Anchorage Daily News Blogging Policy - 2

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the ADN is recruiting community bloggers. This resulted in a comment by a community council member who had received a copy of the terms of agreement that ADN was asking community bloggers to sign. I discussed the terms of agreement and posted them in the ADN Blogging Policy 1. Their terms of agreement suggest to me that they haven’t thought this out very carefully. So in this post I’m going to discuss

1. What's the difference between a blogger and the kind of contributor this Agreement was originally written for?
2. Why might a blogger sign the agreement?
   

I would first distinguish between 1) the reporters and staff who are working with the website and the blogs at the ADN. They obviously understand the potential and have done a great job in posting important and timely material, and 2) the higher ups who are responsible for the Terms of Agreement.

The Terms of Agreement document- and Kathleen McCoy, who’s coordinating this effort, and who appears to be in the “reporters and staff” group, corroborated this - is basically a version of the old agreement the ADN has used for independent contributors to the ADN with a few cosmetic changes to make it address blogs. (I should also say that this is McClatchy boiler plate rather than ADN, since it even leaves the name of the newspaper blank.) But bloggers are a far different animal than contributors of old.

Bloggers and traditional writers are significantly different

Writers needed a publisher, bloggers do not. The biggest difference by far, the difference that makes all the difference, is that before the web and blogs, writers were dependent on some medium to publish their writing. Websites (and blogs are a type of website) have changed this completely. Bloggers don’t need a publisher. They need access to the internet (most libraries provide this) and knowledge of how to set up a blog. They don’t even need to know how to read or write. My MacBook allows me to push a button and the computer’s built in webcam will record my picture and whatever I want to say.


This said, why would I, a blogger, sign up with the ADN? Here’s what the ADN says it offers to bloggers:

[When I went back to get the specifics of what the ADN would provide, I couldn’t find it in the Terms of Agreement. I guess I got that from the Key Terms in the email Kathleen McCoy sent the Federation of Community Councils, which I didn't post anywhere. I’ll post the whole list at the bottom of this post.]

• ADN wishes to host community bloggers on our site.*

Blogspot hosts my blog and everyone else's free already. This is no big deal.

• We will use our print and web platforms to inform readers of the online blogs we host and that they can participate in, to help grow audience. *

This is the only benefit I see from cooperating with the ADN. And it is important. When Kyle linked to my blog during the corruption trials, he did it because he felt the blog had something worthwhile to add to the coverage. With in-house blogs, will he be told he can't link to other local blogs that are better than the ones ADN carries? (Obviously I have a personal interest in this issue.)

• No money is involved*

I get the same great benefit from my Blogspot blog. Google (who owns Blogspot) pays me nada. But they have adsense if I want to sign up. They will put content related ads on my site and I would get some tiny amount of money from the hits on the ads. With ADN, any ad revenue goes only to ADN.

• Readers will be able to comment on blog entries, and subscribe to an rss feed from the blog.*

These features come with my Blogspot blog and I have more control over comments if I need to than the ADN seems to have.

• Blog writers will be able to link, post photos, and even post video on their blog if the spirit moves them.*

Yeah, yeah, yeah, every blog can do this too.

• Standing content on the righthand side of the blog page can be built in and stay on the blog for use by readers. This could be useful Websites, good books or articles you like your blog readers to know about, PDF documents you think they might want to read,etc.*

Again, standard on all the main blogsites.


[* the lines with * at the end were taken from the McCoy Key Points mentioned above and posted at the end of this post]

What does it cost bloggers?

1. More legal exposure than they probably would have as an independent blogger. From the Terms of Agreement:

You warrant and represent that all written entries and all other materials posted to the Blog is your original work, free from plagiarism, and that it has not been published anywhere else, that it has not been assigned, licensed or otherwise encumbered anywhere else, that it is not libelous or defamatory, that it will not violate or infringe the copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, right of privacy or publicity, or any other proprietary right of any third party. You also agree to refuse any compensation from any third party for placing any content on the Blog, to not use the Blog posts as a vehicle for advertising or promoting goods or services, and to not knowingly link to any downloadable applications or other content which may be harmful to a user’s computer.
[Did Dan Fagan sign one of these?]

Bloggers should avoid much of this anyway, except that

• by being on the ADN site, new bloggers have a larger audience. Upset readers are more likely to go after the ADN than a lone blogger. But then they will find out that the ADN has dumped all the liability onto the blogger. So the blogger, who would have been fine as an independent blogger, has attracted, because of the connection to the ADN, a legal action.
  
• now you can get in trouble from the ADN as well as someone reading your blog
  
• A private blogger might want to take payments from someone to post things. And may want to take ads.
  

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless NEWSPAPER and its affiliates, employees, successors and assigns, against and from any and all third party claims, liabilities, damages, fines, penalties and/or costs of whatsoever nature arising out of or in any way connected to a breach of your representations and warranties under this agreement.

You open yourself up to all sorts of potential liability.

2. Loss of control over your blog

NEWSPAPER shall own all right, title, and interest in and to the ___________________.com web site, and all intellectual property rights relating thereto. All rights not expressly granted under this agreement are expressly reserved.

It isn’t clear what this means because it seems to be contradicted later in the Agreement, but if you get tired of the ADN you own the content, but here it says they own the blog.

...you grant NEWSPAPER an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, paid-up, transferable license, in perpetuity, to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, perform, and publish your Blog, including a license to redistribute, reproduce, republish, and to authorize republication, reproduction, and syndication of all or part of the Blog in any database, in any other media or platform or by any other method (computer, electronic, magnetic, online, optical, video, CD-ROM or otherwise), now or hereafter invented.

While most bloggers aren’t going to do any of these things, and while the ADN gives you the copyright, they also have taken the right to make money from your work with nothing in here that says you even get a share of any profit they make off your work.

NEWSPAPER shall have the right to modify the Blog content in order to make it compatible with the technical requirements and the “look and feel” of it’s web site. You grant us the right to use the Blog name, your name, likeness, photograph and biographical material to advertise, promote and publicize you and your Blog for the purposes of promoting and introducing new users to the Blog….NEWSPAPER shall have the right to remove any content from the Blog or it’s web site that NEWSPAPER believes, in its sole discretion may violate the rights of any third party, violates any law, or is otherwise objectionable.

WHAT?!!! You’re going to edit me without my having any say? Are you going to correct my possessive pronouns too? And reproduce it with my name on it? Even if I don’t like what you did to it? NFW. (Would that be found “otherwise objectionable” by the ADN?)

3. Banishment from the ADN's realm if you terminate your agreement.

in the event that this agreement ends, NEWSPAPER will stop within 30 days any advertising, promotion or publicizing of the Blog from any Web sites owned or affiliated with NEWSPAPER

.

If you change your mind and get out of the agreement, you get blackballed by the ADN. Even if this isn't what they intended, it doesn't sound very welcoming.


What should the ADN do?

Recognize that this is new and ever changing territory. The only certain old rule is “go with quality.” Quality, in the blog age, means authenticity, immediacy, transparency, and honesty. Good bloggers looking at the Terms of Agreement will see them as: inauthentic, warmed over old contracts, with the real meaning hidden in legalese.

The attorneys should lighten up. Go for quality and things will work out the best they can. There’s no guarantee. The Terms of Agreement are the kind of document you take to the other party’s attorney and you work out the details to both parties’ satisfaction. But in this case, the bloggers don’t have an attorney. It’s take it or leave it. So, if you want bloggers to believe in your good faith, you need to offer the kind of Agreement they would get if a) you really wanted the bloggers on your website, and b) they had an attorney to negotiate a contract that fairly met the bloggers' needs as well as newspaper's.

I’d recommend you consider what the ADN has to offer the bloggers. What do they want? I can’t speak for them all, but here are things I’d like:

• Recognition that you value my participation. The newspaper is going to bloggers as part of the ADN's survival strategy, but the Terms of Agreement makes it seem like the higher ups are doing this completely against their will. Show you appreciate the bloggers with
• a token honorarium,
• free tickets to events bloggers might cover or other in-kind benefits,
• a share in any future profits from syndication or whatever ways you might leverage a blog into future earnings (odds aren't high this will happen anyway)
  
• a payment for every 1000 page hits.
• awards for best blog, best blog stories, best blog coverage of a major event, most prolific blogger, etc.
• any combination of the above and this is just off the top of my head
  

• Very limited and transparent editorial guidelines with a blogger advisory board to ensure fair application of the guidelines. Yes, the ADN needs to protect itself from copyright violations, defamation, and bad journalism. And sometimes there may need to be format changes. But any changes in content or style should be made with the agreement of the blogger and the newspaper, and failing that, with an appeal to the advisory board. The advisory board could be used to work out a new Agreement after a year or two of testing the first one. And pay them. It doesn't have to be the $400/hour you pay your attorneys, but if you do it right, you'll save a lot of that money too.

• Balanced protection against legal action. This means that the newspaper shouldn’t abandon bloggers if a lawsuit arises that is not due to negligence or carelessness on the part of the blogger. The newspaper should help protect bloggers' press rights such as getting access to events and information as it helped its reporters get access to trial documents and tapes this year.

You should also check out the NYU study of the best blogging newspapers in the US. They came up with eight factors to evaluate newspapers' blogging quality:

• Ease-of-use and clear navigation.
• Currency
• Quality of writing, thinking and linking.
• Voice
• Comments and reader participation.
• Range and originality.
• Explain what blogging is on your blogs page.
• Show commitment!
  (Details for each factor at the best blogging link above.)
  

The ADN line staff is doing what it can to meet these standards, but the ADN management need to convince the corporate attorneys that business as usual, legally, will be just as fatal as business as usual, journalistically. [Note: the survey looked at the biggest 100 newspapers, so the ADN wasn't in the running, but I think now - after a great summer of improvements - the ADN would score high with its web coverage and inhouse blogs.[



***Kathleen McCoy's Key Points to Community Councils

Key points:

* ADN wishes to host community bloggers on our site.
* We will use our print and web platforms to inform readers of the online blogs we host and that they can participate in, to help grow audience.
* No money is involved on our end or the bloggers' end. This is a community service, aimed at turning the ADN website into a place for conversations and information sharing, beyond what our own reporters produce.
* Readers will be able to comment on blog entries, and subscribe to an rss feed from the blog.
* Blog writers will be able to link, post photos, and even post video on their blog if the spirit moves them.
* Standing content on the righthand side of the blog page can be built in and stay on the blog for use by readers. This could be useful Websites, good books or articles you like your blog readers to know about, PDF documents you think they might want to read,etc.
* The blogger (cor bloggers, one blog can be shared among a tightknit group of people) will get a unique username and password that will give them access to their blog. They can blog from home or work, or the coffee shop down the street.


* I am your resource here at the News for questions, standing content you need posted to the right side, help getting that video up.
* This is new for us. We'll all be learning together, but we are confident it can make a contribution to the public dialogue in Anchorage.
* If you have an idea for a blog you'd like to see, call me and I'll follow up.
* I've enclosed the blogger agreement and the terms of use to this email

So, let's talk. I'm working on setting up as many community blogs as I can. I have three I am working on now -- and will be happy to start working on community council blogs if members so choose.

My best!/ Kathleen]

Anchorage Daily News Blogging Policy - 1

I'm calling this ADN Blogging Policy 1 even though I mentioned this in a previous post. There will be a Part II and there I will talk about how the ADN might address blogging. Here I will focus on the Agreement the ADN has sent to the community council seeking bloggers.

CCSecretary from a community council left a comment in my previous post objecting to the legal documents that the ADN wants these community bloggers to sign. Kathleen McCoy, the ADN person in charge of all this, from whom I first learned about this, called me about the post and the comments and has also posted a comment there.

CCSecretary later sent me a copy of the material the community council folks were sent and asked to sign. I’m posting them at the bottom of this post.

My abbreviated thoughts

• The whole newspaper industry is dealing with the changing news landscape and trying to figure out what the newspaper of tomorrow is going to look like and if they can even survive at all. The prevailing wisdom seems to be: get on line. Some understand what this means better than others.

• The ADN staffers, well some of them, have embraced this and are running with it. The management and owners, if they understand concept, don’t seem to understand how to implement it.

• The agreement shows that whoever wrote it up, either doesn't understand this at all, or simply just didn't spend any time on it. It is essentially the agreement that was used for independent writers with a couple of word changes.
  
  
• But no one has thought out the difference between independent writers and bloggers and how that changes what you would want in an agreement. I'll address that in a separate post.
  

Some Highlights of the Agreement

• Pay - while there is a blank where pay can be filled in, Kathleen told me over the phone, that for bloggers, she fills in $0.
• Bloggers get all the rights to the posts, while the ADN keeps the rights to the blog itself. (I'm not sure how that works, and another part implies the blog goes when the blogger goes.)
  
• The newspaper will stop advertising, promoting, publicizing blogs that terminate their agreement. Does that mean they won't link to them either? What about independent blogs? Is this the ADN trying to take over the blog space of Anchorage? Even if that isn't their intention, might it be the result?
  

Quick Overview of the Agreement

Below are a few highlights of the agreement that caught my eye. I’m not an attorney, so if I’m misreading something, or missing something, any attorney reading this, please is invited to point it out in the comments. I would also add that Kathleen says that she’s asked for feedback on this and they are willing to make changes. I could just send this to her rather than posting it. But I told her, that since this is an evolving idea, in the interest of people in Anchorage and elsewhere being able to see how the process unfolds, that I would make my comments online. Afterall, others may offer much more productive comments than mine.

Section 1 says the blogger isn’t supposed to steal his material or reveal trade secrets etc. That is reasonable, though I wonder if the blogger does this unintentionally whether this shifts all the liability away from the newspaper and onto the blogger. (Again, for actual language, see the whole agreement below.)

2. Ownership. As an author of the Blog, you own and will continue to own all rights, titles and interest in and to your Blog posts, including all copyrights and other intellectual property rights therein and all renewals and extensions thereof, in all formats and media, whether not known or hereafter developed, throughout the world in perpetuity. NEWSPAPER shall own all right, title, and interest in and to the ___________________.com web site, and all intellectual property rights relating thereto. All rights not expressly granted under this agreement are expressly reserved.

This seems to say that the blogger will own all the rights to the content, but the newspaper owns all the rights to the blog name. But what does “and all intellectual property rights relating thereto” mean? OK, there’s the blog name and the site itself, but if the blogger owns all the posts, is the ADN claiming some overlapping rights? Plus, this seems to contradict language below where it says if the agreement is terminated, the ADN won't publicize the blog anymore.

3. Licenses. For the duration of this agreement you grant NEWSPAPER an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, paid-up, transferable license, in perpetuity, to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, perform, and publish your Blog, including a license to redistribute, reproduce, republish, and to authorize republication, reproduction, and syndication of all or part of the Blog in any database, in any other media or platform or by any other method (computer, electronic, magnetic, online, optical, video, CD-ROM or otherwise), now or hereafter invented. NEWSPAPER shall have the right to modify the Blog content in order to make it compatible with the technical requirements and the “look and feel” of it’s web site. You grant us the right to use the Blog name, your name, likeness, photograph and biographical material to advertise, promote and publicize you and your Blog for the purposes of promoting and introducing new users to the Blog. You also grant us the right to link to the Blog from one or more Web sites owned or managed by NEWSPAPER. NEWSPAPER shall have the right to remove any content from the Blog or it’s [sic] web site that NEWSPAPER believes, in its sole discretion may violate the rights of any third party, violates any law, or is otherwise objectionable.

Here’s where the legalese gets silly. “For the duration of this agreement you grant NEWSPAPER an irrevocable….license in perpetuity…” Does that mean in perpetuity for the duration of the agreement? If it does, what does that mean? Or did someone forget to drop the in perpetuity when they copied it from another agreement?

And then, either for the duration of the agreement or in perpetuity, the newspaper can use the blog to make money in all sorts of different ways. And the newspaper can change the content of the blog anyway it wants if it decides - I assume that in its sole discretion means the blogger has no say - if it deems it, among more reasonable reasons, “otherwise objectionable.” Is there any chance a blogger who makes lots of money for the ADN would share in that?

4. Fees. NEWSPAPER will pay you a fee of $__________ per week to support your blogging and will host, maintain and operate your Blog service free of charge.

Kathleen says she will fill these in with $0. She also says that eliminates the need to ask for the social security number (which CCsecretary objected to also).

5. Term and termination. This agreement begins on _______________, 2007 and shall continue in effect until ___________________, 2008 (the “Term”). Either party may terminate this agreement for any reason upon thirty (30) days prior written notice. Upon expiration or termination of this agreement for any reason, you shall promptly remove any of NEWSPAPER’S brands or trademarks from the Blog. Also, in the event that this agreement ends, NEWSPAPER will stop within 30 days any advertising, promotion or publicizing of the Blog from any Web sites owned or affiliated with NEWSPAPER. NEWSPAPER will then make a final remittance to you of any outstanding fee payments.

If the newspaper owns the title of the blog and the blog itself, why would it require the blogger to stop using ADN brands or trademarks? and why would the ADN stop advertising the blog? They just need to get another blogger to do the work. But maybe this means the earlier stuff about the newspaper owning the blog title was a mistake. It’s confusing.

This section also raises a concern for non-ADN blogs. Does this mean that once ADN has its own affiliated blogs it will stop linking to blogs like mine? The ADN links to my blog during the trials this year, significantly increased my blog traffic. Those links brought my blog to the attention of many people who otherwise would not have seen it. This policy seems to says, “if you leave us, we’re never going to link to you and no one affiliated with us will link to you.” But maybe I'm reading too much into "publicize." Since it is talking about blogs that terminate their agreement, that leaves room for them to link to blogs like mine that have never had a written agreement, but will they? Are they now trying to corner the blog market in Anchorage? I strongly doubt that is Kathleen’s intention, but is it corporate’s intention?


The Whole Agreement (this is a draft as I understand it, but they did send it out to Community Councils)

[The Agreement itself is posted in its entirety. They also sent along the Terms of Use for people commenting on the ADN Blogs. Click on the link to see those.]


Date: ________________

Dear __________:

This letter confirms the agreement between you and ____________________ (“NEWSPAPER”) concerning the Blog that you will write titled _____________________, which will be published and promoted by NEWSPAPER on its web site ____________________.com in accordance with the terms hereof.

This letter is effective during the Term (as defined in Section 5 below) or until it is terminated by either of us in writing, and is applicable to all blogging during the Term. Our agreement includes the following:

Description of contribution. You are the author of the Blog, which focuses on __________________________________________________________________, as well as other topics of your choosing. The general focus of your Blog will continue as described above unless you provide NEWSPAPER with thirty (30) days prior notice that it is substantially changing. During the Term of this Agreement, you shall update your Blog with new posts a minimum of ____________ times per week. You agree that you will not, during the Term, publish another Blog relating to the above referenced focus, and that this will be your only blog on the topic.

You warrant and represent that all written entries and all other materials posted to the Blog is your original work, free from plagiarism, and that it has not been published anywhere else, that it has not been assigned, licensed or otherwise encumbered anywhere else, that it is not libelous or defamatory, that it will not violate or infringe the copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, right of privacy or publicity, or any other proprietary right of any third party. You also agree to refuse any compensation from any third party for placing any content on the Blog, to not use the Blog posts as a vehicle for advertising or promoting goods or services, and to not knowingly link to any downloadable applications or other content which may be harmful to a user’s computer.

Ownership. As an author of the Blog, you own and will continue to own all rights, titles and interest in and to your Blog posts, including all copyrights and other intellectual property rights therein and all renewals and extensions thereof, in all formats and media, whether not known or hereafter developed, throughout the world in perpetuity. NEWSPAPER shall own all right, title, and interest in and to the ___________________.com web site, and all intellectual property rights relating thereto. All rights not expressly granted under this agreement are expressly reserved.

Licenses. For the duration of this agreement you grant NEWSPAPER an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, paid-up, transferable license, in perpetuity, to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, perform, and publish your Blog, including a license to redistribute, reproduce, republish, and to authorize republication, reproduction, and syndication of all or part of the Blog in any database, in any other media or platform or by any other method (computer, electronic, magnetic, online, optical, video, CD-ROM or otherwise), now or hereafter invented. NEWSPAPER shall have the right to modify the Blog content in order to make it compatible with the technical requirements and the “look and feel” of it’s web site. You grant us the right to use the Blog name, your name, likeness, photograph and biographical material to advertise, promote and publicize you and your Blog for the purposes of promoting and introducing new users to the Blog. You also grant us the right to link to the Blog from one or more Web sites owned or managed by NEWSPAPER. NEWSPAPER shall have the right to remove any content from the Blog or it’s web site that NEWSPAPER believes, in its sole discretion may violate the rights of any third party, violates any law, or is otherwise objectionable.

Fees. NEWSPAPER will pay you a fee of $__________ per week to support your blogging and will host, maintain and operate your Blog service free of charge. You are providing your works to NEWSPAPER as an independent contributor and will therefore be responsible for the payment of all federal, state and/or local taxes with respect to this fee. NEWSPAPER will not treat you as an employee for any purpose.

Term and termination. This agreement begins on _______________, 2007 and shall continue in effect until ___________________, 2008 (the “Term”). Either party may terminate this agreement for any reason upon thirty (30) days prior written notice. Upon expiration or termination of this agreement for any reason, you shall promptly remove any of NEWSPAPER’S brands or trademarks from the Blog. Also, in the event that this agreement ends, NEWSPAPER will stop within 30 days any advertising, promotion or publicizing of the Blog from any Web sites owned or affiliated with NEWSPAPER. NEWSPAPER will then make a final remittance to you of any outstanding fee payments.

Indemnification. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless NEWSPAPER and its affiliates, employees, successors and assigns, against and from any and all third party claims, liabilities, damages, fines, penalties and/or costs of whatsoever nature arising out of or in any way connected to a breach of your representations and warranties under this agreement.

Miscellaneous. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed under the laws of the State of _________________. No waiver, amendment or modification of any provision hereof or of any right or remedy hereunder will be effective unless made in writing and signed by the party against whom such waiver, amendment or modification is sought to be enforced. Neither this Agreement nor any right or obligation hereunder may be assigned by you, and any attempted assignment will be void. This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding and agreement of the parties hereto with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior agreements or understandings, written or oral, between the parties hereto with respect to the subject matter hereof. In the event that any provision of this letter shall be held to be unenforceable by a court of law, the remaining provisions of this letter shall be enforceable to the maximum extent permitted by law consistent with the expressed intent of this letter.

If this agreement is acceptable, please sign and date the enclosed copy of this letter, provide your social security number, and return the signed copy to me.
We look forward to working with you!

Sincerely,



Agreed to by: ________________
__________________________ ______________________________
Signature
__________________________ ______________________________
Printed Name and Social Security No.
__________________________ ______________________________
Date

Visiting the Ainu and Korean Exhibits

After watching the concert for a while at the museum we walked through the Ainu exhibit and the Korean Ceramic exhibits once more. Today was the last day for the Ainu exhibit - breathtaking - but the Modern Korean Ceramics will be around until December 30.

It was something of a cross cultural experience to wander through these Asian exhibits with the Anchorage Concert Chorus singing Christmas music in the background.

Anchorage Concert Chorus at the Museum

After brunch, we went over the the Museum to see the Ainu and Korean Ceramic exhibits once more before they left town. We knew something else was going on because there was no parking near the museum. If it hadn't been around ten degrees, or if we were more warmly dressed, we could have just walked over.

Our timing was perfect, the Anchorage Concert Chorus was four deep up the stairs of the atrium and the director Grant Cochran was just explaining how the chorus traditionally performs in the museum and then walks over to the Performing Arts Center for their concert there. Below is a taste of what we heard.

Brunch at the Sheraton - Great Views of Anchorage

One of the people we've known the longest in Anchorage invited us and some others for Sunday brunch at the Sheraton Hotel. Josephine's is on the 15th floor.

As we get close to solstice, this is about as high as the sun gets
on the southern horizon.The Anchorage Municipal Cemetery is in the foreground.

The table behind the salads is the shrimp, crab legs, and assorted shell fish.

The Alaska Range to the west, gets some morning sun while
downtown Anchorage is still in the shade.

Audubon Christmas Bird Count Tally

The previous post highlights our day riding around counting birds in east Anchorage. Dianne picked us up again at 5ish and we took the new Elmore Road to the Campbell Creek Science Center for the tally of all the groups out counting birds today. 15,248 individual birds and 39 different species were counted. This is down from the last couple of years. But a lot of factors go into this - the weather, the number of people counting, luck....

Two new species (for the Anchorage Christmas Bird Count) were spotted:

• 25 Northern Shovelers
• 1 Brambling [I had "Bramble" but my birder friend Catherine reminded me it's Brambling]
  

The brambling brought the most ooos and aaaahs. Below is a brief video that will give you a general sense of the evening.

Christmas Bird Count - How many canaries are left?

Our birder friend, Dianne, (well, she does other things besides birding) emailed to invite us to the Christmas Bird Count today. The Audubon website explains:

The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is an organized continent-wide survey that documents every bird seen on a given day from sunrise to sunset. Since the turn of the 20th century, the Christmas Bird Count has contributed to the knowledge base of wintering birds in North America. This information is also important to allow scientists to detect fluctuations and trends of birds over a period of years.

1986: Coal mine canaries made redundant

More than 200 canary birds are being phased out of Britain's mining pits, according to new plans by the government.

Modern technology is being favoured over the long-serving yellow feathered friend of the miner in detecting harmful gases which may be present underground.

The Downey Woodpecker was clear in the binoculars, but not so clear in the camera.




This moose was one of four we saw. If you click on the moose to enlarge it, you can see a white horizontal bar just to the right of her nose. That was part of the wing feather a magpie using the moose as a trampoline.


We do see birds all winter, particularly ravens and magpies which are big and plentiful all winter and their black plumage stands out against the snow. But the little birds flit around so quickly that they are hard to see. But when you ride around for four hours specifically looking for birds, you see a lot more.






When we were in China, I was watching all the birds on campus - an oasis of trees in the increasingly concrete city. Most of my students were surprised when I talked about the birds. First that I was interested in them, second that there were any on campus - they just didn't 'see' them. But coal miners used to take canaries down into the mines because they were affected much faster than people if the air went bad. The canaries were introduced into the mines in 1911 and were phased out in Britain in 1986 according to a BBC story.

Birds and other animals serve as environmental canaries on earth. The counts give at least a rough count of the number and location of birds in the United States. The changes from year to year help identify trends. For instance, today Dianne was upset with the 20 European Starlings we saw, bird not natural to Anchorage, that have been increasing in number steadily, and harmfully to other birds whose nests in tree holes they invade.

Dianne had a regular route for this part of east Anchorage and we saw quite a few birds. I was able to get some pictures of the larger birds (eagles and ravens) and this one unrecognizable picture of the downey woodpecker.



We also got some more exotic birds. Dianne wouldn't let us put them in the official count list, but she stopped long enough for me to take pictures of the flamingos, penguins (we saw one more before these) and the robin.

Outscourced and No Country for Old Men

You'd think after the film festival, I'd be ready for a movie break. But there was a movie about India at the Bear Tooth Monday night and Joan wanted to see a movie today so we went to the one with the most stars in the newspaper.

Outsourced


[I'm still have mixed feelings about videotaping films in the movies. When the Film Festival folks emailed me, I was wondering if they were going to complain about that, but not at all. Since movie reviewers on tv and the radio use clips from the movies they review, I should be able to do the same. I only use a tiny percentage, I don't give away anything that would spoil the movie, etc. But I also don't want my camera to disturb people around me. So if I don't get a seat away from others or I'm not surrounded by friends, I also tend not to take out my camera. Or if I get so absorbed in the movie I forget. Anyway, these two movies I took no pictures. So I'm using the Outsourced trailer. You can see more clips from the movie including the first 8 minutes of the movie at the official site.]

India is another universe. While I enjoyed 'being' in India watching Darjeeling Express, that movie was more focused on the three American brothers who used India as the backdrop for their reunion and bonding. Outsourced gives a more balanced view of both how the American call center guy from Seattle who is dropped suddenly into India feels, but also gives more of an India viewpoint as well. This is not a heavy film, but it gave a good sense of how it feels to be embraced by the world that is India - the smells, the huge crowds, the different rules for doing most everything - in a don't take yourself too seriously way. This guy made far more progress than I think possible in only three weeks, but that aside, it pulled me in that my critic hat fell off and I just enjoyed the movie.

No Country for Old Men

I don't like violent movies, but I was hearing more and more good buzz for this movie, and it was at a convenient time and place, so we went. I am drawn to psychopaths - because they are out there and we need to understand that and them - but this movie didn't give us any real clues about them. We saw one in action, but nothing that helps us understand why. Overall it was a very well made and gripping movie. Again, I was totally pulled into it. And I liked the fact that there was no Hollywood ending, in fact it was left open enough there could be a sequel.

I would note there are long blog discussions about some of the scenes in the movie and apparently a lot of head scratching about what actually happened in the movie. I didn't have that reaction. Not everything was perfectly clear, but neither is life. It wasn't unclear in that the Coen brothers did a poor job of making the movie. A good movie, like a good book, deserves a second look. But Nora Ephraim did write a funny review in the New Yorker, but I'd see the movie before I read the review.

Blog, Blog, Blog

Blogging stuff keeps piling up in my life. Here's two posts in one, first on ADN blogs and then on Quarterlife and Marshall Herskovitz.

Anchorage Daily News (ADN) wants bloggers
At the Alaska Apple Users Group meeting last night, Kathleen McCoy from the Anchorage Daily News announced the paper was soliciting local bloggers who cover a specialized topic - community council news, local horse news, etc. They already have 13 blogs that I counted here tonight from gardening and barhopping to hockey. I got to talk to her a little during the break. Seems as the print version - and the employee base - shrinks, the ADN is trying to fill the void by using the free labor of local bloggers. On the one hand, that's good in a number of ways. It means

• ordinary people are writing about what they're passionate about
• we'll get coverage with different perspectives
• there won't be anyone to force a certain look or perspective
• there will be more room for comments - and maybe individual bloggers can do a better job of monitoring the nastiness of some of the current ADN blogs
• featured blogs will get more attention than they might otherwise
  

But on the negative side it means:

• the inconsistent quality we see online in general
• corporate exploitation of community public citizens - they aren't likely to share any ad revenue and they are cutting staff and replacing it with unpaid bloggers
• hit and miss coverage as unpaid bloggers have to earn a living and miss their posts, decide they don't need to subsidize the ADN with their blogs, and otherwise skip posts and/or drop out

I think the ADN has no choice but to figure out ways to create an electronic presence. Kathleen has been around the ADN many years and I think she's trying to make this work. So far their stance on monitoring the nastiness of some of the regular blog posters seems short sighted to me. I can't find the posts I was looking for, but here is a little after Andrew Halcro quit his ADN blog.I'll hold judgment, though I'm on the wrong side of neutral in my expectations at this point.


Quarterlife

One of the best television programs I ever saw was "My So-Called Life." One of the producers, Marshall Herskovitz, was on Fresh Air this morning, talking about the television industry (the effects of corporate consolitdation and the end of the ban on networks owning the programing) and his new effort - an internet tv program called Quarterlife that has been bought by NBC. Quarterlife has been on the periphery of my consciousness, but the interview brought it front and center. I watched the first two shows today. (You can watch it online at Quarterlife.com- there are 11 episodes so far, all available.)

The show is about a young woman who... you guessed it, has a blog named....did you figure it out yet? Quarterlife. It is very real, very unlike most television. And no commercials. And you won't have any late fees.

I suspect blogs are a transitional genre, and maybe corporate World will end up buying up or otherwise coopting the best - or at least most profitable - but something is happening here. Stay tuned.

[More recent posts at ADN Blogging Policy - 1 and ADN Blogging Policy - 2.]

Infamous Lake Otis and Tudor and the Moon

Worst intersection
in the city. Moon sliver
makes traffic ok.