Vancouver sunrise

This will probably be the first of many many pictures that I post here which capture the wonderful week I've just spent in Canada.

This picture was taken by me - jet-lagged - from my hotel room in Vancouver very early in the morning.

Where newspaper websites went wrong

Another great post from Scott Karp:

Newspapers were once THE most important filters for news. But they gave up this role on the web, because they didn’t see that the web analogue to what they did on the front page in print was NOT taking the same content and putting it on a website front page. In fact, you could argue that this is the single biggest mistake that newspapers have made on the web.

What they failed to see is that the web analogue to the newspaper front page is LINKS to where the news IS. That’s Drudge.

The web is about CONNECTIONS, and newspaper website front pages don’t connect anything to anything. That’s why they have so little influence.

Vancouver arrival

I'm here in Vancouver staying in the stunning Fairmont Waterfront. Below is a similar looking room to the one I'm staying in with a view over the harbour.



I'm here with a group of journalists on a sustainable tourism press trip organised by Rocky Mountaineer. We've been looked after very well so far - had a wonderful dinner in the hotel's restaurant last night after a tour of their rooftop herb garden.

Today we have the morning to ourselves so I think some of as are going to met up and go for coffee and perhaps a cycle round the park or a trip to the aquarium. Then in the afternoon we're being taken on a green tour of Vancouver before dinner at C Restaurant with Lexi Beston.


Can't wait!

Old newspapers

It is almost one month since my last blog post, which is shameful. I handed my MA dissertation in one week ago and now no longer have an excuse for not resuming where I left off.

Noticed this on the Google blog:

Today, we're launching an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives. Let's say you want to learn more about the landing on the Moon. Try a search for [Americans walk on moon], and you'll be able to find and read an original article from a 1969 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

This effort is just the beginning. As we work with more and more publishers, we'll move closer towards our goal of making those billions of pages of newsprint from around the world searchable, discoverable, and accessible online.

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Several months ago I progressed from intern to freelancer but, now that I am no longer studying, I am on the lookout for a permanent position. I don't enjoy job-hunting and wish I was being paid enough to stay where I am!

Also slightly worrying is the fact that all the positions I have found so far are for web developers. My html is pretty hopeless and I am clueless about Javascript.

My Plan B is to write a bestseller and never work at all.