We welcome a new employee

We are very proud to proclaim that yesterday evening, the doors swung open and Kathlyn Clore stepped into the long hallway of the EJC’s office in Maastricht. I am amazed that she found the way up the “Ivory Tower” on her own, because I did not manage to do the same upon arriving here several months ago.
She surprised us not only with her sudden appearance but also pleased Arne and me with her preference towards Apple computers.
I am not wrong when I say that we all are very proud to have her finally, particularly after all the paperwork involved with bringing an American to work in Europe. We look forward a great time together and wish her luck.
By the way, she is from Chicago.

Posted on July 12, 2007 by .
Filed under announcements.

OmnyNews International citizen reporters Forum

Last week saw the third edition of the Citizen Reporters Forum. Thanks to all engineers for “video on the web” so that everyone can see and hear what was said last year and hopefully soon what was said last week.

Three stakeholder groups - citizen reporters, readers and editors - met the OhmnyNews International Citizen Reporter Forum 2007 met in Seoul, South Korea, from 27 to 29 June to discuss “a user empowerment without exploitation,” as Oh Yeon-ho, the CEO and founder of OhmyNews points out.

This year’s lectures and speeches revolved around three questions. First, how can practitioners of citizen journalism balance user participation and editorial accountability? Second, how can citizen journalism foster cross-cultural exchanges and contribute to the vision of a global village as envisioned by Marshall McLuhan? And finally, how can we sustain citizen journalism by identifying the right business models?

According to the World Information Society Report 2007, South Korea leads the “Digital Opportunity Index.”
“So the question looming large is increasingly less about digital opportunity and more about how we can best manage the abundance of content, Web platforms and user participation,” Yean-ho said.

The same observation can be made also here. Despite the total number of Internet users rising, broadband connectivity exceeding the expectations of analysts five years ago, “Web 2.0” means nothing less than “participation and contribution.” The number of people contributing content is, measured in percentage points, much lower than those who have NO access to the Internet at all in the European Union.

And when it comes to “blogging,” the European blogosphere is especially over-hyped. Not only by the practitioners, but also by the private sector. All in all between 5 to 8 percent of the number of people with access to “the highway of thought” produce some form of content. The reputation problem of bloggers within traditional media see blogs either as “marketing tools” or “marketing threads” because they drive traffic and opinions away from established platforms.

For today, a clip from a March speech about the “myths of the blogosphere” recorded at the Re:publica Bloggers Conference held by Jan Schmidt, a social scientist:

Posted on July 4, 2007 by .
Filed under announcements.