Magazine content in a tidy bundle

One of the more enjoyable parts of my job is hearing from readers — especially when the feedback is positive. Given our recent switch from print to online, some of the comments I’ve received have been … well, less than complimentary. Let’s just say you got my attention.

To put things in context, the InfoWorld staff is excited about where we’re heading. But it’s only natural that during such a significant transition, we’d be suffering growing pains (for a discussion of the switch-over, check out my recent chat on IT Exec-Connect). In last week’s letter, I acknowledged that we could have done a better job of pointing people to our columnists, most of whom had converted their regular weekly columns to more frequently updated blogs. I’m hoping our new navigation aids on the old columnist pages help clear up the confusion.

But until now, we haven’t addressed the number one — and most frequent — complaint from onetime print readers, best summed up as, “Where is this week’s issue?”

Instead of having to hunt across all of InfoWorld.com assembling a collection of columns, articles, and reviews, readers have been asking for a select subset of InfoWorld‘s best weekly content (kind of like the old print magazine), delivered in a single, integrated, printable package. In response, we’ve created “InfoWorld Express,” an all-in-one PDF featuring the previous week’s top articles, as chosen by InfoWorld‘s editors. That means the best of our columns and blogs — Cringely, Schwartz, Margulius, Yager, Rist, Off the Record, Test Center Reviews — plus a weekly feature article, and more will arrive in your inbox every Friday after you register here. And, yes, if you miss InfoWorld magazine, feel free to print the whole thing out and read it in bed … or wherever a monitor would be impractical.

CTO 25 Deadline Extended: If you’re concerned that you’ve missed the date for submitting a nominee for our annual CTO 25 awards, fear not. We’ve extended the deadline to April 27. As always, the awards honor “technology executives who have demonstrated leadership within their companies and in the IT community.” If you know of a worthy candidate, get cracking; you only have until this Friday to get your nominations in.

Let’s Hear It for the Old Folks: Bill Tancer, GM at Web research firm Hitwise, rattled the crowd at last week’s Web 2.0 Expo when he revealed that the emperor — although possibly not stark naked — is severely underdressed. According to Hitwise research, only a minute fraction of users are generating and uploading content to all those Web 2.0 sites built around “user-generated content.” Just .16 percent of users are adding their own content to Web 2.0 poster child YouTube, and photo site Flickr does only marginally better, with .2 percent. The category winner is Wikipedia, with 4.5 percent participation.

But the surprising part of the story, for me, is the age of most Web 2.0 voluntary content generators. No, it’s not the Gen Yers and Milennials who are uploading the videos and adding all that commentary. Turns out that Wikipedia is built on the backs of participating 35-55 year olds. Even YouTube skews older than you’d think, with most active uploaders weighing in north of 35. In other words, old farts rule. As a card-carrying oldish guy myself, I say bravo. Now it’s time for my nap.