John LoGioco.com

CNN's "No Bias, No Bull" takes bold move with "air links"

Last  night while watching CNN's "No Bias, No Bull" hosted by Campbell Brown (she wasn't on last night - bummer :( I noticed something very interesting.   To the right of the screen they were displaying the next few stories that would be covered.  The presentation was clean, as the link boxes were transparent, so the net result was that as a viewer I was much more informed as to what was coming next.

Here's a screens shot taken hastily from my iphone;

The "air links" are on the right of the screen.  Just before I snapped this shot they had 2 or 3 more links showing.  So why is this worth noting?  Because it's a further move to providing viewers with access to additional content that may be *interesting* to them.  The upside for CNN is that viewers would hopefully stick around to see the future "air links" get covered.  So will this feature increase time spent or decrease bounce?  That's the question.  My guess is that the viewer patterns will follow the same path as internet viewers in that, time spent will increase.  So this isn't "link journalism" as Scott Karp defines it, but it is a move in the right direction to give viewers more content in which to evaluate on the fly.  Over at outbrain, we are providing a similar service for many large publishers on their new sites, Turner included, where the outbrain recommendation engine providers readers with additional links that might be interesting. As an example you can see outbrain recommended links at the footer of this post under the rating stars.

So kudos to the folks over at CNN audience development and to the programming directors @ "No Bias No Bull" for trying this.  The next step is to provide external links to stories happening on other channels.  Imagine that?  But if the internet is right, this is not as crazy as it sounds.  CNN just might find that more people will stay with them longer throughout the day *if* they point them to the best stories, whether on CNN or not.

Six Apart's blogit working well

testing six apart's blogit iPhone app where I can post to my blog, facebook status and twitted account in one shot. Let's see. If it works I will comment with the results.

testing typepad's mobile blogging features

I'm trying six apart's mobile blogging thingy from my iphone. Aside from the limitations on the iPhone keyboard looks cool so far. Let's see if this text sees the light of day without a glitch. If it does I will comment.

Coldest Morning Yet On The Ferry Dock

Today was by far the coldest morning yet this year on the ferry dock.  Every morning about 100 commuters from coastal New Jersey towns descend on the Atlantic Highlands Marina to catch the SeaStreak ferry that travels across the bay from NJ and into New York Harbor.  It's a great ride as we pass under the Verrazano bridge, steam past the Statue of Liberty and dock at Pier 11 in Manhattan.  But this morning the wind was blowing 40knots, wind chill below zero and the marina was icing up.  Here are a few images that tell the story.  

This is a picture of what's left of the old marina dock.  You can see that the water in between the pilings is all icy - kind of like a winter slush mix.  It looked quite eerie swooshing heavily between the old pilings as its weight resisted the wind blown chop.                       
Here is a shot of the beach on the other side of the marina where we all park.  You can see that it's a very low tide, actually the lowest yet this year and the snow/ice mix collecting in the corner.

This last image is the window next to my seat on the upper deck of the ferry.  It was crystal clear when I boarded then the first big wave splashed up and the water froze on impact - and closed me in.  Just like the crab shows you see on Discovery.

Here's the back deck of the ferry when we docked at Pier 11 @ Wall Street - typically this back deck is full of people relaxing, reading the paper, smoking a cigar etc.  Not today -

Named "Bluefin Gladiator" by Surfing Magazine

    

I am excited to announce that Surfing Magazine named me the "Bluefin Gladiator" in their most recent January issue, page 26.  Surfing ran a contest in their previous GREEN issue looking for everyday people who are making a difference with the environment.  I answered the call and submitted my social network site called SaveTheBluefin as an example of what I am doing to contribute.  As many of you know I am passionate about the ocean, the fish in it and especially the Atlantic Bluefin tuna - which by the way is in real trouble from being decimated by the hands of ineffective policy makers and reckless overfishing.  So SURFING Magazine was awesome to recognize my efforts and award me the prize, which is care package from one of my favorite companies called Sector9.  Sector9 makes some of the coolest skateboards around, and is known for pioneering the longboard on wheels.  You can check out this video of me longboarding on a skateboard to see how fun these boards can be.  So I am really psyched if that means more people will be exposed to this pressing issue and join the site to voice their concern and support.  Joining SaveTheBluefin is free, takes about a second to join and is incredibly important as every voice counts.  Here is the nice article that SURFING published;

So thanks to Evan Slater, Editor of Surfing Magazine and his team who evaluated the entrants for the contest and to Sector9 for providing the goodies.   p.s. I actually do have a mermaid, but am working on that Rasta-like cutback :)

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