Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.

Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corp. and a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation made this quip in the early 90s and it still holds true.  No matter the hundreds of programs, search engines, applets, widgets and other software designed to help us organize internet content, the fact is that with so many writers and so few editors it is nearly impossible to identify and prioritize the things we most want to read, watch and listen to. So with this edition of Ripples and Wipeouts I am venturing into the relatively new territory of content curation.  Every couple of weeks, I will select the best three or four pieces of content that I think you’ll enjoy and share them here on this blog. 

Some of you know that I review books and gadgets on Amazon.com and Lunch.com, and I have received positive feedback on many of those reviews.  I am hoping that the selection and critiquing skills I developed from reviewing over the years are transferable to this new role as internet content curator.  Your comments on this point are welcome.  Meanwhile, here are my top three recommendations from the week of November 1, 2010: 

1) The best thing I’ve read on the election is by Kal Wright on the Color Lines blog: Yes, Mr. President, This Was a Referendum on Your Leadership
Summary:  If there will be any real economic reform in the next two years, it will come through the president using his administrative authority and bully pulpit. And if he fails to wield that power, his own job will likely be on the line in 2012.

2) Nicholas Spangler wrote an intriguing, and unsettling, piece in the Columbia Journalism Review called In Demand: A week inside the future of journalism.
Summary:  Within five years SEO and advanced metrics will play a prominent role in decisions about what to cover and how heavily to cover it, with reporters and stories graded by the number and value of the consumers they attract.  What will happen to real news?

3) Ever wonder why some people seem to vote against their own self-interest?  Read this from feminist icon Gloria Steinem on the election: Right-Wing Women Have Accepted Their Own Subordination
Summary: “Any group of people that has been subordinate absorbs the idea of our own subordination and that it is natural and comes to think that the only way to survive is to identify with the powerful.” That is what has happened to many right-wing women who vote Republican, says Steinem.

Image Credit:  Fire Hydrant with quote / Will Lion, flickr