Disqus - Latest Comments for David Cohn

Re: The “gold standard” of recent startups

David Cohn — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:33:41 -0000

Good for you Scoble - I think you should be harsh on startups. I often think there are way too many startups and it's created yet another big bubble. We need to be more grounded in silicon valley in what we are putting our energy towards.

In the end - I think Micah Baldwin (5th comment??) had it right - hub dub is useless once it's faded. Startups don't need to be anointed by you, Arrington or anybody to succeed (although I'm sure that won't hurt). What they need is to provide a new service or provide an old service in a MUCH better form.

Re: Omnisio: Video Annotations with Slideshow Syncing (It’s Awesome!)

David Cohn — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:42:20 -0000

Kevin
Excellent video. Watching it now. You rock.

Re: Digg top users revolt as company tries to appeal to buyers

David Cohn — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:46:22 -0000

Okay. That was interesting. It got really interesting when Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson showed up.

Long story short

The conversation will be posted on the Drill Down.

The hope is that Kevin and Jay follow up with what they said - they will build a mode for future communication. If they do - most of the concerns will be met. Onward.

Re: Digg’s town hall addresses many questions - or the same ones over and over again

David Cohn — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:38:32 -0000

When the hell did ParisLemon start writing for VentureBeat?

Good stuff though - nice to see you hear as well.

Re: Is Blogging Doomed? Why A-Lister’s Are Quitting and Dan Lyons Is Just Plain Wrong

David Cohn — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:35:30 -0000

I think that bloggers could move towards community funded reporting ala Spot.Us.

Dan Lyons could easily get more money from small donations (people giving $10 each) than he could from advertising.

Re: Note to journalism schools: give us new heroes

David Cohn — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:30:06 -0000

Martin -- thanks for your confidence and compliment.

This entire thread of links and comments is right on the noise -- journalism students need new heros.

Your example of Adam Penenberg is perfect. He was a hero to me, especially because he had a column at Wired News when I was an intern there.

I think I got lucky in the draw -- I was intrigued by journalism, the idea of engaging in the national conversation, but I am also, for lack of a better word -- a geek.

In addition to Woodward, Bernstein and other journalists, I look up to Craig Newmark, Jimmy Wales and other geek idols. They inspire me to go beyond research, reporting etc (all the irreplaceable fundamentals) to question the modes, mediums and practices of journalism.

Re: Note to journalism schools: give us new heroes

David Cohn — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:51:45 -0000

Don't you hate when you make a comment, read it over and realize you made a word slip. I meant "this entire thread of links and comments is right on the nose."

Eh... it happens...and a little humility never hurt.

Re: Blogging vs journalism, yet again

David Cohn — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:33:07 -0000

Wow. Great post Martin. I particularly like your thoughts on the role that social bookmarking sites will play (those people become trusted sources of under-reported news) and the future of networked journalism.

But overall -- this hits it right on the head. The debate is not only over. In many ways it never existed: "Blogs are just a publishing technology, which can be used for distributing any type of content, including journalism. Some bloggers are journalists..."

Re: The death of blogging is nowhere near….

David Cohn — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:29:57 -0000

Totally agree.

Re: ‘Free’ as a business model and how it might apply to newspapers

David Cohn — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:20:14 -0000

Excellent post indeed.

I'm David Cohn - the director of spot.us. We are still in the early stages and won't be ready until the fall, but wanted to thank you for interest in what we are doing. It certainly will be interesting to explore how we can pay for quality content with the model of "community funded reporting."

After we launch in full in the fall - we will find out more. IT certainly is an issue that needs to be explored and figured out.

Onward!!!!

Re: ‘Free’ as a business model and how it might apply to newspapers

David Cohn — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:51:16 -0000

Yes - I want to echo the last comment: There is no such thing as clean money. We've all heard the horror story of a publisher who killed a story because it would threaten advertising.

The idea for spot.us is that if the group of funders is diverse enough - then the journalist is not beholden to any one of them. Take our recently funded SF Election Truthiness Campaign: wiki.spot.us/election

It was funded by 73 different people. I'm sure some of those people have their political bias' - but because it was a diverse group the reporter was literally commissioned by the public - and is responsible only to report in as straightforward a manner as possible.

As for journalism being an unglamorous job. That might be true. Guess what - it's a job. All jobs can suck at times. Spot.Us isn't trying to turn journalism into a day at the park. We imagine that most of the pitches are going to come from recently laid-off journalists. These people know exactly how unglamorous journalism can be.

Re: 2008/05/14/timothy-berners-lee/

David Cohn — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:52:08 -0000

I am another winner of the Knight News Challenge grant and when they lined the winners up to take pictures I was standing behind Tim, who was very conscious of the fact that he was taller than me - so he started crouching down so the audience could see me.

It was crazy. Before tonight I felt like Sir Tim Berners Lee was a wikipedia page. But he was very human and considerate.

Re: 2008/05/19/newscre/

David Cohn — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:12:50 -0000

Also check out NewsTrust.net - where I am a contributing editor. We've been in the game for a bit now and are trying to tackle the same issue as newscred: It's a nonprofit trying to figure out how a community can rank the news not based on popularity but on quality.

http://www.NewsTrust.net

Re: 2008/05/23/ariel-waldman/

David Cohn — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:42:45 -0000

Overall I understand where she is coming from - it would totally suck: But she works for Pownce. She needed to be more upfront about her role at Pownce before she could outright attack twitter. I'm not saying she is disingenuous, just that it is a fact that can't be ignored.

Re: Gary Vaynerchuk - Shave your head for Charity Tag Came up with a...

David Cohn — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:45:12 -0000

Nice Gary V!!!

I had chatted with you on Seesmic not too long ago wondering what kind of charity stuff you were doing. I told you about the SF nonprofit I'm working to start up called Spot.Us

I think what you and the Vayner-nation is awesome. As I see it: You recognize that you have been given a great opportunity, using social media to basically drink wine all the time.

But instead of being a jerk about it - you use spare energy to try and promote a good cause.

Rock on!!!!!

Re: We Still Need Better Filters

David Cohn — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:25:02 -0000

Chris
I am a contributing editor at a non-profit social news site called NewsTrust.net. It's like Digg, except where "digg" is vauge - ranking a story on newstrust is all about whether or not you think the information is of high quality or not.

Would love you to check it out and give some feedback on where it might miss the spot on what you are picturing in your head.

As a previous commenter noted: This is an important question - how can you filter signal from noise. This is especially true when it comes to news/journalism - how can you filter good information from bad information.

Re: (J)journalist/(P)programmer

David Cohn — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:14:10 -0000

Nigel
Funny -- the tagline to my blog is "jake of all trades, master of none" -- I use it to be fascitious of course.

Bottom line: Journalists, whether they use video, audio, php or whatever are always doing one thing: exchanging information by telling stories.

While Megan is right to point me out as being on one side of the debate -- in the end, if a journalist can tell a story with code -- they should. I'm not trying to say we should hand over the narrative for database coding every day. But there are times when a story can be told better by using different tools.

The question is: can they learn those tools? If they can -- they need to keep in mind WHY they are learning those tools. If they do -- I don't think it's a matter of being a jake of all trades, master of none -- they are a jake of all tools -- and they use those tools effectively to tell better stories. Just my two cents.

Re: Spot.us FB group and updates

David Cohn — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:40:54 -0000

Me too!!!!!!

Lots of obstacles in the way - but the potential is still there. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Re: “He sure likes to eat”

David Cohn — Sun, 20 May 2007 01:35:01 -0000

The second day of Personal Democracy Forum was an unconfernece. Wish you had been there.

You were hillarious in your panel by the way.

Re: Jason Calacanis hands keys to blogosphere to Louis Gray

David Cohn — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:40:40 -0000

I call B.S. for many reasons. But I also think that Jason does point to important issues about the blogosphere.

Re: The passionates vs. the non passionates

David Cohn — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:36:16 -0000

Robert
Excellent post. This is part of what I was writing about in this post, which I was hoping you'd look at and comment on: http://blog.spot.us/2008/07/29/the-blogosphere-...

Of course - I'm looking at content creators, not just tech. But in that world right now you need millions of eyeballs in order to monetize something and make it profitable. What I'm trying to figure out is whether or not you can get a smaller (but passionate) audience to fit the bill themselves.

I'm not sure if it can work - but it's certainly worth a shot.

Re: Save journalism?

David Cohn — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:41:54 -0000

Wow - I totally forgot about that FF thread. I didn't realize Jay showed up. He is one of the advisors to Spot.Us - as I worked for him as the first hire at NewAssignment.net

Just to catch you up Robert: Spot.us has fundraised 43% for our second investigation: http://wiki.spot.us/election. All all through donations from members of the public. (http://wiki.spot.us/election).

But - we are still in a pre-alpha mode (made that term up). The site won't really be ready until October. I just decided it would be silly to sit on my hands until then and it would be smarter to just get started.

Regarding the FriendFeed discussion: I think Scott Rosenbeg, who commented right after my last remark, hit it on the nose: Now is the time for experimentation and innovation. Just like startups in every field the vast majority won't work - but the law of numbers says some of them will. Journalism is too important to just see it disappear. I don't think it will either - journalism will survive the death of its institutions - but only if digital natives make it a priority.

Re: What do the freaking tech bloggers want?

David Cohn — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:11:02 -0000

This is a great post Scoble - but I think you left out an important component for any blogger: This is why you all ended up in the PR trap that you described in the beginning. And it's a situation that hasn't (and won't) change.

You are in it to make money. You can't do this for free. The things that you say you want: A lot of them are motivated by making money (having fun, yes.. but also making money).

I guess what I'm trying to say is: you can't just pass the buck to PR and blame them for creating this annoying echo-chamber (which as a reader I hate... and I'm SICK of the techmeme wheel). Bloggers are to blame - TechCrunch, Mashable and the rest..... all of them are losing my respect and continue to do so everytime I see the same article.

The reason they do it: It's a quicker easier buck. That is a motivating principle and that's why the PR gets through.

Re: What do the freaking tech bloggers want?

David Cohn — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:14:24 -0000

Oh crap. I can't in good conscious not add this: Jeremy Toeman does rock. When he heard I was starting a nonprofit - he volunteered his time and his company's time to help me figure out my positioning, user-experience, etc.

There's no way I could afford a PR/Marketing person - and Jeremy is doing this because... well.... I think he just likes doing nice things.

Re: Don’t cry for journalists…

David Cohn — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:04:20 -0000

Did you see the statistics on how many journos are going to the conventions?
15,000!!! Imagine how many important local stories are being missed because 15,000 reporters need to report the same angle on the same event.

Totally agree with you - it's a bit of a waste. But the problem isn't the individual reporters - they are acting as cogs in a machine. That machine (corporate) has determined that the end goal is to make money - so the least important cogs (the ones that would normally do investigative journalism) are being left behind. What stays in motion are these cogs.

Re: We get the journalism we spend our attention on

David Cohn — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:10:34 -0000

Scoble: I'm sure you are getting sick of me coming in and - once again - mentioning the project I'm working on spot.us - but this scrapes the side of what I'm working on.

There are passionate people out there: Everyone is passionate about something: the environment, their kids school, healthcare, etc.

As news organizations dwindle - perhaps these people (who are a minority compared to those that want to watch sports) will be able to band together and share the cost of hiring a journalist to cover the issues that are important to them.

I'd love the chance to talk with you more in depth about this (show you the mock-ups for the site).

I'm hoping we will launch in October - but there are a million.5 things to do before then. It seems you are giving this area a lot of thought lately - so your input would be valuable.

Hope all is well. Keep on rocking. (feel free to send me a quick note: david at Spot dot us

Re: So, you need a job? Man, do resumes suck

David Cohn — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:33:34 -0000

Check this out - the Unresume
http://unresume.pbwiki.com/

Re: Help me write about California, cement and global warming

David Cohn — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:56:24 -0000

And I know it sounds cheezy - but part of the motivation for spot.us is so that motivated journalists such as yourself can work on stories that are important to them.

I will find a way for you to get paid to work on this story. Things are a little tight right now since Spot.Us is in the early stages, and my time is being spread thin - but I assure you this is high on my list.

Best
David

Re: Lessons from Spot.us

David Cohn — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:15:09 -0000

You may be leaving Spot.us' geographic territory - but you will always be a friend and vice versa.

I think you are one of the best examples of a young reporter who is unafraid and ready to kick ass. So the pleasure has been all mine having you work with Spot.us in the early stage.

Good luck!!!

Re: PBS Newshour Online

David Cohn — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:13:47 -0000

Congrats!!!!

I almost feel like I remember that Tweet too.

Regardless - I hope PBS knows that they just hired the best possible person for the job. (notice the period).

Hope to visit you in D.C. - much love!!!!

Re: Atlanta, here I come

David Cohn — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:54:47 -0000

Good luck!!!!

Re: Helping Journalists Thrive, Network, And Collaborate On The Web

David Cohn — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:09:17 -0000

The job description is definitely changing. Journalists have an entirely new skill set to learn. I don't think anybody denies that anymore. The question is how we will teach that. I think it requires more than just starting a blog. Engaging in and learning how to manage communities is a skill -- Craig Newmark, Jimmy Wales, Kevin Rose and other web 2.0 darlings know it -- where are the entrepreneurial journalists? If we don't get in the game, the job description won't change -- the profession will.

I still look forward to seeing what you guys come up with at Pub2.0. I hope it fits the bill.

Re: The Future of Print Publishing and Paid Content

David Cohn — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:47:40 -0000

Also at the Summit was Dan Pacheco from the Northwest Voice. As you remember - I did write-ups (quick interviews) with lots of the participants: Dan's wording was different but he also explained that what motivated people to buy Northwest Voice was to see their stories (and their neighbors stories) in old-fashioned print.

Re: Journalism At The Crossroads: Change Or Die

David Cohn — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:44:25 -0000

I had a response to Yoni's article. which you pointed too in the update Scott.

That response is here

Check the comments for more thoughts too. Point is: All is well and good if we do more than blog about it. Maybe it's my youthful stupidity, but I'm tired of it. I'd much rather see individual journalists just go out and do stuff.

Re: Developing Algorithms To Prevent Citizen Journalism From Being Gamed: Lessons From Google and Digg

David Cohn — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:42:54 -0000

Mind if I chime in here Scott/Ian?

I organized Jeff's conference. I also work in citizen journalism. So my potential bias is now laid out before you.

I think the discussion both of you are having is well merited and it could go on forever, but it's based on a few assumptions (which were in the Mother Jones article as well) which are false.

Assumption:
Citizen Journalism is sub-par: This might be the case for some articles, but it is not a logical truth. I've seen some amazing citizen journalism.

Assumption:
Citizen journalism is lazy and cheap:
During Assignment Zero, the first major NewAssignment.net project - I did not sleep. We needed more professional journalists and we needed to pay them for the time commitment we were asking of them.

In the end we hired one extra person at the end of the experiment - but if we had more money, we would have hired more and the end product probably would have been better -- and it still would have been "citizen journalism."

As Scott pointed out - it's not a black and white world. This is particularly true in citizen journalism.

The complaint is that CJ takes jobs away from journalists and the quality is sub-par. But citizen journalism (or self-publishing on the web) is not going to disappear - And that is NOT an assumption.

Nor do I think it should. If a journalist wants to play the role of the fourth estate - what better way to do that then to MOTIVATE other people to keep a watchful eye as well.

Journalists need to work WITH amateur reporters - and by doing so we will hopefully improve the quality of their content - and finally: If we do, perhaps, as Ian notes: That quality will be recognized and create more jobs for journalists. Granted the job description will be different - but it will be a job - and still a noble one at that (in my opinion).

Re: Digg Demonstrates The Failure Of Completely Open Collaborative Networks

David Cohn — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:58:47 -0000

I played a small part in this little fiasco last night - I participated as a community member, not a journalist.

But I do think there was a lesson in there for reporters
""My question is - where were the tech reporters from the larger news organizations? They found out about this from ValleyWag, VentureBeat and Mashable the next morning. Those were the beat bloggers - those are the reporters who got the scoop."

Re: Digg Demonstrates The Failure Of Completely Open Collaborative Networks

David Cohn — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:40:05 -0000

@comment 16

If a website has as much traffic as Digg's - then there is a story there.

Anybody who thinks this was just about the algorithm change didn't actually read any of the complaints.

Banned accounts for no reason.
Secret editors, auto-burries, etc. It's about transparency. Can you imagine if Flickr or Del.icio.us had rumors of banned accounts with no explanation? People would be up in arms.

I'm not saying these rumors are true: But they are very prominent rumors - and that was the cause of things.

Re: Join the Publish2 Election News Network

David Cohn — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:26:01 -0000

"Will it work? I dunno. It’s an experiment. We’re in beta. I could have called a committee meeting to commission a study into whether it will work.

Instead we decided to JUST DO IT."

I've said this a gazillion times: That's the attitude journalism experiments need. Kudos.

Re: Why Traditional Advertising Formats Fail On The Web

David Cohn — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:58:48 -0000

Fantastic post Scott!!!

This is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about Spot Us. I'm not saying Spot Us is a silver bullet - but it is an honest attempt to explore low hanging fruit that is an alternative to advertising: Community Funding.

Re: Publish2: The Web’s Newswire

David Cohn — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:08:55 -0000

Awesome piece Scott. Totally lays out the value proposition of Publish2

Linking is an editorial service - and in an age with an abundance of information, it's the "new" wire service.

That's why/how Huffpost is going local.

Re: Should Newspaper Companies Get Out Of The Newspaper Business?

David Cohn — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:40:22 -0000

Not a bad idea Scott.

I've always said newspapers should be in the publishing industry. They have the presses. That still is one asset they have which hasn't become cheaper (printing in mass is still a tough job).

If they found a way to leverage that they could be the printers for local citizen journalism websites that want to go into print.

Re: Thoughtbot & Hashrocket, sitting in a tree...

David Cohn — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:41:00 -0000

Thanks again guys. The site is going to launch in about a week and I certainly wouldn’t be there without your hard work (and Desi and Lark too of course).

Hope all is well. If you ever get bored, feel free to contribute more to the Spot.Us engine – Facing the change in journalism by changing the face of journalism.

Re: http://www.techipedia.com/2007/social-media-impacts-journalism/

David Cohn — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:12:02 -0000

Yup.

A few thoughts that I've had since I started digging in 2005.

A Columbia Journalism Review article I wrote about it: Digg This and on my personal blog Social News Sites -- an Act of Journalism?.

Fact is - social news sites aren't going away -- and they change the manner in which information is exchanged online -- it speeds the process up just that much more. Journalists are already dragging their legs trying to catch up.

Re: You Can’t Own the Community Without Understanding Them

David Cohn — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:10:51 -0000

It does take time -- at least it used to.
Recently I've seen a lot of gamming on digg. Every day I get a new gchat message from some random person in some random location looking to make a new digg friend for one reason only (take a guess).

I see brand new diggers getting 60+ diggs in under an hour.

I fear Digg as a community is falling apart -- as a direct result of shouting and other social networking tools.

time will tell. I've seen Digg go through plenty of changes and somehow it always corrects itself.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

David Cohn — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:53:33 -0000

The site isn't functional (its slow and buggy). Which means the only thing keeping me there are the people. If Digg can't keep them - or respond to their issues, I can think of a dozen different social news sites, some that fit better into specific niche interests I have, I and people with my concerns can switch to.

Re: Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson Respond to Digg Complaints

David Cohn — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:58:06 -0000

I give them credit too. In terms of banning, algo changes and auto-burries there response is "trust us." And you know what - I'm a trusting person. I'll give that to them. I think the main problem was the lack of communication - which is what it sounds like they are open to addressing. If that is indeed the case. Then the community "won." Or at least - it was heard.

Still - I think if it is all talk - I'm fine with going back to Revoltnation.blogspot.com and organizing. I don't think it was empty promises though. I think they know how valuable the community is.

Re: Announcing the Newest Social Media Prince

David Cohn — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:49:39 -0000

I'm late but .... CONGRATS!!!!

Looks like a very cute kid.

Go Mommy Tamar!!!

Re: Online News Websites Rely on Community Donations + Donate to Global Voices to Support Citizen Journalism

David Cohn — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:34:07 -0000

I am the founbder of Spot.us - and I totally agree with you: people should also donate to Global Voices. It is a great project run by awesome people.

In the future - I see no reason why the spot.us stories that people fund could be about and reported on by reporters in other countries that Global Voices currently supports.

Best

Re: Spot.us launches community funded reporting

David Cohn — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:55:00 -0000

I highly recommend The Point for obvious reasons (worked for our pre-alpha pitches).

If you ever want to talk about it - let me know.

FYI: seriously thinking about Los Angeles as the second city we expand to.

Re: Have you donated to Spot.us yet?

David Cohn — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:06:03 -0000

You rock Justin....

I think your passion for journalism shows and that's the most important thing you need to succeed in this business right now.

Keep on trucking. I really wish that spot.us was in SoCal right now so I could support you more. Hopefully soon....