links for 2007-08-22

“An e-petition to 10 Downing Street is requesting that Network Rail be designated a public authority so that people may request information from it under the Freedom of Information Act.”

“About three weeks ago, a new third-party application from Point2 called Neighborhoods made its debut on Facebook, and it’s very impressive. Already in Seattle, 1,200 users have selected their neighborhoods…”

“ImpreMedia, the biggest publisher of Spanish-language newspapers in the United States, Tuesday kicked off a content initiative with BBC’s Spanish-language Web site with an online discussion about the impact of Spanish on American culture.”

“The ads, which appear 15 seconds after a user begins watching a video clip, take the form of an overlay on the bottom fifth of the screen, not unlike the tickers that display headlines during television news programs.”

“Channel 4 News will air a special report on North Korea tonight which will document a family’s escape from the totalitarian state for the first time on television.”

“Many of our clients” the company says candidly, “use OnePoll to trigger high impact media coverage”. “Our team of national news journalists and PR experts know what the media will use”.

“Emap is cracking on with an auction of its three constituent parts, which if it goes according to plan will see Heat and its other magazines split off from Kiss, Magic and the company’s other radio brands, and the business publishing arm.”

Amy Gahran: “The most effective, lasting way to adapt your online-media mindset, habits, and priorities is to actually use these skills — not just know about them in a theoretical sense…”

“While I applaud Google News for trying to do something to add to the voices connected to news stories — especially wire stories — there are still a lot of “ifs” related to the feature.”

“For our initial launch, we have included several top news sources such as CBS, Reuters, and a number of local Hearst TV stations. Over the next few months, we’ll continue to add new sources as fast as we can. Right now we’re just offering this addition i

Scott Karp: “The inclusion of videos on Google News pages — which can be played via YouTube embeds right on the page, without leaving Google News — can be a valuable distribution channel for video content producers.”

Simon Dickson wonders: “if a news organisation spotted someone tweeting about a news event, is it ethical (or indeed sensible?) for them to republish the stream on their own pages?”

“FT.com’s interactive feature maps the estimated 233bn barrels of oil equivalent, and illustrates the region with a picture slideshow and audio narration by experts.”

The Daily Mail has a Victorian flashback: “Although she was wearing a relatively demure navy skirt-suit, Miss Maitlis’s flash of shapely calf caused a stir among more conservative viewers who saw the 9pm trailer on Monday.”

Guardian blogs editor Kevin Anderson fleshes out his line that “blogging is not a publishing strategy, it’s a community strategy”