What I Expect from Our Class

It has been very intensive week. Just like you, I have been reading all of those tech blogs that, to be honest, I didn't know they even existed. I appreciate last week presentation about RSS readers. I'm currently using Googler reader and it has made my job a lot of easier. I wasn't clear about RSS feeds and I hope I wasn't the only one.

At this point, I need a better understanding of how we can use this class (and the technologies for online community class) to accomplish our goals. Right now, it feels a little confusing. That may be because some of us are behind the available web technologies. From that point of view, I want to see how social networking websites will affect the future of broadcast news. As we've seen in, "Here Comes Every Body" by Clay Shirky, Flickr was, "first at the scene" in the London Transport bombing in 2005. The structure of how people know about breaking news event has changed, by the gathering and sharing information of regular people, non professionals. This is already producing a change in how broadcast news companies operate, but it could also dismantle how those companies make a profit.

In the last six months I have seen a lot of people, from reporters to news directors, retiring. Of course, some of it is the result of the financial crisis we're facing, but others are doing it because they see this "revolution" coming and don't want (or care) to adjust. Jeff Cole mentioned in class that some people in the media know that the current model will give them enough (3-5 years) to retire. In my case I will need more time and I better understand how I can, not only adapt, but succeed in the next phase. Hopefully, I will get some directions in this class.