoenix)
• You could get a job (_at_ryankuder)
• Egyptian jails probably arent fun (_at_jamesbuck)

• Most flexible platform, requires some tinkering

13
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS
100
Obama Feb 08 Fundraising Transactions1
The Internet is transforming politics
100
28 million
10
gt100

• Fundraising efforts are increasingly fueled by
  individual donors

• 90 of Obamas Feb 08 fundraising transactions
  came from donors who gave lt100

40
25 - 100

• Sites like meetup.com are facilitating
  grassroots efforts

50
lt 25

• Its never been easier to engage in the debate

Feb 08
4 Years Is A Long Time! Get involved.
1 http//www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/us/politics/20
obama.html?ex1361250000enb49d183460cc591cei51
24partnerpermalinkexprodpermalink
14
Other Stuff I Didnt Really Address

• Shouldnt I be worried about privacy?
• Anonymity Accountability
• How Awesome is Wikipedia?
• Why dont people use our office blog?

15
The Internet Is Destroying Democracy
What You Can Must Do
Chris Herbert
Values Day
June 27, 2008
16
A FEW OF MY FAVORITE RSS FEEDS

• Newspaper feeds
• http//feeds.feedburner.com/EditorAndPublisher-Bre
  akingNews
• http//www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper.xml
• http//feeds.feedburner.com/NewspaperDeathWatch
• http//www.poynter.org/media/rss/romenesko.xml
• http//feeds.feedburner.com/BuzzMachine
• TV
• http//feeds.feedburner.com/MultichannelBreakingNe
  ws
• Humor
• http//feeds.theonion.com/theonion/daily
• http//feeds.theonion.com/theonion/photos
• http//feeds.feedburner.com/leveragedsellout/lCfw
  
• http//dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/in
  dex.rdf
• http//stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/feed/
• http//forksplit.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
• http//feeds.feedburner.com/TheSecretDiaryOfSteveJ
  obs

Media http//blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/feed/ ht
tp//www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Mediaand
Advertising.xml http//feeds.feedburner.com/blogsp
ot/cccZ Personal Finance http//feeds.feedburner.
com/thesimpledollar Economics http//gregmankiw.b
logspot.com/atom.xml http//robertghansen.blogspo
t.com/atom.xml Stamford http//managermom.blogspo
t.com/feeds/posts/default http//feeds.feedburner.
com/AlwaysHomeAndUncool http//blogstamford.blogsp
ot.com/feeds/posts/default http//www.ctnewsjunkie
.com/atom.xml http//danmalloy.wordpress.com/feed
http//www.mrstamford.com/feed http//feeds.feedbu
rner.com/StamfordTalk
17
A FEW STARTER FEEDS FOR TWITTER
Source Silicon Alley Insider

• _at_nytimes Breaking news from The New York Times'
  homepage. Also specialized streams for world and
  national headlines, business news, sports, arts,
  science, etc.
• _at_techmeme Top headlines from Techmeme, the pulse
  of tech news, analysis, and, um, other stuff.
  There's also the Techmeme Firehose if you don't
  want to miss anything.
• _at_amazon The unofficial Amazon book finder bot.
  Follow _at_amazon and send it a direct message with
  a book's title or ISBN. It will message you back
  the price on Amazon -- a good way to see if a
  book is cheaper at Amazon or your local book
  store.
• _at_theonion The fake news -- often more
  interesting and less depressing than the real
  news! Also includes links to their audio and
  (excellent) video reports.
• _at_new_music New music for music snobs, maintained
  by NYT technologist Michael Young. A feed of
  Pitchfork and Metacritic reviews "over 7ish."
• _at_lotd The lyric of the day -- a feed of song
  lyrics -- started up by Twitter investor (and
  avid Tweeter) Fred Wilson.
• _at_shakeshack Madison Square Park's Shake Shack is
  known for its burgers, shakes -- and its line.
  "Got a report on Shake Shack line length? Looking
  share a table with other hungry
  Shackburger-loving Twits? Send an update to
  _at_shakeshack."
• _at_alleyhour Like _at_shakeshack, but for Silicon
  Alley-types looking for after-work drinking
  buddies. "Organize impromptu drinks in NYC."
• _at_alleyfeed Self promotion! The latest headlines
  from Silicon Alley Insider, automatically fed via
  Twitter. Also follow _at_alleyinsider for more
  select updates and information.

http//www.alleyinsider.com/2008/5/ten_news_inform
ation_twitter_feeds_you_should_follow