Oh Ho!

Posted on by

Another stone thrown into our media pond. OhMyNews is coming to a screen near your desktop…

Oh Yeon Ho, the pioneering South Korean journalist and owner of the world’s largest ‘citizen journalist’ media website, plans to launch his website OhmyNews.com in Europe.

The site, which famously swung the outcome of the 2002 South Korean presidential election, publishes content written by almost 50,000 members of public and boasts up to 600,000 daily readers.

Mr Ho said: “I hope I can keep introducing our model to other countries including Europe, North America and hopefully North Korea in the future. Why not?

“Actually, we are in talks with a European partner to launch an OhmyNews site in Europe.”

Dreaming…

Posted on by

Tilly, dreaming of a white Christmas, perhaps. Or of the robin she killed yesterday. Cats are horrible sometimes.

Later: In the interest of fairness and accuracy, it has been pointed out to me that it could have been her sister who killed the robin.

Contrast

Posted on by

An asymptotic approach to a Christmas card? Shot with the lens wide open. But it gives the impression that it’s really a collage, with the frosted greenery pasted over out-of-focus berries.

Narcissism 2.0

Posted on by

Like many people, I subscribe to Jakob Nielsen’s ‘Alertbox’ newsletter, partly because it’s good for the soul to be annoyed by people with whom one often disagrees, and partly because he sometimes has interesting things to say. (The current issue argues that “Web 2.0 can be dangerous”, btw.)

I’ve just noticed that his site includes a link to a page of downloadable hi-res photographs of the great man. There are, er, 61 such photographs.

No hiding lights under bushels there, then.

The marriage market

Posted on by

This striking photograph taken by US photographer Stephanie Sinclair in Afghanistan was named Unicef Photo of the Year yesterday. It’s a wedding picture. The cadaverous cove in the turban is a bridegroom; the kid next him is his new 11-year-old wife. The blurb says that the chap is 40 years of age, but he looks about 70 to me. The photograph vividly encapsulates life for millions of girls in this day and age. Unicef claims that upwards of 60 million under-age girls are married every year. Barbaric.

Later: Another Unicef prizewinner here. Thanks to Pete for the link.

Digital Footprints

Posted on by

Hot off the digital presses at the Pew Internet & American Life project…

Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago. However, few monitor their online presence with great regularity. Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.

Indeed, most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information. Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online. Similarly, the majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online.

In addition to providing national telephone survey data, this report includes quotes from online survey respondents as well as experts in the fields of privacy, online identity management and search.

Full report (pdf) from here.