Media, Politics & Power :: Digital

A lot of material covered today! The presentation is available in the
Files part of the Google group.

Next Monday, we will be discussing Tim O’Reilly’s 2.0 piece. Please
*re-read* it for next week [re-reading "The Cathedral and the
Bazaar" (Raymond) over the weekend might not be a bad idea either].

Your assignments:
- Groundswell: chapters 1-3
- post an article to del.icio.us

As usual, I am available by email, and will hold my office hours from
10-12am in the computer lab on Friday.
Thanks guys!

Per the syllabus, here is your assigned reading for next Wednesday’s class:

Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable
by Clay Shirkey
personal blog
http://bit.ly/5J1U

Owner Mark Cuban Trades Stocks on Sharesleuth’s Findings Before They’re Published
By Patricia B. Gray
Wired Magazine
http://bit.ly/3bQ9XP

1,000 True Fans
by Kevin Kelly
personal blog
http://bit.ly/t3c1U

Get Off the Bus : The future of pro-am journalism
by Amanda Michel
Columbia Journalism Review
http://bit.ly/3sEMfN

Four crowdsourcing lessons from the Guardian’s (spectacular) expenses-scandal experiment
By Michael Andersen
Nieman Journalism Lab
http://bit.ly/EXGBi

Please post your reading response to your blog and add an article to the delicious feed.

Have a fantastic day!

Hi Class!

Please find here some useful DPI-659 info:

* All apologies for the room situation. T 401 is an awful classroom, and Nicco asked for a bigger room–I will keep you posted. Today a registered student had to sit on the floor for an hour and a half because the room was so packed. Hopefully we will get a bigger classroom and this will not happen again.

* Your assignments for Monday:
o Read The Search (chapters 7-9)
o Add an article to the class Delicious feed

* On Delicious tags…
o Tags are usually in lower case and do not feature spaces. Why is that? Well, if you hit the space bar, the program you are using (in this case, Delicious) will treat your entry as 2 separate words. Example: when you type “Social Networking”, you will end up with 2 tags: “social”, and “networking”… doesnt really make sense. Typing “socialnetworking” seems much more appropriate!
o The corollary of this rule is that traditional syntax rules do not apply to tags. If you want to tag ‘Good Night and Good Luck’’s trailer on YouTube, typing “Edgar M. Murrow” will give you 3 tags: “Edgar”, “M.” and “Murrow”: not ideal. Typing “murrow” and “edgarmurrow” sounds like a much better idea! Acronyms are also useful: between “New” + “York” + “Times” and “nyt”, which option would you say is more relevant when tagging a news article?
o Use the autofills. Since many tags have already been entered on Delicious, the website will often suggest a couple of options. When typing just two letter, for example “go…”, Delicious will probably suggest “government”, “gov2.0″, and “google”. Quite handy!
o Since spaces are used to separate tags, no need for commas. At all. More than that, commas are actually proscribed when tagging. On Delicious, “africa” and “africa,” are treated as 2 different tags. Now if I look for articles tagged “africa”, those tagged “africa,” will not show up… you should never use commas when tagging online content.

* Please do make sure your Google Group profile is “clean” over the weekend. “Clean” means that:
o you only have one account registered
o your profile displays your name
o your profile displays your blog address (not just your email address)

* For those of you still struggling with all this new material, I will try and hold office hours on Friday. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Please email me with any questions you might have!!

Thanks!
Boris

Hi Class,

Hope you enjoyed today’s lecture. Here is some info regarding assignments for Wednesday + additional links about blogging.

- Today’s Powerpoint is now available on the HKS class website;

- Assignments for Wednesday (you can also look it up in the syllabus):

• Read ‘The Search’ chapters 4-6
• Post a reading response on your blog (around 500 words)
• Add one article to the class delicious feed

- Delicious:

• Nicco showed you guys how to use Delicious–of course you can email me if you cannot get it to work. Please post articles relevant to the class!
• Do not create a new Delicious account. Use the class account.
• Here is a link that will teach you how to create a Delicious bookmark.

- Blogging:

• Congrats on setting up your blogs! Please email me your blog name and domain name if you have not already done so;
• Nicco talked about blog platforms in class. Here the most commonly used:

+ Blogger
+ http://blogge.rs
+ Gandi
+ Posterous
+ LiveJournal
+ Moxietype
+ MySpace
+ Open Diary
+ Skyrock
+ Tumblr
+ TypePad
+ Typo
+ Vox
+ Windows Live Spaces
+ Wordpress.com
+ Xanga

• And if you need a video Wordpress tutorial: click here. You might want to skip the first 5 minutes.

- Finally, the Google group–please make sure your profile is “clean”:

• you only have one account registered
• your profile displays your name
• your profile displays your blog address (not just your email address)

I know this is A LOT of info, so please feel free to email me with any questions!
Thanks!

PLEASE NOTE THAT STARTING WEDNESDAY, WE WILL BE MEETING IN T401 — TAUBMAN BUILDING, 4th FLOOR.

• Join class Google Group
• Set up a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn is the social networking service for professionals. After you’ve got your profile setup, invite me to be your friend. You should use my Harvard email address, Nicco_Mele [at] hks.harvard.edu. After you’ve invited me, then invite your friends.
• Read “Essential Blogging” (Doctorow et al) – Chapter 1
• Use http://instantdomainsearch.com to start investigating domain names
• Be prepared with a credit card in order to purchase your own website domain – approximately $15.00.
• Read these blogs:
  • http://publishing2.com/
  • http://buzzmachine.com/
  • http://scripting.com/

Last Wednesday’s Powerpoint Presentation is now available on the HKS Class website: on the HKS Intranet, please select DPI-659 > On-Line Materials > Class Powerpoint Presentations > Class 1

Welcome to the website for DPI-659 at HKS, “Media, Politics and Power in the Digital Age”. Our first class is tomorrow. If you’re planning registering and being a part of our digital adventure, here is where to start:

(1) Take a moment to carefully review the syllabus, especially the section on assignments and grading. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

(2) Set up a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn is the social networking service for professionals. After you’ve got your profile setup, invite me to be your friend. My name is Nicco Mele, and you should use my Harvard email address. After you’ve invited me, then invite your friends.

(3) Make sure you request an invite to the Google Groups email list for the class – and then write an introduction to the group, telling everyone a little bit about your background.

Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

For Monday, March 9, these assignments are due:

• If you didn’t do it last class, read the essay “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric Raymond. You can read it online here.
• Read Tim O’Reilly’s What Is Web 2.0?
• Post one blog post – a reading response
• Add one article or blog post to the class del.icio.us feed

For Wednesday, March 4, these assignments are due:

• Finish The Search by John Battelle
• Read the essay “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric Raymond. You can read it online here.
• Add one article or blog post to the class del.icio.us feed

Come prepared with questions for our guest speaker, Dan Gillmor!

For Monday, March 2, these assignments are due:

• Read Chapters 7 through 9 of The Search by John Battelle
• Post one blog post – a reading response
• Post an additional blog post about the results of your advertising campaigns
• Add one article or blog post to the class del.icio.us feed