American Idol Jordin Sparks in Ghana

Jim Long is in Ghana with the president as a cameraman for NBC News.

Jim says on his blog:

In nine days we will have traveled to Israel, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. My job with NBC News allows me unique access to history and I take advantage of these moments to share what we’re covering with friends on Twitter.

This morning I saw a post from him that points us to what was a live video stream using QIk of American Idol Jordin Sparks in Ghana.

Check it out.

Stay with the video until the end for a short tune from Jordin Sparks.

Jim is showing us the future... I'm excited by all the possibilities.


Jordin “Sparks” an Interest in Fighting Malaria in Africa:

American Idol Winner Jordin Sparks will make an appearance during the President and Mrs. Bush’s trip to Ghana tomorrow, in an effort to highlight malaria’s devastating effect on mothers and children throughout Africa. Last year’s Idol Gives Back charity special educated tens of millions of Americans about the malaria crisis in Africa and raised more than $17 million to fight malaria in Africa.

Visit: MalariaNoMore.org - Help Save Lives.

More:
Jeff Pulver: The Qik PSA: American Idol winner Jorin Sparks in Ghana Speaking out Against Malaria

NY Times Misses the Point of Twitter

Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review writes and article about Twitter for the New York Times, From Many Tweets, One Loud Voice on the Internet:

"Sending tweets broadcasts “I am alive!” Reading tweets satisfies the craving of many people to know the smallest details of the lives of those they love. But whether those twin impulses are universal enough to make Twitter really popular — that is, whether Forster’s admonition has an absolute logic — and whether the service can be made into a sustainable business, are quite unknown. I’m skeptical."

This is a good example of a journalist missing the story. It's like someone who writes a story on videoblogging and misses the fact that there's a whole community underneath the all those videos on web pages.

I found out about this article from Twitter.

I've written how Twitter is the Future of News and how Twitter helped me navigate parties and panels, and organize events at SXSW.

Newmediajim is using Twitter to give us behind the scenes look at NBC TV production. It's gotten me to watch a little NBC News.

My mom isn't on Twitter yet, but she's asked about it. ;-)