Aide-Memoire

I’ve been thinking about having an overarching theme for my blog this year and have finally decided on women in …

that is women who are doing interesting things like

• finance
• technology
• science
• engineering
• management
• innovation
• start-ups
• marketing
• media
• and whatever other interesting careers pop up

Women have come such a long way in a relatively short time regarding careers and choices. It’s worth sharing stories of successful women and finding out some of their secrets.

First post on this will a profile of a fascinating woman in finance.

If you think that there is an interesting woman others should know about please let me know.

Here’s a little quote from one of my Gen Y friends on my Facebook wall today:

“I won’t ever pay for normal news content ever again full stop. If i wanted to subscribe to something niche likes financial markets pieces etc, then potentially yes, but even then i would discerning. I think he needs to get with the program. Old empire = dead. “

Clearly a sample of one in this instance, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard this sentiment. Wonder how this is all going to work out for Rupert?

Have been chatting online with Evan from Sency.com and decided to experiment with his new gadget using the Media140 Twitter feed:

#media140

The Media 140 Conference in Sydney has offered a vast amount of food for thought my brain is buzzing with ideas, issues and concerns.

The first thing that struck me was the level of fear and fear-mongering by some of the print journalists on day one. For example in the session titled How Social Media is Changing Political Reporting Caroline Overington and Chris Uhlmann both seemed close to arguing that the end of the free world as we know it is nigh should one of the major east coast newspapers in Australia fail.

There seemed to be little idea amongst these panelists that changing media platforms might reinvigorate media and create new revenue or career opportunities.

This notion that unless “proper journalism”, that is journalism as we have known it since the mid-late nineteenth century as practised by employees of the great media barons, exists then no valuable news will exist seems odd.

When one considers why news came to be produced in that particular way in that particular time it seems clear that technology and cost constraints prohibited new entrants to the news creation and sharing market.

However today those barriers to entry are rapidly disappearing and ordinary people are creating their own news. But, while the need for professional production facilities is diminishing, there seems to be ample space for journalists and news organisations to explore business models based on aggregation, curation and clarification of issues and perspectives.

Caroline Overington also discussed the News Ltd plan to charge for content. It will be interesting to see their plan and how it unfolds. My experience indicates that online micropayments are not as easy to use and intuitive as they need to be for mass adoption. Also the nature of the content must be compelling enough on a continual basis for people to subscribe.

Amusingly at the same time as Ms Overington was delivering her apologia for News Ltd they announced a revenue slump of 4.1%.

#media140

I attended the afternoon sessions for day one of the  Media 140 conference in Sydney today as a live blogger/twitterer and have  been consolidating my thoughts. Here’s a summary of the speakers that resonated for me in the afternoon sessions:

Julie Posetti (a.k.a. @julie_posetti) did a nice job of chairing the panels – a warm and friendly style

John Bergin (a.k.a. @theburgerman) displayed a splendid vocabulary and deep insights into the interplay between traditional media platforms and new media platforms.  He noted that the “the act of speaking should not be privileged over the act of listening”and that “passive news consumption is all but extinct”.  Wish he’d been able to share his thoughts for longer.

Bronwen Clune (a.k.a. @bronwen) discussed the changing nature of a journalist’s place in the world, admirably encapsulated as: “journalists – the audience formerly known as the media” (and she wore some fabulous red shoes ).

Leigh Sales (a.k.a. @leighsales ) talked about the how she approaches having an active social media presence and some of her techniques for balancing personal and work personas online, noting a simple rubric “if in doubt, leave it out” (she also wore some extremely funky white shoes ).

Stilgherrian (a.k.a. @stilgherrian) spoke about his puzzlement as to what journalists actually do, and noted that “90% of what journalists and bloggers do overlaps”. He pondered the decline of the 19th century style “media factories” and the rise of “social media” and did not mention #goats at all. The full text of his talk is available here.

Kudos to the ABC and to all the sponsors for a very thought provoking conference so far. Overall the logistics of the conference were great – well organised plus a nice venue with good parking & transport nearby. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.

Still pondering why none of the men wore interesting shoes or clothing & was delighted to finally meet @wolfcat in real life.

#media140