Hasta La Vista, Noovo

By Mark Evans in Web 2.0 No Comments

One of the downsides of the Web 2.0 and the proliferation of no-risk betas is the amount of digital debris left scattered around.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably signed up for dozens of betas that sound interesting but soon lose their appeal. So, you quickly move to the next thing, or go back to the “old” standards that still perform well and meet your needs.

The problem, however, is all the accounts you’ve abandoned still continue to exist because there’s no way to delete your account. For service providers, not providing this option makes sense because there’s always the chance you could come back one day so why let you disappear in the ether.

Still, it would be nice to sweep up some of your digital debris along the way, which is why I found it so refreshing that Noovo.com actually lets you “Terminate” your account. I signed up for Noovo after reading about it on ReadWriteWeb. It sounded like an interesting service but I quickly realized that trying to juggle e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and a blog is already plenty.

So, I hunted around to see if I could leave Noovo, and, lo and behold, you can do it. I give Noovo lots of credit for giving people the option, and wonder why more companies don’t do the same.

To be fair, Noovo may be a useful service, and I may be losing out by walking away but they do score points for being user-friendly.

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Are Newspapers Dinosaurs? Does it Matter?

By Mark Evans in Media 5 Comments

Food for thought on a glorious, it’s-good-to-alive Sunday morning is an article by John Honderich in the Toronto Star about the future of newspapers and whether new models can continue to make them viable.

As someone who has spent most of his career in newspapers, and continues to be an avid newspaper reader, I can’t help but wonder whether all the hand-wringing about newspapers is irrelevant. By that, I wonder if the newspaper model – putting text on paper – is becoming a dinosaur; much like the horse and buggy disappeared when the automobile came on the scene.

Yes, newspapers have been around for hundreds of years but that shouldn’t guaranteed their continued existence if “the technology” is becoming antiquated. While it’s interesting to see models being proposed such as publicly-funded newspapers and community-fueled/funded news organizations (Spot.us) as ways to keep newspapers alive, I wonder if they’re ignoring or delaying the inevitable.

If the way people consume information is moving away away from print, maybe the focus should be on user-friendly and innovative ways to embrace digital technology such as the much-vaunted but, to date, unfulfilled concept of electronic paper. Maybe newspapers should accept the fact a growing number of people are consuming information on the Web as opposed to newsprint.

The industry’s evolution means, of course, that new financial models need to be created. This, in turn, will change how reporters are compensated and how much financial ability that news organizations have to produce top-quality journalism. This is where new editorial models will emerge to bolster the industry.

So, what do you think? Am I being too dismissive about newspapers or perhaps cavalier about their viability? Is there a way to save newspapers as we know them, or has their time come?

More: Newsosaur has a post on why newspapers can’t stop the presses, how moving to an all-digital format would have to see half of their editorial staffs eliminated just to turn a modest profit.

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