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The personal homepage of Michael Morisy, technology journalist.

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The blog of Michael Morisy on technology, news media, journalism, social networking and more, in a new, reduced-fat format.

2010-01-20 20:58

Things you never want your readers to see

SpareChangeNews.net was down for a good chunk of the day yesterday for some weird billing mixup. It was resolved fairly quickly, except HostGator somehow mixed our most recent backup with the site we had a year ago, and all these files conflicted... Continued »
2010-01-15 04:22

Journalism as Massively Multiplayer Online Game

There's a whole lot wrong with the idea of news as a video game, but there's probably a whole lot more right at this point. Patrick Smith does a smart summary of some key concepts, including people will pay for interaction, new as gaming and reader... Continued »
2010-01-12 03:11

Organic path creation

I've been working on a (secret-ish!) side project recently that hopes to index a lot of profiles, and allow people to browse through and compare those profiles as convenient. One thing I'm struggling with at this early stage is the taxonomy... Continued »
2010-01-08 00:59

The Cornell Professional Network and the Cornell Club of Boston present... GOING ON YOUR OWN

Editor's note: I'm moderating this panel. Let me know if you're interested!   The Cornell Professional Network and the Cornell Club of Boston present...   GOING ON YOUR OWN Jobs? Who needs 9-5 and a... Continued »
2010-01-05 17:10

You can cook (plus a coffee-crusted steak recipe I endorse heartily)

My old roommate was a master foodie. Cooking was his passion and, by God, he was good at it. He would eat some of the weirdest things (peanut butter and curry sandwiches were not unusual), but in his generous experimentation, I never tasted anything... Continued »
2009-12-28 06:22

Games journalists (should) play

Level upLately, I've been reading a lot more about game mechanics in media sites. They can be addictive, even with little else compelling to offer: I get very little out of FourSquare since almost none of my friends have accounts, and of even those... Continued »
2009-12-18 16:22

"Don't be cryptic, don't be stupid, and please don't be dull."

From 37Signals Manifesto. Maybe I should print that out and put it above my desk. Continued »
2009-12-16 20:25

What is a journalist's job?

There's a great post by Jeff Atwood on the importance of elevator pitch test out of which I snip the following: Software developers think their job is writing code. But it's not.* Their job is to solve the customer's problem. Sure, our preferred... Continued »
2009-12-16 07:05

Facebook's 'great betrayal' does users a favor

Two points, perhaps slightly contradictory: Facebook's new privacy rollout is doing users a favor. "Free" may be the limit that social networks can, by and large, charge users, but it means the users aren't the customers. I've been trawling the... Continued »
2009-12-04 00:44

Membership has its meaning, Elitist Edition

Maybe news organizations could learn a thing or two from the genteel country club: Keep the riff-raff out, a whiff of superiority in, and everyone (with a membership) gets to enjoy the greens. Jeff Jarvis wrote an excellent post on news... Continued »
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