Innovation and Journalism

Nature.com tests open innovations with InnoCentive

2010-05-06T00:55:00.000-07:00

Nature.com has teamed up with InnoCentive, already for some time, to offer its readers the opportunity to participate in research and development challenges with Open Innovation Pavilion. As a Solver, one can apply ones expertise to important problems, stretch ones creative boundaries, and win even cash awards.

Would be great to hear more about the processes, results.

The Future of Science Journalism - US and UK Strategies

2009-10-02T06:08:00.000-07:00

No one disagrees that we need more good journalism about science, and innovations in order to understand better our complex world and its increasing problems. However, science as a news topic is in danger especially in the downsizing U.S. main stream media.

For example, whealthy CNN axed its entire science and environment unit in December 2008. Furthermore, according to the 6th World Conference of Science Journalists in London, 29 June, membership of the USA science journalism association, the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), stands at over 2000 but of these only 79 are now full time staff science writers for newspapers.

The counter attack was recently made by the leading U.S. research universities by founding a new joint news outlet called futurity.org. One of the founding members is Stanford.

No journalists needed, but PR departments of the universities.

Interesting to see, whether this kind of "source lead journalism" is the future pattern also for other resourceful institutions like companies, governments, and - sport clubs.

So, is the time for journalistic middlemen and women over?

I hope not.

It seems that the journalistic backbone of the Anglo-American world is now in Britain. The Times just announced to start the very first science dedicated monthly magazine of any national newspaper in Britain: it's called Eureka.

J-Schools as Innovators

2009-06-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

All journalism schools should be innovators. Just mix the J-school students with computer science students. Here is the bench mark:

Northwestern University: J-Schools Can Play a Role in Bringing Innovation to News Industry

Innovations into Money - Case The Sun

2009-04-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Evening papers are advancing in the Net. Recently, The Sun became the most popular UK newspaper online for the first time with its 27.3 million unique users, according to ABCe figures. But MediaWeek's editor is asking can newspapers turn innovation into harsh cash? Like always, the acid-test will be the amount of income generated.

Economic Downturn and Innovations

2009-03-04T00:31:00.000-08:00

PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts: "In two years there will be a 10% reduction in the amount of R&D investments earmarked for Finland, bring the total to 45%".

PwC executed a survey, for which the CEOs of Finland’s 100 largest companies, 100 biggest R&D investors and 200 innovative SMEs were selected as respondents. The questions were divided into three sections: Innovation environment, innovation strategies and innovation and technology policy. The response rate was 25%. The survey was funded by Ministry of Employment and The Economy.

Download the Innovating through the downturn -report here in PDF. (In English)

Original source for this blog posting:

Prosessori: Tutkimus valuu jo ulkomaille

Nokia's List of Though Leaders

2009-03-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Nokia, as well as other leading ICT companies, tries to understand - the future. That's vital for their business strategies. In order to beat the others like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and even Amazon, one has to listen the wise.

Here are the names Nokia trusts.

Innovation and Journalism

2008-04-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Economist is the world's leading quality journalistic magazine, often ahead of the other ones like emphasizing the importance of innovations. This is the seventh time the British magaziner is seeking the best innovations in seven different categories.

The Economist: The Economist Innovation Awards and Summit

Scientific Publishing

2008-02-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

So, Harvard did it. Being more precise - Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted for open access scientific publishing.

Ars Technica tells this and the short history of democratization of knowledge.

Future has come to Journalism

2008-02-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

Normally, news, and journalism is about very recent developments in our societies. Accelerating competition has transfered the focus of journalistic work more into future. The world´s leading journalistic magazine, The Economist was among the first to figure out this with its next years special numbers. Now it is The New Yorkers turn. As we all so called media industry insiders know, it is more profitable for media companies to organize thematic conferences than publish, let´s say magazines. After paying $ 2000, it is somewhat possible to see into the future, or is it. Anyways, here are the previous year´s predictions - for free, of course. You´re under the influence of Internet effect.

Silicon Valley Reporting

2008-02-13T01:47:00.000-08:00

Finally, one of the news media giants got it. The future of many businesses is created in the Valley, but the corps of the foreign correspondents still work only in the East Coast, or Hollywood.

The Guardian: BBC appoints US tech reporter

Scientific Publishing

2008-02-13T01:18:00.000-08:00

Can the world´s leading research university, Harvard, change the way scholars publish their research. That is the question.

Under a new proposal Harvard would deposit finished papers in an open-access repository run by the library that would instantly make them available free on the Internet. So, no more long waiting times, and costly payments for the commercial scientific niche publishers.

The New York Times: At Harvard, a Proposal to Publish Free on Web

Open, free access for all instead of closed, expensive monopolies, is the way Internet has changed media businesses. As Google, and others, has showed, quality can be defined through algorithms and wisdom of crowds. Interesting to see, if the intelligentsia is ready for this kind of rankings, too.

Silicon Valley and the Meaning of the Words: Case 'Open'

2007-11-21T06:22:00.000-08:00

Words are the main tools for communicating new ideas. In the Silicon Valley, and other places as well, words can also be used quite innovatively as marketing tools. After critical inquiry some of these words can be later identified, and called as buzz words.

Mass media, classical or new, are the main forums for presenting new ideas, and new infomation. Therefore it is really important that especially the journalists are aware of the very meaning of words.

Financial Times has a great supplement called Digital Business, which is continuously dealing with new, emerging technologies. It was most excellent to find out that Chris Nuttall in San Francisco has realized that "open" is the latest word with which you have to be very carefull.

Obviously, there are several different levels of openess.

Innovation - Already Vol 7.

2007-10-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

Sustainable energy and health seems to be on the top of the themes when reporting about innovations, especially in a Singaporean magazine called Innovation. It is a joint publication of The National University of Singapore and World Scientific Publishing Co.

BBC at Silicon Valley

2007-04-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

BBC News Online: Inside the Silicon Valley tech bubble

"Silicon Valley and the Bay Area around San Francisco have long been a crucible for technology innovation. In decades past it led the world in chip development, and more recently it has been at the forefront of web applications."

Science Journalism/U.S.

2007-03-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

Knight Science Journalism Tracker: The decline in daily US newspaper science writers

EU & Science Awareness

2007-03-10T23:24:00.000-08:00

European Comission: Commission launches call for analysing public perception of science programmes on European TV and radio stations

"A special edition of DG Rearch's quarterly was dedicated to European attitudes on research.The European Commission wants to improve public awareness of science among the largest number of European citizens possible, including young people, and mass media are an important tool in achieving this goal."

Science Journalism

2007-01-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

SciDev.net: How journalism can hide the truth about science

"The process of science is far less linear than the media's image of a neat series of breakthroughs suggests."

Innovation Editor

2006-12-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

E&P: 'Trib' Sports Editor Adee Named to New AME/Innovation Position

Chicago Tribune is pushing forward innovations in news room. The paper created a new position of associate managing editor for innovation that will focus on internet and digital journalism.

Media & Techno Hype in 2005

2006-02-14T05:14:00.000-08:00

CIO Asia: Technology Predictions - Failures and Futures

"Much technology was hyped for success in 2005, but many did not deliver to the levels expected by technologists, media and industry.The reality is that many companies are not yet mature enough in terms of process, governance and understanding of the business value of IT—resulting in a lack of business drivers and delays in adoption. But the fundamental reason is much simpler—despite the outwardly expressed desire to adopt such technologies, in many cases neither business nor technology is ready."

Trust & Science Journals

2006-02-13T07:25:00.000-08:00

NY Times: Reporters Find Science Journals Harder to Trust, but Not Easy to Verify

"Now news organizations say they are starting to look at the science journals a bit more skeptically."

The Future of the News Media

2006-02-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

CNNMoney.com: Is Slashdot the future of media?

"If you want to see the future of media, go to Slashdot.org. Two things distinguish it - it's the most popular news and information site with the tech cognoscenti, particularly programmers and engineers. And all of its content is created by its users. They submit about 700 stories per day, which staff editors vet and reduce down to the 30-35 that get published. Of the site's 5.5 million unique visitors per month, about 25 percent post comments about those stories."

Internet TV start-up

2006-02-09T04:25:00.000-08:00

MediaDailyNews: New York Times Co. To Unveil Online Video Channel

"In a move that signals an intention to significantly expand its online video offerings, The New York Times Co. has tapped Internet TV start-up Brightcove to facilitate distribution of online video content, the companies will announce today. Brightcove will help the Times Co. syndicate video content to other Web sites via its customized video player. The company also will facilitate production of videos submitted by consumers.The deal will roll out in the next several months with the New York Times Co.'s About.com's new "About Gadgets" videos, which focuses on technology."

UK/Business Journalism Awards

2006-01-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

Silicon.com: silicon.com wins online business journalism award

Silicon.com has been named as online business publication of the year at the annual Work Foundation media awards in London this week.The Work Foundation (formerly the Industrial Society) WorkWorld awards, sponsored by Amec, celebrate excellence in print, broadcast and online journalism on subjects of work, business, management and economics.Other winners on the night included Dow Jones, the Economist, the Financial Times, BBC Radio 4's Today programme, The Money Programme and BBC Two's Newsnight.

Internet & People & Products

2006-01-05T07:30:00.000-08:00

Fortune/CNN Money: Internet people and products to watch

"Ever since a few college kids at the University of Illinois invented the Web browser in 1993, the Internet has never been boring. But it just gets livelier and livelier. What happens on the Internet matters more every year."

The visionary: Jimmy Wales

The hottest product: The iPod

Hottest product runner-up: The Firefox web browser

Hot technology: Voice over Internet Protocol

Hot site: Flickr

Hot Hire: Ray Ozzie

Mogul of the moment: Rupert Murdoch

Alliance to watch: Google and AOL

Thinker to watch: Jay Rosen

Japan & Innovations

2005-12-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

The Economist: The future of Japanese business Competing through innovation

"Japan's style of innovation failed it in software and biotechnology in the 1990s. It might work better in robotics, aerospace and other burgeoning technologies."

Tech Innovatios and Company Co-operation in Research

2005-12-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

NYT: Three Technology Companies Join to Finance Research

"With federal funds for basic computer science research at universities in decline, three of the industry's leading companies are joining to help fill the void. University of California computer scientists plan to announce on Thursday that the companies - Google, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems will underwrite a $7.5 million laboratory on the Berkeley campus. The new research center, called the Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems Laboratory, will focus on the design of more dependable computing systems. The Berkeley researchers say that under the terms of their agreement with the three companies, the fruits of the research will be nonproprietary and freely licensed. Each company has agreed to support the project with $500,000 annually for five years. Although the companies are frequently rivals and only occasionally allies, they have concluded that they can operate most effectively by bringing technology innovations to market quickly."

Science on Web/Awards

2005-12-07T06:08:00.000-08:00

Journalism.co.uk: Newscientist.com scoops top editorial award

"Newscientist.com editor Damian Carrington has been awarded web editor of the year at the 2005 British Society of Magazine Editors awards. Mr Carrington, who previously worked at BBC News Online, was praised by judges for the speed and quality of Newscientist.com - now one of the most popular science websites in the world. Since Mr Carrington helped launch Newscientist.com in 2000, traffic has risen to more than 1.7 million unique users each month and the web team is about to recruit its eighth editorial team member."

New Dot-com Bubbles and Media

2005-11-14T02:18:00.000-08:00

OJR: Is the bubble back in online media?

"Venture capitalists and Big Media are showing intense interest in blogs, social media and highly trafficked content sites. Are we reliving dot-com mania?"

Worth of Watching Columns/Tech/FT

2005-11-01T11:18:00.000-08:00

"The Worth watching column follows some of the most promising new developments in industry emerging from fields such as nanotechnology, chemistry, geology, physics, healthcare and information technology. Regular contributors to Worth watching include Jonathan Loades-Carter and Malini Guha."

A car that can make its own fuel

Music for the deaf

Virtual input pen

VTT, a Finnish research centre, has developed a technology that could take the pain out of keeping mobile accessories - such as phones and laptops - secure if they end up in the wrong hands.

China/Universities/Innovations

2005-10-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

NY Times: China Luring Scholars to Make Universities Great

"China is focusing on science and technology, areas that reflect the country's development needs but also reflect the preferences of an authoritarian system that restricts speech. The liberal arts often involve critical thinking about politics, economics and history, and China's government, which strictly limits public debate, has placed relatively little emphasis on achieving international status in those subjects. In fact, Chinese say - most often euphemistically and indirectly - that those very restrictions on academic debate could hamper efforts to create world-class universities."

"Students here are not encouraged to challenge authority or received wisdom. For some, that helps explain why China has never won a Nobel Prize. What is needed most now, some of China's best scholars say, are bold, original thinkers."The greatest thing we've done in the last 20 years is lift 200 million people out of poverty," said Dr. Xu. "What China has not realized yet, though, if it truly wants to go to the next level, is to understand that numbers are not enough. We need a new revolution to get us away from a culture that prizes becoming government officials. We must learn to reward real innovation, independent thought and genuine scholarly work."

Technology & Fashion

2005-10-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

MediaWeek: Future unveils Gadgetcandy.com

"Future Publishing has launched Gadgetcandy.com, a new website to target women with a mix of fashion and technology."

Science & Engineering/Radio & TV/EU

2005-10-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

Information Week: Europe Willing To Pay To Get Science On Air

"In an effort to boost science and engineering the European Union has said it will directly fund the making of television and radio programs about science and research. No money has been set aside for print or online publishing but part of the cash is being targeted at science drama."

"According to the European Union people with science and engineering backgrounds rarely make programming decisions and the topics are frequently ignored by mainstream broadcasters. The European Union has set aside 1.6 million euro (about $1.9 million) to contribute to scientific programming with the aim of encouraging European television and radio producers and stations to increase their science output."

Technology Innovation Awards/WSJ

2005-10-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

WSJ: The 2005 Innovation Awards show there's a lot of innovating going on out there.

Gold Winner: 454 Life Sciences, U.S. (Low-cost gene sequencing)
Silver Winner: Ecology Coatings, U.S. (Environmentally friendly coatings)
Bronze Winner: Alien Technology, U.S. (Manufacturing process that reduces cost of RFID tags)

Honorable Mention: MIT/Environment and Public Health Organization, U.S. (Inexpensive water-filtration system)

"Third-world challenges in water, food, shelter, and basic medical care are much more important than innovations in first-world entertainment." Robert Drost, a scientist at Sun Microsystems.

Podcast: How the judges chose.

Tech Innovations & Language

2005-10-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

Information Week: Tech Innovations Changing Language

"The Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary is available online and legitimizes technology-driven terms."

Internet Companies and Possibility of Bubbles

2005-10-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

CNN Money: Internet deals: A tangled Web, Merger mania is alive and well online. But are niche Internet media stocks priced to perfection?

"Frenetic is the best way to describe the pace of consolidation in the online sector during the past few months. Media giant News Corp. (Research) has made three significant Web deals since July. Yahoo! (Research) acquired a significant stake in Chinese Net firm Alibaba.com last month. And eBay (Research) followed up its Shopping.com deal from June with last week's buyout of Internet phone service Skype."

"All this activity has led to increased speculation about who's next to join the mating dance. There are only a handful of appetizing public Internet companies left. So not surprisingly, shares of several of them have surged lately."

Internet & Innovations

2005-10-05T01:25:00.000-07:00

Cnet: Intelligence in the Internet age

"It's a question older than the Parthenon: Do innovations and new technologies make us more intelligent? A few thousand years ago, a Greek philosopher, as he snacked on dates on a bench in downtown Athens, may have wondered if the written language folks were starting to use was allowing them to avoid thinking for themselves."

"Today, terabytes of easily accessed data, always-on Internet connectivity, and lightning-fast search engines are profoundly changing the way people gather information. But the age-old question remains: Is technology making us smarter? Or are we lazily reliant on computers, and, well, dumber than we used to be?"

Technology & Branded Blogging Platform

2005-10-04T04:09:00.000-07:00

Journalism.co.uk: VNU launches blog platform

"Tech news network VNU has introduced a branded blogging platform for UK readers in an attempt to build loyalty among its tech-savvy and literate audience. The initiative offers readers a free blog tool so they can contribute their own stories and comments to the VNU community. Journalists at VNU have been using blog formats since mid 2004. Silicon Valley Sleuth and IT Sneak typically generate between 8-10,000 page impressions each week and also help feed new ideas and leads to VNU's journalists."

Selling Access to Ideas

2005-10-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

The International Herald Tribune: A new battlefield: Ownership of ideas

"In another era, a nation's most valuable assets were its natural resources - coal, say, or amber waves of grain. But in the information economy of the 21st century, the most priceless resource is often an idea, along with the right to profit from it."

"This reality is transforming business and creating new diplomatic fault lines between continents. Some companies - Thomson of France, in consumer electronics, and BTG of Britain, in technology, for example - can make more money selling access to their ideas than from building anything themselves. The right to profit from a breakthrough idea can be so valuable that the contest over the concept can be more decisive than the competition for consumers, as Sony and Toshiba demonstrate in their tug of war over whose next-generation DVD patents will win out, long before the discs come to market."

"From the United States to Europe and Japan, more patents were sought in the past 20 years than in the previous 100, evidence that protecting the rights to an idea is itself growing in importance. Patents "are becoming the highest-value assets in any economy," said Jerry Sheehan, an economist with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop- ment in Paris."

Scientific Publishing and internet

2005-09-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

The Economist: Free access to scientific results is changing research practices

"The value of knowledge and the return on the public investment in research depends, in part, upon wide distribution and ready access. It is big business. In America, the core scientific publishing market is estimated at between $7 billion and $11 billion."

"The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers says that there are more than 2,000 publishers worldwide specialising in these subjects. They publish more than 1.2m articles each year in some 16,000 journals.This is now changing. According to the OECD report, some 75% of scholarly journals are now online."

Universities/U.S. vs. Others

2005-09-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

The Economist: The brains business

The Economist: How Europe fails its young

U.S./Business Publications/Awards

2005-08-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

Business Wire: IDG Publications and Web Sites Win an Impressive 123 Awards in 2005

2005-07-23T03:33:00.000-07:00

USA/Innovation/Journalism/Education

Pressthink / Jay Rosen:

"It took us three years of e-mails, phone calls, meetings, discussion and drafting documents to come up with the Carnegie-Knight Initiative. It consists of three main elements:"

1. A “research and policy” piece that will be run out of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard’s JFK School. Here, we have in mind a vehicle through which schools can collectively speak out on critical media issues of the day. That means journalism educators can have more voice. For example, as Judy Miller from the New York Times goes to jail over refusing to release anonymous sources and Matt Cooper from Time Magazine does not, or the case of “60 Minutes and Dan Rather’s coverage of Bush’s National Guard service. These would be examples where journalism schools and universities might want to weigh in on the discussion and debate.

2. An experimental curriculum reform element that encourages journalism programs to match-up reporters with scientists, urban planners, economists, historians, social scientists, legal scholars, foreign policy experts or public policy specialist to co-teach courses.

3. News 21 laboratories, or “incubators” at UC Berkeley, USC, Northwestern and Columbia, which will hire our best recent graduates to experiment with new kinds of multi-media reporting that combine television, radio and the web in new and innovative forms of interactive journalism. (Berkeley will begin by coordinating News 21.)

Some wonder if this “initiative” is not just a caucus of self-righteous and self-designated elitist deans forming itself into a priesthood to get some grants to the exclusion of other university programs. I hope that is not the case.

Orville Schell
Dean, Graduate School of Journalism
University of California-Berkeley

Innovations/Finland

2005-07-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

BizReport: Innovation Gives Finland A Firm Grasp on Its Future

"The political and economic malaise that afflicts so much of Europe this summer has not infected this northernmost outpost of the European Union. The contrast between Finland's optimism about the future and Old Europe's gloom is striking."

"While France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and others are stumbling, Finland prospers, both economically and psychologically. The recent "no" votes in France and the Netherlands that undermined, perhaps fatally, the E.U.'s proposed constitution have produced a pervasive despair in much of Europe that did not turn up in recent interviews with scores of Finns."

I&J (1)

2005-07-07T04:04:00.000-07:00

Innovation journalism

Definition

Innovation journalism is journalism dedicated to the coverage of innovation. Innovation is a main driving force for economic growth, and is the core activity of many leading industries. (Wikipedia)

History

* June 2003. VINNOVA, the Swedish Government Agency for Innovation Systems, launches Innovation Journalism Fellowships.

* October 2003. VINNOVA publishes the first paper using the expression "Innovation Journalism": The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing It, by David Nordfors.

* In April 2004 the First Conference on Innovation Journalism was held at Stanford University, organized by The Swedish Innovation Journalism Initiative run by VINNOVA in co-operation with the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning.

* In June 2004 VINNOVA launches second round of Swedish IJ Fellowships.

* The Swedish-US initiative was followed in November 2004 by a Finnish Innovation Journalism research and education initiative at the University of Tampere.

* In January 2005, an Innovation Journalism initiative was created at the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning at Stanford University in the United States, in co-operation with the Swedish program.

* In April 2005, The Second Conference on Innovation Journalism is held at Stanford, organized by the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning and The Swedish Innovation Journalism Initiative run by VINNOVA, the Swedish Government Agency for Innovation Systems. The conference is co-sponsored by The Finnish Innovation Journalism Initiative and The Stanford Graduate Program in Journalism. (Wikipedia)