The blog will be quiet for a while as I take some off to spend with my family.

In the meantime, I recommend checking out this page which compiles all posts from all TNT blogs and sorts them with the latest posts on top.

New mapping tools are changing the way people use the web - and fast. Hopefully you've seen Exit 133's condo development map and our free wifi hotspot map. But what about James Lamb's Federal Way graffiti map (and corresponding blog)?

Somehow, Lamb's creation caught the attention of writer Miguel Helft, who mentioned the project in articles yesterday for the New York Times and International Herald Tribune.

I wanted to contact Lamb to learn about his backstory, but I'm taking some time off. I'll try to look him up when I get back, or maybe the Grit City team can track him down.

I broke down last weekend and bought an iPhone. I've been coveting it for months but I wanted to wait a few weeks after it went on sale to see if it could really live up to the hype. Since I couldn't find any reviews that were seriously negative, and since Walt Mossberg gave it a thumbs up, I decide to take the plunge.

In a nutshell, it's awesome.

=> Read more!

Like many people these days, I have a digital camera and take lots of photos, but struggle to make prints of the good ones often enough. Early on, I used Snapfish, but I quickly grew disenchanted with waiting for the photos to show up in the mail (instant gratification, you know). For the past couple years, I've used the kiosks at Fred Meyer or a drug store, but that usually requires two trips to the store (one for drop-off and one for pick-up).

What I'm looking for is a local business that has a web site where I can upload the photos from home, then pick up the prints. But I'm lazy, so Costco's web site doesn't do the trick because you have to upload each photo separately. And the Walgreen's web site caused some major problems the last time my wife tried to use it.

If I were a better blogger, I'd do the investigation to solve this mystery and then report back to you. But I like the idea of crowdsourcing, which means you ask the audience to help out.

So who has a batch upload tool and a South Sound location, so I can upload a bunch of photos with one click and then swing by and pick them up the next day? Anyone have a suggestion?

Pardon the self-promotion here, but I thought some of you might be interested in this: I wrote a book and it was made available as a PDF last week.

It's called Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive |
A digital literacy guide for the information age. It was borne out of a monthly training session I started here at the TNT in 2005 to teach folks in the newsroom about things like blogging, audio, video and various other digital tools and practices that are changing their jobs. I didn't know a whole lot about most of the topics at the time, but forced myself to learn about them (or find someone else who did) in order to be of some use to those who attended the sessions.

It's my first book and, like a proud papa, I can't wait to hold a copy in my hands. I'm supposed to be getting a bunch of copies the first part of August so if you're interested in one, drop me a line and I'll set one aside for you.

A continuing theme of discussion around the office here and on this blog is where do blogs fit into this whole newspaper reporter thing. TNT restaurant critic and proprietor of Ed's Diner sent me the following note yesterday, which provides a good example of how the two (blog and news article) can co-exist in a mutually beneficial way.

Today's jerky story was born on the blog. I posted a blog query about jerky. Readers responded and informed my reporting, giving me quotes and recommendations on jerky places. One blog reader even posted his jerky recipe and tips, which ran in the newspaper. I wrote the story with the intent of using the story as the basis for my video script.

There have been several stories that I know about, and probably more that I don't, that originated from comments to one of our blogs. I guess it's just the 21-century version of the old-fashioned "news tip," the kind of thing that people used to send news reporters through the mail or over the phone. Now it's easier to leave a comment on a blog, or start your own blog and break your own news. I know we've had several news stories generated by other blogs, too. We know we'll see more of that in the future.

After wanting one for years, we finally have a dynamic, searchable online events calendar.

We contracted with a company out of the Bay Area called Zvents to provide us with the leading edge technology that allows readers to add events to their calendars in one click, see nearby restaurants, add comments or post their own events.

Thanks to Laura Gentry, Mary Anderson and a host of others who made this finally happen. It's not perfected yet, and we will be adding features in the coming weeks, but we didn't want to wait any longer before allowing readers to use it.

Yesterday, a reader posted a comment to our breaking news story about a local murder-suicide. In the comment, the reader identified by name the man who died. Our story didn't have the name yet because we hadn't confirmed it with the authorities. So we removed the comment and all the follow-up comments that also used the name. (Here's the full report on the incident.)

Our policy is to always verify as fact any detail as important as the identification of an individual in a tragedy like this (or any other fact, for that matter). Because someone hears a tip by word of mouth does not make it fact.

We allow more latitude on readers providing information in the comments on our stories when the articles aren't this sensitive. In fact, we encourage readers to offer insight and information to supplement our reporting. But in this case, that particular piece of information needed to be checked out and verified to avoid the potential mistake of identifying the wrong person.

I was waiting in an office for my six-month teeth poking when I couldn't help overhearing the receptionist place a phone call for directory assistance. It struck me as odd, given the fact that it costs money to make that call and, surely in an office setting, this person had access to this newfangled Internet thing. (She was calling for the number for a restaurant in Seattle, so the phone book was probably not an option.)

Personally, I haven't called for directory assistance in a long time, choosing Google or Anywho or some other web site to look up phone numbers. But I discovered I might be missing something: This receptionist went on to have a nice conversation with the operator. I don't get that from Google.

"Why that's a lovely name," she said, complimenting the operator.

"It's a nice restaurant down on the waterfront," she offered, assisting the operator in finding her number.

With some laughter and more pleasantries, the receptionist hung up the phone and called the restaurant. While it took me 0.10 seconds to look up the same number online, maybe I'm missing out on the personal interaction from calling directory assistance.

Then again, maybe not.

Jakob Nielsen is a self-proclaimed "usability guru" who has been making a seemingly good living from his unattractive but thoroughly usable website (and associated conference and consulting opportunities) for as long as the mainstream web has been around. Today he takes a shot at blogging, not for its usability, but for its relative lack of quality, in the context of building a business and acquiring customers.

"Write articles, not blog postings" is Nielsen's full-length, esoteric and data-stuffed hypothesis on how anyone hoping to become the world's top expert in a given field (found via Slashdot). In it he explains the faults of blogging, especially for businesses hoping for customers.

Blog postings will always be commodity content: there's a limit to the value you can provide with a short comment on somebody else's comments. Such postings are good for generating controversy and short-term traffic, and they're definitely easy to write. But they don't build sustainable value. Think of how disappointing it feels when you're searching for something and get directed to short postings in the middle of a debate that occurred years before, and is thus irrelevant.

Can we apply his analysis to news? Not quite. Blogs that comment on the news are certainly worth less than those that report new findings. Even opinion-based blogs that offer fewer, but more thoughtful, posts are better than quick-hit opinion blogs. And general interest, hyperlocal blogs like Exit 133 that break news and form a community offer yet another model that doesn't fit into either mold.

As a news business, we use blogs to allow our reporters a different mechanism to report news. Or, we use them as a tool for transparency, dialogue and sharing information that we encounter as part of our duties that doesn't otherwise "make the paper." Yes, we're trying to acquire new customers. But we already write articles, so it's not a zero-sum equation for us. We choose to offer both.

It seems to be working. Our unique user count is up 20% through the first six months of 2007 after increasing almost 16% in 2006. And blogs are a big part of our success. Even the short posts that Nielsen apparently loathes.

Sean Robinson's story on three Fircrest families who received death threats via cell phone set a record for the most page views for a single story in one month with more than 141,000.

As usual with a popular story on our site, most of the traffic came from other web sites. Only 12,000 of the 141,000 views were the result of someone on thenewstribune.com clicking on the story. The rest came from other web sites linking to the story.

Just for fun, here's a list of the top 10 sites that sent us traffic to that story. (If you click to any of the sites out of curiosity, I'm not responsible for what you may find there):

ebaumsworld.com (22,292)
fark.com (13,312)
coasttocoastam.com (11,654)
snopes.com (10,876)
engadget.com (7,124)
reddit.com (4,786)
dailyrotten.com (4,060)
whatreallyhappened.com (2,606)
google.com (2,319)
breitbart.tv (2,214)

Here's the complete top 10 from June:

1. A horror movie come to life (Robinson)
2. Pressure's on Portland (Hughes)
3. Rockets eye Lewis for Battier (Hughes)
4. Stuckey's stock rising (Hughes)
5. Nude driver cited for drinking and 'embracing' while driving (Abe)
6. Torture: The state fails a young girl (Robinson)
7. Blood alcohol reading a whopper (Lynn)
8. Ridnour trade talk emerging (Hughes)
9. High school senior dies on commencement day (Santos/Sherman)
10. Killed on his birthday in bed (Abe)

Some local folks are trying to find out.

Check out the group of already purchased and about-to-be-scalped iPhones on Craigslist.

I was off last week but, alas, not to wait in line for one of the new toys. I've got gadget envy, but not that bad.