Tech Trends for Academics and Universities

Tech TrendsWhat’s New, What’s Next

April 4, 2014

Thursday, April 3, 14

Amy Webb: 3 Things

1. Digital Media Futurist. Founder + CEO of Webbmedia Group, a digital strategy agency.

3. Trends for 2014. What academics and journalism departments need to know.

2. Spark Camp. Co-founder. Next-generation think tank and convener.


6 Trends3 Recommendations1 Syllabus

Ready for the next year+=

Good Math


In the next year, you must broaden your thinking.

1

Tech First vs Digital First





Vox Media is Tech First

•Platform for digital-native authoring and distribution. “Modern media stack” (= fancier CMS)

•Native format for real-time news coverage.

•Liveblogging platform that uses Amazon’s Cloudfront CDN in S3 requests.


digital first ≠ tech first


“digital first” describes a workflow and an integration that should be a part of every journalism operation.


“digital first” solve for:

• Changes in consumer behavior• Competitors from outside industries• New devices entering the market• External developers making cool apps• New revenue streams• Backend technical challenges• Content distribution optimization• Changes in search algorithms...and on and on and on...


News organizations must evolve into

tech organizations.

Or start to acquire them.


Tech First News Orgs:

• Vox Media• Quartz (part of The Atlantic)• Circa• Huffington Post• ProPublica• NYT*

*the tech doesn’t trickle down well


Search can only respond to questions we ask. What about all of the contextual information we want

to know in real time?

2

Anticipatory Computing


October 1, 2013 What is a furlough?






What is the implication of the furlough?


Anticipatory Computing

Last few minutes of conversation + context to predict next 10 seconds of

your thought process.


OK Google (Google Now)


Glass Environment


Emu App


Donna – acquired by Yahoo


Cue – acquired by Apple


Why This Matters

What if we used these tools for reporting? This is a great opportunity for journalists and others = MindMeld


MindMeld App Demo


Real-World Use: Academia

•Every journalist should have an iPad at their desks and MindMeld turned on while interviewing sources.

•Nothing is technically being recorded for later use.


Bot-beats and machine-derived journalism.

3

Robo-Journalism


A shallow magnitude 4.7 earthquake was reported Monday morning five miles from Westwood, California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 6:25 a.m. Pacific time at a depth of 5.0 miles.

According to the USGS, the epicenter was six miles from Beverly Hills, California, seven miles from Universal City, California, seven miles from Santa Monica, California and 348 miles from Sacramento, California. In the past ten days, there have been no earthquakes magnitude 3.0 and greater centered nearby.

This information comes from the USGS Earthquake Notification Service and this post was created by an algorithm written by the author.

Read more about Southern California earthquakes.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/earthquakes/

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/earthquakes/



Computer Assisted Reporting v2

•Updated and rewritten >70x by humans

•Supplemental, time-saving work aided by bots

•Allowed journalists to do the more difficult analytic work




Computer Assisted Editing v1






Sensor Assisted Journalism v1.5













Why This Matters

This is just the beginning. Now, sensors and bots collect and disperse information. Next = they’ll make inferences based on artificial intelligence.


Did you know that you can search using data and numbers,not just words and phrases?

4

Computational Reporting










WolframAlpha Demo


Why This Matters

You don’t have to be a professional number cruncher to use data for everyday journalism. This is a tremendous resource for your students.


Don’t teach journalism to devices. Teach journalism to situation and individual.

5

Aggressive Versioning









Same story. Slightly different design.

•Same basic length regardless of end user’s situation or device.

•Ongoing story – what if I just want updates?

•What if I need the backstory first?


Aggressive Versioning



Why This Matters

Traditional journalism is increasingly incompatible with our devices. We must completely reconceptualize how we publish digital content.


Pew: Total revenue for American journalism down 33% in 7 years.

Bessemer Venture Partners: Mobile screen valuation now worth $1 billion per square inch.


I’ve just seen the future. Literally.

6

Experiential Journalism


I am afraid of heights.







There are Rift competitors.


Glass is great for augmented,

but not immersive reality.


Why This Matters

Rift and its competitors are already being developed for training, storytelling and education. This is the future platform for news.


Collaborate, connect and conspire.

1

Recs: Open Source Journalism






Journalism academics should share more resources.


Share more within yourdepartments, too.


Acts of journalism are everywhere. Just look.

2

Recs: Show students more options.





Journalism schools focus too much on traditional

news outlets.


Enrollment will increase with a better curriculum.

3

Recs: Market yourselves better.


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50

75

100

2004 2014

Journalism SchoolApplications

Journalism JobsAvailable


Smart kids want tech degrees.


Make journalism more interesting.


Not about trendy classes...

...make the degree matter more.


This summer, become an inquisitive student.

1

Summer Syllabus


Eight Week Summer Class


webbmediagroup.com [email protected] @webbmediagroup267-342-4300


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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Tech Trends for Academics and Universities