When you visit the web sites of CNN, Foxnews, or Yahoo, you’re getting news delivered in a new way (the internet) but according to a very old system: THEY supply the stories and your only choice is to take it or leave it. But what if you had some say in what stories got posted?
Enter Newsvine, a new service that enables you to “seed” the news - that is, to plant stories that interest you. Before you click here to visit Newsvine, let me mention that Newsvine is now in private beta, so you may need an invitation to get in. I’ll send you one if you’re interested.
Newsvine has all the AP newswire content that other sites have, but users help determine what stories get noticed. Tonight, I seeded Newsvine with the story from Relevant magazine about MySpace that I blogged about here a few days ago. I was the first one to seed that story, so the link to it becomes part of my “column” which I can add to over time. It’s a good article, but without me seeding it, no one searching for articles on Newsvine about related topics would ever find it. If others find it and rate it highly, it’s positioning on the site goes up.
And if you have writing ambitions, you can do your own reporting on Newsvine. I haven’t played around with this yet, but I heard the founder interviewed on Amber MacArthur’s Inside the Net, and he said that in the past few months beta testing, several amateur authors have attracted attention for the quality of their reporting and have a chance to make an impact (and some money) for their work.
We’ve all complained about the media focusing their attention on the wrong things. This gives us a chance to change that…or maybe to prove we’re just as bad!
This photo, entitled “Seconds”, is from Flickr, a photo-sharing site. I’m no photographer but this site makes me wanna be. Photo by Flickr user konaboy - “Seconds”
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Here’s an observant and funny article from Relevant Magazine about the online social experience MySpace, which is huge with young people. If you’re over 40, you may have never heard of it. I recommend the pages by kara, brokenliver, Kirby and of course Li’l Johnnie.
Today our blog takes on a new format and makes use of software that allows you to make comments. Just click the “comments” link at the bottom of any post.
Last June I was in a sorry state. The cars I use to drive around making hospital visits each had a radio and a non-working tape player (and no CD). I don’t listen to music that much, but I like to learn while I’m in the car (sermons, audio books, news, etc.) I looked into buying a CD player but balked at the expense. Then my wife got me an MP3 player for my birthday (”MP3″ is simply the name of a popular type of audio file), and I discovered that with a few inexpensive accessories (and an Internet connection) it was the answer I needed. The inexpensive accessories include a low-power transmitter and/or an adapter to enable me play it through my old car stereos, my 1980s home stereo, or whatever. Of course the little headphones and 12-hour battery life make it possible to listen everywhere else.
My little player is about the size of a pack of cards, but it holds more than 400 CDs or about 14 days worth of audio content. I have loaded it up with all my worthwhile CDs from home, and I occasionally buy a new song online (for 99 cents) and I am constantly adding podcasts - free content such as sermons from great preachers, feature stories from National Public Radio and Public Radio International, talk shows featuring technology, movies, NASCAR and other things of interest. (I delete the podcasts after I listen to them but the music stays put). With all of this, my player has about 3.7 days of content, and it looks like it may never be half-full.
Until recently, MP3 players were popular only among college kids and techies. Now they’re exploding. MHCC GLOW kids are getting them for Christmas and birthdays. I’ll know that they have truly penetrated the market the same way I knew the personal computer had arrived…when my Mom gets one. The cell phone saturated the market a few years ago and changed the century-old concept of calling someone at a specific location. Now the MP3 player is unhinging music and personal education from any particular place (and the latest players allow you to take TV shows and movies with you too). Now the reason I raise this topic of You Are In Control: Do you think this has any implications for the church?
I highly recommend this new film which is currently in wide theatrical release. It tells the story of Jim Elliot, Steve Saint, and other missionaries who were killed in Ecuador in 1956 by the tribe they were trying to reach, and it focuses on how God used that tragedy to bring many in that tribe to Christ. This movie won’t enjoy the crossover success of something like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so you’ll need to catch it in the next couple of weeks.
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World sunlight map is an almost-real-time look at sunlight and shadow on the earth.
Today’s theme - You Are In Control. You choose when you want to listen to music or watch a movie or TV show, and you choose the content. The old model that I grew up with was that the radio station or TV channel set the schedule and your choices were “take it or leave it”. In the 80s, the Walkman and the VCR began to change that. Now we’re moving toward total choice, on demand programming where you and I make the choices. Several church members recently told me that they’re watching “Lost” a season behind the network schedule, renting or buying the DVDs (no commercials this way!). Practically every show with any audience at all is becoming available this way. For those with a video Ipod, you can now buy many shows the day after they air and watch them as you wait in the doctor’s office (on a three-inch screen, but still).
RE: Music - I’m really impressed with a music concept called Pandora. It’s an internet radio station but one that goes way beyond the normal way of doing things. You start by entering a favorite song or artist. Then Pandora creates a radio station for you that plays songs that are musically similar to the music you named. “Musically similar” is no accident either because Pandora employs dozens of professional musicians to analyze songs according to many criteria. In fact, they call this analysis the Music Genome Project. It works pretty well. I’ve got three stations set up so far. With a free (and totally legal) account you can have up to 100 stations for your ever-changing moods, and you can refine them as they play by adding new criteria to guide Pandora. There is also some weight given to lyrics. Example: I kicked off my currently-playing station by typing in “Audio Adrenaline” and the first six songs were by Christian artists (Audio A twice, Reuben Morgan, a cut from a Promise Keepers CD, Bleach and Switchfoot). I then refined the station by telling it to play songs like “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot, and now the seventh song playing is by Third Eye Blind, non-Christian but musically similar. Pandora pays no attention to the popularity of artists or songs which means it is likely to introduce you to new music rather than play only what’s “hot”. Pandora increases your content control but obviously limits your choice of where you can listen.
More on this subject later…
The 50 Most Influential Christians in America, according to The Church Report. Rumor has it that John Pryor finished 51st for the second straight year.
The preacher I’ve quoted more than any other will retire in a few months from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville.
Here’s an interesting article by Lauren Winner on serving God by getting a good night’s sleep. I guarantee you’ll want to do it.
Today I’ll point you to a few sites that help me dig into the Christian faith and get ready for Sunday. First, check out the Media Ministry at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, featuring Todd Wagner (who I like to call the OTHER preacher you really should listen to). We listened to his sermon on pornography here at MHCC on a Sunday night back in October. I especially recommend his series on possessions called Consumed and his message on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. You can listen online or download his stuff to your music player (for free).I visit ChristianityToday.com every day for news and feature stories. I don’t really know how it makes financial sense for them to put everything from all their magazines online for free, but they do, and it’s good stuff.
I also like Relevant magazine’s site. It’s aimed at a younger crowd (Christians in their 20s), but the slices (in the middle of the main page) offer bits of cultural news you might want to know about, and they’re updated throughout the day.
Johnprypr.org is the web site for the music ministry of our youth minister.
