Also: Current TV's comedy exploits | The iPhone bit | The Facebook bit | Gratuitous links at the end
Huffington Post is inviting its most active and articulate commenters (are you listening?) to blog on the site. Announcing the new feature, Paul Berry said the site's commenters are "a tremendous and under-utilised resource", so one commenter each month will be chosen to join the HuffPo's blogging squad based on how many fans they have, their tally of "favourite" comments and whatever else catches the moderators' eye.
The ever-erudite Scott Karp on Publishing 2.0 is intrigued: "The Huffington Post could have stayed with the more traditional media model of only "anointing" bloggers who have the type of professional credentials that makes HuffPost's stable of bloggers immediately recognizable as an impressive collection of voices. Or they could have taken the ideological Web 2.0 path and created an open system where anyone and everyone can have a blog on Huffington Post -- which would likely have destroyed a lot of value because being a Huffington Post blogger would have ceased to mean anything."
In a Q&A with the site's founder, Arianna Huffington, Karp asks if commenters will be acting journalistically, as in adding facts to the story.
"The real value of a commenter is similar to that of a blogger - the obsessive way in which he or she focuses on something that's being overlooked by the mainstream media, relentlessly drawing attention to something until it can no longer be ignore," she said.
It's well-thought out, and could well be adopted by other news sites - not least as a way of finding new blogging talent.
So how about it, you lot?
Current TV's comedy exploits
More Edinburgh exploits, this time in the form of Current TV, Al Gore's viewer-created TV project. Current staff are furiously promoting the channel's comedy award in Edinburgh's finest bars and clubs, which involves enticing the festival's comedic hopefuls into sending a three-minute comedy rant to the site. It's actually a useful prize: a three-part comedy series commission on Current TV and £1,000 in cash, which is two good pairs of shoes. [Cough]
The iPhone bit
iPhones contracts are being offered for pre-order by the UK site mobiles.co.uk, with contracts priced at £35 per month and handsets at £99. So does that mean O2 definitely has the iPhone deal - or is it a bit of hopeful hype from Carphone Warehouse, the company that runs mobiles.co.uk. The site's disclaimer points out that pricing and information for the iPhone is subject to change. No shoot, Sherlock. (Total Telecom)
The Facebook bit
ITV's on it, so it must have hit the mainstream. The station has set up a group for the documentary "The Muslim Jesus", due to air on 19 August. I would give a synopsis of the programme but, as you can well imagine, it defies being nutshelled.
I do wonder, though, if it has already stopped being newsworthy when Big Media tinkers with the tinterweb and assorted equipments. Sky in Second Life, the BBC Twittering, ITV in Facebook... Oh, so you've started playing with this stuff and realised it's actually quite useful. What do you want - a medal?
Sorry. Probably home time.
Gratuitous links at the end
As if we didn't have enough viral video earlier, I've been sent this Lichtfaktor piece and this link to an entire site about traffic wardens.
