EveryBlock....

The great Adrian Holovaty has launched his much-anticipated EveryBlock.

I'm not quite sure what to think. Well, that's a lie. The geek in me loves it.

I love how it aggregates info from all kinds of different sources. I noticed it even grabs "missed connections" from CraigsList. Cool.

But what will the average person think? Who knows? But it sure seems to be headed in the direction of what Matt Waite calls "molten" data. Or at least the way I understand what he means by molten data.

Any thoughts?

Newspaper buildings...

Newspaper buildings have always fascinated me. In many communities, at least part of the building is a pillar of the community. Places like Tribune Tower in Chicago come to mind (though it may not be a newspaper building for too long).

I stumbled across something cool from William Hartnett, who is just up the road at the Palm Beach Post.

Check out newspaper buildings.

Data ghettos....

Some random rambling thoughts...

Fellow Floridian Matt Waite has coined a new term: "Data ghetto."

"The Data Ghetto is that one mishmash page where all of that site’s databases are lumped together."

I think Matt hits on some great points here. I've gotten that feeling that most of the industry is just plain confused. Sometimes it seems like we want stuff online just for the sake of having stuff online, but we don't have a clear mission.

Chalk it up to the tumultuous time in our industry, I suppose. But the confusion can't last long. Or we're in trouble.

At the same time, I am a bit of a fan of the data ghetto for some reasons, a lot of it having to do with public service. I think we should take advantage of the ability to bring the power of public records to our readers --- and add some transparency to what we do.

"That said, here’s how we can get out of the data ghetto: add some journalism to it."

I agree. And I think a lot of us are trying to figure out how to do it.

Like one of Matt's readers points out, a lot of this is version 1.0. Hopefully we keep going to version 2.0 and beyond.

Sulz style....

Well, according to the Politico's Ben Smith:

"The New York Times has figured out a way to bypass the massive journalist exodus from Iowa to New Hampshire, starting late Thursday. Two words: corporate jet.

Exhausted Times staffers will be transported, Sulzberger-style, out of Iowa starting around 6 a.m Friday morning."

Paging Mr. Zell. Are you listening? I could use a ride in a fat corporate jet.