I was honored to be invited by the Poynter News University to present a webinar on the way that location based servies are (and will) change the news world. Pretty far out stuff! I hope you’ll join me. I’ll be flying out to Florida to present in person, but it’s all about the online attendance so I hope you’ll spend some time on April 1st joining us for this discussion.

I just had my 2nd conversation this morning before coffee about this fabulous Economist special report on Big Data: Data Data Everywhere. The person I was corresponding with asked me why I was interested in this topic. Here’s my answer. If this is something you’re interested in, I’d love to know what it is about Big Data that captures your interest, too.

What got me excited is just that this is a topic I think is fascinating. I’ll tell you frankly: I think in big data there lies a lot of hidden patterns that represent both opportunities for action and for reflection. At RWW we’re working on trying to find ways to mine data to find news first (we’ve got some interesting methods employed already) and personally, I think the world is an awfully unfair mess and I’m hoping that data analysis will help illuminate some of the hows and the whys. Like the way that real estate redlining was exposed back in the day by cross referencing census data around racial demographics and housing loan data. That illuminated systematic discrimination against black families in applying for home loans in certain parts of town. So too I think we’ll find a lot of undeniable proof of injustices and clues for how we might deal with them in big data today.

How about you? Are you interested in Big Data? Where does your interest come from?

Related: Check out Ta-Nehisi Coate’s critical analysis of one of the most prominent recent examples of social media data analyzed. I’m still reading it, myself.

Working on a new bio, anybody got any feedback on how this reads?

Marshall Kirkpatrick is the lead writer at ReadWriteWeb, one of the top technology news blogs on the internet and syndicated daily online by the New York Times. Marshall has established himself as one of the web’s leading voices on bleeding edge technology thanks to his ability to find signal buried in real-time noise – primarily through the use of innovative research systems built for crowdsourced data mining and first mover’s advantage. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, two dogs, two cats and three chickens.

I regularly do one-hour long telephone consulting sessions on launch planning and product development. I really enjoy doing that kind of work. My most recent client in that capacity was a pre-launched e-learning platform called Nixty. Glen Moriarty, Psy.D., CEO and Co-Founder of NIXTY, had these kind words to share about our work together. I thought I’d share them here. You can find more information about my consulting services here. Drop me a line if you’d like to discuss our working together.

“Marshall provided us some great insight into our platform and user experience in particular. We had demo’d the product for a variety of different target markets, but we hadn’t really thought through the user experience for one of our main segments. Marshall pointed out this blind spot and then offered several very practical recommendations to tighten up these parts of our platform. In addition, he provided us with some great referrals and pointed us to some hard-to-find resources. I wouldn’t be surprised if one year from now, I reflect back on my conversations with Marshall as being pivotal to our success with acquiring and maintaining users. I strongly recommend his services, especially for those of you who
might be trying to navigate the social Web.”

Thanks, Glen!

This is from Urtak and looks a lot like Hunch. I think it’s a pretty compelling user experience. Poll creation is pretty weak, but easy. Let me know what you think and I’ll tell you what I think of it once we’re on the other side.

Checking in at the admin side, I now see that I can’t even find my poll to check results. Oh well, I sure like the idea anyway.

It’s messy, I can’t figure out why it’s cutting off the first few words of my first sentence above.

I’m experimenting with a new system for discovering and getting to know important new people. I’m pretty excited about it. Of course it’s about Twitter because Twitter is paying my mortgage. I wrote a little song about it, goes something like this:

Just kidding, no song. I totally should write a song about it, though. If this system works well over time maybe I will do a little warbling about it after all. Thoughts?

I’ve been meaning to share links to some of the blogs I’ve been coming across a lot lately and really enjoying. Check these out, you might like them as much as I have been. Got suggestions for other blogs that readers here and I should be subscribed to as well?

• Locationmeme is some good writing about the hot trend of social software based on location. See also Checkin Blog.
• The Next Web is an up-and-coming tech news blog, a competitor to ReadWriteWeb. These guys are really, really fast on a story. Hopefully once they’ve made all the more of a name for themselves for speed, they’ll settle into writing more about what they think about the web. They’re certainly right in the thick of things online.
• Mixergry is an awesome series of video interviews with entrepreneurs who have interesting stories.
• Augmented Planet is all about Augmented Reality. I’m a big Games Alfresco reader, but Augmented Planet is looking like a regular must-read as well. See also Tish Shute’s Ugotrade.
• Finally, these might not be blogs but they are some of my favorite news sources of daily information. Two iPhone apps that I’m just in love with. The app for Newser offers a great summary of top news stories. It makes really efficient reading. And my absolute #1 top new favorite? Etsy Addict!

Yup, those are my (roughly) 5 favorite new blogs. How about you? Anything you’ve discovered lately that is becoming a must-read?