Top quality student websites

Mark S. Luckie over at 10,000 words has posted his top ‘best of the best’ student media websites from the US.

The winner for him is the Alligator from Florida U.

The Alligator is hands down the best online student newspaper and rivals the pros in its news coverage and use of multimedia elements. Just listing the stellar components that make up the site warrant its own individual post.

You can’t disagree. It’s a great site. But do read the article and take a look at the six other sites he recommends.

Its a great list and it offers plenty of food for thought. Here in the UK the structures for students journalism can be a whole lot different. At my university for example the student paper, Pluto, is run through the students union. Though students from journalism courses are involved the department maintains a distance from the publication – kind of church and state. So we tend to run smaller newsday style websites as part of class exercises

I’ve been developing the use of CMS‘ withing my courses for the last 4 years and this year all of the second years have been blogging as part of their assignments, the momentum is building for better and better online content.

The structures of courses and the university can often feel restrictive but technology seems to want to jump over them. When I see stuff like the Alligator I get excited and jealous (in a positive way) about what you can achieve.

Roll on next year.

links for 2008-04-24

Avid tips for FCP users

Avid has made little or no impression in the US newspaper video market but here in the UK it’s express software is fast becoming a standard. I cut on both Avid and  Final Cut Pro and have done for a while and would have to say that love them both as I do the transition from one to another is not always easy.

If you start on an Avid I think you would find the move to FCP pretty straight forward. No suprise given that the editing paradigm is now the same across most of the big name apps. But going the other way?  Avid can be pretty daunting on first go. It takes a few clicks before you even get something that looks like the interface and it can often feel a bit closed compared to FCP.

It’s worth sticking with though as, in some ways, it feels more solid and reliable.

Avid for FCP users

So if you are thinking of expreimenting or a change of job means making the switch then help is at hand.

As part of their more concerted approach  to community engagement Avid have pushed the boat out on the tutorial front.  Laura Congleton has a 4 part series on Avid for Final Cut Pro Users that covers most of the basics and a few steps beyond.

Well worth a look

Get to grips with web 2.0

http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-much-time-does-web-20-take.html

A great post by about enaging with web2.0 in stages

The time cost of Web 2.0 is not in product development but in product management, maintenance, and growth. It may take you only a few minutes to create a blog, but doing so means (hopefully) a commitment to frequent content posts. When you start any Web 2.0 initiative, you should think about what (and who) it’s going to require over its lifespan, not just pre-release.

Sage advice and that last point would be an especially good point for a lot of MSM organisations to remember.

I think i may have this made in to a poster or better still the learning outcomes of a new module.

Magazines I subscribe to

It’s been a while since one passed by but Adam over at one man and his blog has tagged me with a meme.

Do you still read magazines? Do you pick up a daily newspaper? Or have you moved entirely online. Andrew of Engagement 101 challenged me to list the three magazine I would subscribe to in printed form.

And then he passed the challenge on.

So here are my three (four)

Sight and Sound MagazineMac Format

Cinefex
Cinefex is a US magazine specialises in detailed articles about the special effects in movies. great pictures and in-depth text tells the story of how grown-ups can spend hours having more fun than is legal.

This taps in to the geek, kid and jealous wage slave in me. I would love to be doing this kind of stuff. Essential wish fulfillment and perhaps the very definition of niche magazine.

Sight and Sound
I love film. Normally the bolder and brahser the better – I like my film escapist. But unlike the bigger brasher film mags Sight and Sound is always consistently readable from cover to cover.

Private EyeMac Format
I like macformat because its a mac magazine in the sense that it’s glossy and nice but not as empty as those icreate ones and interesting but not as occasionally dry like MacUser. It’s a bit more hands- on. Although to be fair it would be close run thing. I’d pick up either at the newstand.

Private Eye
I do subscribe to this magazine (is it a magazine). It feeds my cynical world view and though it sometimes isn’t funny – please stop with the yobs and the premiershits already. – it is always an interesting read.

So there you go Adam. Tagged and bagged (without the celophane and annoyoning ads)

links for 2008-04-21

Bob Eggington on BBC online

Interesting stuff from Bob Eggington,  one of the founding fathers of BBC Online, in todays Guardian

BBC Online needs a new content strategy. If there is an existing content strategy, it is impossible to discern it. The current offering is a massive, rambling construction – with hundreds of separate sites of hugely varying quality. The kindest thing to say about some of them is that they are unnecessary. BBC Online should concentrate on the core stuff: news, sport, weather (though I have never entirely understood why the BBC does weather), on-demand audio and video, programme support, education and corporate information. Do these things well and forget the rest.

Of course if one of the things that they chose to focus all their big guns on is news then be prepared for more grumbling from the newspapers about there “unique position to spend on experimentation”