New Media Timeline (2007)

By: David Shedden

May 29, 2007

Previous: 2006 / Next: 2008
Intro and links to the other years in the timeline

SERVICES, TECH & SOCIAL

On January 9, 2007 Apple’s Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone: “iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone”. We are all born with the ultimate pointing device — our fingers — and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.” The iPhone is officially released on June 29, 2007. (The first iPod was introduced in 2001.) (See also: Video of Steve Jobs iPhone Keynote Introduction, YouTube)
For the first time in a federal court, the press section has two seats for bloggers. This happens during the January 2007 perjury trial of former White House aide Lewis Libby.
“Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us.”
Mike Wesch, Posted on YouTube, Jan. 31, 2007.
“How the Internet Took Over.” USA Today, 2007.
34% of Internet users have logged onto the Internet using a wireless connection either around the house, at their workplace, or some place else. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
We Media Miami Converence. Feb. 7-9, 2007.
“Blog History.” Liz Donovan, Behind the News, April 9, 2007. (See also: “Blogs turn 10 — who’s the father?” Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache, CNET News, March 20, 2007, and Wikipedia’s “History of Blogging Timeline.”)
65% of all Internet users shopped online during the past 30 days. (Source: Nielsen/NetRatings, May 2007)
“Saving Our Digital Heritage.”
Jim Barksdale and Francine Berman, Washington Post, May 16, 2007.
“Knight News Challenge First-Year Winners Announced.”
Knight Foundation, May 23, 2007.
(See also: list of winners from newschallenge.org and E-Media Tidbits series index.)
“Fiftieth Anniversary of First Digital Image Marked.” National Institute of Standards and Technology, May 24, 2007.
(See also: a copy of the 1957 first digital image.) Although professional photographers began experimenting with digital photography in 1979, the Associated Press and Kodak introduced the NC2000, the first digital camera specifically designed for photojournalists, in 1994.
There are twice as many mobile devices as computers in the United States. The most popular mobile content in the U.S. is weather and sports, followed by news and entertainment. (Source: Online Publishers Association, May 2007)
“VIDEO: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Interview.” All Things Digital conference, May 31, 2007.
The Seesmic video discussion site is founded by Loic Le Meur.
An increasing number of Internet video viewers are contributing to the viral and social nature of online video. More than half of online video viewers (57%) share links to the video they find with others, and three in four (75%) say they receive links to watch video that others have sent to them. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
“The Evolution of Web Widgets.” Alex Iskold, Read/WriteWeb, July 11, 2007.
“Happy Blogiversary.” Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2007. (See also: “Slideshow: Blogs: Then and Now.”)
“The history of blogging founding-myths — based solely on what I can remember off the top of my head.” Rex Hammock, Rexblog.com, July 15, 2007.
“The E Decade: Was I right about the dangers of the Internet in 1997?”
David Shenk, Slate, July 25, 2007.
“Albuquerque extols its role in PC revolution.” Daniel Terdiman, CNET News, July 31, 2007.
“See Who’s Editing Wikipedia – Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign.” John Borland, Wired, August 14, 2007.
“Compact disc hits 25th birthday.” BBC, August 17, 2007.
“Google News Becomes A Publisher.” Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek, August 31, 2007. (See also: Google News Blog)
“Found in (My)Space. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are valuable sources of information for journalists.” Jason Spencer, AJR, Aug./Sept. 2007.
“Citizen Media Milestones.” J.D. Lasica, Social Media, Sept. 10, 2007.
In an online-only presidential debate and mashup presented by Yahoo! News (in partnership with The Huffington Post and Slate) the eight Democratic candidates field users’ questions. Phase one of the online debate was completed on Sept. 12, 2007.
“The Latest News Headlines — Your Vote Counts.” “What would a world in which citizens set the news agenda rather than editors look like? A new PEJ study comparing user-news sites, like Digg, Del.icio.us, and Reddit, with mainstream news outlets provides some initial answers.” Sept. 12, 2007.
“Digital ‘Smiley Face’ Turns 25.” MSNBC/AP, Sept. 18, 2007. (See also: “Smiley: 25 Years Old and Never Looked Happier!” Carnegie Mellon University, Sept. 2007.)
“Looking ahead to the ‘iPod moment’ for newspapers.” Mindy McAdams, Teaching Online Journalism, Sept. 21, 2007. (See also: “Meme: The iPod Moment.”)
“One Web Day and Tim Berners-Lee.” Posted on YouTube, Sept. 24, 2007. (See also: “Welcome to One Web Day.”)
“Bloggers in Burma keep world informed during military crackdown.” Richard S. Ehrlich, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 28, 2007. (See also: e-mail reports sent to the BBC.)
“Information R/evolution.”
Mike Wesch, Posted on YouTube, Oct. 12, 2007.
“2007 Web 2.0 Summit Review: How the Web 2.0 Conference Has Evolved Over 2 Years.” Richard MacManus, Read/WriteWeb, Oct. 23, 2007.
“Google Tech Talks: The Web That Wasn’t.” Alex Wright, Posted on YouTube, Oct. 23, 2007.
“Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance: Two companies expand advertising deal to cover international markets, Microsoft to take equity stake in Facebook.” Microsoft, Oct. 24, 2007.
“ICANN Community Thanks Vint Cerf for Extraordinary Efforts.” ICANN, Oct. 31, 2007. (“ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers.)
In November 2007 Google and other companies in the Open Handset Alliance introduce the Android platform for mobile devices, which they hope will be the foundation for future phones and applications.
“MySpace Joins Google’s OpenSocial.” Mike Shields, Mediaweek, Nov. 5, 2007. (See also: Google’s OpenSocial and Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace.)
“24 from 94, How Far We’ve Come.” CollegeHumor.com video. Posted on TechCrunch, Nov. 10, 2007.
“The Best Inventions of the Year: Computers.” Time Magazine, Nov. 12, 2007.
The Amazon Kindle reading device is introduced on Nov. 19, 2007. (See also: “Amazon Kindle Review: Igniting Interest in E-Books?” Melissa J. Perenson, PC World, Nov. 20, 2007 and “The joys of curling up with a good digital reading device.” Steve Silberman, Wired, July 1998.)
“Giant Global Graph.” Tim Berners-Lee, DIG (Decentralized Information Group), Nov. 21, 2007. (See also: November 2007 CNET video of Berners-Lee, who created the Web prototype in 1990.)
“Laptops Offer High-tech Hope in Developing Countries.” Jeffrey Brown, PBS Online NewsHour, Nov. 22, 2007. (See also: One Laptop per Child Web site.)
“Silicon Valley celebrates Commodore 64 at 25.” Daniel Terdiman, CNET News. Dec. 10, 2007. (The Commodore 64 computer was introduced in August 1982. See also: CNET video.)
“Here Comes Another Bubble v1.1.” The Richter Scales, Posted on YouTube, Dec. 17, 2007.
“How the Queen became very well connected. In a bid to appeal to the internet generation, the royals launch their own YouTube channel.” Caroline Davies, Observer/Guardian, Dec. 23, 2007.
“Blogs Celebrate 10th Anniversary.” NPR, Dec. 24, 2007.
“A Sad Milestone: AOL To Discontinue Netscape Browser Development.” Michael Arrington, TechCrunch, Dec. 28, 2007. (See also: New Media Timeline 1994.)
“Kevin Kelly: Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web.” Dec. 2007. (Video posted on TED.com.)

Pew Internet & American Life Project Reports
“Tagging.” Jan. 31, 2007.
“Wireless Internet Access.”
Feb. 25, 2007.
“Don’t Blame Me: It’s the Phone’s Fault!” June 20, 2007.
“Online Video.” July 25, 2007.
“Parent and Teen Internet Use.” Oct. 24, 2007.
“Why We Don’t Know Enough About Broadband in the U.S.” Nov. 14, 2007.
“Digital Footprints.” Dec. 16, 2007.
“Teens and Social Media.” Dec. 19. 2007.

THE MEDIA

“….the Internet as a platform for news continued to expand and mature, with more options offered to citizens than ever before. But with that have come nuances, some shaking out, and signs that not all elements of online news are growing equally.”
(Source: “The State of the News Media: Online Section.” Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2007.)
“Bloggers in the Courtroom a New Twist in Coverage.” NPR, Jan. 14, 2007.
“Apple Pro Profile: Washington Post.com.” Apple, Feb. 2007.
“New rule: Cover what you do best. Link to the rest.” Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine, Feb. 22, 2007.
The Poynter Institute releases some of the results from its EyeTrack07 research study on print and online news reading. March 2007.
“The future of newspapers? Asking the past.” Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine, March 29, 2007.
Google announces that it will acquire the DoubleClick advertising agency for $3.1 billion.
On April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech student cell phone cameras and text messages spread the news when a student shoots and kills 32 people, and then himself. (Related: “In tragedy, digital media came into its own: Cell phone cameras, blogs, text messages key in early (Va. Tech Shooting) reporting.” Mackenzie Carpenter, Post-Gazette, April 18, 2007.
“Journalism isn’t dying, it’s reviving.” Dan Gillmor, San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 2007.
“The Point / Journalism’s future is in global dialogue.” Mark Bowden, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 17, 2007.
“Playing on TV’s Turf: Newspapers are ramping up their online video offerings. Will that endanger local TV news?” Deborah Potter, AJR, June/July 2007.
“The Daily Telegraph Case: Multimedia Newsroom Integration.” London, June 26, 2007. Posted on YouTube.
A July 2007 Bivings Group report of America’s top 100 newspapers says that one-third allow comments on articles. In 2006 the percentage was 19%. The report also states that 29% require users to register before accessing their Web site. By 2008 the percentage will decrease to 11%.
CNN and YouTube host their first presidential candidates debate together. July 23, 2007.
“The iPhone will impact mobile journalism, news consumption.” Mark Briggs, Journalism 2.0, July 29, 2007. (See also: “The iPhone Is a Breakthrough Handheld Computer.” Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret, Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2007)
“Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Look at News on the Internet.” Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center, August 2007.
“Traditional Journalism Job Cuts Countered by Digital Additions.” Mark Glaser, MediaShift, August 24, 2007.
When professional journalists were unable to get into the country, bloggers in Burma (Myanmar) kept the world informed about anti-government protests against a deadly military crackdown in September 2007.
After two years of charging readers to access Op-Ed columnists, the New York Times ends its TimesSelect paywall. According to PaidContent, “TimesSelect closes down with roughly 787,400 active subscribers: approximately 471,200 home delivery subscribers, 227,000 online-only paid subscribers, and 89,200 free academic subscriptions through TimesSelect University.” (Related: “Consent Decree with the Open Web Shuts Down Times Select.” Jay Rosen, PressThink, Sept. 18, 2007.)
“Don’t blame the Internet, or the owners.” Steve Yelvington, Yelvington.com, Sept. 28, 2007.
“MarketWatch: Celebrating 10 Years Online.” David Callaway, MarketWatch, Oct. 2007.
“Is This the End of News?” Vanity Fair, Michael Wolff, Oct. 2007.
Various news Web sites create Google maps to report California’s spreading wildfires. (Related: “Tracking Fire Coverage.” Julie Moos, Poynter Online, Oct. 24, 2007 and “CA Wildfires: Watershed Moment for Collaborative Online News?” Amy Gahran, Contentious.com)
“Teaching Journalism in the Digital Age.” Nieman Reports, Fall 2007.
“Remarks by Tom Curley, President of AP.” Knight-Bagehot Dinner, Nov. 1, 2007.
“A Cautionary Tale for Old Media.” Steve Hamm, BusinessWeek, Nov. 5, 2007. (See also: Reporter’s Journal slide show.)
“Multimedia News.” Peter Horrocks, BBC News: The Editors, Nov. 12, 2007. (Linked to from: “BBC News reorganizes into multimedia newsroom.” Jonathan Dube, CyberJournalist, Nov. 15, 2007.)
“A Look Back from 2018.” Howard Finberg, Poynter Online, Nov. 14, 2007.
“Shocker: A Few Students Still Read Print Newspapers.” Steve Outing, E-Media Tidbits, Nov. 14, 2007.
“Data as journalism, journalism as data.” Rich Gordon, Readership Institute, Nov. 14, 2007.
“Doonesbury takes aim at MSM political reporters who blog.” Romenesko, Nov. 19, 2007. (Links to Howard Kurtz’s “Media Backtalk” and Doonesbury@Slate.)
“ABC News Joins Forces With Facebook. New Facebook Application Includes 2008 Presidential Campaign Reporting, Forums.” ABC News, Nov. 26, 2007.
“10 MediaShifting Moments of 2007.” Mark Glaser, MediaShift, Dec. 21, 2007.
“Read All About It: How newspapers got into such a fix, and where they go from here.” Paul E. Steiger, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 29, 2007.

Awards

The 2007 Editor & Publisher EPpy awards
(Archived list of winners

The 2007 Online News Association’s Online Journalism Awards
(Archived list of winners)
(Archived list of finalists)
The 2007 NAA
Digital Edge Awards
(Archived list of winners)
2007 NPPA Best of Photojournalism:
Web Site Winners
(Archived list of winners)
2007 Webby Awards
(Archived list of winners)
2007 APME Online
Convergence Awards
Washington Post
Roanoke Times
Lawrence Journal-World
2007 SND.ies Awards
(Press releasePDF)

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David Shedden