mediamachina

WHY

Why 5 Ws in the navbar and not an “About” as usual?

Because I am a journalist, not an academic, and journalists learn to work according to the 5 Ws.

The fact that this condensed version of media machina can be summed up in a few concepts doesn’t make me a theorist.

I am just a craftsman who enjoys the tools of his trade and has had the luck to come up with a few short cuts.

media machina is just about facts, data and pattern recognition.

Why now?

Because, with the marvel of blogs and Twitter, I am reading, daily, the masters in my field of media and new business models. I am enjoying their thoughts, their exchanges, their knowledge, their curiosity, their courage. I felt it was time to contribute and share my stuff, as insignificant as it might be.

When I want to know more about any of them I just have to read their books or the past entries of their blog. I believe that trust comes from accumulated memories. Since most of my professional work has been published in French, I am stuffing here a quick and condensed version of my work: enough memory, I am hoping, to generate a minimum of trust to be able to join the conversation.

Basically, I also tried to have one of my clients interested in building a proof of concept: a news site built using the observations of media machina. Some of them have implemented parts of it. But a full version of the business model presented here has not been built. Yet. Still working on it. Meanwhile, it’s time to publish my findings. Now it can be built anywhere.

Why not sooner?

I could spend half my life reading (and sometimes do), but I don’t really like to write without a good reason.

Why is this not a book?

It isn’t? Hm. Really? You mean, like, printed on paper?

So all right, it is a book building process. I’ll let you know when there are printed versions.

Why in English?

“When you have a choice, go for Very High Bandwith first”. I can meet face to face with most members of my French speaking community in Quebec. However, most members of my English speaking community are farther away, so I have to reach them through lower bandwidth channels like blogs and Twitter. This is the blog part.

Why do you answer some questions with “as written here in media machina“?

Duh! media machina is all about “How to use the Web at its best to make a media”. This blog being itself a media on the Web, I have to apply all my observations of “what works best”. Even my picture, on the upper right of this page, stands here because I have observed that: “everything that works best on the Web is personal”*; so if I want to help us have a better conversation, I have to add as much bandwidth as I can – the picture contributes to it. Even if I am generally rather shy and would normally not do this kind of thing, I will probably have to add audio and video samples for the same reason. Shudder.

Why are there artworks in posts?

I grew up reading comics and I became a magazine maker. I have always loved working with art directors, illustrators and photographers. I know that images and colors can enhance a text when chosen right. (Images can stand alone but I am a writer: I don’t “think” in images, I add them to written stuff.) And I enjoy finding one that fits. Hope you like it.

Why are there no links in the posts?

Update (January 2010): I changed my mind.

Ah! Because media machina is intended to become a printed book: I have to manage to write everything as on a printed page. After all these years on the Web, I am not only used to write with links, I think with links all the time. Writing without including links is a discipline I had to relearn. Feels strange: the Web is all about being connected to people and resources. The once familiar state of mind of being alone with a page has now a kind of alien feeling when writing on a computer. Meanwhile, I still write links in media machina notes as much as I can, and will add more over time.