Columbia Journalism Review has an interesting feature article, “An Icon Fades” by Don Terry, that conducts a bit of analysis on the failure of Johnson Publications to transition from print publications of their flagship Ebony and Jet magazines into a strong position on the Internet.  Mr. Terry leads into his analysis of the African American icon with a brief bit of history.

Born November 1, 1945, Ebony showed off her glamour and vitality for decades. But she is tired now, debt-ridden and seriously ill, her once crystalline voice a raspy whisper. The black celebrities who once courted her now have other media suitors, thanks in no small part to the trail Ebony blazed. Too many readers and advertisers have followed them. “An Icon Fades” by  Don Terry.

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I’ve been tough on Newsweek.com the last few weeks, so I’v actually found a great article on a technology project that originated in Kenya, and has found significant usage across the the globe in all types of crisis situations — Ushahidi.com.

Ushahidi.com

Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, is a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008

While the Newsweek article is a bit awkward for numerous reasons — it doesn’t focus on the development of the open source project, the grants that sustain it or much else really. However, the article does give the project much needed coverage in the United States, coverage that will help the developers gain both monetary support and more importantly usage and developers. So, here’s a brief bit of the article — and I think the whole article deserves a read, if only to show how technology developed in Africa can affect the world.
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We are now adding sites and resources within sites to our black network section. We’ve added Weeseeyou.com, and hope to add more soon.

In addition, you will be able to add your own blog to our new site umoja.com. There will be a section in Umoja for both African Diaspora blogs and African Diaspora Websites.

We’ve got the new NetNoir.com logo hot off the press!

As we have said earlier, this site is gradually going to go through a process of uprgrades during the next three to four months. After our flagship site is running smoothly, NetNoir.com will get a full revision.

Evidently AOL.com is interested in promoting more differentiation on their main African American oriented vertical BlackVoices.com. Although BlackVoices can be considered the second oldest African American oriented site on the web. [Editor NetNoir.com is arguably the First Vertical African American site.] Their style and substance has not changed much in the last 5 years — despite the ample pocketbook of Time Warner (now Aol.com alone).

Update I:

“TheBVX is scheduled for a soft launch next Wednesday.” per BlackVoices.com own message board.

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