Random Mumblings

A blog is not a blog if it hasn't posted on Chrome, right? Seems that way.
    
Chrome is showing up as a browser in my stats for this site for Sept 2-5. (When I look at the last 30 days, Firefox tops IE.)

Browsers (Sept. 2-5)
% visits
Internet Explorer 45.33%
Firefox  40.70%
Safari 9.44%
Chrome 1.97%
Opera 1.45%

Operating Systems (30 day)
% visits
Windows 80.32%    
Macintosh 15.30%    
Linux 1.72%    
iPhone 1.39%

Lots of media organizations are experimenting with Twitter, but CNN is the most aggressive of the big sites.

Commenters at Mashable believe this will 1) give CNN a leg up as an early adopter and 2) it's promotion of Twitter will help push the sometimes difficult to grasp service into the mainstream.

I tend to think CNN is very smart to be near ubiquitous in social media. And that Twitter is role as a multi-platform new channels is growing. Quit looking for the next big thing in mobile, it is the next big thing (and it goes far beyond mobile).

Oh yeah, follow me.

Even TV networks are using the Flip camera.

From CNNPolitics.com's "PoliticalTicker" blog is a photo of singer Pat Boone doing an interview at the RNC doing an interview with a guy with a Flip Video camera.

The blog posting with photo is here. Click on the "video tab" to see the video.

The News Sentinel was an earlier adopter of these inexpensive, but very serviceable cameras.

(CNN Photo)

When you say it, it sounds like "I'm at knoxnews.com." And if you're not, you should be!

We're beginning to roll out a photo and video sharing site at im.knoxnews.com. Upload a photo or video and let us know what you think. You can send us photos from the Web site, from a cell phone or by email. We're off to a good start of submissions, but we need yours.

The site is powered by Nashville-based Cell Jounalist Inc., whose platform is also being used by the Commercial Appeal in Memphis and WKRN, a Nashville TV station.

LisaNova is pretty funny.

Glenn Reynolds, a blogging pioneer, may be marking a new trail in the electronic wilderness, this time to Internet-only TV.

He's doing commentary this week at the Republican National Convention for Pajamas TV, a part of Pajamas Media, where he hosts his hugely popular Instapundit blog.

"The chance to do something I've never done before is kind of cool, and how often would you get to do something like this?"

Read more about this effort. As he notes, Internet TV costs are a fraction of what it costs to do a broadcast quality TV show, a fact that makes Pajamas TV potentially disruptive as hell to cable channels and broadcast TV.

At knoxnews, we're working with a company called Wazoo Sports that is similarly potentially disruptive in high school preps coverage.

(Photo is of Glenn Reynolds on the Pajamas TV set at the GOP convention. Photo from Instapundit.com)

Mindy McAdams says there's not much excuse for a journalist not having an online presence.

But more important, do you know how to put yourself out there with your blog? Do you link to and comment on other blogs? Do you use your RSS reader and Delicious links as tools to widen your personal sphere of contacts and influence? Ah. That's what I'm talking about.

And this from Terry Heaton. who says it's critical for journalists to develop their personal brand:

Let's face it; the day is coming when independent journalists will offer their goods and services to media companies, instead of the companies actually employing them. This is already happening on a small scale, but I expect it will increase as fiscal pressures squeeze the life out of media companies. Hard-working independent contractors can make good money, and it will cost media companies less to purchase their work.

A couple good RNC Twitters I've noticed in my Twitter stream: the Rocky Mountain News' M.E. Sprengelmeyer and William Beutler of "Blog, P.I." fame.

And CSPAN notes it has has a page of convention Twitter postings based on posts with the hashtag of #mc08.

Who's your favorite Twitterer at the Republican Convention?

An intern in our online group this summer, Willow Nero, is blogging this morning from the New Orleans airport. She's trying to get a flight to France, yeah, a bit far to evac from Hurricane Gustav, but while you're going ...

I started to think things were getting a little weird yesterday when the National Guard drove through my neighborhood in Bay St. Louis and set up camp outside town near the Silver Slipper Casino sign.

Is it just bad luck that I have a flight out of the U.S. to study abroad on the same day a hurricane is coming?

Read the rest.

(Photo by Paul Quinn)

What's your Twitter grade.