I’m finally putting together some changes I’ll be making to this blog, which is sadly neglected at times – not because I have a lack of things to say, but more because I’m often communicating on other sites these days – mostly Twitter, but also the Norg (of course!), 12 seconds, blip and a number of other social networks.

It’s tempting to pull all those interactions back on to your blog – you see it less now, but there was a time when some bloggers were posting all their day’s tweets on to their blog as posts. You have Twitter badges now, which have replaced that somewhat, but the interaction is still happening on Twitter. Then there’s video that you can produce on sites like 12seconds, Seesmic and Phreadz which can often take forms of video blogging, but this is happening on a site other than your blog and in all together different community than others you may belong to. A lot of those sites have been integrated with Twitter and you can post any updates automatically to your Twitter stream, but that is also not incorporating the interaction and community with which you engaging. And then ofcourse there is Friendfeed, which pulls all these streams together in another community of its own. I guess that sort of leaves one’s blog, out in the cold, so to speak.

Don’t get me wrong, I think a personal blog has its place, but rather than pull all the lifestreams back to it, I think they have just become part of the constant fractured stream/identities that we create. I guess they are no longer our central destination site. Perhaps our need to make it one is born out of a sense to quantify the influence we have – it’s hard to know your reach on Twitter for example – sure, you have X number of followers, but how many read your views at any given time?

Blogs still have an important role, but I think they are just now part of the fragmented identities that so many of us have across a number of networks. I don’t think that’s a bad thing and just like “control media” needs to learn how to let go, in some sense we have to as well. I think we gather different audiences across different sites and that diversification can actually add to our online profile instead of detract from it. Just because I care what you say on Twitter might not mean I read your blog, but that’s one avenue you have my attention on, that you may otherwise not. Those of you interested in my blog may not care whether I’ve wasted an hour one morning looking for white socks.

I guess wanting to hold on to our online identities in one place is an old-way of looking at things. Growing your profile in future might mean more fragmentation, but that’s something we’ve been telling larger monolithic corporations like news sites to get their heads around for years. Time to taste our own medicine perhaps?

Photo: Venetian Glimpse by BombDog

The other point then is how do we find these stories? I like Jay Rosen’s video on “How to Digest News“, which goes some way in explaining why crowd-powered aggregation sites are so important. You can’t assume that on your own you can find the best news out there – finding a trusted site that filters news for you makes more sense.

My own advice for journalists on how to prepare for the future is to start investing in themselves and to experiment in online participation. Going from writing news in a straight non-personal style to writing online is quite confronting – I remember it took me some time to find my voice and gain some confidence in writing from a personal perspective. The best place to start to learn the nuances of online communication, in my opinion, is Twitter – and the key is not then to just create content, but to participate as well – a point Jean Burgess from QUT made during the day. It’s those who start taking the risks now that will be better off in the future. I know it’s a confronting situation, but it’s time to face reality – things are not going back to what they were.

UPDATE: You can find more coverage on the seminar on Lavartus Prodeo,  and Wooly Days.

I’ve been having similar thoughts – I’ve yet to see an MEAA event advertised that seems to have any grasp of the changes taking place in media – other than to point out that its happening.  Dr Cokley writes:

The future of journalism rests with journalists, not with the owners and managers of the processes of capital designed to deliver journalism. This is the incredibly simple distinction which MEAA officials have failed to make explicit – perhaps even to realise – in the current stoush (and in all previous ones I’ve witnessed since I paid dues from 1981-1995).

You can read the full piece here.

Kthnxbai.

The Pulver TV show where I was interviewed by Chris Brogan also featured Loic so it was fitting that it was Chris gave me an invite to Seesmic and also a testament to the shrinking world we live in. Either that or we are all trapped in the same bubble

So what is Seesmic? I’ve heard it described as “video Twitter” and from what I’ve seen that sums up the basics pretty well and there are a lot of people using it as a video lifestream. I like that idea and it seems the users on there are really getting into it. A lot of the video conversations – you can reply to other videos – revolve round Seesmic itself. It will be interesting to see how this evolves, as more users join the community and think about creative uses for the service. I’ve said before that for me a community has really evolved when it finds new uses for services beyond the original intentions. Twitter is an example of this, it’s gone beyond just about “what people are doing”.

For me Seesmic is an easy informal way to video blog, and I intend to use it that way and try and try and show the world some of the great innovation that is going on in Perth and Australia. I’m going to make it my mission to interview as many people as possible and develop my Seesmic stream into a voice for the Australian start-up community. Yes, I could do it on YouTube, but Seesmic has the added bonus of sending it out to the social communities I’m involved in – it can post the video to YouTube, send it to Twitter and hopefully soon be able to send them to this blog.

My other motive for getting involved is I’m really interested in investigating Seesmic’s potential as a Cit J reporting tool, where Cit Js can upload video from Seesmic to norgs. Better still when they can do that directly from their mobile phones. I love this space and Seesmic really excites me.

I tried it out for a couple of friend’s blogs, and there was quite a variation, but I won’t say who was at the bottom of the class.

I knew that most people who write on PerthNorg were pretty bright, but this confirmed things:

Go Cit J’s!

This caught my eye on the weekend in The West Australian and if it’s true it is totally outrageous.

Under the headline “Fairfax hires Labor lobbyists” it read (the story does not appear to be online):

“Eastern States media group Fairfax has hired Labor strategists Hawker Britton to help in its negotiations with the State Government as part of its plans to set up a news website in Perth.

The West Australian also understands Hawker Britton has employed former premier Geoff Gallop’s chief-of-staff Sean Walsh, who ran Dr Gallop’s office for five years.

Hawker Britton’s Perth office is run by John Whitelaw, the former chief-of-staff to Police Minister John Kobelke. Former Labor MP Megan Anwyl was a director of the lobby group before leaving the position last week.

Mr Walsh could not be contacted yesterday, while Mr Whitelaw did not respond to requests for comment and Mr Anwyl refused to comment.

The West Australian revealed yesterday that the WA Government and its senior public servants were meeting senior Fairfax executives to discuss plans for their online service.

Paul Giles, acting manager of strategic communication in the Government Media Office, said in a letter to the public servants that the meeting was a chance to “discuss news format, editorial stance and media mix along with advertising opportunities, promotional activity and any other matters of interest.”

There have been rumours of Fairfax coming to Perth for some time, I blogged about it in March. So the move into the West Australian market is not so surprising, but what are they talking to the Government about? Since when do news corporations talk to the government about editorial stance?

There is no need for Fairfax to talk to the Government about launching an online news service for any legal reasons – online news remains out of the scope of media ownership laws.

The West Australian has a somewhat strained relationship with the current Labor Government – Health Minister Jim McGinty called for editor Paul Armstrong to be sacked over a health story that eventually made its way to the Press Council and which The West subsequently lost. So the doors are open for another news organisation to court favour with the Government – after all they are one of the biggest spenders of advertising dollars.

I don’t think replacing one media bias with another is a positive thing. And mainstream media wonders why we are so cynical? They make it too easy.

I’ve been asked a few times if I have a personal blog and I’ve been meaning to set one up for some time. At PerthNorg, I have a blog called Norgdom, which I’ve treated as a personal blog as well as a place to write about PerthNorg and citizen journalism.

But lately, I’ve found I have some things to say outside of that, so I have taken the plunge and set up this blog.

So while I have had the idea for some time, my call to action was Podcamp and listening to Nick Hodge and Duncan Riley talk about ‘personal branding’. And I don’t mean because I want to be seen as a “brand”, rather I want to be seen as someone who has semi-intelligent things to say.

Add to that the conversations Rich Giles, Duncan and Cameron Reilly and I had about ‘putting yourself out there’ and I had no choice but to take the plunge. I’m like a red bull to a challenge, and that’s either going to be my making or my undoing.

So this is me “stepping up”.