NORCROSS, Ga. (11ALIVE) – Becoming a hacker might be your best defense against cyber-crime. That’s according to a Norcross-based internet security firm.

Follow LIGATT Security on Twitter @LIGATT.

The Late Show with David Letterman has had a Twitter account for some time, but the feed has historically been little more than a promotion space for upcoming shows.  Now, Letterman’s thoughts are being mixed in.

Dave’s first tweet: “Do you smell veal and peppers?”

My favorite of Dave’s tweets (he only has three so far): “I’m making toast!”

National Public Radio talked with Trudeau about @Roland_Hedley and his penchant for tweeting.

Courtesy of Andrew McMeel Publishing

The man behind all of that is Shaun King (Twitter @ShaunKing).  While many in Atlanta have returned to their normal lives, the people who lost everything to the flood are still dealing with their lives upside down and King is right there next to them, doing everything he can do to help out.  He says he doesn’t want the aftermath of the Atlanta Floods to be anything like those of Katrina.

The folks at HopeATL.com are still looking for support.  Check them out online to see how you can get involved.  In the meantime, they have produced this video to highlight their efforts so far.  It is a nicely shot and edited piece.  I’d even go so far as to say it is “broadcast quality”.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OocR2jUpsRc

The proliferation of the OMB/BPJ has caused much consternation among old school reporters.  “How can I do all of this?” they ask. “The quality of my work will surely suffer!”

Now, with the growth of social media, reporters are finding one MORE task to add to their daily workflow: updating Twitter, Facebook, etc.

But, I contend that there are plenty of OMB/BPJs out there getting the job done and getting it done well.  Case in point: Julie Wolfe.

Take a look at this picture.  That’s Julie, sterilized and scrubbed in for a story she’s working on.  In the picture you can also see the tools of the trade: two cameras.  What’s that?  You only see one camera?  Look closer.  That’s right, she’s holding the other camera in her hand.

Armed with her iPhone, Julie (@juliewolfe on Twitter) has been Tweeting her way through covering her stories.  She posts messages and updates regularly, and has developed quite a following.  Afterall, Julie’s job is to communicate stories, ideas and information to people.  That’s what a journalist does.  Even though she’s employed by a TV station, she knows she needs to reach her audience on different platforms.

You might call Julie (with all of her gadgets) the Journalist of the Future.  But I’d say you’re wrong.  I’d say she’s the Journalist of Today.  And a darn good one at that.

By the way, the story she’s working on is remarkable.  It’s scheduled to air Friday morning.  But of course, you can follow the developments online:

Quinn’s Transplant: Photos and twitter transcript
Atlanta (11Alive) – On Tuesday, September 29th, 8 year old Quinn underwent surgery and got a new kidney.

Quinn has Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). PKD is a life-threatening genetic kidney disease affecting 600,000 Americans.

11Alive reporter Julie Wolfe spent the day in the OR with Quinn. Julie and others posted surgey updates throughout the day using twitter.

My experience during this event has been different than in the past.  With my background as a reporter, I’m used to being “in the field” during breaking news.  In many ways, I prefer to be where the story is.  But this week, I’ve been in the newsroom,  monitoring viewer submitted photos and videos and social networks.

For thoughts on the local media’s social media response My Urban Report has a great summary of the action.  I appreciate the nod is Amani’s analysis.

Another big nod goes to the Atlanta Twitter and non-mainstream media community.  The folks out there did a great job of keeping each other informed of the developments, even organizing the conversation with the #atlflood and #atlfloods hashtags.

Here at the station, I’m looking forward to the after action review of our coverage.  As usual, our team of journalists did an extraordinary job covering the story.  That being said, I think we are learning some important lessons about our engagement in social media during big stories like the flood.  We have a handful of reporters who have been tweeting constantly, our challenge is exposing the Twitter community to our reporters.

By monitoring Twitter, our newsroom was exposed to more breaking news as it happened.  Obviously there are a lot of rumors, but our assignment editors were able to take the Tweet leads and work towards independent confirmation.

Finally, I was amazed at the number of pictures and video people submitted to our website, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc.  Armed with little more than cell phone cameras in most instances, people were able to contribute greatly to the overall news coverage of the widespread flooding.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wH-e_rQABg

As I said earlier, I haven’t had a chance to decompress yet.  But I’ll work towards more analysis in the coming days.

The New York Times’ “Fifth Down” blog compliled a list of some of the best Twits and Tweets from the field.

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