The New York Times examines sentiment analysis:

An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world's unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data.

This is more than just an interesting programming exercise. For many businesses, online opinion has turned into a kind of virtual currency that can make or break a product in the marketplace.

Amy Martin briefly mentioned sentiment during her presentation at Twitter Boot Camp in June (the sentiment stuff is in slide No. 9). The concept caught my attention because it strays from typical number-centric measurements like page views, user-session times or velocity. For someone like me, who believes numbers and non-numerical "soft" analysis must exist in harmony, it injects a much-needed psychological component into the audience dynamic. This commingling of data and feelings is why NBC Local's mood tool is so interesting.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves with the touchy feely business. Sentiment's power as a data point is limited because it's a loaded concept with infinite variations. If my "positive" could be your "neutral," how can a measurement tool adequately capture sentiment on a broad, numerical level? It can't. Not reliably, anyway. Wild swings and spikes will appear in graphs, but small percentage shifts between open-ended terms are too ambiguous to rely upon. That's why sentiment needs to function as a general data point for online engagement. It's a single tool on a big analytics workbench.

I was ready to rip this Twitter Effect story for being one of many "trend out of thin air" pieces commonly found in consumer-centric technology coverage. But I was pleasantly surprised to have my initial assumptions proven incorrect.

The headline teeters on hype, but the story itself asks a reasonable question -- do rapid-fire Twitter reviews influence film revenue? -- and (gasp!) presents multiple viewpoints that don't glom on to comfortable conclusions. The piece, which is really worth a read, says Twitter might influence receipts for some films. It's nice to see nuance for a change.

Fred Wilson discusses the effort behind good user comments and conversations:

But if the author of the news story, or opinion piece, or blog post, tends to the comments, replies to the good ones, signals the bad ones, chastises the loudmouth bullies, and generally runs the comment threads like a serious discussion group, a serious discussion will result.

It's an issue for the news industry because tending to comment threads is not part of a journalist's traditional job. But I would argue that it is now and they ought to get busy doing it. For one, the journalists that do it and do it well will be better read. And they'll be better informed. They'll get tips in the comment threads. They'll get constructive criticism that will help them do their job better. And they'll get leads on new stories before others will.

I'll add this: The tipping point for comments is when users stop talking to the author of a piece and start conversing intelligently with each other. Reaching this commenting utopia requires an inclusive mindset from the original author/writer/poster. You have to value discourse, not just top-down pontification.

Rupert Murdoch continues to bang the drum for pay walls:

"Quality journalism is not cheap," Mr Murdoch said, noting that the success of The Wall Street Journal's online subscription offering has convinced him that consumers will pay for news online that differentiates itself from the mass of information available free on the web. "A newspaper that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting."

There's a fine distinction within this excerpt: The Wall Street Journal is not a newspaper. It's a provider of targeted information that its audience uses to guide financial decisions. The value proposition is driven by the actions and outcomes the information facilitates. General news rarely offers this type of value, which means the commonalities between the WSJ and newspapers are limited to bits, print, ink and distribution.

That's not to say the WSJ doesn't provide a lesson for general news publishers. The key is to provide tangible, actionable value for the audience via content. That's what WSJ subscribers are buying (or configuring ...)