Sanjay Trehan is the CEO of NDTV in India. Speaking at the Online News Association's annual conference in Washington, DC on Saturday, he spoke excitedly about the tools of the new media revolution. This is a man who is launching 14 TV stations, mind you. You would think the Web would horrify him. It does not.

"The future is going to be a combination of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, along with more - a seemless ecosystem," said Trehan."  "You will consume news in this way. Not because it is fashionable to say so, but because the consumer is doing this."

Trehan pointed to Qik, the live streaming tool that lets you stream in real time from certain mobile phones. "This landscape that is emerging is going to be device and platform-agnostic." He referred to 12seconds.tv as the "Twitter of videos." You can do everything you can do with Twitter, but in video at 12seconds.tv - instead of being limited to 140 characters, you're limited to 12 seconds of video. (12seconds.tv is currently in private beta - you can sign up for an invite.) Don't go to 12seconds.com - it's a weight loss site. You know - unless you're up for that kind of thing.

Trehan pointed to online experiences like Lycos Cinema, where people can gather online to watch a film at the same time at different locations and comment. This is a pay model -... more »

Everything you need to know about what stifles creativity in newsroom online environments - along with how to overcome those frustrations - was on display in the ONA session on how the Las Vegas Sun rebuilt its Website.

The name of the session was "Las Vegas Sun: Site Redesign." The two panelists were Josh Williams and Tyson Evans, the guys who went in, got their hands dirty and built the site. They are the brains behind the code. (See correction/amplification below.) They are two of the many great minds behind this project who have created what we have pointed to, time and again, as the model for a modern news and community Website. They are not the business development team, the sales team nor the marketing team. They were given parameters for traffic models, and that was it. These guys explained how to blow up an old site and build something better.

And there were some in the audience who just couldn't get it. These are not the guys to ask about the money. And they're especially not the guys to shake your heads at and "tut tut" about being in start-up mode.

First things first. The Las Vegas Sun website is kick ass. Its video is far superior to any you will find on any TV site. They have pieces in HD, which you can also get on iTunes. A demonstration of the video on a widescreen plasma screen put to shame any... more »

Tina Brown started off kindly enough, calling for a sort of hegemony online. But you knew her true colors were bound to show through, and they came after the formal keynote. She railed against non-professional Web content and the companies that use it. She called the "time we're in" a terrible period for reporting and journalism:

"There has to be pushback - so many media companies think that they can replace their journalists with lower paid kids, and this will lead to their fall. They will destrory their brands if they keep making their reporters put out far too much than they can do well. I think that will happen. It will be a very painful period in between.

"I think this period where people thought than any old person could write a reputable posting is over and it has been a terrible period for us... talent has been exploited by technology. There should be more vocal pushback on this... I don't want to be the union voice, but it's a pretty sad state of affairs."

Then there's this. Tina's starting her own site, the dailybeast.com and is "looking for editors who will put aside the wisdom of the crowd." Bold.

Once again, it's Us Vs. Them.

Jeff Jarvis got up to ask Tina about the business model of this new editor-driven site of hers. She refused to discuss it, apart from saying "people will

At ONA on Friday morning, Tina Brown raised a very good point - journalists are so buried in competitors' products that they hardly do original reporting. There's so much fear that they're "missing something" that they play it safe. I saw a great example of this recently when MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was questioning Andrea Mitchell about why her report different from one in Newsweek. We're so afraid to take risks. "What can we do in this crazy age to cut through the static and fake stuff and noise? We have to go back to thinking to what editors can do in an age when algorithms are ruling the day... " She praised Drudge, HuffPo and Real Clear Politics for finding news nuggets and editing them for points of view. In talking about going back to revisit stories and rethink them, Brown said, "Just when you think you've heard everything about a subject is just when you realize you know

Terry and I have often written about how businesses can be news centers, too. I have to give a special hat tip to the people behind GustavBloggers.com. Who are they? Just a bunch of tecchies at the Zipa datacenter in downtown New Orleans. They’re there, they’re working, they had to keep communications flowing during the storm and they had some damn good insight into what was happening.

I want to get something straight from the start: the news organizations that I could see online did a terrific job with storm coverage. Clearly, we have learned our lessons from Katrina. Terry wrote above about how some anchors reinvented themselves and how it showed during the storm. Websites were more prepared and had better information. The online effort was remarkable and laudable.

I just want to point to one small piece of the Web to indicate the change that’s happening in how we get information. Part of the news river came from techhies. If you look at their blog, it’s every bit as good and useful as a “professional” news blog.

There’s also a lesson here about search: look for “Gustav Blog” on Google, and GustavBloggers.com - a site that didn’t exist a couple of weeks ago - comes up sixth. The techs secured their own URL, dedicated their own space to the site and other sites began linking in immediately. Because they used WordPress, the site “speaks” easily... more »

I’m writing this on the Tuesday night of the Democratic National Convention, and so I apologize if this advice comes a little late for some of you. But we still have two nights of the DNC and then the RNC to go. I thought I’d help you “listen” to the national conversation that goes on in real time during these events and throughout the year.

On Twitter: When people choose to write about a common event or person, they precede that noun with a # mark. For an event, someone usually comes up with an accepted shorthand, in this case #dnc08. (Sports fans take note - it’s proper etiquette to write “#red sox” or “#cubs” for this same reason.)

Go to search.twitter.com and put #dnc08 in the search field. (I’m guessing the tag for next week will be #rnc08, but check Twitter to be sure.) There you will find a stream of “tweets” which will run the range - but which are always indicative of the range of opinion that’s out there. (There are also some pretty funny observations.) You will also find mainstream reporters and others sending messages right from the floor. It’s not too overwhelming, and you only need to check in as you see fit.

For blogs: There’s no better tool than Technorati.com. This dedicated blog search tool scours the live Web to find out what people are talking about. You will see a tag cloud on the front page. Sure enough - the big tags... more »

Users of the new Apple iPhone 3G are reporting problems with reception. I can vouch for that: I'm one of them. Apple bragged about how this new phone would use the faster AT&T 3G network. One problem: we keep losing the signal.

This is not an isolated event. There may be a problem with a chip inside the phone itself. With Apple selling millions of iPhone 3Gs this summer, you'd think this would rate as a top story. After all, we saw plenty of pieces on how the lines were really long when the thing went on sale, right? There was lots of great PR for the iPhone 3G. So why the lack of reporting on this significant development?

My guess? The pictures aren't as good. Long lines of excited people = good pictures. Bad reception on a phone? No pictures.

Online, there are plenty of stories. I found out about this from a Twitter posting by Steve Rubel, who pointed me to an obscure site that was writing about the story. Other sites began to pick up on it. iLounge and CNet have it now. But still - only a handful of mainstream media outlets are reporting this. If it weren't for the Web, I wouldn't know about the story, and I'd think I was the only one having reception issues.

The Media Reinvention has to be about the stories that affect people personally. Accidents and fires? How do those compare to a story affecting, possibly, thousands of... more »

Please don't tell me you are waiting until the NBC broadcast is showing in your local time before posting the results on your Website. Via Lost Remote, the LA Times writes:

What gives, American media?

Report the news. Cover the Games. But give us a warning before ruining the evening’s entertainment.

Websites and newspapers handled “American Idol” eliminations with extreme delicacy, so why no tact when it comes to covering a race in a swimming pool?

OK, before we move any further - did the LA Times just compare the Olympics to American Idol?

Now, then... the Olympics is a worldwide event, and with the Web you can get live results anywhere, at any time. Thanks to MSNBC's truly remarkable online coverage, you can watch 3,600 hours of live coverage online. This is more coverage than all the previous summer Olympics combined, since they started televising them in 1960. So forget this business about keeping secrets online. How foolish will you look if you don't have the results - especially of your local athletes - on the front of your site?

"John Smith of our Hometown competed 12 hours ago in the 100m Freestyle! Just three more hours until it's shown on TV! Or click through here to click through to the page that clicks through to MSNBC's online spoiler coverage. Don't say we didn't warn you. Also - don't go anywhere near the Smith house on Main Street where our live truck is with... more »

Way off topic, but funny for a Friday. A pest control guy showed up at my door this afternoon. He tells me he "just wants me to know" that he's in the area doing some work for my neighbors. (I know he's here to sell me, but fine.) He says my neighbors are concerned about the pests in the neighborhood. (My kids, I'm guessing.) They've seen - gasp - ants. Wasps, too. Silverfish. Earwigs, for heaven's sake! (Had to look that one up. Did you know they don't actually go in your ear?) He engages me in this conversation for a few minutes. Then he moves in for the sale. Normally, it's $280, but because my neighbors are all using him, it's $160.

"Thank you, that's a very generous offer," I say. "But I have an insect control guy I use, and I don't have any ants or earwigs."

"What's his name?" the salesman asks.

"That's a private matter," I tell him, not seeing where that's his business.

"Well you could have told me that before!" he says, impertinently.

"You didn't ask," I respond, as I thank him for his time and he walks away, steamed.

I can't think of a better example of how not to sell someone. Imagine - the onus was on me to interrupt him and tell him, before he asked, that I wasn't going to buy.

Now, about my damn neighbors and their

I think we're going camerablind, and I don't know what to make of it.

Let me explain.

I took the family out for one of my little town's "concerts on the common" Monday night. (Picture New England town, postcard, bandstand, ice cream, Norman Rockwell... the works.) The local cable channel was, impressively, doing a three-camera shoot. Because they're cable access, they have limited resources, so one of the cameras was fixed, about 25 yards from the center of the stage, on the lawn.

Everyone sits at these concerts. It's a picnic kind of atmosphere, save for the kids running around. But I'll tell you, it seemed like whenever someone stood to chat with a friend, they stood right in front of that camera. Two guys stood there for a good few minutes, probably five feet away. As a TV guy, I wanted to yell something - but what? "Down in front - of the camera?" The cable access guys simply switched between their other two cams until the guys were done with their chat.

Parents pushed their kids on bikes, occasionally hitting a training wheel on one of the tripod sticks. One person stood in front of the camera and just, well, sort of examined it, as though it were a museum exhibit.

Here's another example:

The family went to DisneyWorld earlier this month. Of course, the place is lousy with cameras. But what do you do when you see someone taking a picture of their kids or friend? You stop, right? Let them have... more »