My paper analysing Twitter as a system of ambient journalism has just been published online by Journalism Practice.

In it, I approach that services like Twitter that allow for the instant dissemination of fragments of news and information as awareness systems.

I suggest that these broad, asynchronous, lightweight and always-on systems are enabling citizens to maintain a mental model of news and events around them, giving rise to awareness systems that I describe as ambient journalism.

Here’s an excerpt from the conclusion:

The emergence of ambient journalism through new digital delivery systems and evolving communications protocols, in this case Twitter, raises significant research questions for journalism scholars and professionals. This paper offers an initial exploration of the relationship between awareness systems and shifting journalism norms and practices. Twitter is, due to the speed and volume of tweets, a ‘‘noisy’’ environment, where messages arrive in the order received by the system. A future direction for journalism may be to develop approaches and systems that help the public negotiate and regulate the flow of awareness information, providing tools that take account of this new mode for the circulation of news. Journalists would be seen as sense-makers, rather than just reporting the news. This broadens the journalist’s role as proposed by Bardoel and Deuze of a professional ‘‘who serves as a node in a complex environment between technology and society, between news and analysis, between annotation and selection, between orientation and investigation’’ (2001, p. 101). In the case of ambient journalism, the role may be designing the tools that can analyse, interpret and contextualise a system of collection intelligence, rather than in the established practice of selection and editing of content.

The abstract and references are available on the Journalism Practice site, but to download the paper you will need to be a subscriber to the journal.  Or access the site from a library that subscribes to the journal.

The paper is due to appear in print in a special edition of Journalism Practice later this year, based on the Future of Journalism conference held at Cardiff University in 2009.

The presentation and slides of my presentation at the conference are available on this blog.

Another e-reader company is finding it more difficult than expected to deliver devices. Pre-order customers for the Plastic Logic Que proReader are getting an e-mail from CEO Richard Archuleta about an extended delay in delivering the device, highly anticipated because of its sleek form factor and large screen. During CES, where Que was one of the buzziest booths, the company said it would ship the expensive devices by mid-April. The new shipping date is a vague “this summer.” The offered reason: “to fine-tune the features and enhance the overall product experience.” Plastic Logic will eat the shipping fees to make up for the delay.

If the prospect was shipping a product with a software experience that disappointed, as was the case at first with the rushed Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) Nook, holding it back until it’s right could keep Plastic Logic from a dud on delivery. But the delay puts it out months after the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad, which was still unannounced when Que went public with its plans—and went on pre-order sale this morning. The iPad is priced lower than expected at the bottom end, $499 for WiFi only with 16 GB, but the 3G version at the top of the line runs $829. The Que starts much higher for WiFi only at $649 but so far costs out just below the iPad at the highest end; an 8 GB model with WiFi and 3G is $749. The price comparison is doesn’t deal with the real differences: one is a mutli-task device that promises to include a smooth e-reading and e-retailing experience for a wide audience; the other is a dedicated device aimed at a very specific business market.

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E-mail to customers from Richard Archuleta
Subject: QUE proReader Shipping Update

Thank you for being one of the first customers to order a QUE proReader from Plastic Logic. We appreciate your business.
Today, I wanted to personally inform you that we are postponing the first QUE proReader shipments until this Summer in order to fine-tune the features and enhance the overall product experience. Within the next month we will send you an email with more details about your order. If you also ordered accessories for your QUE proReader, we plan to ship them at the same time as your QUE proReader. I can imagine that you want to get your QUE proReader as soon as possible. We are sorry for the delay. For your inconvenience, the shipping charges will be on us. Please note that we will not charge your credit card until your order is ready to ship.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us at QUEhelp@PlasticLogic.com. Once again, thank you for being one of our first QUE proReader customers.

Best regards,
Richard Archuleta
CEO
Plastic Logic

And this is a video demo Archuketa did for us at CES:

Related

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Print publishers are hopeful the iPad will hit the streets next month.

There are already several test examples out there. Some blend print and online as BERG's version for the innovative Swedish publishing house Bonnier shows, others ues a more online approach as the video of De Telegraaf shows.

Publishers are hoping the iPad will encourage people to read digitally with users willing to pay for content. It is also hoped that the iPad will be used more in people's leisure time so it will attract different advertisers.

A question which isn't answered is if publishers are ready to serve another platform, in a time when workforces are not getting any bigger, who is to shoulder the extra work?

Maybe the version of De Telegraaf therefore isn't the most thrilling, but the most realistic. As Robert Andrews of paidContent UK points out rightly about De Telegraaf's approach: "It only renders Telegraaf.nl's existing website on the gadget."

Have a look at the different iPad versions, and decide which one is your favorite.

1 Wired and Adobe decided to go for a deconstructed magazine version. They favored on scrolling down instead of flipping sideways, but magazine sides are still the entry point. In addition, they show some new possibilities for advertisers.

2 The Swedish publisher Bonnier R&D asked BERG to help with the transition of the print reading experience to a digital format. BERG focused on maintaining the relaxed and curated features of printed magazines, and compared to Wired it feels more like an app, indeed. In addition they invent a couple of new ways of navigation through "heating up" to select all, cut, copy and paste, among others.

3 The official iPad commercial of Apple shortly shows a really short glimpse of the New York Times application at second 0.6. Developed in house, it has also favorites a more curated feel than the website.

4 Sports Illustrated version for the iPad was one of the first and is a collaboration between Wonderfactory and Time.

5 The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf transferred its website to the iPad, however this might be the most realistic approach for most publishers in terms of work flow.

Which interactive iPad design is most convincing?

Internet censorship is still a major issue in many countries worldwide. With that in mind, the Paris-based international organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) is promoting its yearly World Day Against Cyber Censorship on March 12th. On the occasion, RSF issued its latest list of “Enemies of the Internet“, where China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Tunisia are among the most prominent examples of countries censoring the web.

Reporters Without Borders will celebrate World Day Against Cyber Censorship on 12 March. This event is intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all. It is also meant to draw attention to the fact that, by creating new spaces for exchanging ideas and information, the Internet is a force for freedom. However, more and more governments have realised this and are reacting by trying to control the Internet.

World Day Against Cyber Censorship Around the Web

Jordanian blogger Naseem Tarawnah on Black Iris urged people to join an online rally for free speech. He says that over the past years there are traces that suggest the country is inclining to tough times for internet users, especially because there are “designs that the government may be planning to implement a “Cyber Law” to regulate the online world“. He calls on Twitter users:

For my fellow tweeps, I can only ask that you come together to tweet those posts produced by the blogosphere, or tweet your own messages in support of a free internet. Perhaps we can use the single hashtag of #FreeNetJo to unite our tweets.

And as Ramy Raoof outlined on Global Voices Advocacy:

Do you believe in Freedom of Speech?

Do you think its normal to be profiled or tracked while being online?!

Do you think it’s your right to enjoy uncensored Internet search & blogging?

Do you believe in Freedom of Information? Right to Access Information?

Do you want to defend an Internet without restrictions and accessible to everyone at anytime and anywhere?

Support the World Day against Cyber-Censorship, 12 March…

Spread the Word!

Global Voices contributor Archana Verma has written a post with thoughts and opinions from the Hindu blogosphere on freedom of speech and censorship. She adds:

India doesn't fall in the category of “Internet Black-Holes,” hence Hindi web-writers haven't written much on it because they haven't faced this problem. However, there are some Hindi bloggers who have reflected on press-freedom from different angles.

On Global Voices Online, we're committed to raising voices that often go unheard by traditional and mainstream media. We know that many governments do not allow its citizens to use the web openly and freely, often practicing censorship and regulating content. Below we can see some of Global Voices' projects to promote freedom of speech, cyber-activism and transparency online.

Global Voices Advocacy

Global Voices Advocacy is where we seek to build a global anti-censorship network of bloggers and online activists throughout the developing world that is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online. In this website, you'll have access to a myriad of projects that intend to help people fighting censorship on the web, as well as to blog anonymously in areas where internet users are often harassed by the government.

Threatened Voices

Threatened Voices is a collaborative mapping project to build a database of bloggers who have been threatened, arrested or killed for speaking out online and to draw attention to the campaigns to free them. So far, Threatened Voices has already tracked 213 cases of arrested or threatened bloggers, such as the one of Ahmad Mostafa, an engineering student at the University of Kafr el-Sheikh –the first Egyptian blogger to stand before a military court because of his blogging.

Technology for Transparency Network

On the other side of the coin, from Rising Voices, the Technology for Transparency Network, a new interactive website to track online initiatives that promote transparency, accountability, & civic engagement around the world is an example of how freedom of speech can help monitoring governments and deliver correct and non-regulated information to citizens of developing world, as well as observing politicians movements and actions.

On the website, Renata Avila, a human rights lawyer and blogger in Guatemala, has presented the case of #InternetNecesario from Mexico, an online protest on Twitter and other social networks to fight a tax on the Internet issued by Mexico's Congress. This movement is an example of how a non-censored internet can empower citizens to fight for their rights.

As Venezuelan blogger in Paris, Laura Vidal states in her comment review:

This project is an example of how civil society agrees to organize and reunite efforts to respond to a government that acts without consulting, and a press that doesn’t connect the public opinion with the leaders of the country.

Breaking Borders

Finally, Global Voices and Google's Breaking Borders Award is a new prize created by both organizations and supported by Thomson Reuters to honor outstanding web projects initiated by individuals or groups that demonstrate courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression. The prize will honor work in three categories: tools that promote freedom of expression, outstanding work on policy and activism or journalism that contributed an important voice or argument - each awarded with USD $10,000. Results of the award will be made public in May, during the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010.

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On this important date for the Internet, we hope for people to urge for change. To fight against censorship and to raise awareness on the importance of a free digital environment. For more highlights on the struggle for freedom of speech on the web visit our page on this subject.