MediaShift Idea Lab

Ten Points on Funding Citizen Media

David Sasaki — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:47:58 -0500

Last week the Salzburg Global Seminar organized two back-to-back meetings which brought together passionate enthusiasts in the field of new media for three days, and then traditional funders of media development for another three days. Josh Goldstein of UNICEF Innovation and Erik Hersman of Ushahidi each blogged about the gathering. There has also been a flurry of blogging by Anne Nelson and Susan Moeller on the Strengthening Independent Media blog.

During the first meeting I gave the following presentation about my experience funding citizen media projects over the past two and a half years.

HiperBarrio began when a Colombian media professor teaching in Norway met a librarian in the small town of San Javier La Loma on the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia. It is part of Comuna 13, which was one of the epicenters of violence during the 80's and 90's. These days the town is mostly safe, but the only thing that outsiders knew about this place was its violent history.

The librarian wanted to record and share the small town's cultural history. So he taught ten of his regular library users how to blog, make podcasts, and short video documentaries. The project has become ridiculously successful. They have since secured more funding from local institutions, and they were cited in a proposal by the Fundación Empresas Públicas of Medellín, which led to a one million dollar grant from the Gates Foundation to build on the work that HiperBarrio has proved successful. Gabriel has since been invited to Chile to share his knowledge with their national library network. They won the Ars Electronica Award in digital communities this year and a 10,000 euro prize. These ten initial participants are now trainers who are paid to give workshops in other marginalized villages on the outskirts of Medellin.

In contrast, one of the Rising Voices grantee projects that so far has struggled to make an impact is Blogging Since Infancy, the blogging project of Plan Ceibal in Uruguay. Plan Ceibal is simply too large of an organization and too much bureaucracy stood in the way of quick and effective implementation.

These individuals belong to Foko, a citizen journalism training initiative and community of bloggers in Madagascar. They first began their work not too long after DreamWorks released their 2005 animated film by the same name. A group of Malagasy bloggers living in the diaspora was tired of the fact that the only international awareness of their home country had to do with cartoon animals. So they partnered with a few social groups - including several English language clubs - based in different parts of the island, and showed them how to blog.

They were mostly writing about what donors would consider "non-serious" content. Occasionally they would post short videos about environmental and social challenges in Madagascar, but a lot of the content is what would be considered diary writing. Then something unexpected happened: on March 17 a coup deposed president Marc Ravalomanana. 15,000 protesters took to the streets, many countries froze their aid programs, and misinformation was frequently spreading on the airwaves of the radio stations that managed to continue broadcasting. Amid all the chaos, this group of Foko bloggers became the go-to sources of information for the international press. They were featured on CNN live, the BBC, New York Times, and Reuters.

Looking back at it, Foko is an excellent example of what John West from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting called "pre-crisis training". It also underscores the importance of 1.) citizen journalism training programs, 2.) the translation and contextualization of local content for a global audience, and 3.) networks of media groups so that local voices can be amplified and understood when breaking news hits. A few months ago Malagasy bloggers and traditional journalists met to discuss how both can work together more effectively during times of crisis.

3) Act more like a social network and less like a parent

Funders are in a role to promote co-learning and collaboration among grantee projects. I recommend focusing on creating a sense of community among your grantees, but also make sure to bring in outsiders so as not to become exclusionary. Focus less on oversight and making rules, and more on encouragement and making connections.

4) Leave comments, make suggestions, don't hide

For some reason many funders feel that they shouldn't be seen in public interacting with their grantees. I think that they are also afraid that they will write something that they might later regret. That's OK - we all make mistakes and as long as you're humble about it, internet users are more forgiving (and less attentive) than you would think. I have yet to see anyone from any of the organizations which fund Global Voices (with the exception of Kristen Taylor when she worked at Knight) leave a comment on what we publish. Engage, interact, show that you care, don't be anti-social.

5) Don't waste their time with unnecessary paperwork

Much of my job is simply to act as a buffer between the lawyers, researchers, accountants, and auditors who want to maintain their institutions, and our grantees who are trying to do innovative work in communities with few resources. I know the psychic burden of trying to navigate through the various paperwork-lined hallways of bureaucratic mazes. It is enough to prevent almost any project from succeeding.

6) Invest in risk and learn from failure. Don't fund repetitive white papers that no one reads

This is the point I want to emphasize today. Citizen media is still a new field and most funders don't like to invest in a new field until they feel that they have sufficiently researched it. The research is costly. Big-name academics like Henry Jenkins and Jonathan Zittrain and are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to come up with self-evident (though barely comprehensible) conclusions, including that there is an online participation gap and that generative technologies are good.

This money can be and should be invested more effectively.

At Rising Voices the micro-grants we award are so small (between $2,000 - $5,000) that we are able to easily invest in high-risk projects that may seem doomed for failure. One such project was "Think Build Change Salone", which aimed to develop an internship program to place Sierra Leonean youth (including ex-combatants) at select development NGO's and then pay them a small stipend to blog about their experiences. It would have been an ambitious project anywhere in the world, but we must remember that at the time of the project Sierra Leone was ranked the least developed country in the world, and is still recovering from a brutal decade-long civil war.

In the end, the project did no pan out. But from a funder's perspective, Vickie's fascinating report about what went wrong and what went right during the project is absolutely worth the $2,000 we invested. Rather than funding costly research (almost always by western academics) about the challenges to local development, it is better to invest in high risk, local projects and learn from the challenges they encounter.

(As a brief aside, I'll mention that three other high-risk projects we have invested in are 1) Ceasefire Liberia, which has trained avid bloggers in Monrovia, 2) Nomad Green, which has established a committed group of environmental citizen journalists in Mongolia, and 3) Drop-In Center, which has helped give voice and credibility to Ukraine's nascent harm reduction movement. All three should have failed, but succeeded because of the passion of their coordinators and participants.)

7) Invest in what you're interested in. Build networks of expertise

This is especially true for intermediary funders like Rising Voices. You'll notice that many of our grantee projects are based in Latin America. This is, in part, because I speak Spanish and I spend a lot of time there. Grantees shouldn't be selected solely on the whims and interests of funders and program officers, but on the other hand, I believe it is healthy for funders to invest in projects that they can and want to help find success.

You do this by building networks of expertise. Again, this goes back to "act more like a social network, less like a parent." Encourage international conference organizers to invite participants to speak on panels. Encourage your grantees to focus on their relationships with local institutions - after all, local citizen media projects should be funded and sustained by local groups.

Personally I don't know too much about the field of AIDS prevention and HIV/AIDS activism. But it was clear after our first round of micro-grants that there was considerable interest in the use of citizen media to improve communication and advocacy efforts around the rights of HIV-positive individuals and the activities of HIV/AIDS-related NGO's. So we let a core group of passionate activists use our chat room, brand, and network to organize. We also provided a small amount of funding to produce a guide on "Blogging Positively."

The success of the initiative shows the importance of what Ivan earlier called the network effects of digital media. Because these activists were able to tap into the Rising Voices network, they also benefited from the Global Voices network, which helped amplify their cause, translate the guide into other languages, get it into the hands of local NGO's, and connect with the BBC and other mainstream media outlets.

9) Have fun

Mikel Maron works on international outreach for OpenStreetMap, an open-source Wikipedia-like version of Google Maps. He organizes events in Palestine, India, Kenya, and elsewhere to show citizens how to use basic GPS devices to build open-licensed maps of their communities. But he calls these events "mapping parties" rather than "workshops" our "capacity building events." The point is to have a good time, and to develop some valuable information in the process.

I know this sounds like something a young person feels compelled to include in his presentation, but the reality is that the return on investment for fun is extremely high and under-recognized by funders. One of the most difficult activities to fundraise for at Global Voices is our annual summit where our tireless volunteer authors and translators from around the world come together once a year for discussions, strategizing, workshops, and most importantly, to have fun. A couple years ago we asked our volunteer authors what incentivizes them to work so hard on Global Voices without receiving pay. A few of them mentioned the importance of giving greater voice and representation to the citizens of their countries. Others pointed to the benefits of belonging to a global, supportive community which values free speech and tolerance. But just about everyone said they hoped to be invited to the annual Global Voices Summit. If a funder is willing to invest in three days of fun, the return on that investment is a year of valuable content from volunteers based all over the world.

I will end with what I see as a need in the space of new media development. Even though it is easy to glance at YouTube and make the assumption that everyone under 30 knows how to produce a video in less than an hour, in fact, there is a severe shortage of individuals who have both the ability to produce digital media, but more importantly, the know-how and experience to teach it to others in an effective and responsible way. Production techniques should be integrated with media literacy discussions and a strong ethical framework which includes privacy issues, respect, and tolerance.

We need to train more trainers, and we need a directory of experienced new media trainers which is categorized by geographic area, language, and area of expertise.

New Citizen Journalism Newsroom Launched in South Africa

Harry Dugmore — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:57:19 -0500

During the massive Highway Africa conference, two Knight Foundation funded projects, the Iindaba Ziyafika ('the news is coming') Citizen Journalism newsroom and the Nika content management system, were launched.

The Iindaba Ziyafika newsroom has 10 computers and the ability to download photos and content from any cellphone (both wirelessly and through the most amazing collection of cables!). This means anyone can walk in, write a story, download a photo and get it published on the Grocott's website, or in the twice weekly print edition of Grocott's Mail.

You can watch this great SoundSlide show which captures the vibe and importance of the launch. Even the local mayor attended and cut a ribbon!

The newsroom is being used to provide ordinary South Africans with computer, cellphone and journalism skills. About 2,000 people will be trained over three years, and a third group of 40 teenagers from a local school have just completed a six-module, 10-hour course. For many of these students, this was their first time on a computer. Being able to send an SMS story (almost everyone has a cellphone) and see it show up on a website was an amazing experience.

First time on a computer, first email address

Most of these initial learners have had no prior access to computers or even email, and opening up their first email account and getting an email address was a big deal for them. If you can remember the thrill of sending your first email -- do you remember? -- you'll probably recall that something in your head told to you 'this is important and cool.' That's exactly what happened for the young people who completed the first course. They were thrilled to have a Gmail account and to be able to use it!

Check out this little video that some journalism students at Rhodes made about this first group of young citizen journalists. It's amazing to see how such a short course can open up so many possibilities.

Many of these students will be working on creating school newsletters and a school yearbook or annual magazine. All the well-resourced schools in Grahamstown produce these items, but none of the poorer schools can afford them. We're also hoping to receive more photos from their cellphones as well as stories and story tips. We are working on creating a new half-hour weekly show on community radio, "What's Up Grahamstown," that will launch next year and be filled entirely with citizen journalism content.

The Nika content management system

The launch of Nika content management system was also very successful. We have an online version of this very powerful CMS, which is build on Drupal. Nika is a citizen journalism platform that incorporates SMS and other forms of mobile messaging. In order to explain what it does, below I have included the text of the invite we sent out to all the attendees at Highway Africa. It covers all of Nika's new features and explains a bit about our decision to launch first with an online version and only supply the stand-alone LAMP based system to newspapers who want it later on. The text:

FOR DELEGATES WHO WORK ON NEWSPAPERS, OR ARE INVOLVED IN MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

At this year's HA conference the School of Journalism & Media Studies will be demonstrating a content management system (CMS) that we have developed over the past few years with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The system, called Nika after the isiXhosa word for "give", is a Windows-based programme built on the Open Source Drupal platform. After a year of testing it at our own newspaper, Grocotts Mail, we are now ready to make it available to other newspapers.

Nika, which has a user-friendly and customisable interface - the "Dashboard" - provides the following functionality:

Create stories or import them from other applications, run spell checks and word counts.

Add or edit headlines and slugs, add photos, add captions and write notes.

"Workflow" stories, simply by dragging and dropping them, through five queues:
-In Progress
-Newsdesk
-Subbing
-Layout

On the page. (Stories can also be dragged back into previous queues if they need revision or are held over.)

Archive stories, captions and thumbnails of photographs.

Retrieve earlier versions of stories in progress Search for archived stories using keywords or by previous edition or date range.

Receive text messages sent from cell phones directly into Nika: tip-offs/full-length stories/Multimedia Message Services (MMS) drop directly into the "In Progress" queue.

Send SMS news alerts and headlines to subscribers.

Grocott's Mail's version of Nika is a stand-alone system running off its own server. However the installation of this version requires a good deal of technical ability and capacity. For this reason, and to simplify access to Nika, we have also developed an online version which is easy to install and which runs off a secure server hosted by Rhodes University. However, it requires that users have broadband internet access.

From early next year we will make the stand-alone version available to users who have the technical capacity and support to install it themselves, or to those who are geographically close enough to Grahamstown for us to assist them.

At this year's Highway Africa conference we will be running two workshops on Nika where we will demonstrate how to use the system. Each workshop participant will be given a CD containing the installation software for the online version, as well as a user manual and installation guide. The costs for this are being met by our funder, and the software and documentation will be made available under a Creative Commons licence.

I'll blog more about Nika soon, but we've received a lot of great feedback, and we're looking forward to helping South African and African community newspapers get going with this powerful CMS.

AP News Registry Aims at Most Flagrant Infringers

J.D. Lasica — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:25:40 -0500

I left the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association Summit of newspaper publishers and ad managers Thursday just as two executives from the Associated Press were winding up their presentation on the new AP News Registry.

The new initiative, announced in July, contains two key components:

• All AP stories will be released online wrapped in a new microsoformat that includes rights info, who created it, etc.

• The wrapper also will carry a built-in "digital beacon," or tracker, to monitor use of the content by others to track usage and compliance. (As I understand this, the content is not encrypted but carries a lightweight bug technology.)

As a social media consultant and journalist who spoke at the summit just an hour earlier, I asked whether the dialogue and AP's plans were public information, and Kevin Walsh, AP's Kevin Walsh, Vice President of Marketing, responded, "It is now."

AP's plans were met with the predicable negative reaction in the blogosphere (see, for example, the comments at bottom of this article). But AP should be credited with its transparency during this process, and from what I heard at the summit, its plans make a lot of sense. Thousands of sites are unfairly piggybacking off the work of journalists, and if newspapers and news organizations like the AP are to survive, there has to be a mechanism for compensation.

As an internal AP document titled Protect, Point, Pay - An Associated Press Plan for Reclaiming News put it: "The evidence is everywhere: original news content is being scraped, syndicated and monetized without fair compensation to those who produce report and verify it."

Fair use won't be easy to define

It's a topic I have some familiarity with, having written Darknet and reported on Hollywood studios and media companies' reluctance to embrace their digital future. At the time I wrote the book, there was widespread music file sharing (there still is) but also an increasing recognition that the original Napster was misguided and the music industry needed to devise legitimate forms of compensation for the artists. (Apple's iTunes and Rhapsody are among the companies still trying to create a frictionless business model.)

My view on the new AP initiative is similar: Some reuse of AP's content is socially and legally acceptable, but there needs to be limits. What will matter, in the end, is how this plan will be carried out by AP and the cooperative's members. If they go too far and claim "all rights reserved" around the first two sentences of every AP article, the blowback will be enormous. Fair use exists, and in the past the AP has paid too little heed to those concerns — even though AP reporters rely on the same fair use doctrine in their reports nearly every day. (For example, I didn't get the AP's permission to use the graphic at the top of this post.)

Todd B. Martin, AP's Vice President, Technology Development, reassured the publishers in the room that the intent of the news registry isn't to go after every blogger who borrows a snippet of an AP news story.

Instead, Martin said, "We're not going to stop a blogger from cut and pasting an article. But we are giving you visibility into the 20,000 other domains where your content appeared and the top users and where it was monetized. So you can get a list of the top 100 [infringing] sites with over 100,000 views, and then facilitate business development opportunities" with the sites in question. The registry, Martin said, would help create new business opportunities and products and also buttress more rigorous legal enforcement of the AP's intellectual property.

That business development, presumably, would go something like this: You're taking our content without authorization. Sign up for a subscription, remove it, or face the legal consequences. It sounds as though AP will be creating a new category of subscribers that falls short of a standard membership subscription.

I asked the first question: When a blogger or third-party publisher reproduces part of an AP story on his own site or blog, how much borrowing is permissible? What is the cutoff point between fair use and a trigger mechanism that requires a subscription payment?

"We're focused on removing the ambiguity around the use of our content," Martin responded. "The registry will help you decide whether that use is permitted or whether it's a business development opportunity" requiring payment.

Which, of course, doesn't answer the question at all. For a simple reason: There is no bright line. But I do agree with AP on this: There is a line at some point. It comes down to context: reasonable lightweight borrowing vs. patterns of appropriating reportage and photographs for profit. It appears AP and its members will take things on a case-by-case basis until some conventions and rules of the road are established.

Recently in his MediaShift blog, Mark Glaser did a brilliant job of exposing the unscrupulous practice of sites like Gawker and site scrapers that reuse copyrighted material without authorization, payment or transforming it in a significant way: Using the 'Steal-O-Meter' to Gauge if Stories Steal or Promote.

It's a conversation we've avoided for a long, long time.

For News Organizations, Transparency is the New Objectivity

David Cohn — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:40:04 -0500

Back in the spring, I made an analogy about journalism being a game of chess. On the chess board of journalism, content is King (the most important piece) but collaboration is Queen (the most powerful piece).

To extend the analogy further: transparency is the board itself.

Unfortunately, freelancing is a horribly antiquated system. It works behind closed doors. Independent freelancers are left out in the cold and have to build personal relationships with editors to get any paid work.

These relationships are always one-to-one. This make it an outdated model. It made perfect sense 30 years ago, but now it needs to be re-thought. That will only happen when the process of journalism, including the business processes of news organizations comes out from under its cloak.

It was in conversations with Steve Katz that I realized one of the breakthroughs of Spot.Us is that we help make the process of journalism transparent.

Traditionally, news organizations are transparent with their finished work. "Extra, extra, read all about it."

That is necessary but in my opinion it is no longer sufficient.

If transparency is the new objectivity -- more than our finished product must be revealed.

In a discussion with another editor last week I realized another transparency boundary Spot.Us is pushing on organizations that collaborate with us: We force them to be transparent about where they spend their money with freelancers.

Freelancing is outdated

Thirty years ago, I would probably snail mail my pitches to editors with a self-addressed envelope inside so editors could write me back. Today the Internet allows freelancers to email pitches. But that seems to be the ONLY evolution in the process. Our communication in the process of procuring work, writing stories and editing stories is faster, but fundamentally happens in one-to-one relationships. The public never sees this. Nor do they see the pain of waiting -- which was the topic of one of my earliest blog posts from 2005 -- for responses, edits, or checks.

Here's what I wrote last week to the editor: "To work with Spot.Us you have to be transparent about where you would spend your freelance budget. Every organization that works with Spot.Us is transparent about where they are putting their dollars or at least where they are putting their editorial efforts."

The editor responded that it would be scary to make an editor's freelance budget so public.

That's exactly the point!

We are supposed to shine a light on other industries, public and private. How can we be expected to be a public beacon if we ourselves hide behind a veil of secrecy?

Some valid counterpoints

As always, I want to push boundaries but recognize that some aren't going to go anywhere. A few reasons why.

The process of journalism (editing, re-writing, etc.) is boring. We can make it transparent for the nerds who are interested, but let's not scare our audience off. Also: If you are investigating the mafia you don't need to title that in your Spot.Us pitch (I'm not THAT young and naive).
It takes energy to be transparent. Just because an organization isn't transparent doesn't mean they are nefarious -- it simply means there's 2,134,241 other things that they're focused on instead of this issue.
You tell me!

I recognize I come at this from one extreme. I believe transparency is the new objectivity and that news organizations are hurting in part because as large institutions they are ill-equipped to be transparent. Here's how they are ill-equipped:

They are ill-equipped to be transparent in their personalities: It's okay to have a voice. Personally, I'm sick of the traditional news voice. But it's the only one they have.
They are ill-equipped to be transparent in their editorial processes. Distributed reporting is an emerging art and large news organizations have yet to master it. (For some good examples of distributed reporting, see NewAssignment.Net, OffTheBus.Net, ProPublica's efforts and this Nieman Journalism article.)
They are ill-equipped to be transparent in their business processes. Distributed funding is also an emerging field. (See Spot.Us, ReelChanges.org, Global For Me.)
They are ill-equipped to be transparent in their day-to-day operations: It's a dream of mine -- a newsroom cafe.

As always: I say this not to be an "anti-old media" person. That's not what I'm about. I bring it up in an effort to point to areas where I see room (and need) for improvement.

Community Media's Path Out of Obscurity

Tony Shawcross — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:20:02 -0500

Times of great change represent an opportunity to shift power, and the power shift many of us are working towards here is the democratization of the media. We seek to establish truly effective alternatives to the commercial media system, alternatives that are not relegated to obscurity.

To build an effective alternative, we must begin by identifying the needs that are neglected by commercial media. Then we can capitalize on the competitive advantages that non-commercial media institutions have over our corporate media counterparts.

Today, the media serve three primary needs:

The media facilitate consumerism: The media informs consumers about products and services available to them. Designed specifically to deliver audiences to advertisers, most media organizations do a superb job of connecting corporations with consumers.
The media provide entertainment: The average U.S. resident spends more time watching TV than all other leisure activities combined. Whether advertising-based or subscriber-based, corporate media is very effective at entertaining, at least for mainstream audiences.
The media represent social communication: The media represent the collective conversations of a community. It's how diverse perspectives are shared and it serves as our primary connection to life outside of our immediate surroundings. It is the forum where we debate and plan collective action.

Except to the extent that it fulfills the first two goals, corporate media falls short of fulfilling this third goal, especially in low-income communities that are of little interest to advertisers. This is where opportunities exist for non-commercial community media.

The advantages of non-commercial media organizations

If non-commercial media organizations hope to play a more significant role in the next evolution of the media landscape, we have to identify and capitalize on the strategic advantages of our unique structure:

Constituent-led: Whereas commercial media have to balance the needs of the audience with the needs of advertisers and shareholders, we have an ability to focus entirely on the needs of the communities we serve.
Unbridled distribution: Commercial media must cling to their intellectual property and pursue distribution models that support digital rights management (DRM). We are able to spread our perspectives as widely as possible and engage in the distribution methods that our communities want, without regards to IP.
Mobilizing the underserved: Because they're driven by advertisers (or paid-subscription models), commercial media are not interested in engaging communities that represent little or no buying power. We have the capacity and motivation to engage these large, underserved audiences that are neglected by commercial media.
Cooperation: Whereas commercial media institutions compete with one another, we have the ability and incentive to collaborate with other non-commercial production and distribution entities to share content and lower costs.

Capitalizing on our advantages

Instead of capitalizing on these strategic advantages, most non-commercial media entities have developed a model that mimics commercial media. They embrace business practices that put them at a significant disadvantage. PBS is a perfect example. According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS's mission is to "ensure universal access to non-commercial programs and services that inform, enlighten, and enrich the public," especially content that "addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences [and] reflects America's cultural diversity." This mission is very similar to those of the public access TV stations where I work, but the approach most PBS stations take to accomplish that mission is not one we should emulate.

1. Constituent-led. Few PBS stations are truly community-driven. They cater to advertisers through underwriting, and do a worse job of it than commercial media. We have an opportunity to serve the audience above advertisers. Our communities can engage in programming and scheduling through collective voting and user-generated content.

We can focus on programming that serves audiences further down the Long Tail, diverse interests often neglected by commercial media, as opposed to creating the same content that corporate media produces to target affluent audiences. While PBS produces more home-improvement, financial planning, and travel shows to appeal to mainstream audiences, we have an opportunity to focus on content that truly addresses the needs of the underserved and reflects America's cultural diversity.

2. Distribution. If universal access to information is our goal, it's simply antithetical to release content with the same rights restrictions that commercial media entities follow. How can PBS stand for universal access while telling teachers that use of their content in an elementary school is "punishable by civil and criminal penalties"? Very few non-commercial media organizations make any significant revenue from IP anyway, and its time for us to be embracing Creative Commons instead of traditional copyright.

Universal access, especially for the underserved, means releasing the DRM/IP shackles and making content free to distribute for any non-commercial purpose. Any non-commercial media institution that is not embracing Creative Commons is missing a significant opportunity to have their content spread widely through channels our corporate media counterparts resist.

3. Mobilizing the Underserved. Underserved communities cannot be reached by replicating the content or approach of commercial media, or they wouldn't be underserved. With diverse interests and values, it's generally not cost effective to produce content targeting small, disengaged communities. But public access TV stations across the country have shown that, given the opportunity, these communities can represent their own perspective in the media by producing their own content.

PBS has been confusingly slow in embracing or innovating around use of user-generated content. They remain focused on a production model in which they are greatly outmatched by commercial media institutions; instead of being the leaders in engaging the underserved, they compete for the very same audiences targeted by corporate media.

Like most of the emerging business models of the Internet age, the opportunity exists in serving audiences further down the the Long Tail. We should be at the forefront of empowering our communities to contribute niche content for hyper-local and fringe audiences, and embrace subject matter and audiences that are distinct from those targeted by commercial media. This requires a shift away from content creation and towards content organization: encouraging and improving upon user-generated content while developing better searchability, categorization, and community ratings and recommendations that enable viewers to find the content they want to see.

4. Cooperation. PBS does not collaborate effectively within PBS, much less other non-commercial content producers and distributors. There is an opportunity for PBS stations, public access stations, and other non-commercial media to behave as a unified network, distinct from the commercial networks in our commitment to our local communities.

Imagine each local PBS or public access station serving as a conduit to accessing the very best in user-generated or pro/am content nationwide. We can go beyond sharing content, and share open-source software designed to put our communities in charge. Alone, even the largest community media organization lacks the budget to provide online services and features that rival most corporate media institutions. However, by cooperating in the development of open source tools like the Open Media Project, we collectively have the resources to surpass the online experience of any commercial media institution. That, combined with our interest in truly engaging and empowering new audiences, could result in a participatory community of viewers unlike anything we've seen before.

These four opportunities are the focus of the software we are developing for the Open Media Project. The software has been beta-tested in seven cities across the U.S., and we've recently applied for a $2.2 million BTOP grant to support further development and implementations in an attempt to realize the full potential that exists for a cooperative non-commercial media sector. Other organizations across the country are beginning to work with local development firms to implement the software on their own, and we hope that this project can play a role in reaching our collective goal of democratizing the media landscape.

Improving Access to Information is One Way to Make Reporting Cheaper

Amanda Hickman — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:21:01 -0500

When he's not toasting escapism, our tireless editor Mark Glaser has been asking why reporting costs so much. I can't tell you much about investigative reporting (a $400,000 product of which started the conversation), except to say that six figure salaries do add up. But I can tell you that when it comes to local reporting, improved access to information could make a big dent in the expense of getting a story written.

If you want to take a look at distribution of discretionary funds by the New York City Council, you have to start with a 400-page PDF full of tables of information. And then you need someone on hand who knows how to pull tables from a PDF into a workable spreadsheet. That, or you need a pencil sharpener and a calculator. And while highlighters and pencil sharpeners are not blowing holes in anyone's reporting budget, the hours required to process this information certainly are. The situation is absurd: this information started out in a database and there's no reason that anyone -- whether they're a reporter, civic gadfly or deli manager -- should have to jump through hoops to put it back into a database.

Of course, those hoops are just for information the city already makes public. If you want to know where pedestrians are being hit by cars, or how parking placards are distributed in a city where curbside space is valuable and abuse of parking privileges is well documented, you'd better know who has that data and have someone on hand who can write an iron tight FOIL request. Want to know about the distribution of lead poisoning cases in the city? For that you'll need lawyers.

FOILs take time, which means money. Lawyers, too, tend to want money for their time. One way to make information cheaper is to step up the data requirements in local transparency laws. New York City is considering legislation that would amend existing public records laws to require that information be made available and that it "be presented and structured in a format that permits automated processing." That is to say, raw data. Just publish it -- don't make us ask.

With the law itself lingering in committee, the mayor's office announced a competition, NYC Big Apps, for applications that will use city data. Perhaps the idea is to deflect attention from the bill, which the mayor is no fan of. The contest, which offers a prize that includes dinner with the mayor, is not really a substitute for making data available.

Steve Romalewski, a pioneer of web-based GIS and community mapping projects, is also skeptical of the contest. He notes that it offers no explicit guarantee that any datasets will be fully available for the long haul, and that no one has offered any explanation of why just 80 data sets are included.

Romalewski also rattles off a good list of datasets that are currently only available on a per-request basis -- which means, among other things, that you need to know they are there. His list includes the types and locations of small businesses, green spaces, recreational spaces and housing violations, as well as interim multiple dwellings (aka lofts) throughout the city. He also points out that land use data currently must be licensed from the city at a rate of $1,500 per year if you want all five boroughs: not a trivial expense to small projects like Gotham Gazette.

Romalewski argues that we shouldn't have to ask for data--that most of what city agencies aggregate belongs in the public domain. I'm with him there, and curious as I am to see what comes out of NYC Big Apps, I'm not convinced that the contest going to help put city data in the public domain in New York City.

I don't know whether or not the legislation currently sitting in committee is the answer we need, but I do know that New York City is not alone in needing far better access to the data that civil servants use and aggregate in the course of their work. I also don't think that simply providing us with the raw data is enough -- but at least it's the bare minimum we need to fill the role of government watchdog.

By the way, if you want that list of under-publicized city data, skip to the comments in Romalewski's post.

The Power of Proximity: Possibilities for Hyperlocal Journalism in South Africa

Harry Dugmore — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:44:45 -0500

Newspapers everywhere are being forced to rethink their role as simply providers of the news of the day. There is (and always has been) an appetite for immediate information and news you can use that is hyperlocal and also more detailed and granular, to use an increasingly popular word for the kind of gritty features implied.

Take crime for example: a newspaper might learn of a dozen small incidents taking place in their town, but only cover a few that are deemed newsworthy according a set of gate keeping decisions that differs by paper. Sometimes only bigger crimes get reported or, in South Africa, crime where there is actual violence. Cell phone snatching or clothes being pilfered off someone's clothesline is not likely to earn any column inches in even the smallest papers.

And yet it might well not be the size of the crime, nor its nature, nor the levels of violence that are interesting and newsworthy. Rather, it might have everything to do with proximity. You may already know if your immediate neighbor's laundry got pinched off the line, but you might not know that such deeds are happening two or three blocks away. A veritable small-scale clothesline crime wave may be happening (and may be coming your way!) without you knowing.

Of course it's very hard to cover all crime comprehensively using the print medium. But doing it online, and using various forms of visualization like crime incident maps -- elements of which can easily be reproduced in the print edition -- is an approach that holds a great deal of promise for small newspapers eager to reinvent their role in local communities.

There are lots of organizations, including the Knight Foundation and its grantees, that are looking hard at making this kind of hyperlocal information available. EveryBlock is the most famous and has done pioneering work. (It was recently bought by MSNBC.com.) David Sasaki, also a Knight News Challenge winner, wrote a very useful overview earlier this year about how maps can create social change and community involvement.

Inspired by these pioneers, what we have in mind in South Africa is to pursue a focus on the visual presentation of material, with map overlays and mouse-overs that reveal an incident and link it to further reports, context etc.

Mapping out a strategy

We are focused on launching at least four kinds of maps this year, and we know there are a lot of issues. Knight grantee Leslie Rule, in a thoughtful post about hyperlocal mapping, talks about being at a conference where an audience member argued that hyperlocal crime mapping websites can "reinforce stereotypes about where crime occurs, and more importantly, who commits it.... And don't necessarily inform the community, offer insight into issues, or shed light on potential solution"

David Sasaki also made the point that "2009 I believe will be the year of developing map-based interfaces which enable neighbors to share information with one another, leading to direct action and increased community involvement." (This is as opposed to, I suppose, just receving the information.)

We want to inspire people to take action, find community solutions, and pressure police to do their job well (arriving to help when called to do so is a big deal here in South Africa). We also want to help communities and the police see patterns of crime, For example, Grahamstown seems to be South Africa's leading city for laptop theft, with more than one pinched every day.

To do all of this well, we know we'll have to move beyond information provision and stimulate, encourage and possibly even facilitate organized responses. Hopefully,this powerfully conveyed new information and accompanying investigative journalism will spur action by readers and users.

We are of course looking beyond crime as well.

At Grocott's Mail, and as part of our Knight funded Iindaba Ziyafika project, we're also looking at ways of combining citizen reporting and local sources of data such as daily police reports, property valuations and sales, information about government services (such as opening times of government health clinics and when specialists are on duty), as well as a range of information about entertainment, sporting events, and upcoming community events.

Challenges of data-driven information

There appear to be three challenges in providing these kinds of data driven, information-heavy services. The first is getting a regular supply of data so the information is up-to-date, useful, and has a 'news' quality to it. The second is selecting ways of displaying the information so that it is most useful to readers. Will maps do the trick, and how scalable and searchable do they need to be? What kind of filters can we provide? The third challenge is allowing for comments, feedback and their aggregation, which will transform some of raw data into trend analysis type stories.

With the example of crime information, much of the required information appears to be available from local police stations and emergency response agencies. Depending on the country and the police station, it is often free available. In the U.S., the information is available in digital form, which is the whole rationale behind the automated parts of EveryBlock.

In South Africa, both the format and the level of accessibility seem to differ. It looks like we might be able to get access to crime reports at the local police, but only in hand-written form! So there's some work to be done!

This type of approach does take time and effort. It's a very different kind of journalism. But whether it focuses on hyperlocal crime, hyperlocal pollution and health issues, local economies, or information about the provision of local services, this approach provides an essential, missing link between what citizens find useful to know, and information that can inspire them to help change things in their community.

Getting off the ground in South Africa

Four graduate students have received scholarships from the Iindaba Ziyafika project and are working to getting these projects off the ground. They are being supervised by Vin Crosbie, an international expert in new media (among other things). You can read about his recent experiences working with us on his blog.

By the end of 2009, our work will be available online at the Grocott's website and in truncated form in the print edition.

In a separate project, we're also looking at how Grocott's online can be a conduit for greater involvement in civic life. We hope to create an early warning system that can alert people when important local issues are coming up for debate or decision by the government. Too much reporting of civic events is done in the past tense; it is critical, we believe, to anticipate and frame information for people in a way that encourages participation. I'll blog about some of our thinking and plans for that in the near future.

Meanwhile, and to conclude, the big news from South Africa is that the first (as far as we know!) Citizen Journalism Newsroom is opening formally on September 8 in the Grocott's Mail office in downtown Grahamstown. We're already using the facility, providing training and getting ready. (We have computer terminals and other facilities available for people come in and use.)

We're also launching our citizen Journalist "Photo of the Week" competition with a small weekly cash prize, and our CJ "Story of the Week," which also carries a small cash prize. We'll see if the walk-in facility at the office and the incentives start increasing the already impressive flow of stories and photos already coming in.

Finally, we also launching the Drupal based NIKA Content Management System at Highway Africa with two half-day trainings for community newspapers from across the country and the continent. Not only is NIKA a great CMS, but it also facilitates the direct reception of SMS through a modem and some Kannel-based SMS gateway bridges.

NIKA will initially be served over the web, but the stand-alone fully installed LAMP system, with Drupal and NIKA configurations, will be rolled out as users move beyond the web-only offering later this year.

Keep watching this space in September for some links to our official launch and some training photos!

Future of News & Civic Media: The Motion Picture

Christopher Csikszentmihályi — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:37:49 -0500

Last June we held our Future of News & Future Civic Media conference, here at MIT, with many recipients of the Knight News Challenge meeting, speaking, and demoing their work. We chose to use the "barcamp" un-conference technique for most of the sessions, where all participants to the conference were able to host a session. This flat, democratic style turned out to be perfect for a group of citizen journalists, social software hackers, information activists, and researchers.

Here is a brief video (by film makers Paula Aguilera and Jonathan Williams) that gives a sense of the flavor of FNFCM09.

How Citizen Journalists Can Learn from Work of 'Citizen Scientists'

Dan Schultz — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:43:08 -0500

Last week I visited Carnegie Mellon University's website for the first time as an alumnus. The front page, often dedicated to highlighting faculty work, had a picture of an iPhone screen displaying brightly colored data visualizations. I didn't have to look past the first two words of the title -- "Citizen Scientists" -- before I knew that it would be worth my time to keep reading.

The article described how Eric Paulos, an assistant professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, is equipping "everyday mobile devices" with sensors used to collect reliable scientific data. The point of all this effort is to create "a new generation of 'citizen scientists,' connected both to the environment and each other." Just in case that quote isn't clear enough: the study might as well have been funded by The Knight Foundation.

What's interesting about this project is that members of the scientific community, a professional group that arguably maintains higher standards for verification than journalism, are trying to harness the crowd in the same way that we are. In fact, they are actually going out of their way to do it. This demands an explanation!

But First, Outer Space

At the end of July, an amateur astronomer found a giant hole on Jupiter. Some people were surprised that the ocean-sized crater was discovered by a hobbyist instead of a professional. I, however, wasn't shocked. My reaction could be the result of a personal perception that astronomy is relatively accessible to "the common man." Or maybe it's because looking to the sky is such a primal thing to do. Either way, the subsequent media dialogue exposed me to several new spins on the "amateur vs. professional" debate.

A few days later, I saw a follow-up story on Digg about another amateur observation. This time someone found a bright spot on Venus. It was admittedly less interesting than the news from earlier in the week. I scanned the comments anyway and saw a highly rated one that asked, "Why is everything first discovered by amateur astronomers? What the heck are we paying the professional astronomers for?"

Using my recently gained knowledge of the issue, I replied and pointed out that professionals have bigger and better things to do; it doesn't make sense for a PhD to use a million-dollar telescope to look at something that a hobbyist could view using a thousand-dollar one, especially when there is so much of the universe left to unlock.

Once again, there seems to be a lesson here for journalism.

The Three Classes of Scientists

It's important to know where amateur and citizen scientists fit in relation to professional ones. Here's how I define these three broad classes of scientist:

Professional Scientists - These people make a living from science. They have the expertise, the patience, and the resources to handle the big stuff.

Amateur Scientists - Folks who tackle science as a hobby. They enjoy participating and have varied levels of knowledge. They also have the capacity to make direct contributions to the scientific community because they're exploring the same reality as everyone else (regardless of what quantum physicists and philosophers might say).

Citizen Scientists - These individuals are equipped to contribute to science when they are empowered by tools and networks. They aren't out conducting experiments or learning methods, but they are generally willing, with the help of professionals, to provide crowd power and reap the benefits of the resulting information.

Here's the interesting part: between the story of the amateur astronomers and the vision of Eric Paulos, all three types of scientist have beautifully compatible relationships.

Professionals can safely focus on daunting tasks, knowing that amateurs are ready and willing to take on the smaller stuff (like keeping tabs on Jupiter). The community standards are clear and ultimately bound by cold hard observable fact, so amateurs can make meaningful contributions without diluting the knowledge base. Meanwhile, citizens are being empowered by professionals to help the scientific cause in a way that informs individuals and improves their lives.

Takeaways for Journalism

Now it's time to take the leap back into the land of journalism. If you buy my claim that scientists and journalists all care about informational integrity and the quest for truth, then several things can be extrapolated:

If professional journalists take the lead by clearly defining expectations, explaining best practices, and implementing an accessible infrastructure, then amateurs can contribute without disrupting the industry.
If amateur journalists do a good job of covering a smaller scope of topics or areas (e.g. the hyperlocal), then professionals can focus on the deeper, otherwise inaccessible issues.
Professional journalists are responsible for creating and maintaining the citizen network if they want it to meet their standards.
Citizen networks need more than a host. In order to reach full potential, they need to be explicitly empowered through tools and guidance.
A symbiotic relationship between the professional, the amateur, and the crowd is not just possible, it's socially optimal.

And there we have it: If the journalism industry can create an infrastructure that allows amateurs to contribute reliable information, then professionals will be able to dedicate more resources to epic reporting. If local papers can find the capacity to set up and empower meaningful citizen networks, they will establish a major foothold in the evolving domains of community and information. Man, science is useful.

Now we just need to define the standards (and explain how to meet them), create that infrastructure, and set up those networks.

iPhone image via Carnegie Mellon University.

Blogging Positively Guide Encourages Open Conversations About HIV/AIDS

David Sasaki — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:38:47 -0500

Rising Voices is pleased to announce the release of "Blogging Positively," a collection of case studies, interviews, and best practices about citizen media related to HIV/AIDS. You will be introduced to some of the leaders and veterans of the HIV-positive blogging community, and also to citizen media projects which aim to spread more awareness about the pandemic. The guide contains tips for workshop facilitators and teachers, and points readers to helpful resources for new bloggers just getting started.

The Blogging Positively project began two years ago when Kenyan blogger Serina Kalande, volunteered to lead a working group to discuss how citizen media can best be implemented in the field of HIV/AIDS. Many of the project proposals we've received at Rising Voices have been related to spreading awareness about the pandemic. We wanted to learn from those proposals - and also from existing citizen media initiatives - to better understand how new media tools can be used most effectively to spread awareness and encourage discussion about HIV/AIDS-related topics. We also wanted to better understand some of the risks and obstacles facing bloggers who are HIV-positive, or who regularly write about HIV/AIDS-related topics.

Three online chats brought together people from all over the world, and from a wide range of fields. In addition to the creation of this guide, the participants of the chats collaborated on the creation of a map-based directory of HIV-positive bloggers who bravely defy stigma and discrimination to communicate their situation to the rest of the world.

To celebrate the release of the Blogging Positively guide, which has been two years in the making, today we begin a one-week campaign to update our map of HIV positive bloggers. If you are a positive blogger, or if you have suggestions for links to add to the directory, please send a message to Global Voices Public Health Editor Juhie Bhatia.

The Blogging Positively guide was authored by Janet Feldman of the Kenya AIDS Intervention Prevention Project Group and ActAlive, which encourages the use of the arts and media to address HIV/AIDS and other human-development challenges. Additional contributions were made by Solana Larsen, Sahar Romani, and Juhie Bhatia. Daudi Were coined the term "Blogging Positively."

The importance and impact of this guide depends on our collective ability to get it into the hands of activists, and to encourage their contributions to the global conversation that is curated and amplified everyday on the Global Voices website. Please consider sharing this with your network of friends and blogging about it. If there are HIV/AIDS organizations and support groups in your region, please send them a copy of the guide.

Finally, if you would like to learn more about what bloggers around the world have to say about the AIDS pandemic, don't miss our Conversations for a Better World series which has so far featured commentary about HIV/AIDS from bloggers based in Africa, China, Cambodia, and the Middle East & North Africa.

HuffPost Social News Helps Close the 'Awareness Gap'

Rich Gordon — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:00:00 -0500

Back in December, as a team of Medill students (including the first two Knight News Challenge "programmer-journalists") was developing the News Mixer project, I wrote an IdeaLab post called "The Revolution in Social Software is Finally Here." It captured my thoughts based on my experience of working with the students on the News Mixer project, which offered new approaches to news commenting driven by the capabilities of the Facebook Connect service.

News Mixer was one of the first Web sites to take advantage of Facebook Connect to build an engaging social experience around news. It won praise from people interested in conversations around news and, more recently, was recognized by the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism.

News Mixer, though, was just a demonstration Web site, a prototype designed to show the potential for increasing engagement and improving the caliber of news conversations. This week, one of the top news sites on the Web -- the Huffington Post -- launched a new service (HuffPost Social News) that delivers on that potential. I've been playing around with Social News this week, and it's quite compelling.

As you can see in the screenshot I've posted on the right, now that I've registered for Social News, every page of huffingtonpost.com displays recent activity by my Facebook friends on the site. I can see what my friends are reading and the most popular stories among members of my Facebook network. I can also choose to highlight my Facebook friends' comments on each story, rather than see comments from every user.

Furthermore, as you can see from my second screenshot at the end of the article, each user's profile page looks very much like the one the News Mixer team created. It displays recent activity by your Facebook friends and a list of friends who have accounts on the Huffington Post.

Why is all this important? Because the biggest problem facing content creators today is what I call the "awareness gap." This refers to the fact that every piece of online content reaches only a fraction of the people who would find it interesting or relevant. On the Web, because the volume of content continues to grow dramatically, many others who might be interested in a particular piece of content never know that it exists.

How can we close the awareness gap? For a long time we've been waiting for better personalization engines to produce the "Daily Me" predicted in the 1990s by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT. The problem is that it's hard to build a good personalization algorithm. Just because I found one article on a topic interesting doesn't mean I want another one on the same topic. But I'm very likely to be interested in content my friends are interested in, in part because my friends and I inevitably share some content interests, and in part because I'm inclined to keep up with what my friends are interested in so we have a common converational foundation.

Filtering news based on my friends' interests does raise some troubling issues -- especially the risk that my friends and I will build an echo chamber in which we close ourselves off from information that challenges our preconceptions, or that relates to topics that are important but not interesting to us. But the more I look at HuffPo Social News, the more I agree with Chadwick Matlin of Slate's The Big Money that it is in part "the future of journalism."

Students Get Blogging Seminar, Digital Cameras for SochiReporter

Alexander Zolotarev — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:03:06 -0500

I've just returned from helping deliver the first seminar about blogging and citizen journalism ever held in Sochi, Russia.

Just weeks away from launching my Knight News Challenge project, SochiReporter.ru, I organized a seminar for third, fourth and fifth year students from the five leading Sochi-based universities. Thirty-five journalism and IT students participated in the two day seminar called "Web and Journalism: The New Trends." We received press coverage in over 30 online publications, in newspapers and from three of the city's leading TV channels. Clearly, this city, which will host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, is ready to embrace new ways of reporting and sharing information.

The seminar was held on July 30 and 31 at the peak of the hot Black Sea summer, and at a time when the students are on break from their studies. We invited them to come learn about new media and share their experiences and knowledge. Most of the students turned out to be active web users who already had profiles on the leading Russian social networks. That was a good sign.

Presentation of SochiReporter

On the first day, I gave a lecture about the state of traditional and new media. I also discussed multimedia storytelling principles, demonstrated the difference between a newspaper article and a blog post, and talked about how to choose a topic for a blog, build its audience, and make it successful. The students definitely showed interest in blogging. We also focused on international user-generated content and citizen journalism projects, and the way Web 2.0 is empowering people worldwide.

My session culminated in a multimedia presentation about the SochiReporter project: its concept, structure, design, use of Web 2.0 tools, innovative features, and the opportunities the website offers the citizens of Sochi as they prepare to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

One goal of the seminar was to let the students, who are the most active web users in Sochi, be the first to learn about the project. We also want to give them the tools and knowledge needed to document and report on the changes in their city. SochiReporter is the first ever initiative to build a multimedia archive about the preparation of a host city for the Olympics. We expect to have many contributions from students.

SochiReporter's First Partners

Joining me as a presenter at the seminar was Sergey A. Stalnov, the director of public relations for Kodak Russia. He gave an exciting lecture on the invention, development and current state of photography in the digital age. One highlight came when we discovered that there was a 12-year-old girl in the hall with us. We presented her with a free camera, much the same way that Kodak did in 1930 when it introduced the Eastman Anniversary camera. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the company gave away roughly 500,000 cameras to 12 year olds in Canada and the U.S.

After that, each student introduced themselves and shared ideas about how they could contribute to the project. At the end of the first day, the students were given 20 portable HD Kodak Zx1 video cameras (they're waterproof, which is an important feature in a seaside city like Sochi) and 10 voice recorders, all of which were provided by Kodak and Olympus, SochiReporter's first partners. The students chose topics and themes to cover using the new devices and headed out into the field. On the second day, they presented their work. These stories and photographs will be the first content available at SochiReporter when the project launches in September.

The students showed a lot of enthusiasm and seem to be excited about the project. "I acquired new multimedia reporting skills at the seminar," said Artem Shehovtsov, a student at the Sochi Institute of Information Technologies. "I definitely think that SochiReporter is a breakthrough, a really timely project for our city, which is now in constant change. I am anticipating SochiReporter's launch [in order] to start uploading my content."

At the end of the two days, each student was given a certificate commemorating their participation. They also received T-shirts decorated with the project's logo and a few words that I hope they will take to heart: "I am a SochiReporter."

Liberian Bloggers Show Everyday Life in Monrovia

David Sasaki — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:22:17 -0500

Liberia was afforded a rare glimpse of international media attention this week when United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the capital Monrovia and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Photo of Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson and Hillary Clinton by Glenna Gordon

Glenna Gordon, a Monrovia-based American journalist who was involved in a training workshop for Liberian bloggers, notes in an article for Time Magazine that the United States government has given Liberia over $2 billion since 2003, "the highest number of aid dollars spent per capita anywhere in the world."

Most of the news articles about Clinton's visit to Liberia focus on the basic facts about Liberia. Writing for Xinhua News, the Chinese government's official news agency, editor Li Xianzhi observes:

Liberia is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and the Atlantic Ocean. The history of Liberia is unique among African nations, notably because of its relationship with the United States, according to Wikipedia."

Few, if any, of the articles quote Liberians or describe what everyday life is like in the capital city Monrovia. For that you will need to consult Liberian bloggers.

Ruthie Ackerman is a freelance journalist who is writing a book about Liberian refugees living on Staten Island in New York. Rather than simply writing about the refugees, however, Ackerman wanted to help them tell their own stories. With a small amount of funding from Rising Voices she started Ceasefire Liberia, a blogging platform for Liberians living in Staten Island and Monrovia. Much to her surprise the Monrovia-based Liberian bloggers have so far contributed more content to the website than their New York-based peers.

Nat Nyuan-Bayjay, a Ceasefire Liberia blogger in Monrovia

Writing from Monrovia, Wellington Railey has described the life sentence handed down to 23-year-old Nigerian Chuku Diwl Afika who was convicted of murdering a Liberian youth after a scuffle outside of Apple Night Club. Nat Nyuan-Bayjay, Ceasefire Liberia's project manager in Monrovia, posted his photos and observations of two opposing protests related to Liberia's controversial Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Describing the pro-TRC group of protesters Bayjay writes:

The demonstration, widely believed to be a state 'stage-managed' demonstration was held under the auspices of the National Consciousness Movement of Liberia (NACOMAL), a pro-advocacy group and well organized as hundreds of people flocked upper Broad Street downtown Monrovia where they assembled as they were transported from various suburbs of Monrovia in arranged commercial buses.

A view down Broad Street in Monrovia

Nyuan-Bajay also published a post on Clinton's visit titled "Clinton Reaffirms US Support To Liberia: Pledges US$17 Million But Wants Action on Corruption." Most impressive though has been Nyuan-Bajay's investigative reporting on issues like Bushrod Island's recent water shortages. He also routinely collects opinions from ordinary Liberians on issues ranging from the death of Michael Jackson to Independence Day celebrations.

So far Liberians living in New York have shown less interest in text-based blogging, but are enthusiastic about video. Garretson produced a 4-minute video about his son on his way to school. Some of the members of Ceasefire Liberia in Staten Island belong to the hip-hop collective Genocide which performed at Park Hill Day last month. Their manager Liz shot this video of their live performance. You can hear another Genocide track on the most recent Ceasefire Liberia video of a celebration of Liberia's Independence Day in Trenton, Jersey.

Stay tuned to Ceasefire Liberia to learn more about Liberian realities on both sides of the Atlantic.

Making Progress Toward Launch of Phoenix Light Rail Pub

Aleksandra Chojnacka — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:17:19 -0500

Daily Phoenix is a website and mobile app for Phoenix metro residents who use or live around the light rail. We are providing news and information per stop. Information includes business and services, events, promotions, gossip, networking opportunities, etc. all on a stop by stop basis.

Where are we today?

It has been an incredibly busy couple of months! As Adam mentioned in his last post, we were featured on "Good Morning Arizona" last month. They want to have us back when we finally launch the project and have us demo it on live TV. Very exciting!

We've made lots of progress in building the site. We've found two great guys (our programmer, Caige, and designer, Scott) who are helping us build and launch our project! Working with them has been a great learning experience, from building wire frames to information design. We're hoping to have a beta launch by the end of September. With this goal in minding, we are planning a launch party in Tempe, Ariz., the first week of October. The launch party will be a great way for us to demo our product and conduct a fun scavenger hunt using the mobile version.

One of the other things that has kept us busy these last few months has been getting in touch with stakeholders to get buy-in and assistance. We've met with the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, Phoenix Arts Council, Tempe Convention and Visitors Bureau, and have a few more meetings in the works. Everyone has been very supportive and excited about the idea.

Our next step is to meet with the local businesses around the light rail to build awareness, get their feedback on what we're doing and how we can make it better to serve their needs.

We still have A LOT of work ahead of us but are making great progress so far.

Sidenote: We are STILL debating the name of our site...

Community Radio in India Includes Report on Eclipse, 'Bundeli Idol'

Balachandran Chandrasekharan — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 06:39:19 -0500

Gram Vaani successfully launched its first pilot a few days back with Radio Bundelkhand! Radio Bundelkhand is a community radio station operating in the small town of Orchha in Madhya Pradesh (India), and was the first community driven CR station to start broadcasting after the new policy. It is being run by Development Alternatives, one of the largest NGOs in India. This pilot has been an excellent experience for us. We saw the folks at the radio station produce Bundeli Idol, a strong competitor to the American and Indian Idol (!!), and a program on the recent solar eclipse, and got lots of feedback about our system. Bala and Zahir spent a week there setting up GRINS, our platform for community radio stations, and training the radio station staff and volunteers to use the system.

Up and running in a day!

Myself and Zahir reached Orchha on the 13th morning. We had a short meeting with Ms Anujaa (Station Manager - who handles bulk of the administrative work and also finds time to guide the reporters in their content creation), Mr Ashok Shukla (he is the top technical guy here and a jack of all trades!), and Mr Amit (who works closely with the reporters on content production). We took a few hours to set up our box, and figure out the cabling in such a way that the computer used for running the front end of our system could also be used for their usual production work. It seems they do have access to audio and computer related equipments of decent quality, through the city of Jhansi (Jhansi is about 16kms from Orchha). We could get some of the reporters to work on the system from time to time. We used the feedback from them to fix some usability bugs and improve the general stability of the system. These activities of testing, feedback and updating the system went on in parallel for the better part of the week we spent there.

Zahir fixing up some cables

Bala giving a tutorial on GRINS

The young reporters

One has to experience the infectious enthusiam and high motivation levels of these young reporters in person. They are mostly in the late teens to early twenties age group. They are a friendly, confident and talented bunch of people. Belonging to the villages near Orchha, they are able to connect with the local population and draw them out. Writing scripts for their own programmes is well within their comfort zone, and so is working on the computer to create audio content. They are quite proficient in using Audacity for their editing needs, and before GRINS was installed, relied on winamp for playing out their content on-air. The old system will be used as a backup for a few weeks before they come to rely solely on GRINS. Even though they are interested and motivated to learn new things, they face some barriers in knowledge acquisition. On the production side, their toolset is mostly limited to Audacity and some audio format convertion tools and the like. Content management is a tough nut with files stored in difficult to navigate folders. GRINS should be able to help them with this bit. I suspect that even a short training session on the variety of production tools available should do them great help. They have the inquisitiveness to explore things and follow things up on their own. So far, the training they have received has been on field work. They were unfamiliar with the concepts behind audio mixers and were not confident in their knowledge of the connections and configurations of their existing setup.

Content production

They do not have adequate access to quality content which they could use as raw materials for their content production. The nearest public library is in Jhansi (about 16 kms away), which, apparently serves mostly old content. They have access to an unreliable internet connection, but even when connectivity is available, they are unable to make effective use of it since most of them are not conversant in English. I think we should try to make quality content available in local languages. Lack of access to experts in fields like basic sciences is yet another reason why they are unable to produce radio content related to such fields. They were quite taken in by the 3D interactive globe on my KDE desktop. They found kstars quite interesting too. I believe we could make localized versions of similar educational software available to these students. I suspect software like Celestia, Kgeography, and Parley will turn out to be immensely popular! Next time Gram Vaani visits Radio Bundelkhand, we will be carrying some of these software with us.

Creating a program on the solar eclipse

We got a chance to watch them make a programme on the solar eclipse (July 22). They aimed to counter prevalent superstitions on the subject. Through discussions and reading articles from magazines, they quickly built up their own knowledge and promptly recorded a fifteen minute programme. We chimed in with our knowledge of Earth, Universe and Everything. (And yes Nishi, you were right, Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the sun, while Alpha Centauri is the nearest star system. My bad.). She was pretty comfortable with her astronomy, since she had a chance to brush up on it when she prepared for the Railways Examination. All this happened under the watchful eyes of Shuklaji, who gave them a few suggestions on how to structure the show. His ability to contribute to things both technical and non-technical is invaluable to this station.

Bundeli Idol and advertisements

Radio Bundelkhand regularly broadcasts programmes on agriculture, folk songs, career opportunities, heritage and life of women. Recently, they have started airing advertisements too. The reporters themselves put in effort to bring in these ads which could potentially be a good source of revenue. Broadcast of an advertisement of a particular horticultural nursery seemed to get the attention of nearby local businesses and more of them have expressed their desire to broadcast their own ads. Amit had come up with an idea to have a Bundeli Idol contest which has generated a lot of interest from the public. We attended one of the audition sessions in the village of Niwari, about 30kms from Orchha. They had about 35 participants coming in that day, and fifteen more on the following day. The make-shift studio was an office belonging to Taragram. RB had taken a few instruments with them which the participants could use. They are required to sing Bundeli (local dialect) songs for the contest. Those who are selected in this round would be called up and invited for a recording session at the station. They have worked out the format of the competition and arranged for judges. The daily transmission time was to be extended by half an hour to accomodate this programme. This programme would give a boost to their collection of Bundeli songs.

Bundeli Idol recording in progress

What's next

We will visit Orchha pretty soon. During our next visit, we will add some minor features that were requested by our friends here. We will also make arrangements for getting the application logs that are created here back to Delhi. In another two to three months we should be here again with our brand new telephony related widgets. It should help them with running contests like Bundeli Idol, where the viewers can vote via SMS or through the telephone. Telephony service would also help them in disseminating basic information like programme schedules, without engaging the time of any of their staff members.