New Zealand add to the script … October 13, 2007
Posted by charlotteanne in crowdsourcing, interactivity, presentation.2 comments
May i suggest an addition to the script.
New Zealand, as Hepi noted earlier, has introduced an experiment in what is being termed “extreme Democracy” by opening its Police Act in a public Wiki for proposed revisions.
It’s pretty amazing, and worth noting as an example of how they are working to bring citizens into the process to create change (which, if memory serves, was your germ). So how about a screenshot from the New Zealand Wiki Web site and a few words in the script?
Fort Myers News Press Crowd-Sourcing September 29, 2007
Posted by Brian in crowdsourcing, hyper-local, interactivity.2 comments
I took a look at the News-Press branch in Fort Myers (I hope this is the site you mentioned, Jonathon) . Part of their site is a crowd-sourcing experiment. As expected, people post news, comment on those stories and discuss.
Sort of.
News-Press started it in 2005 (I assume, since the admin. first joined the board then). It uses phpBB, which is forum software that’s been around for a while. It looks and feels just like a forum, which is kind of drab.
The Fort Myers site isn’t using it in any spectacular, new way. People do post news items, but I believe that the medium is not suited for engaging interactivity in the news area. phpBB belongs to niches even nichier than news. There’s even spam. And the picture section is not news related, really. People post pictures of everything .
I’m giving the generation gap and a lack of people who use or want to use this as the reasons why they’re failing. It reminds me of our phone meetings and talking over AIM: it’s too choppy and broken. Perhaps a reason why people moved to video is that it seems to relieve some of that linear feeling.
A Tool with a Game September 12, 2007
Posted by Brian in announcements, ideas, interactivity, mashups, software.add a comment
In case anyone didn’t know, the latest version of Google Earth comes with an easter egg: a flight simulator.
This is, of course, way above our abilities to integrate a “game” within a wonderful tool, but it’s just something to look at.
backtracking a tad September 8, 2007
Posted by deene in interactivity, participatory journalism.2 comments
So this is a little off track, but still on topic. I posted this in a comment but figured it would make more sense to make it into a formal post.
The ENC of my paper holds this thing once a week called “The Tony Awards” (it’s an attempt at punnery-his first name is Tony) where he talks about what was good in the previous week’s paper. It’s to give a little recognition to staffers etc. . . So anyway, one of our reporters did an indepth on the resurgence of heroin in the Flint area. It was a really excellent story and it stirred a great deal of response from our community, including a fairly well written letter from a girl in her 20’s who has struggled with heroin addiction for years. We edited it for length, but not much else and published it on A1. During the Tony awards our ENC pointed out the reporter’s story as being really good because of the community response. What he said really struck me and I wrote it down. This isn’t a direct quote, but it’s a decent paraphrase.
We used to be all riled up about this thing called citizen journalism. Well, after dealing with it for a short time we, of course, realized that there is no such thing. Journalism is a craft practiced by trained professionals. But writing is not. [Brin’s] story was an example of good, solid journalism, but this letter was an example of reader provided, well written content. And any time we can generate a response that gives us that, then you know it’s been a good day.
I thought it was an interesting view of a topic so many of our contemporaries are struggling with. What do you think?
What are we trying to accomplish here? September 3, 2007
Posted by charlotteanne in ideas, interactivity, participatory journalism.2 comments
I saw some comments this past week that made me think some of you needed a repost of something I wrote long ago and far away (OK, in June) … so here it is verbatim:
Every so often it’s important to ponder our mission and refocus. I promised you I would post this, so here it is, straight from the grant document.
First, here is the big picture from Knight :
The Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge Initiative seeks…
• New ways for people to communicate interactively to help people better understand one another in geographic communities, share know-how and generate passion in solving local problems;
• New ways for people to use information, news and journalism in geographic communities to imagine their collective possibilities as communities, and to set and reach common community goals;• New ways to dig for news and act on it in geographic communities, including new ways to collect, prepare and distribute information, news and journalism that reveals hard-to-know facts, identifies common problems, clarifies community issues or points out practical courses of action.
Now, here is what Dr. Dianne promised we would deliver:
“… an effective, efficient and replicable system with the capacity to generate and execute entirely new approaches to and examples of participatory community news.“
“… original and relevant models of news production, format and distribution, and it will make those models available to individual, independent and industry news producers
“… an entirely new form of participatory community journalism, one that is scalable, replicable, affordable and effective. Deliverables may adopt any digital format or approach – from a Web site, to a news application, to an immersive media simulation or platform. But they must be adaptable and relevant, useful to real people and real communities.”
“… Most important, the project will generate new approaches to community news production and delivery, which will be made available to all news producers across the country.”
Think about it. Ponder it. Print it out and put it inside your AP Stylebook under your pillow and grok it.
And first one to send me a link with the real origin of the word “grok” wins. 
(hint: it ain’t Steve Jobs!)
A conversation with Brian August 31, 2007
Posted by heperimita in data display, ideas, interactivity.4 comments
After seeing Brian’s Visualized Concepts post I was intrigued, but at the same time not entirely sure what the whole euler diagram thing was representative of. I had a conversation with Brian over IM that we agreed should be posted up here on the blog because it clarified a lot of things.
Me: i liked the visual of your idea
Brian: NeatMe: but im not sure if i completely understand it
Brian: Well, it wasn’t what I intended but I could really get that out
Me: the biggest disc of those series of discs, say the data represented news stories, would represent news in its broadest sense, am i correct?
Brian: Mmhmm. Each successive disk is a set of more specific stories
Me: so the next circle would be like new in the united states, and then the next would be politics, and then demoocrats and so forth am i right so far?
Brian: Mmhmm
Me: oh i get that part, but how do you get to see the interrelatedness that all the pieces of each set of data share?
Brian: Well, I couldn’t quite figure out how to display that.
Me: the aforementioned concept is the main drive of your idea though right?
Brian: yes, and now that I think about it, I believe that the circles would have to go in the reverse order which I gave them, If stories are getting more and more specific, they would have more and more tags, right?
Me: right, ok i think i see where you are going, if it was reverse order, the smallest disc would be items tagged news and then the next disc, which would be bigger than the first, would be political news, for example
brian: Right
me: i mean items tagged with politics and news
brian: Yes!
Me: yeah that makes a lot of sense and the more tags the story has the bigger the disc it would have
brian: Right
Me: i see why it is an euler diagram and not a ven diagram, because the euler allows you to organize unrelated subsets
Brian: Yeah, Venn diagrams must have all sets connecting
Me: right, there has to be some sort of overlap with a venn.
ok now does this function as a news interface? or is it a presentation of the interrelatedness of storiesBrian: The latter, I suppose If there were this means of navigation in the middle which was visually represented by my picture, there could be some initial qualitative factors to determine the compared news. You could, say, pick “Chinese news” and “American news” and then go down by tags. Start with politics. And the disk goes up a level to Chinese political stories on the right and American on the left, then pick democrats, then pick caucus, then …
Me: barrak obama?
Brian: Sure, Although at that point I think it might break I don’t know how much Chinese news would relate the two Other than that, I don’t know what else this would do
Me: hmm right, well it would be cool if it generated the stories related to barak obama and chinese politics
Brian: lol, Yeah. I think I mostly want people to get the feel that they’re not alone in the world, that similar occurances are spread across the planet
Me: hmm, well what about if it linked blog post tags together
Brian: Conceptually, it’s supposed to link any form of news with similar tags You just need to pick a medium. So, yes for blog posts
Me: ahh, i thought that would go well with the “not being along” theme
Brian: I agree. I mean, why not have text linked to podcasts covering the same material?
me: oh right, you could even do it with music and genres of music, subect matter of the songs etc
Brian: Mmhmm, It’s the categorization that matters. As long as people have tagged items accurately and plentifully, it should be good between any media.
old idea part 2 August 28, 2007
Posted by rebeccaperez in demographics, hyper-local, ideas, interactivity.add a comment
I was thinking on my game idea while I was having lunch, and I was thinking that this game could be either downloadable from news sites, or it could be an adobe shockwave program on the news sites. This way the papers aren’t paying to have their news as rewards for playing the game, but they may actually increase readership on the site if the game is on their own site. Plus having local papers with this game on their site enhances the idea of hyperlocalism through gaming. While I would want to play the New York Times version of the game most people would rather play a reporter in there “town”. I think a generic town would work best, but the ability to expand to more accurate “towns” down the road would be feasible. I also think that a lot of elementary and middle schools would love to have this game. The software game might be a later incarnation of this. Carmen San Diego became popular through schools, which led to parents buying the game for there kids. I also thought that a lot of parents might find this while reading the news on various sites and show it to their children. If CNN plugged this like Nick plugs its various online games we would be in business. I know I would have my son playing this game all the time once he learns how to read. I think my current revision of this game better fits the local idea, as well as why newspapers would want it.
Remebered one of my old ideas August 28, 2007
Posted by rebeccaperez in demographics, ideas, interactivity.3 comments
Lauren is very drawn to the game side of adding readers to journalism, and that reminded me of one of my original ideas. I envisioned a game with software that you buy, then log onto the internet to get daily updates for the game. Basically the game starts as a newsroom. You are a reporter being assigned a story. You then go out into the city and look for the components of your story. You talk to people, observe crime scenes, go to the courthouse, and even go to the library. When you have collected all of your pieces for your story you go back to your editor and he gives you the finished story. These finished stories are pulled from online news sources. The different news agencies pay us to be a part of the game. This game would be a little reminiscent of the Carmen San Diego games. If you get stuck when you are looking for your news info you can always go back to your editor for clues. I realize this is way beyond most of us in the executability portion, but it might be a way to get people to read news.
Neato August 26, 2007
Posted by Rob Ponte in interactivity.add a comment
Might not be related but I found this TXTual Healing thing that lets you text some message to a public wall from a cell phone via a projector, like so…
Might come in handy if we try to figure out a way to incorporate cell phones? maybe? found via the pulp from charlotte-anne’s cool links list, maybe we should post that up here?
rob
Even MTV. . . August 25, 2007
Posted by deene in hyper-local, interactivity, participatory journalism.add a comment
is getting into the local. This was a job posting someone I used to work with sent out to one of my listserves.
” Citizen journalists! Visionaries! Vloggers! This is your year. Now more than ever, the presidential candidates know that every vote counts, and that local campaign stops can be covered and spread worldwide by anyone with a cell phone. You have power.
As part of our collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Knight News Challenge, MTV is looking for one aspiring reporter from every state and Washington, D.C., to be part of our Choose or Lose team. We know that you’re already hitting the streets and doing this work. So now we’re giving you the chance to join a national team of journalists in covering this unprecedented election year from a youth perspective.
Ideal candidates will have their fingers on the pulse of issues that are important to young people in their states and be passionate about politics and the possibilities of new technology. Strong writing and reporting skills are a must. A distinctive voice and an authoritative point of view? Even better.
We’ll load you up with some production gear and bring you to MTV’s headquarters in New York City for orientation. In return, you will be expected to work in a paid, part-time capacity to file video, written or photographic stories weekly throughout the election year. Your pieces will be posted online and spread to mobile devices — and the top stories will be broadcast on MTV, MTV2, MTVU or MTV Trés each week.
Requirements:
· You must be at least 18 years old by December, 2007.
· You must reside in the state you are covering from January to November, 2008.
· You must have the time and ability to travel within your state and file at least one video, written or photographic story per week. “
It seems like they’re taking a leaf out of the Gannett’s MoJo book. I thought this was interesting from a local standpoint. Plus it’d be kind of a cool job. However, I’m again troubled by the potential for these positions to become un-objective. After all, it doesn’t say anything about the good folks at MTV helping the budding journalist to choose what to cover. . . or what not to cover. I know I sound like a broken record, but where do you draw the ethical line?
