Tumblr guide

The Common Sense megaplex has a Tumblr blog, though I admit I need to do more with it. I have it primarily for videos or quick-hit graphical stuff.

But there is a good guide to getting started on Tumblr out on the Daily Dot. Worth checking out.

Yahoo's 'Down But Not Out' unemployment project

File this under pretty compelling reading.

I had not heard of this till a pointer from Cyberjournalist today, but I'm really intrigued by Yahoo's "Down But Not Out" project to crowdsource the long-term unemployment morass many Americans have found themselves in.

The tricked-out Tumblr blog contains emails from those without jobs. It's pretty compelling -- and at times scary -- reading. The idea could - and probably should - be adapted by local newsrooms. You could build a pretty interesting picture of what is happening around you. (And did we mention the engagement - Yahoo says the average time on site was eight minutes.)

The Yahoo folks explained to the Online News Association what they did to put this together.

CSJ on Tumblr

A new branch of the Common Sense Journalism megaplex has opened on Tumblr.

I'll probably be putting a lot of the more visual and quick-hit stuff up there and cross-referencing here.

First couple are a screw-up in a hed and an ad that needs to understand you don't need "$" if you say "dollars."

Tumblr tutorial

Tumblr, the livestream blogging service, is finally going mainstream among journalists.

Need a good tutorial on it. Check out this one by Mathew Keys. You can download it in various formats too.

Tutorial: Tumblr for Journalists

View more presentations from MatthewKeys

Tumblr - what's old is new again?

I was struck by the New York Times article this weekend on how media companies are suddenly discovering Tumblr.

Is there anything new here, other than that media companies are about five years behind. Or maybe that Tumblr is about three years behind in actually getting a clear message out about what it is.

Tumblr and another site, Posterous, loosely fall under a genre called "lifestreaming," sort of between blogging and tweeting/texting. Steve Rubel switched his blog, MicroPersuasion, to Posterous a couple of years ago. And he posted a good synopsis of lifestreaming and why he moved from a blog.

Among other things, lifestream sites make it easier to post multimedia elements. For instance, you might send up a series of images and some will automatically create a gallery.

(Update: Here's another good Tumblr explanation from Mediaite.)

Anyhow, if you are considering going this way, there are words of warning from the Times article:

Unlike Twitter, where it is not uncommon for publishers to simply set up accounts that automatically publish links to their articles and blog posts, Tumblr requires publishers to add more commentary and interaction if they want to win favor with its community.

Lifestreaming

Well, Steve Reubel of the well-read Micro Persuasion blog has taken the plunge into "lifestreaming."

Somewhere between Twitter and blogging, lifestreaming is, to my mind, blogging for the peripatetic.

OK, it's a little more than that. It's really about being able to more quickly inject yourself and your thoughts, etc., into the ever-growing stream of online social networking/conversations. It's about "The Flow," as Stowe Boyd described it.

I have noticed that I am starting to get as many comments on this blog's posting on Facebook as on here. That's an interesting sign that has me looking at things like Posterous or Tumblr. We'll see. For now, when I write I tend to write a bit longer. But the idea of being able to manage the hub and "spokes," as Rubel puts it, through one site is interesting.

Rubel has a bit more on why he's "lifestreaming" and specifically notes that blogging just seems too slow and "needs a reboot." Since he's been at the front of documenting a lot of the changes for the past five years, it's worth paying attention.