Saturday, October 6

Inside Brand Journalism

Brand journalism (is) marketers using the tools of digital publishing and social media to speak directly to consumers. The advertising industry commonly refers to it as content marketing, brands disintermediating news professionals by writing and distributing thought leadership content.

Special features, special sections, sponsored content and similar revenue-driving content features involve editorial conflicts that result in professional compromises.

In marketing you’re trained to leave out the bad and the ugly for good reason: you have to protect the company, your customers, your partners and your shareholders. We’re learning that we have to let go a little. Loosen up our collar a bit to reach our audience at their place and in a more conversational style that’s conducive to dialogue and engagement.

Read more at Forbes

What Data says about us

"Big" data is something of a misnomer. It's colossal. From the beginning of recorded time until 2003, we created 5 billion gigabytes of data. In 2011 the same amount was created every two days. By 2013 that time will shrink to 10 minutes. The amount of information we take in in a single day is more than someone living in the 16th century would view in his entire lifetime.

The book from which this excerpt is drawn, The Human Face of Big Data, is created by Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt.

Read more here

Google, Publishers Resolve Copyright Battle

Google and the Association of American Publishers have resolved a longstanding legal battle about the search giant's book digitization project... The settlement allows publishers to decide whether to exclude their books from Google's Library Project. When publishers allow their books to remain in Google's search index, the company will be able to display up to 20% of the work and sell digital versions through Google Play. Publishers who don't remove their books will also be able to receive a digital copy for their use.

While the deal resolves the publishers' battle with Google, the company is still facing a lawsuit by the Authors Guild. U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin recently said that case could proceed as a class-action, but Google appealed the ruling to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. That case is now on hold while the appellate court reviews whether class-action status is appropriate.

The legal proceedings date to 2005, when the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers sued Google for infringing copyright by scanning books from public libraries. In addition to digitizing the books, Google made them searchable and displayed snippets through its search engine.

Google has always argued that it has a fair use right to scan in books and display snippets, but the issue hasn't yet been litigated.

In 2008, Google reached a $125 million settlement with authors and publishers, but the deal was scuttled by Chin due to antitrust concerns.

That deal was controversial because it would have allowed Google to digitize orphan works -- books under copyright, but whose owner isn't known -- without fear of copyright infringement lawsuits. Currently, no one can publish orphan works without risking liability -- which can run as high as $150,000 per infringement. For that reason, Amazon and other companies said that the deal would have disadvantaged them.

Read more here

Thursday, October 4

Facebook Hits Major Milestone: 1 Billion Active Users

Facebook hit a major milestone today: The biggest social network in the world now has 1 billion active users each month. That means that one in seven people in the world are Facebook users.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

"The next billion will be a lot tougher than the first. One big reason: A third of the world's population can't access Facebook. The Chinese government has blocked access to the website since 2009, although many still scale the "great firewall" to use it.

Along with the announcement, Facebook also released a bunch of statistics (.doc). Among them:

— The median age of the users signing up for Facebook in the week leading up to milestone was 22.

— The top users of Facebook were: Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States. Facebook listed them alphabetical order, not by usage.

— The average user had 305 friends.

Read more here