Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Day 61: ‘New Zealand Night Life’

Growing up in Northern Maine, I spent many summer nights gazing at the spectacular canopy above, against which the Northern Lights often shimmered bands of color. But breathtaking experience there can’t compare to some of the night sky shots from the Southern Hemisphere. David Kingham delivers fine example with self-titled “New Zealand Night Life”, shot on Sept. 24, 2014.

“On our last night the Southern Lights made a surprise visit for a brief time”, he says. “This captures life of the traveler on the South Island quite well, a campervan under the stars in an awesome campground, I miss it!” He is American, from Loveland, Colorado. 

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Gear by Joe Wilcox
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Say, HTC, Social Matters More Than Gadget Reviews

Some advice for HTC and other mobile device makers: You need to adapt your PR strategy to the modern web. Seeding devices to so-called professional reviewers is a lose-lose strategy. There you should take cues from Motorola, which marketing strategy, while by no means perfect, depends more on the many rather than the few.

Today, as expected, the HTC One M9 launched on Mobile World Congress Day 0. I am struck by two early reviews, which couldn’t be more different in their assessment—and one surely is quite damaging to perceptions about the smartphone: “HTC One M9 hands-on: Improved craftsmanship, camera, and HTC Sense are compelling” by Matthew Miller for ZDNet and “HTC’s One M9 is the world’s most beautiful disappointment” by Vlad Savov for The Verge. Matt had the device for a day and Vlad for a week. Neither narrative is ideal for HTC, although ZDNet’s is closer to identifying benefits that matter, as opposed to The Verge highlighting features that aren’t. 

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Aspiration by Joe Wilcox
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Comic-Con Heroes: The Heroine

It’s Saturday, and that means another excerpt from my ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make The Greatest Show On Earth, which profiles one-dozen attendees from SDCC 2013. One week ago, the Con held Open Registration, where participating for the first time I was fortunate enough to obtain passes for all four days and the Preview Night. From 2009-2014, accredited press status assured access.

Without press accreditation, I expect San Diego Comic-Con 2015 to be my last, as obtaining passes one year is no guarantee of getting them the next. Judging from social network responses to last week’s 59-minute ticket sales, many people who attended last year couldn’t purchase passes for the next one. Attendance is capped at 130,000. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Day 59: ‘Men of Patience’

The second month in this series wraps up with an intimate photo from the 1st International Hong Kong China Tattoo Convention, where See-ming Lee shot self-titled “Men of Patience” on Oct. 6, 2013. “Most of the photographs I have taken from this day was made possible mostly because of the excellent low-light high ISO performance of the [Canon EOS] 6D”, he explains, “combined with the super 100-400mm [lens] which allows me to photograph people from afar without alerting their attention”. Vitals: f/5.6, ISO 4000, 1/320 sec, 260mm.

There are different philosophies of photography. Some shooters like to get in close to their subjects, interacting with them. Others like to keep the distance, which is a good approach for an event like this one. 

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Aspiration by Joe Wilcox
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We’re Just Being Human, Mr. Spock

No fictional character influenced my youth more than Mr. Spock. I identified with the Vulcan’s cool, calculating ways, and adopted analytical attitudes that pushed back emotions. That’s still true as an adult. Surely I am not alone. You, too? That’s my reaction to news today about the passing of Leonard Limoy, at age 83.

In viewing “The Original Series” on Netflix, Star Trek looks a little hokey to me now. The series is heavily influenced by Sixties television era’s demands, which pounded the octagon-shaped TOS into a square action-drama-method hole. Consider the color of the uniforms and panels around the bridge, which surely fit in with NBC Peacock’s broadcasting “In Living Color”. Gene Roddenberry’s “Wagon Train to the Stars” is entertainment-period formulaic, which looks so unsophisticated now. Nevertheless, the science fiction storytelling was groundbreaking for the time, and transcends many of the imposed constraints. 

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News Media by Joe Wilcox
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Journalists, Don’t Mess with #TheDress

There is something important that every news gatherer should learn from the “Is that dress white and gold or blue and black?” debate. Simply stated: Perception is everything. Truth is an illusion.

Yesterday, two memes raged across the Internet—one because of the llama chase in Arizona, the other about the color of a dress. If I correctly understand the timeline, about which I could be mistaken: User Swiked posted the above cropped picture to Tumblr with question: “Guys please help me—is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking the fuck out”. Obviously, those colors are strikingly different. 

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News Media by Joe Wilcox
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Stop Paying Bloggers and Journalists for Pageviews

Last week, headline “Samsung lied—its smart TV is indeed spying on you and it is doing nothing to stop that“, piqued my interest. In the preceding days, the InterWebs flooded with allegations that the South Korean manufacturer’s televisions listen to their owners. But I cringed reading the story, which appeared on BetaNews, where I also contribute. The reporting doesn’t support the headline, which if editor on duty I would never have permitted.

Editorially, BetaNews and I drift apart. My responsibility for day-to-day management ended in May 2013. I told one of the writer/editors yesterday, in context of discussing the Samsung headline: “No offense, but the story packaging is more like a blog everyday…Real stories have real reporting. Too many of the BN stories rely on someone else’s reporting. That’s primarily my saying feels more like a blog. The Samsung lied story is good example”.

BN editorial structure is more diversified now, with several writers acting as day or night editors. All contributors share in common something I detest: Pay by pageviews. The model is widespread among blogs and news sites, and I oppose it. There is inherent conflict of interest, when the reporter’s livelihood directly ties to clicks. 

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