Goodbye to All That ... and Hello to All This!

I should probably start off by apologizing for staying away from the blog for so long. But I won't. Sometimes life seems far more compelling—and certainly more demanding—than the blog. That said, I'm very happy to be back, and I look forward to providing far more regular updates in the coming (academic) year. And with that bit of foreshadowing ladled in, I have news:

I've left New York City, and for a time at least, my journalistic work. Tomorrow I'll start one year of study at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. Generally there's no silver cloud in which I can't find a dark lining, but not this time. I'll sum up the Nieman gig thusly: You really, really want to be me. I have one year to take anything I want at Harvard and MIT. In return, I have to provide my benefactors with ... nothing! In fact, the only stipulation is that I do no professional work while I'm here. That's one deadline I'm sure to make.

Naturally the Nieman program has acquired something of a reputation as a paid vacation, but so far as I can tell that's patently unfair. The curators tend to screen for over-achieving, workaholic types, with the result that the fellows tend to be the types who'll close down the library night after night, despite the fact they're not receiving grades for their courses (we audit our courses.) To judge by my cohorts, this year will be no different. They are, without exception, a superlative bunch.

Niemans are accepted on the basis of a study plan: Mine is to continue researching the impact of social media—on business, politics and culture. I'll be doing much of that outside of my coursework, and plan on sharing much of what I find over this blog. To be continued ...

Comments

[Jeffrey Kalmikoff]

Congratulations, Jeff! I can't wait to read all about your work!

[James Sullivan]

Cambridge is an awesome town. You're sure to like it better than NYC. ;-)

[alan]

Hey Jeff your cohorts are indeed an impressive array of disparate individuals by the looks of them.

Huge congrats on the move, Harvard, it could be a lot worse! Are you sure you will know what to do with yourself, no articles to write, no Wired deadlines, a life of leisure or at least some breathing/thinking room and hopefully plenty more time to blog.

Warm regards, Alan

[Jeff P Howe]

Thanks Guys. I'm pretty excited.

[Scott Havens]

Great News! Congrats!
S

[Panos Ipeirotis]

Congratulations!

"Howe is especially interested in researching the use of crowdsourcing for the development of sustainable journalism models.": As an interesting coincidence, yesterday at the New York Mechanical Turk Meetup, a representative from ProPublica (http://www.propublica.org/) mentioned how they rely on crowdsourcing and Mechanical Turk in order to supplement their investigative journalism. For their Stimulus package reporting, they mentioned how they get MTurk workers and others to check the websites of the communities around to the US, to find contracts given by government agencies to various contractors, how these contracts are progressing, and other useful information. Such information is so spread out that would be impossible to collect otherwise.

Looking forward for more news (pun intended).

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[David Rogers]

Congratulations! (jealously grumbling)

Enjoy the "non-gig" and I look forward to your future insights.

[twitter.com/AlanMairson]

Enjoy it all, Jeff -- including the fact the Red Sox are 8.5 behind the Yankees. :-)

[Ben Wilson]

Guys great new Crowdsourcing competition going on check out:http://tiny.cc/5JB3x - We want really talented individuals!

[Melesha]

Sounds like you got an awesome deal. Would love to study at Harvard and MIT and do what I want.

[Bill San Diego]

Just finished the crowdsourcing book and loved it. It really made me think about things differntly.

[John R. Sedivy]

Congratulations on your acceptance to this program and I hope you enjoy your time at Harvard! I look forward to reading this blog as you share insights from your research!

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[carl lens]

That's good news Jeff. Lots to write about ;)

[Monica Hamburg]

Wow! What a fantastic opportunity, Jeff! Congratulations and enjoy.

[Jenn]

Wow! What great idea! I'm a twitterholic (that's how I found you) and never heard of the Nieman program.
Great job!
AppraiserJenn

[microgaming]

Great job Jeff! These are great news for you and hope everything is going fine in the future. Take your time to drop by sometimes!

[juegos de estrategia]

hello friend!

[Paper on Research]

Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.

[Control Weight]

I did a small study less than a year ago about the impact of social media companies will no longer be updated but Talves data can serve you.

[Mens Health]

Good news Jeff!!!!! I'm really happy for you and I wish you good luck in the program...

[hikayeler]

Thanks good information

[Facebook Application Developer]

Congratulations, Jeff! I can't wait to read all about your work. Keeep it up man

[Eye Lasik]

Do not worry but I am waiting for further news with great eagerness.