Comments on: Algorithms to replace editors, gadgets instead of paper http://thenextweb.com/2008/10/24/algorithms-to-replace-editors-gadgets-instead-of-paper/ International technology news, business & culture Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:23:52 +0100 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Joop http://thenextweb.com/2008/10/24/algorithms-to-replace-editors-gadgets-instead-of-paper/#comment-369365 Joop Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:08:19 +0000 http://thenextweb.org/?p=5903#comment-369365 Hi Joost, thank you for your reply, and the link to Prometeus. I enjoyed it; "Experience is the new reality" - Scary! Your comment made me think of Digg.com, while the site offered some hq content in the past, the site leans more towards LOLCATS these days. Hi Joost, thank you for your reply, and the link to Prometeus. I enjoyed it; “Experience is the new reality” – Scary!
Your comment made me think of Digg.com, while the site offered some hq content in the past, the site leans more towards LOLCATS these days.

]]> By: Joost Elfering http://thenextweb.com/2008/10/24/algorithms-to-replace-editors-gadgets-instead-of-paper/#comment-369364 Joost Elfering Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:04:47 +0000 http://thenextweb.org/?p=5903#comment-369364 the last video has many similarities to this videos, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj8ZadKgdC0. the outcome and time frame might be completely different, but the general ideas behind it have many similarities. i personally think that: yes the user generated news will be part of the future! this is with one big BUT. it seems like that with the arrival of user created content the quality of service and the quality of product will drop dramatically. the problem presented here is that most people would like to have quality information. with such a big variety of news creators, how do we know what quality is and what not! the introduction of the open structure of journalism lets people on the playing field that would have been better of reporting on something less major. and how do we get the right journalist on the right article? and what if the article should be written but there are not enough viewings of that article to be financially attractive? also knowing that user created content in general isn't that good, how would you respond to "i just saw a giant flame come out of the building on 2nd street" sound like when there should be: "a fire has been reported on 2nd street and firefighters are on there way, the police have evacuated the neighbors in danger and the fire brigade is on it's way". personally i prefer a more professional approach, as do many others. not everybody is a writer (just like i'm not a really quality writer) and in many cases it is just a specialists job to do some of it. that said, i do not think that user created content should not be created. i've seen a lot of user created content that is really good and i really encourage people to do try to make something they want and like. but we do professionals to take care of stuff like news, even if there are sometimes biased. the paper (in this case) creates the dividing line between "i can probably trust you to deliver good articles" and "i have no idea if i can trust you to deliver good articles". so in the end there will always be some sort of manual labor needed to bring us the news and we need professionals to provide us with the basic news. i would leave the more local and smaller affairs to the non-professionals. the last video has many similarities to this videos, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj8ZadKgdC0.

the outcome and time frame might be completely different, but the general ideas behind it have many similarities. i personally think that: yes the user generated news will be part of the future! this is with one big BUT. it seems like that with the arrival of user created content the quality of service and the quality of product will drop dramatically.

the problem presented here is that most people would like to have quality information. with such a big variety of news creators, how do we know what quality is and what not! the introduction of the open structure of journalism lets people on the playing field that would have been better of reporting on something less major. and how do we get the right journalist on the right article? and what if the article should be written but there are not enough viewings of that article to be financially attractive?

also knowing that user created content in general isn’t that good, how would you respond to “i just saw a giant flame come out of the building on 2nd street” sound like when there should be: “a fire has been reported on 2nd street and firefighters are on there way, the police have evacuated the neighbors in danger and the fire brigade is on it’s way”. personally i prefer a more professional approach, as do many others. not everybody is a writer (just like i’m not a really quality writer) and in many cases it is just a specialists job to do some of it.

that said, i do not think that user created content should not be created. i’ve seen a lot of user created content that is really good and i really encourage people to do try to make something they want and like. but we do professionals to take care of stuff like news, even if there are sometimes biased. the paper (in this case) creates the dividing line between “i can probably trust you to deliver good articles” and “i have no idea if i can trust you to deliver good articles”.

so in the end there will always be some sort of manual labor needed to bring us the news and we need professionals to provide us with the basic news. i would leave the more local and smaller affairs to the non-professionals.

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