In Canada, the voter turnaround for municipal elections is appalling – usually less than 40% if you're lucky. There's been a lot of focus on whether online voting can convince more people to exercise their democratic right but the technology doesn't seem be ready for prime time. That said, there are a few signs the Web is becoming more of a political tool. One example is YouTube where a growing number of politicians are putting campaign videos to talk about their policy positions. The Toronto Star has a story how Mayor David Miller has posted a slickly-produced 95-second video to explain how he wants create more opportunities more young people “who face barriers caused by poverty, race and discrimination”. (His rivals – Jane Pitfield and Stephen LeDrew also have videos on YouTube.) The key questions are whether these videos raise the profile of elections to affect turnout, and whether these clips resonate with young people, who are showing less faith in politicians and little interest in voting. I would argue technology is just one piece of the puzzle. As much as political YouTube videos are steps in the right direction, I'd be more encouraged to see politicians who are more honest, less interested in their re-elections prospects and more inspiring about making Toronto a better place to live. It would also be nice to see a candidate knock on my door once in a blue moon but I guess that's not likely to happen any time soon if YouTube is taking over that job.
The New Newspaper Business Model
There is no doubt the newspaper industry needs to change its ways as the Web becomes more popular with readers and advertisers. There has been a lot of talk about how newsrooms need to evolve (for example, my “5 Ws Post”) but little focus on the newspaper “business” so it was interesting to read a comment from a group interesting in buying Baltimore's The Sun newspaper from Tribune Co. In discussing how his group was approaching the potential puchase, Theodore Venetoulis told Reuters they understood it will “not be an investment that will provide the usual yield and return that some investors will be used to.” That's a pretty telling and blunt concession, although you could argue it's also a savvy negotiating tactic. That said, Venetoulis put the spotlight on the new economic realities of the newspaper industry, which needs to reduce its operating costs amid the loss of advertising revenue. For newspaper owners, this means maintaining operating margins and profits by becoming lean and mean (e.g. smaller, less expensive newsrooms) or accepting lower profit margins and profits compared with historical levels. While this is happening, newspapers such as the Toronto Star, Los Angeles Times and newspaper chains such as Tribune Co. and Dow Jones Inc. are under growing pressure from investors unhappy about slumping stock prices. Unless there are more investors such as Venetoulis willing to accept lower ROIs, newspapers are going to be much different creatures. My advice for newspaper owners: aggressively embrace the Web, and reposition your newsrooms to cover less news (the Web is increasingly taking over the job of covering breaking news), and focus on providing analysis, perspective, context. For many newsrooms, it may be having a smaller, smarter, more flexible group of reporters.
Polaroid Cameras: Retro but Cool
At my mother's 70th birthday party yesterday, we created a “memory book” by taking photographs of the guests with a Polaroid camera. The reaction of my six-year-old daughter, who was annointed the “official” photographer, about how a Polaroid camera worked was priceless. She was totally blown away by the idea you could take a photograph and see it develop before your eyes in about 60 seconds. In an age of digital this and digital that, it was pretty eye-opening to see someone so impressed by such an “antique”.
The End of YouTube (as we know it)?
One of YouTube's most compelling features are clips of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Well, it looks like Comedy Central has asked YouTube to take them down, and YouTube has complied. Boing Boing reports that if you do a search for the Daily Show, you get this message: “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.” If all the good stuff on YouTube is being removed until the video sharing service gets a copyright license, does this mean there are fewer reasons to even visit YouTube? It could not be long before you may have to pay for all the good stuff on YouTube such as the Daily Show – or, perhaps, see a lot of advertising to support a “free” model.
We're Talking Tech…and the Internet Doesn't Suck
Not surprisingly, a good chunk of this week's Talking Tech podcast is focused on the Maclean's cover story (apparently being positioned as a position piece now) that the “Internet Sucks”. Of course, Kevin Restivo and I passionately disagree with this thesis, which seems more rooted in causing a stir (which it did judging by all the chatter in the blogosphere) and selling magazine subscriptions than making a legitimate argument. Perhaps the story's biggest flaw is the complete lack of balance. There are no pro-Internet voices that can counter the story's claim the Internet is all about pornography, gambling, fraudsters, sexual predators and academic plagarists. Steve Maich, who wrote the story, wrote a guest post on by blog to explain why the article was done. After dismissing the Maclean's story, we talk about Google shares edging up to its record high of $491.86 in the wake of strong third-quarter results. (By the way, Red Herring has a cover story coming out Monday that asks “Is Google Still Hot?”). Finally, Kevin and I talk about Cisco's new videoconference technology that promises to jump-start a market that has never quite taken off. You can send feedback, suggestions, etc. to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.
Update: Talking Tech is produced by David Jones, Ed Lee and iStuido's Neil Johnson. As always, thanks for your terrific behind-the-scenes work!
TechDirt Jumps on Maclean's
TechDirt takes a look at Maclean's "The Internet Sucks" cover story and comes away less than impressed, calling it a "professional trolling effort". If Maclean's was looking for some publicity, it's working.
