Being in media is terrifying right now. Whereas in the old days, you wrote something and then a fleet of people printed it and handed it to X hundred thousand people so they would read it, now, the fleet is gone. You are alone out there in the ocean and there’s not much that anyone can do for any given story to make sure that people read it. […] We do not control the distribution of our work. Period.

Alexis Madrigal (via theatlantic)

FJP: Others think that change is awesome.

(via futurejournalismproject)

I’m not sure what I think of this, other than that it further isolates the journalist from her or his audience.

(via futurejournalismproject)

Source: The Atlantic

futurejournalismproject: Photos Washed to Sea by Sandy Find a Home on Facebook The Verge: A neighborhood group, lead by Jeannette Van Houton and Mary Danielson, has organized with one goal: to scour the beaches in their local areas, rescuing photos which have washed ashore. The group then scans the photos in the hopes of eventually finding their owners. Union Beach, a one square mile area, was “completely impacted” by the hurricane, and Danielson says that “the one thing I continue to hear from residents is ‘all I want to find are my photos.’” Danielson’s interest in the project is also professional, she says, as a “case study” in “how to rescue an entire town’s photo collection.” Once they collect and clean off the photos, they’re scanned using small scanners, then uploaded to Facebook. There are already more than 3,000 images on Facebook, organized in small albums with names like “found on Third St towards the bend that merges w/ 2nd” and, “Dropped at Keller’s.” Found photos are a common time suck on the internet, but looking through these albums, seeing the debris still attached to many of the badly damaged photos, is quite a visceral experience. The group, working in Union Beach, New Jersey, is called Restoring Union Beach Memories and has raised over $2000. Image: via The Verge. This gal had a pretty awesome idea.
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futurejournalismproject:

Photos Washed to Sea by Sandy Find a Home on Facebook

The Verge:

A neighborhood group, lead by Jeannette Van Houton and Mary Danielson, has organized with one goal: to scour the beaches in their local areas, rescuing photos which have washed ashore. The group then scans the photos in the hopes of eventually finding their owners.

Union Beach, a one square mile area, was “completely impacted” by the hurricane, and Danielson says that “the one thing I continue to hear from residents is ‘all I want to find are my photos.’” Danielson’s interest in the project is also professional, she says, as a “case study” in “how to rescue an entire town’s photo collection.”

Once they collect and clean off the photos, they’re scanned using small scanners, then uploaded to Facebook. There are already more than 3,000 images on Facebook, organized in small albums with names like “found on Third St towards the bend that merges w/ 2nd” and, “Dropped at Keller’s.” Found photos are a common time suck on the internet, but looking through these albums, seeing the debris still attached to many of the badly damaged photos, is quite a visceral experience.

The group, working in Union Beach, New Jersey, is called Restoring Union Beach Memories and has raised over $2000.

Image: via The Verge.

This gal had a pretty awesome idea.

futurejournalismproject:

Earth at Night

Blake posted a video earlier showing NASA’s new Earth photos created with infrared imaging technology. I can’t stop looking at them though. 

Here’s the basic set (including a 54000x27000 GeoTIFF version of the top image — let’s make posters), and here’s a fascinating look at the Nile. And over here is an interactive map where you can explore the entire globe.

Image background from the Earth Observatory:

A handful of scientists have observed earthly night lights over the past four decades with military satellites and astronaut photography. But in 2012, the view became significantly clearer. The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite — launched in October 2011 by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Department of Defense — carries a low-light sensor that can distinguish night lights with six times better spatial resolution and 250 times better resolution of lighting levels (dynamic range) than before. Also, because Suomi NPP is a civilian science satellite, data is available to scientists within minutes to hours of acquisition.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP can observe dim light down to the scale of an isolated highway lamp or fishing boat. It can even detect faint, nocturnal atmospheric light — known as airglow — and observe clouds lit by it. Through the use of its “day-night band,” VIIRS can make the first quantitative measurements of light emissions and reflections, distinguishing the intensity and the sources of night light. The sum of these measurements gives us a global view of the human footprint on the Earth.

Stunning — Michael.

Images: City Lights, via Nasa Earth Observatory. Select to embiggen.

Vermont retreat cuts Facebook, texting for teens

This is a really sad reflection on our culture….

Watch the video on BBC.com.

The current generation of school-age students spend more time online than any other. But what happens when they are asked to live and interact without mobile phones and with limited internet for a few months?

At the Mountain School in rural Vermont, 45 students from across the US find out each term what life is like without the technological advantages offered by their life at home.

Normally, three-quarters of Mountain School students spend two or more hours online at home every day, with one-quarter online for five hours or more, they told the BBC.

In a survey, students said checking Facebook and email, doing homework and chatting with friends were their favourite activities.

But a few months in rural Vermont has changed their perspective on how technology is used.

“I think it forced everybody to get to know everybody on more of a personal level, instead of just checking their Facebook pictures,” said Keifer, 17.

Thirty-three of 43 respondents said they would use the internet a little or a lot less upon their return home.

But they will face a challenge re-integrating into a world where friends and family might be as tech-happy as before.

breakingnews: Hubble Space Telescope reveals farthest view into universe ever SPACE.com: The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the farthest-ever view into the universe, a photo that reveals thousands of galaxies billions of light-years away. The picture — called eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF — combines 10 years of Hubble telescope views of one patch of sky. Photo: Image released Sept. 25, 2012. (NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch) Thousands of galaxies. Galaxies. God is big and we are small.
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breakingnews:

Hubble Space Telescope reveals farthest view into universe ever

SPACE.com: The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the farthest-ever view into the universe, a photo that reveals thousands of galaxies billions of light-years away. The picture — called eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF — combines 10 years of Hubble telescope views of one patch of sky.

Photo: Image released Sept. 25, 2012. (NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch)

Thousands of galaxies. Galaxies. God is big and we are small.