If you landed at onpointradio.org and wondered what had happened — well, don’t worry, you’ve got the right address. We’ve just replaced the old edifice with something a little more, shall we say, architecturally ambitious. Call it our own small version of Web 2.0…
When we set out to redesign On Point’s website, roughly six months ago, we quickly realized that we were actually talking about re-launching our whole web presence. Our whole way of being online.
You hear that phrase a lot: “Web presence.” And for good reason. Being present on the web is no longer an afterthought for any enterprise. Especially a journalistic one. If you’re not present — fully present — on the web, you might as well not exist.
But present in what way? What does it mean to be fully present on the web if you’re a radio show like On Point?
I thought about this question a lot over the past year, since I arrived here at On Point (by way of print and web jobs at The Atlantic, PBS Frontline, and The Boston Globe), and it led me to a couple of Big Thoughts (sorry!): first, that the website and the show are one and the same; and second, that they’re all about You.
We hear so much these days about new media overtaking the old media of print, radio, and television, it’s easy to forget that the old and the new co-exist and co-mingle in our daily lives. It’s not an either/or proposition. It never has been. It’s a question of synthesis, symbiosis — of what each can learn and acquire from the other as the distinctions between our media become less obvious and less relevant. For all of you who experience On Point here online, the website is the show, and the show is the website.
Which brings me, again, to you. The most important thing we’ve added to our web presence as we launch this new site is, in fact, nothing other than you. That is to say, your thoughts, your words, your online voice. Every show page and blog post we publish on this site invites your comments. We want you to be a living, breathing part of the conversation here. And as we go forward, we want to start bringing your comments from the site into the conversation on the air.
There are lots of other things we’ve added or changed on the site, and we hope you’ll let us know what you think of the whole thing — where we can still make improvements, and where we (hopefully, just maybe) got it right. And as always, we want to know what you think of the shows we’re producing, what topics you think we should be covering, what questions we should be asking. After all, you’re the reason we’re doing this.
Cheers,
Wen Stephenson
Senior Producer, On Point
Tags: on point
Bravo. I was hoping this site would evolve and better organization as well as comments is great.
I also like the fact that today’s show is already posted with open comments. If someone has a question and doesn’t want to call it in, maybe one of you can scan the comment thread and find something there that Tom can read live. I can say that I’ve been listening to this show for years but have never called in. I would, however, comment on a live show as a way of asking a question.
I”m also delighted that you’ve added RSS to the site and you should consider adding RSS to the comments as well (all comments and individual threads) so we can see when you’re posting new material, updating old, or if/when someone responds to one of our comments.
This is a great upgrade and I’m delighted such a fine radio show now has a fine web site to go with it. I’ve always thought that if you got this piece together it would add more to the show, not just in the way of commenting and community but also in making it easier for new listeners to more easily find old shows.
Well done (as Tom would say) my friend.
Posted by Richard, on July 31st, 2008 at 6:59 am EDTSorry, one more quick comment: Thank you for making your audio player more universally accessible. I’ve been time shifting On Point through the podcast which I subscribe to through the iTunes Music Store and I’ll continue to do that so I can listen to shows on my iPod on planes, but now I can listen to shows on the web. I’m a Mac / Safari user and I do not use Real Player. Thanks for making the playing of shows more accessible to me and many like me.
Posted by Richard, on July 31st, 2008 at 7:03 am EDTNice job, more info on programs, background and updated archives. Looks good to me and is definetly a lot easier to navigate and read.
Posted by Michael Bastian, on July 31st, 2008 at 7:48 am EDTRichard and Michael, many thanks for the nice words. I’m especially interested in your comments, Richard, about RSS and the audio player. The latter was a big priority of the redesign. Thanks again, and hope to see you around here often!
Posted by Wen Stephenson, on July 31st, 2008 at 8:05 am EDT-Wen
Another thought: Tom is undoubtedly starting from a list of questions/notes and to get more thoughtful comments in real time, it might be useful if, in addition to the topic overview there were a few questions listed for us commenters/listeners to chew on. This way you might get more comments in real time that were more “on point.”
Posted by Richard, on July 31st, 2008 at 9:30 am EDTRichard — absolutely. That’s something we’re starting to do right away.
Here’s a little peak behind the curtain at On Point: every morning at 7am we meet to go over the morning’s shows, and Tom sketches out the kinds of questions he’s going to ask listeners. We’ll start posting those questions on the show’s page, shortly after the morning meeting, and hopefully encourage all of you to start posting comments before we’re on the air. Then, who knows, maybe we’ll start using some of those comments in the show…. That’s the plan.
Posted by Wen Stephenson, on July 31st, 2008 at 9:46 am EDTJust a quick note - the right sidebar has a list of what’s “On Point Today”, but they both are stated as “Hour 1″. Looking at this, I’m not sure which show comes first. . .
Posted by Charley, on July 31st, 2008 at 10:11 am EDTMucho mejor. Gracias.
Posted by Maggie, on July 31st, 2008 at 10:11 am EDTWen: I don’t know how far in advance you can post what’s going to be on but I’d love to know more than the morning of what shows are coming. Any chance for a “soft” list of what you’re working on? I say this because as live commenting becomes more popular and useful to you I’d like to be listening more in real time to participate. I try to listen every day but can’t always make it happen. I’ll make it a priority if the topic is something I’m keenly interested in.
Posted by Richard, on July 31st, 2008 at 11:00 am EDTyou need to add a more prominent link to archives from the previous years. Right now that web page is a little difficult to find.
http://archives.onpointradio.org/archive.asp
Posted by Maria Klein, on July 31st, 2008 at 12:29 pm EDTSo loving the new website…congratulations! Will be visiting often.
Posted by Carol, on July 31st, 2008 at 2:40 pm EDTI wish you would review you coverage in the lead up to the Iraq war. You had many “experts” on who turned out to be dead wrong. Many of them worked for institutions that profit from wars such as MIT.
I called in on one show and stated that the Iraq war was about putting military bases near large oil fields. Both you and your learned guests said that I was being too cynical, that we, the US, were “spreading democracy” and “liberating the Iraqis”.
I think it would be healthy for On Point to evaluate what happened considering that you played a part in selling this war which has now resulted in millions of innocent deaths.
Posted by Edward Rynearson, on July 31st, 2008 at 5:37 pm EDTWeb 2.0 Is Like Pornography
Like so many tech articles posted since Tim O’Reilly coined the term in 2004, this one references “Web 2.0″ as if it were something tangible–or at least a concept with clear, concise definition. It is not. In 2006, Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee sagely observed that “nobody knows what it means”:
http://tinyurl.com/y6ewzy
And now in 2008, the most honest thing we can say is that “Web 2.0″ means whatever the techno-marketeer (ab)using it wants it to mean. Otherwise, why would intelligent people like Isaac O’Bannon still be writing articles asking “What is Web 2.0?”:
http://tinyurl.com/5solok
And, why would McKinsey’s just-released best-of-breed report entitled “Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise” …
http://tinyurl.com/6sxls7
… include no attempt at defining the term other than to list the “Web 2.0 Tools” that comprise or enable it? And even there, the chief ingredient is identified only as “Web Services”, adding more mystery to the mix as one ethereal term is offered up to explain another.
As originated in an Onstartups.com website design posting that no longer exists…
http://tinyurl.com/57a2u4
… “Web 2.0″ is like pornography: Nobody has defined it, but you know it when you see it.
Bruce Arnold, Web Designer, Miami Florida
Posted by MiamiWebDesigner, on August 1st, 2008 at 7:59 am EDThttp://www.PervasivePersuasion.com
The other reason to make a “soft” list of shows you’re working on is for your producers to reach out to us for resources they might not come up with on their own.
I think before this thread become the feedback magnet you should make a few posts in the back end of the site dividing up feedback:
Site feedback
Radio show general feedback
Ideas for new shows
Imagine this thread in a year. That’s enough to get you to think ahead a bit on routing feedback into places that will be a bit more permanent.
Posted by Richard, on August 1st, 2008 at 1:33 pm EDTHey, folks - sorry for my absence. Just trying to run a daily radio show! I appreciate all your feedback. I’m sorry, Richard, but the “soft” topic list probably isn’t going to materialize, for various reasons. But I get what you’re saying. As for “Web 2.0,” hey, just a little poetic license!
Back to the races.
Cheers,
Posted by Wen Stephenson, on August 1st, 2008 at 1:41 pm EDTWen
Looks great to this internet novice - it has kept my attention for a couple of hours here. Congratulations on a job well done, and your responders seem to agree.
Posted by PJS, on August 3rd, 2008 at 9:16 pm EDTHow about a bio on jane Clayson (sp?). She’s certainly a great part of your crew and it would be nice to read some background on her.
Posted by Richard, on August 4th, 2008 at 1:05 pm EDTI Love the show and listen every day but I have to say, I really don’t like the redesign! It’s a great improvement in it’s functionality but it’s visually cluttered and not very engaging (at least to newcomers I would think). When I go to the site my eye doesn’t know where to look first and it’s a bit frustrating. I hope the graphics will be refined at some point. Just wanted to comment on that, great content otherwise!
Posted by Andrea, on August 4th, 2008 at 4:48 pm EDTIt was great when I moved continents to be able to continue listening to On Point online. Broadband connections aren’t universal yet, and your Real/Media player options work far better on slower connections than NPR’s Flash streaming. Please don’t remove them!
Posted by gfn, on August 5th, 2008 at 5:10 am EDTWell, I never thought I’d be blogging On-Point, but I just had to comment that I love the new website layout. It’s very engaging compared to the previous one! Also I really enjoyed the 1983 “skinny” photo of TEA, ha. ~ From the Fortress of Solitude in the cornfields! Mike D
Posted by Mike Doherty, on August 8th, 2008 at 12:58 pm EDTSince you allow listeners to leave comments, why do you have such a primitive old-fashioned comment entry/editing tool?
There is no obvious way to preview my comments to check for spelling errors. typo’s, or other mistakes before submitting them, or to correct them afterwards, and there is no apparent way to embed typographical elements to bold or italicize text, for instance.
Posted by Peter Nelson, on August 11th, 2008 at 11:17 am EDTWonderful wonderful and increasingly wonderful! As a newly retired teacher, I am so thrilled that I can catch the show more frequently and just recently started visiting the website too. It will be an essential piece of continuing education for this 60 something gal.
I so enjoy Tom’s interviewing style and PRESENCE with all of his guests. I’d also like to second the appreciation for Jane Clayson’s recent stint on the show: so deep and sensitive on many serious topics.
Today’s show is very “on point” for me. Thank you all for the outstanding work that you do.
Posted by Ginny, on August 18th, 2008 at 11:45 am EDTGBW
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