ReadWriteWeb

If you're looking to add change tracking to a Web app, you might want to take a look at Ice from the CMS group at the New York Times.

Ice (or Ice.js) is an implementation of change tracking for any content-editable element on the Web. It can track changes (inserts, deletes) from multiple users, and has some optional plugins for converting "smart" quotes and creating em-dashes.

One thing that I have learned from decades of writing is always find and tell a great story. And this is why Ira Glass is one of my heroes, one of my mentors. You wouldn't think that a guy who writes about tech day in and day out could be so moved from listening to him on public radio, or seeing one of his live shows. It isn't like he uses some new-fangled streaming audio gear or USB microphone setup. (Well, maybe he does, but that isn't the point.) Hearing his show is always a moving experience, a moment when he finishes the story and you just go, "Wow, that was something." Some stories are funny, some sad, some have morals or points to them, others just are what they are.

In any case, Glass sets a very high bar when it comes to his craft.

Earlier this week on his personal blog, one of Google's product management directors, Hunter Walk, posted a very interesting sampling of responses from technology journalists about the broad question of whether they are receiving the level of journalism from our business that they deserve. I found it very interesting that a product manager from any company was able to reveal at least as much, if not more, about the folks who usually interview him than they reveal about his company.

The emerging theme from the journalists' responses was distinct exasperation and frustration with the level of interest that you, their reader, have demonstrated in their product. It's getting "harder... to convince people to read these stories" on broader subjects like piracy, said one. Another remarked, "I wish more people cared about" the very topic on which his publication was founded (you'll know the one I mean), and which you would think his livelihood is based. And a third went so far as to blame readers for being interested in the wrong things, saying, "I am dismayed every day by the crap that people seem to find worthy of page views."

You probably recall the stories and, well, I may have even written one or two of them, including the requisite quotes from Google spokespersons. They were about the spirit of innovation at Google Labs, and whether or not the model of trying a plethora of new projects simultaneously and let Darwin decide the victor, was a smart way to construct a viable service.

The lessons, as Google would teach them, went something like this: There are many different ways to build great products, and there's no way to know in advance which way is the best. Whenever possible, Google leans toward "openness," which involves as many of its target consumers as possible... wait a minute. What am I doing babbling on about it, when I can let Google's own history speak on its own behalf?

Earlier this month the New York Times launched a beta testing playground called Beta620. It's a site for the news organization to try out new web experiments, some of which may graduate to become full-fledged New York Times products.

An interesting Semantic Web experiment went live this week, called Longitude. As the name suggests, it presents a geographical interface for accessing content from The Times. It uses The Time's large store of metadata, along with Linked Open Data from the Web.

The New York Times has launched a public testing site called beta620 where it will try out new web experiments, some of which will eventually "graduate" to become full-fledged New York Times products. The site launched with seven projects, including instant search, richer community tools, and an HTML5 Web app for the NYTimes Crossword Puzzle.

The site's welcome post says beta620 "will also be a place where Times developers interact with readers to discuss projects, and incorporate community suggestions into their work." This audience-friendly approach is a stark reversal from the company's past approach to web innovation.

Since earlier this year, if you want to read more than 20 articles a month on nytimes.com, you have to either pay for a print subscription, pay for a digital subscription, or figure out another way to gain access. The early results are in, and the Grey Lady is doing well with its paywall, which costs at least $200 a year to.

Tomorrow, the State of Alaska is set to release over 24,000 of Sarah Palin's emails, "covering much of her tenure as governor of Alaska." The New York Times is hoping that its readers will pitch in and help them filter this vast cache of new data on the former governor and erstwhile vice presidential candidate. Derek Willis announced the project on the Times's Caucus blog.

"We're asking readers to help us identify interesting and newsworthy e-mails, people and events that we may want to highlight. Interested users can fill out a simple form to describe the nature of the e-mail, and provide a name and e-mail address so we'll know who should get the credit. Join us here on Friday afternoon and into the weekend to participate."

Since instituting its metered paywall in late March, The New York Times has 100,000 paid subscribers to it website, according to a Times' article on its own earnings statement.

The number does not include print subscribers, who get access to unlimited articles on the website, or promotional launch offers, according to a tweet from Times' senior VP of corporate communications, Robert Christie. The article states, "For the first time, the Times Company provided information on how digital subscriptions were faring. The company said that since it started limiting the number of articles readers could read on NYTimes.com for free, it has signed up more than 100,000 subscribers. While it said the program was still too young to judge a success, 'early indicators are encouraging.'"

At the end of March, The New York Times finally activated the paywall that it had announced a year earlier. The publication took a "porous" approach to charging users, letting readers access up to 20 articles a month for free and allowing for links from social networks like Facebook or Twitter to pass through without counting. Still, onlookers have wondered what the effect of the wall would be on the site.

According to Web traffic measurement firm Hitwise, the numbers are in and traffic has certainly dipped in the nearly two weeks since the wall was put in place.