Citizen Journalism: CNN to launch iReport

This will be a video-centric site. For more background, go here.
To see CNN's promotion of iReport, go here.

Major news sites and blogs - well, some of them - are resembling each other more and more closely. What we're also seeing in branded web pages (from major media companies) that look almost no different to the sterile listings of aggregator pages. News is becoming vanilla, hence the necessity to ask these very real questions: who owns the news, who decides what is news, and what should be news?

Citizen Journalism: Is it a CB Radio or a Satellite Phone?

Remember CB Radios? Yes, they do exist even if it is a sort of second (third?) hand technology. Are they useful? Sure. Indispensable? Well, perhaps in very specialised scenarios like the Aussie Outback and the Karoo, but not much besides.

Someone in at a large media house (not this one, one based overseas) made the comment that Citizen Journalism is about as effective and useful and abundant as CB Radio. Is it? Or is it cutting edge, ultra-necessary and vital (as a satellite phone on Everest or the heart of Botswana).

There is a world of difference isn't there? In my opinion, right now, Citizen Journalism (CJ) is both. Some of it is edgy top class stuff, especially when it is a massive disaster, a terror attack, some Act of God. For the rest, where reporters must compete with Real reporters, one could argue that you get low quality for little/no pay. I think it is up to the content and platform owners to manage, coach and guide users towards being better reporters. They have the technology and often a little encouragement goes an awful long way...

Blogging For Money

You can earn around R30 every time you Blog. It’s not a lot, but add it up and it can pay your cellphone bill, and if you’re disciplined, your gym membership fees too.

And another reason to consider citizen mediated websites is you are finding a wider audience for your pearls of wisdom, or pictures worth so many words. And you never who might pick up on these contributions, and where it might take you from there.

On the 20th of February 2006, having become an almost daily blogger for about a year, I submitted my first story (a motoring review) to Reporter.co.za – a citizen journalism website based entirely on user generated content. Since then I have submitted over 300 stories and hundreds of images. Do the math: that’s around R10 000 extra pocket money for stuff that was going on my blog anyway.

The Plot Thickens

Although none of my Nobel-worthy contributions* were snapped up by TIME or NEWSWEEK, I was asked to attend (all expenses paid) a blogging conference (representing Reporter.co.za), and there have been a number of soapie dramas that have spun out of the citizen media stuff. The most controversial articles included my attacks on Southern Free State Cycling (Free State Cycling a Shambles), and then the follow-up lambasting that went on at the cycling forum The Hub (breach of contract (to the value of about R8000).

The point is, even if you don’t want to rant, you can get money and attention for the sort of socially important, socially acceptable and particularly altruistic stuff you want people to take cognizance of.


International Coverage

There are not many citizen media sites that pay, but there are others. Ohmynews International pays more than Reporter, but they’re also stricter about quality and have far more people writing for them. It also helps to have a Korean bank account (as international cash transfers can eat into what you earn). I’ve submitted over 230 and earned – hold your breath – over W1.3 million. Relax, that’s about R10 000 over an extended length of time. But at W20 000 (R149) per story, you get rewarded for quality, and incidentally, being more ‘international’, they HAVE had contributors who’ve been picked up by TIME.

Video

Another site that you may not have heard of is Metacafe. It’s basically a You Tube-that-pays. It probably gets less stuff submitted, but it is certainly a site worth visiting. They pay you based on pay-per-view ($5 for every 1000 Views). If you think you can’t make money, ask the guys who walk away with $30 000 (some videos get over a million hits).

Local Blogs That Pay

Although I have not done this myself, I've heard that you can also earn money at MY DIGITAL LIfe - a South African site. MDL allows you to earn money based on hits to your content. Register, submit 10 stories (to gain 'author' status), and you get 10 cents for every hit.

Quality Control

The great thing about sending your content to these citizen media sites is that it controls the quality of what you’re doing in the reverse direction too. When you’re writing with an audience (and a possible income) in mind, I think there is a tad (and a vital tad) more discipline and afterthought involved. This is good news for the Blogosphere, which needs consciousness, and a few streaks of light – the lights of revelation, insight and activism (and not just vitriol, porn, rants and raving) to flow through it. In this sense the internet and blogs can begin to fulfill the promise and potential we once believed it had.

*My most popular story on Ohmynews received 14 498 hits, and was titled Why Insects Can't Fly Straight At Night.

To get involved in this process, in this intelligent conversation, register at reporter by clicking here.
Register at Ohmynews here.
Register at Metacafe by clicking here.

Kunstler: Two Clues for the Clueless

NVDL: New York's oil price hit a record 84.10 dollars in September. London's Brent North Sea crude for November delivery has slid 28 cents to 78.89.

Right now, the world's largest consumer of oil is also the world's largest polluter (both by substantial margins). The USA pumps over 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the environment every year. China is a runner up, catching up fast, at just under 5 billion tons. Russia, India and Japan are also contenders, but are far kinder to the world at under 2 billion tons. South Africa and South Korea with equi-sized populations are out of the top 10, both at around half a billion tons in total.

Let's reflect that the Kyoto Protocol was rejected way back in 2001 because President Bush said "it would damage US interests." That's quite a clear message, if you ask me. The US's interests are fine, even if everyone else (that means, the world), suffers. Is this a prelude to a war setup, where everywhere else is expendable (in laymans terms: they don't matter) as long as YahooSA gets to go to the mall and eat MacDonalds happily ever after? It is a question we will unfortunately be around to see the answer.

Kunstler:
Dependence on foreign oil is not itself the problem. The problem is that we have adopted a living arrangement so hopelessly centered around cars and incessant motoring and one of the consequences is an addiction to oil, which we happen to have a declining supply of in our own land.

In other words, the problem is not the fact that two-thirds of the oil we use comes from other nations, but is about our own behavior in our own nation. In a reality-based existence, it is more effective to modify one's own behavior than to try to govern the behavior of other sovereign individuals and entities. It ought to be a test of anybody applying for the position of president to realize this, and to communicate it to the public. One might expect a Republican candidate to artfully avoid this reality -- since car-dealers and suburban sprawl developers are among the heartiest Republicans. But it's disgraceful for the Democratic opposition to ignore this reality.

The gravest problem this nation faces, therefore, is the inability of the American public and its leaders to confront the fact that we can't continue to live the way we do -- and, by the way, when I say "leaders," I don't restrict myself to political leaders. Our failures of leadership are comprehensive, including leadership in my nominal sector, journalism. For two weeks in a row, the price of oil on the futures markets has closed above $80-a-barrel, and for these two weeks The New York Times Sunday Business Section has failed to run one story on the consequences of oil rising into this uncharted territory of high price. Are the Times editors on crack? Surely $80-plus oil will thunder through the American economy.

The second clue for the clueless came over the weekend when President Bush declared that the chaos reigning in America's airports (information of Betsy Gotbaum) had reached such an intolerable level that the federal government might have to step in and whip the airlines into shape by regulating routes and apportioning flights. Again, the inability of the public and its leaders to extend a thought one inch beyond the horizon of a given problem is really striking. It's as if the entire nation had suffered a lobotomy -- and perhaps we have, through the agency of excessive TV-watching.

Rail Transport
Has it occurred to anybody that if we could run choo-choo trains between cities a few hundred miles apart -- say from Cleveland to Columbus Ohio -- we could decongest the airports overnight? That, by so doing, Americans could travel much more pleasurably and affordably between the places they travel to most often? It certainly hasn't occurred to anybody running for president, or any of the editors-in-chief in the news media, or even any executive in what remains of the the railroad industry. But I'll try to boil it down to a digestible sound byte for them: the best way to relieve the current agony of air travel is to get the passenger trains running again.

Let the airlines do what they do best: really long-range trips. Let trains do the rest. We will consume less foreign oil. The jobs now hemorrhaging out of the US auto industry could move into the passenger rail and rolling stock sectors. Everybody will be much happier.

The people I know complain endlessly about how stupid President George W. Bush is, and how badly he has lied to the public about this or that. But a casual observer from Mars would have to conclude that President Bush perfectly represents a nation that shows such a thoroughgoing incapacity for thought, and such an aversion to the truth about its own behavior. A people so hopelessly unwilling to get its act together deserves to suffer.
From Kunstler.com

Recession Too Mild A Word

By Pablo Ouziel

Yet yesterday in Crain's New York Business this could be read: "Only weeks after financial-sector employment in the city hit levels not seen since the technology-stock bubble, investment banks have switched into firing mode and halted most job searches ...

As a result, at least 10,000 Wall Streeters of all stripes could lose their jobs by year's end, according to estimates from Manhattan recruiting and consulting firm Options Group."

For the rest of this Ohmynews article, click here.

Capture the news on your cellphone

Become a part of the news reporting process with News24

Next time you witness something newsworthy that you think News24 Users would like to see, just snap a picture or a video on your cellphone camera and e-mail it or MMS it to photos@news24.com.

If it's a big scoop, we'll contact you immediately, get your details, and publish it live on News24.
You could also win big in our That's News to Me competition!

News24 Users have got into the swing of things already with these great galleries:

The big brrrr by Various News24 Users
Heavy rains in Cape Town by Various News24 Users
Fire in Stellenbosch by Various News24 Users
A UFO or a vapour trail? by Deon Williams
Armed robbery in Newlands by Various News24 Users
Shooting in Fourways Mall by Andre Raubenheimer
Bomb blast in Algiers bu Elies Belazouz
Mozambique demolition by Lorinda Steenkamp
Turmoil in Durban by Various News24 Users
The lunar eclipse by Various News24 Users

NVDL: You can do the same by submitting it to info@reporter.co.za and be paid for its published.

Are you an Amablogger-blogger?

The above ranking lasted about 2 minutes... ;-)
Get sorted at Amatomu.com

David Bullard won’t be reading this article. He recently quit blogging. For the rest, if you’re one of the 25 037 bloggers out there (11% active apparently), then you need to get yourself sorted at Amatomu.

Amatomu is basically a local-is-lekker version of Technorati, but I’m inclined to say it’s a lot better than Technorati: it’s zippy, it’s dynamic. It should be; it’s run by the geniuses at Mail & Guardian.

The site is very practical, useful and interesting. What’s nifty is you get to see a ranking of the local blogs according to a number of criteria. You can also see where the local Zeitgeist (what everything is thinking about) is going. Google has recently launched a South African version of their Zeitgeist, but it’s nice to have a one-stop-shop for all things Blogging.

Amatomu also provides overall stats for the South African blogosphere: you’d better believe it is expanding at a PHENOMENAL rate. To give you an idea, August’s tally of unique blog visitors is 621 204. This puts blogs in the top 5 of South Africa's most popular websites.

These statistics and others have urgent implications for mainstream media. But some websites are responding to the changing playing fields. Johncom’s The Times.co.za is decribed on Amatomu as: “… the first mainstream newspaper to embrace blogs and the social media and social networking environment in general in its print pages.”

Amatomu have also ranked The Times.co.za as their ‘Player of the Week’.
Arthur Goldstuck writing for M&G’s Thought Leader defends the nomination as follows:
“The Times… serves almost as a manual for social media. It gives bloggers a print platform to flex their blogging muscles as “blogumists” and expand their audiences dramatically.”

I agree. The Times.co.za is the only South African News website I know of that allows you to embed video onto your blog. Are there any others right now? Plenty of overseas sites (like Metacafe and YouTube) have provided this option for some time.

What Blogs Are About

Bloggers want to have a conversation within their communities, and sometimes, outwards, as they attempt to engage with a wider audience. So being able to post news onto facebook, or your own blog helps get these conversations going. I’ve been experimenting lately with my own blog, but I’m not always sure I want too many strangers reading my content. The more people who visit my blog, I’ve started to realize, the more cagey I have to be about personal revelations.

Be Careful What You Blog

What you blog I suppose depends on what you’re prepared to etch in stone. It’s true that once you post to the web, it’s very difficult to erase. Just ask Amy Polumbo how she felt after being crowned Miss New Jersey, and then having some skimpy Facebook pictures emerge in a tasteless (and unsuccessful) blackmailing scandal. I’ve also ranted on my own blog and reaped the whirlwind. Bloggers and those who read them forget that once the emotion has passed, the words remain, so beware that you’re venturing where angels fear to tread.

Forever and Ever, (Web)men

The phrase ‘carved in stone’ will soon be a less articulate expression, than ‘carved in cyberstone’. The good news is you can pay some companies (like Namyz, Defend My Name and International Reputation Management) to erase questionable content. This usually involves negotiation with webmasters. But in reality, once information is on the internet, it can be downloaded onto computers, and even if erased off the net, copies are likely to remain and even resurface.

Now, How It Works

So here’s how Amatomu works. In order to track your blog, whose visiting and how popular it is, you need to embed an HTML tag onto your site. Don’t worry, it’s invisible. You might want to add a ‘Schmaak This’ button so that people can rate your posts and you can check how popular you are in the blogosphere. Another useful tool to either consult or attach to your site is Amatomu’s Zeitgeist.

Posting articles relating to the Amatomu Zeitgeist means you’re tapping into the stream of consciousness of the crowd. Being relevant is more important than ever if you mean to be an interesting blogger. Amatomu enables your blog to be all that it can be.

*Vincent Maher, the M&G Online's strategist

New Citizen Media Website Starting in UK

http://www.scribblesheet.co.uk/

Citizen Media

By the Project for Excellence in Journalism

James Carey, the esteemed Columbia University journalism professor who died in 2006, once wrote that journalism was essentially conversation among citizens. Communication was culture, he often said. It was creating a community “of conversationalists, of people who talk to one another, who resolve disputes with one another through talk,” he wrote in an essay titled “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”

In 2006, citizen journalism continued to grow as part of online journalism. The terms have changed, from “zines,” to personal Web sites, to blogs, but they all share a common character — enthusiasm for people themselves creating, sharing and participating in the news of the day.

Citizen journalism, in other words, is a rediscovery of the essential truth Carey articulated years before the Internet was invented.

Throughout the year the pattern of citizens becoming pro-active participants in their own journalism continued to gain momentum, becoming part of the political campaign, gaining economic muscle and even becoming something that the mainstream media embraced rather than something they saw as a threat. A larger number of newspapers, indeed, began to allow users to weigh in on particular stories and to upload their own photographs. A few even incorporated citizen blogs alongside those of staff reporters.

And perhaps since overhead and production costs are relatively low for corporate media companies, citizen-generated content is increasingly becoming part of these sites’ DNA.

Citizen journalism, in short, is becoming less something that is dismissed as the amateur hour before the professionals take the stage and more something that enriches the conversation.
In the midst of these developments, the earlier form of citizen voice — blogs — began to grow in ways that raised question about whether it was becoming less a part of the grass roots and more a part of the establishment. A group of celebrity bloggers, for example, have emerged, and some have even become familiar faces on TV.

Web 2.0

For many industry analysts, 2006 was the year Web 2.0 made an impact on online media.
Web 2.0 is a broad term, first coined by Dale Dougherty and popularized by O’Reilly Media, a publisher of books and magazines mainly geared toward the technology community. It refers to any media that involve the interaction and participation of the consumer: uploading and disseminating text, audio, video and digital photographs over the Web. Well-known examples of Web 2.0 include Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, and MySpace.

The number of Americans participating in Web 2.0 activities suggests it could soon become a major component of the online experience, according to survey research conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

According to a study released in February by the University of Maryland’s J-Lab, such hyperlocal “citizen media” sites that rely on user-generated content are quickly proliferating. J-Lab has been able to identify 700 to 800 of them, the majority of which have been launched in the past two years.

The sites employ a wide variety of business and editorial models, but they appear to share a common enthusiasm for creating community conversations. Among the respondents to the J-Lab survey, 73% said they considered their sites a “success” and 82% planned to stick with their ventures indefinitely. Four out of five said their sites provided local information not found anywhere else, and three-quarters indicated that they helped build connections to the community. Slightly more than a quarter of those surveyed thought these operations increased voter turnout.5

There are questions, however, about the economics of citizen media. The J-Lab report acknowledged that many of the outlets were “shoestring” operations hampered by a lack of human and financial resources. And even as it predicted that the medium was here to stay, the study also anticipated significant turnover and burnout among the operators.

When asked how much it cost to launch their “citizen media” sites, 43% of the survey respondents put the figure at less than $1,000. In addition, 51% said they didn’t need to earn revenue to continue operating. Asked if their revenues exceeded operating costs, 42% said no and another 38% did not know.6

Some of these operations are diversifying their revenue base and developing distinctive brands — such as the Rocky Mountain-based New West, which has created related businesses in advertising and publishing. But as the report suggests, many of the sites at this point are essentially mom-and-pop operations.

Perhaps the key question is whether an economic model built almost exclusively around ad revenue will prove sustainable in the long run. According to some analysts who study citizen media sites, the sites urgently need to create multiple revenue streams, not just from advertising, especially in times when revenue and profits are down.

But increasingly, analysts believe consumers will come to demand the ability to interact with the news producers, or they will migrate elsewhere. Indeed, some industry analysts argue that online newspapers and other news sites need to offer more interactivity in order to survive. “What makes the Internet so attractive is consumers can communicate with consumers. And they can communicate with [the publication] in a way they feel comfortable with,” said Gerard Broussard, senior partner and director of media analytics at GroupM Interaction, at the Media magazine Forecast 2007 conference.

Blogs

For all the growth in interactivity, perhaps the purest form remains blogging, or personal Weblogs, the phenomenon in which someone creates a site and becomes an instant own publisher and writer. After seeming to stall or even lose some momentum in 2005, there was evidence that blogs regained momentum again in 2006. Whether a political season had something to do with that, or whether the gain was more widespread, is uncertain.

Blog Readership

The most recent data suggest a significant increase in the number of people who read blogs. Survey results from the Pew Internet & American Life Project indicates that the percentage of online users who say they have ever read blogs rose in February 2006 to 39%, up markedly from 27% a year earlier. That puts the total number of Americans who now read blogs at approximately 57 million.7

But to put that in perspective, a February 2006 Gallup survey found that reading blogs (20%) is far less popular than e-mail (87%), checking news and weather (72%), and shopping and travel (both at 52%), and is still behind some online activities that are generally considered to be fringe use: instant messaging (28%), auctions (23%), and videocasts and downloading music (22%).8
Of course, the rise of blogs has its roots in politics, when bloggers gave the 2004 Presidential contender Howard Dean early, albeit short-lived, momentum. Two years later, it appeared a higher number of Democrats read blogs than Republicans. According to data from Gallup, 15% of the population who said they are frequent blog readers identified themselves as Democrats, compared to just 6% who said they were Republican and 7% who considered themselves independent.9

What types of blogs are people reading? While the blogs that generate the most buzz are ones devoted to politics, many popular blogs focus on other topics. Research from Edelman, a public relations firm, found that of the top 100 blogs in the U.S., 34% cover technology, 26% are about culture, and 25% are devoted to politics. The study also found that just 3% were what it called “personal diaries.”10

Blog Creators

Blogs include everything from a personal diary about bird watching to an outlet that breaks news about current events to a promotional public relations tool on a car manufacturing site to a celebrity-filled gossip page. Some are the voice of just one person. Others serve more as forums open to any registered user to post opinions.

The number of bloggers, those who produce content as opposed to merely reading it, did not appear to grow in 2006. The most recent data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggest that just 8% of online users say they author their own blogs.11

In previous years of the annual report, we reported that bloggers tend to be younger, wealthier, and more tech-savvy than the general online population. The most recent data suggest this is still largely true. For instance, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that more than half of all bloggers are under 30. Moreover, bloggers are avid news consumers: 95% report reading news online, compared to 73% of the general online population, Pew Internet found.

We’ve also begun to understand more about the attitudes bloggers hold toward their work. Most bloggers, again according to Pew Internet, do not think of themselves as journalists. Over a third (37%) say their most popular topic is their life and experience (37%), more than twice number (11%) who named politics and news.12

It was long the consensus that since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the blogosphere was dominated by conservative voices. But a close examination of the 12 most popular political blogs, according to a June 2006 listing from Technorati, revealed that at least at the top, blog voices lean to the left. Seven can be considered liberal, four conservative, and one without a clear partisan nature.

Blogging Economics

Except for a very small group, most bloggers make no money from their endeavors.
Just 8% of bloggers report generating any income from their Web sites, according to survey data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Among those bloggers who report making money, most say they do so by selling items on their sites (68%) or through advertising (56%). Smaller numbers receive donations from readers (29%) or secure subscriptions to premium content (19%). For now, anyway, that seems acceptable. Making money was the least-offered reason for blogging.13

Those bloggers who do earn some money have been hesitant to say publicly how much revenue the ads on their sites have generated. But the blogger ad market appears fairly small; one estimate puts it at $50 million to $100 million. But according to a research study conducted by Outsell Inc., which surveyed 1,200 advertisers in November 2005, blog advertising was expected to grow 43% in 2006.14

A few years ago, many media critics offered varying degrees of skepticism toward the fanfare that surrounded the emergence of blogs. And a minority even questioned how long they would be around.

Heading into 2007, some of that skepticism — shared by much of the public as well —remains. How much can one trust the accuracy of news and information posted on blogs? How can blogs survive without a reliable revenue stream?

It may be a case of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Much of the talk a few years ago — that blogs would supplant traditional media — seems antiquated now. The relationship between blogs and traditional media, in the end, may be more complementary, even synergistic, as time moves on. Citizen journalism, and the interactivity it promises in Web 2.0, increasingly seems to offer the potential of enriching traditional journalism (by enriching citizens), not threatening it.

Editors 'out of touch' with citizens

Citizens offer new take on news
From the BBC online:

Sites such as Digg are setting a new agenda A news agenda formulated by citizens would be radically different from that put together by journalists.
That is the conclusion of a US study which compared what made the headlines in the mainstream media with that of three diverse user-driven news sources.
The study - conducted by a wing of the US Pew Research centre - compared stories over seven days.

Its results will make interesting reading for news editors as well as the new breed of citizen journalists.

The report - released by the Project for Excellence in Journalism - took a snapshot of news stories from the last week in June 2007.

Raw information

It compared the stories making the headline in 48 mainstream news sources, including TV, radio and online, to that of three user-driven news sites - Reddit, Digg and Del.icio.us.
It found that the interests of users was markedly different to that of traditional editors.
Seven out of ten of the stories selected by the user-driven sites came from blogs or non-news websites with only 5% of stories overlapping with the ten most widely-covered stories in the mainstream media.

"Users gravitated towards more eclectic stories. There was a sense that users sifting through a lot of raw information; rumour, gossip, propaganda and the news were all thrown into the mix," said Tom Rosenstiel, one of the authors of the report.

In a week dominated by stories about Iraq and the debate about immigration, users were more interested in the release of the iPhone and the news that Nintendo had surpassed Sony in net worth.

This technology bias was partly down to the fact that it was early adopters of technology that lead the way when it came to "playing with the potential of the internet to empower users", said Mr Rosenstiel.

Citizen editors

Traditional news gathering is not redundant quite yet. In all, 40% of the most popular stories on Digg and Del.icio.us, were devoted to technology with the second most popular category being lifestyle stories.

One of the biggest differences noted by the researchers was the emphasis put on a single story. While the mainstream media tended to revisit the same story from a different angle each day, users were happier dipping in to a variety of topics.

"It was more hit and miss with a sense that they wanted to know a little about a lot of things," said Mr Rosenstiel.

News editors need not hang up their notebooks and pens quite yet though. The report found that traditional news outlets such as the BBC still accounted for a quarter of the content on the user news sites. Interestingly, original content accounted for just 1%.

"That suggests that people are re-aggregating the news in the style of citizen editors rather than journalists," said Mr Rosenstiel.

"These sites offer people a different take on the news but it doesn't mean that traditional journalism has become irrelevant. They are forming more of secondary conversation about the news," he said.

NickvanderLeek.com Hits 45 000

You may noticed an upsurge in tech capability of this site. This is due to a consistent and concentrated hands on approach.

Like anything, paying attention and focussing on your 'baby' is going to be analogous to nurturing, and anything nurtured will provide you with a gain, an improvement on previous results/behaviour.

Being situated now in the centre of news/information, it is part of my job to know and understand what is popular, what is working, and how to take that further. How does one recycle your visitor through your site, transforming a hit into a journey, transforming the surfer into an avid explorer.

One way is to have an appropriate mix of content: news, images, text, video etc. Recently I've upgraded all of these. Content on the web is currency.

The latest innovation, and one I have been wanting to bring about since this Blog started nearly 3 years ago (in October 2004) has been to streamline and simplify the URL. It makes sense to have an accessible and appropriate naming convention, and since March 2005 3 x Luck (3rd Time Lucky) has not been a boon to this site.

Blogger has also upgraded its features and use-ability a great deal.

I have to also say that the purpose of this site is not chiefly to promote me. It is to generate awareness on the crucially important issues of our time, and to the extent that the webcounter spins faster, it means this important consciousness is spreading. If I am to be associated with credibility, then that is a good result. I believe there are many important things individuals can do that can make a real and meaningful difference. And this blog needs to challenge the overriding question of our time:

Are we too selfish to change?

I have a feeling post- End of the World (which means Post Carbon), credible blogs will provide vital and crucial information relating to functioning and survival and finding communities.
This seems fanciful and even silly, except the clock is ticking. Peak Oil has occurred in 2006, which means 'bad stuff' is heading our way and gaining momemtum. It's already happening. We think it's going to get better, but it's not. It's not nice, it's not a happy idea, but please don't patronise anyone and call it negative thinking. What we need is a mixture of positive thinking and critical thinking. Especially the latter.

What isn't working?

And then, what can we do?
All we can do is organise ourselves, and our communities, and have an influence on bettering our immediate environments. That's what this blog is all about.

World's first internet president logs on

Web already shaping policy of new South Korean leader

Jonathan Watts in Seoul
Monday February 24, 2003
The Guardian

South Korea will stake a claim to be the most advanced online democracy on the planet tomorrow with the inauguration of a president who styles himself as the first leader fully in tune with the internet.

From calls for a softer stance towards North Korea to demands for a revision of the security alliance with the US, websites are already shaping the position of Roh Moo-hyun's new administration.

"The development of internet technology has changed the whole political dynamic in South Korea to an extent that the outside world has not yet grasped," said Yoon Yong-kwan, the head of foreign policy formulation in Mr Roh's transitional team. "It will affect foreign policy."

The rise of webocracy has already made South Korea a place of exhilarating but unpredictable change.

In recent months online campaigns have swung the presidential election, stirred tens of thousands into anti-US protests and nudged government policy on the nuclear standoff.

New Korea's hi-tech credentials have been a focus of national pride. Its biggest claim to international fame is the development of internet services, which are far ahead of most countries. Almost 70% of homes have a broadband connection, compared with about 5% in Britain.

Because of the high connection speeds, much faster than most British broadband, people use the web more for shopping, trading and chatting. Koreans are said to spend 1,340 minutes online per month, and 10% of economic activity is related to IT - one of the highest levels in the world.

"The internet is so important here," a western diplomat in Seoul said. "This is the most online country in the world. The younger generation get all their information from the web. Some don't even bother with TVs. They just download the programmes."

The voice of this New Korea is OhmyNews, arguably the world's most domestically powerful news site, which has built up almost as big a readership and as fearsome a reputation for moving public opinion as the Sun.

"OhmyNews is as influential as any newspaper," a South Korean diplomat in Tokyo said. "No policymaker can afford to ignore it. South Korea is changing in ways that we cannot believe ourselves."

Polls showed that the victory in December of Mr Roh - who claims to be the world's first president to understand HTML website coding - came from a huge surge of support from twenty- and thirty-somethings. In South Korea, where elections are usually decided by regional rather than generational loyalties, this was a dramatic development.

It was not the last. An OhmyNews report on an accident in which two girls were crushed to death by a US army tractor prompted one surfer to call for demonstrations. Within a week, South Korea was witnessing the biggest anti-US protests in its history.

"We are becoming very powerful," said Bae Eul-sun, one of the Ohmynews editorial team. "The pay is lousy, but it is very satisfying to work here because I really feel like I can change the world little by little."

When the new administration takes power, its external priorities will mark a continuation of the "sunshine policy" of outgoing president Kim Dae-jung, who focused on maintaining a strong alliance with the United States while engaging with North Korea.

But Mr Yoon said policy towards North Korea would be developed to reflect public opinion better. This is likely to give more influence to domestic media and less to the US.

"We will maintain strong ties with the US, but our young people have tasted democracy and they speak out about what they feel. They believe bilateral relations are important but unlike the older generation they don't think it is taboo to make demands of the US."

The change is already apparent. In comparison with the efforts it made during the last North Korean nuclear crisis in 1993-94, Seoul has taken a far more active role in trying to head off a confrontation - even at the expense of infuriating its ally.

Credibility and Good Writing

What makes a great news site?

In a word: credibility. Credibility is based on high quality graphics, and good writing.

The most valuable credibility comes from firsthand encounters. That means you seeing something firsthand, and reporting it. The value erodes as this experience becomes increasingly secondhand, thirdhand and worse.

After that, good writing comes in 2 forms: the writing itself (the content) and then how it is presented.

If you're a blogger, or in charge of designing articles for websites, remember the following:

- highlight keywords (people can skim a page in 3 quarters of a second)
- create meaningful subheadings (these must not regurgitate what is in the underlying paragraph)
- provide easy to read bulleted lists (like this one)
- present one idea per paragraph
- have a pyramidical structure (presenting essentially a punchline, and then providing supporting evidence as the underlying triangular structure
- half the word count you'd generally have in magazines and the newspaper

Bullseye

An interesting question here is to what extent you would want to target your text. For example, you could make it very simple and somewhat informal, but then the risk is a diluted, blank audience who might feel 'dumbed down'. Obviously, if it is adequately simple and readable, you get a more 'Reader's Digest' audience - that is, understood by all.

3 Areas

A more targetted style of writing (which I personally prefer) means a more targetted audience, which means revenue can be generated (via content related and targetted advertising). The risk of less simple text is turning away perhaps a majority of readers who prefer non-serious 'popcorn' content. Thus a good mix between quality, credibility and accessiblity is important.

Web 1.0 or 2.0?

What impact is online news having on print media? Is blogging having an impact on the journalistic profession? Yes. But the core of writing is still being done by experts.

If you want to compete, or even talk with the big guns in writing, you have to raise your game. In the same way, if you want your story to be picked up by the major newspapers, it has to be, at a minimum, a good brief.

What that means is, whether you are a citizen journalist or working for an online newsroom, your building blocks should build SOMETHING. Then it can be handed over and using the kernels* of information you're provided, converted to a higher form of knowledge or even wisdom (in the context of news).

Of course, if an article is so hyperlocal or specialised, it might be handed back to a reporter with this demand: flesh out, develop this story.

Captain Fantastic is Elastic

Since online news sites are more flexible than the more static and deadline fixated print media, it is possible for online resources to be based on a Web First scenario. The Web, when properly integrated, can be a highly elastic source of information.

In fact, the best result of news sites in particular, is where these platforms enable users to have a conversation. Communities want to speak amopngst themselves.

When short, simple articles break very quickly online, they can be handed over whilst still 'fresh' to be elaborated and developed in the print medium. This allows the online resource to fully develop itself as a fast and efficient detector of source material.

It can then function as the first originator of flexible and consistently fresh material. The newspaper feeds back and forward to its online counterpart, integrating what is most readable, relevant and appropriate for further fleshing out on paper. In essence, newspapers ought to carry those stories that are just that: the best stories.

One Playing Field

The Web First scenario should not be interpreted as a ranking system. That's not to be implied or inferred at any level. It's a chronological system which is intended to be functionally collaborative. This means Online and Print play on the same field, but perhaps spend more time is various sectors of the field.

It is helpful for the journalists and writers involved, I think, to have an integrated approach in order for Print and Online to enjoy the maximum benefit. If the mindset is that news does not belong to anyone, it is not owned, then inhouse sharing of stories (from online to print and vice versa) can encouraged and the corporate involved will see Win/Win results in both mediums.

Another area that should be the focus of the online journalist is an online follow up on stories. This can be followed through statistics, but even without a technical focus, you the writer can check to see how much coverage your story is getting. Is it still on the homepage after Day 1?

How To Impress...

On this site a number of work related stories (including How To Impress Your Boss)have done well, which should encourage the writer to investigate his theme even further with supporting material (perhaps: How to Impress Your Colleagues in this case).

Remember, many people in South Africa have web access at work, thus work related issues are going to interest them.

Another useful area to 'mine' for ideas is forums and message boards.

Google Maps

An exceptional underutlized area (online and in the print medium) is the simple use of maps and statistics. Google Maps is an extraordinary tool. Any person can mine the internet for statistics, and then visually represent these using Google Maps for very effective articles.

This can be applied to all manner of angles, from crime, to elections, to the number of schools in your neighborhood. Where are the most expensive houses, or the best restaurants, or the big malls in your area? Plot the statistics, and send them in.

A Final Tip

For regular registered reporters on this site: if you would like to quickly search through the archive of your (or other reporter's) stories (without logging in), type in the appropriate name in the searchbar (top right).

This can be used to quickly piece together all the links to stories you (and other reporters you might be interested in) have already produced. This is your easy to use portfolio. You can email the link to friends or prospective employees.

The Incredibles

Remember, at the end of the day, credibility works both ways. Writers want to be associated with a credible resource - whether it is a website, magazine or newspaper. But all these different forms of media also want to be associated with credible people too, including writers.

Credibility as stated above, is based on effort. Good writing does not always come easy; good graphics may take a little extra time to develop and fine-tune. But over the long term, the results will compliment your portfolio.

Silver surfers rule the net

By Tom Dennen

Survey finds that oldies spend more time online than youngsters.

Media watchdog Ofcom’s UK Internet user figures are out – and are a typical reflection of affluent Internet users. Pensioners - ‘Silver Surfers’ – spend more time online than youngsters.
Pensioners surfing the internet are spending more time online than their younger counterparts. The "Silver Surfers" dedicate an average of 42 hours a month to the World Wide Web, compared with 37.9 hours among 18 to 24-year-olds, the survey concluded.

A greater interest in hobbies, news and local issues among the elderly is believed to be driving the trend, which sees over-65s account for nine per cent of all time spent online in the UK. The figures debunk the traditional image of pensioners as technophobes and youngsters as web wizards.

Disruptive Technologies: Are you armed and dangerous?

How - and why - to join the online revolution

Why blog? For the same reason people buy cargo pants (with a terrorist design), wear Crocs and use cellphones. Because everyone is doing it.

But what makes blogs different to Crocs and cargo pants is that 10 years from now, everyone will have a blog (something like a business card), except not only businessmen will introduce themselves, but brats too, through their blogs.

A 'Disruptive Technology’ according to Wikipedia is:

’...a technological innovation, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or status quo product in the market. Disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into lower-end and new-market disruptive innovations...’

It may sound like a mouthful, but essentially, disruptive technologies are very good for the average person. A good contemporary example is MXIT, which is giving the likes of Vodacom and MTN gray hairs in terms of losing their SMS market share. MXIT offers the same service at a fraction of the cost (each SMS costs around 1 cent).

Blogs are another excellent example of Disruptive Technologies, and in the same breath, so is Reporter.co.za. Reporter.co.za is essentially a user generated blog; it’s the crowd - you - sending us your thoughts and news. If you have a cellphone and an internet connection you can (possibly) compete with some of the best journalists out there. How? By being somewhere where they aren’t and couldn’t possibly be. You can!

Quality is a separate issue of course. People who are not trained to write, or take photos, do not always write stories or take photos that are worth the trouble to look at, or read. But sometimes they are. And sometimes they form the basis for the biggest news stories.
Some video footage for the 9/11 tragedy was provided, as I recall, by a Turkish tourist.* Someone’s cellphone provided us with footage on the London bombings, and recently, the ’London Bombings Again, Almost’.

A blog basically puts incredible power and resources into the hands of an individual. You don’t have to be a corporation with vast networks and resources to beam your message to the world.

Low Cost

You don’t need satellite dishes or banks filled with humming machines. A blog can really be quite a powerful thing: you inputting your thoughts here (on Reporter.co.za) or on your own blog (or both, as I do), and publishing them, means anyone, anywhere - whether it is Fiji or Iceland - can find you.

A mere mouseclick in an arbitrary office or bedroom means someone you don’t even know (or someone you do know) can and read and see what an individual was doing over the weekend in say, Johannesburg, a place they might otherwise never visit (or even think to visit).
A blog also provides the curious Netizen who doesn’t have a blog, with the opportunity to virtually visit, at very close quarters, the lives and times of people from New York to Nieu Bethesda.

Exciting

I find that tremendously exciting, although obviously the limit on how exciting it is depends on how exciting the person is that is loading up whatever it is they are loading onto the net.
This is a good thing to bear in mind, I think, whoever you are. Is it meaningful, is it worth knowing, is it interesting whether relevant to me or not?

Content(ious) Issues

You can make your content interesting by doing a little background research. Google and Wiki some of the terms you’re using and see what others have commented on your subject. Most important, check your own work for mistakes. Once you put it up, those flaws, if they are present, are going to put people ever investing their precious time in your thoughts.
Another reason to blog is to reach out and form, organically in a sense, niche markets, niche communities. This is an area that has made bloggers very competitive.

For example you might have a blog about fishing (the world’s largest outdoor sport), and so with a consistent theme, and updated content, you will be reaching friends and/or strangers that particularly want to be associated with you - and there’s your community. It’s specialised, and customised. This is also what Facebook is all about.

How to blog

A good blog is one that has something new on it each day. That may sound easier than it is. By some accounts there are already 200 million ex-bloggers, since most people who start blogs don’t keep them up and running forever. Some believe blogging will peak at 100 million bloggers.** I think that’s conservative and shortsighted, since China has only just started.
In the end though, good blogs are like good newspapers and magazines. They are worth reading (or watching in the case of video blogs) if the writing (or video) is good. The same applies to this website. So when is writing good, and worth reading?

Many writers, especially citizen journalists underestimate the incredible appeal of local stories. Writing about some of the main stories (for example, the debacle concerning the Health Minister) means that citizen journalists have to compete with acres and acres of excellent broadcast writing on the same subject.

To compete effectively, citizen journalists must invest themselves HYPERlocally. That means, report what is happening in your neighborhood. I recently participated in a discussion*** on this subject, where the speaker spoke about a series of stories sent in by citizens on potholes, in the United Kingdom.

Ordinary people began to take photos of the nearest hazard (using their cellphones), and then sent them in to the BBC. This started a snowball, which led to the implementation of Google Mapping (to form a grid of all the pockmarked routes in England) and probably led to some sort of broader municipal effort to sort out the problem. This story started with hyperlocal content.
You can start a blog by heading to blogger, at www.blogger.com, and follow easy setup instructions. Or, you can make use of the audience that’s here, and encourage others like yourself to do the same, right here at Reporter.co.za. Go on, join the revolution!

*If you have more details on exactly who provided the 9/11 footage, please contact Reporter.co.za and let us know

**Gartner Report’s Top 10 Predictions for 2007

***http://www.andydickinson.net/

Welcome to My World

The substitle to this heading is, I think: The Moleskin Club.

Some bizarre things happened this weekend, including (the serendipitous?) encountering and re-encountering of a complete stranger at 4 different points at Sandton City...More on that (maybe) later.
On pure happenstance I bought myself a black Moleskin notebook...and only did so because Leslie wandered into a shop and I suppose I found something to do while I was there.
Today in a Workshop Moleskin notebooks came out of the woodwork, literally it seemed. Which also suggests, workwise certainly, a round peg in a round hole.

I enjoyed today particularly because it was about my pet thing, blogging. It is obviously one way that a person with virtual no resources can 'talk' to people they know or don't know any where in the world. It is quite a powerful thing, that me inputting my thoughts here, and publishing them, means anyone, anywhere - whether it is Fiji or Iceland, can click on their computers in their offices or bedrooms and read and see what an individual did over the weekend in Johannesburg, a place they might otherwise never visit (or even think to visit).

It also provides the curious Netizen with the opportunity to virtually visit, at very close quarters, the lives and times of people in New York or Nieu Nethesda. I find that tremendously exciting, although obviously the limit on how exciting it is depends on how exciting the person is that is loading up whatever it is they are loading onto the net. Which is a good thing to bear in mind, I think, whoever you are. Is it meaningful, is it worth knowing, is it interesting whether relevant to me or not?

Cheapskate

After picking up .5 of the Sunday Times on Saturday night (I turned down a night at a disco to - yay - check emails...what was I whingeing about earlier...).

Thus when Sunday proper came I had to make do with .5 of the Sunday Times. I've finally secured the whole Sunday Times, and nothing but the Sunday Times, so help me Johncom. Actually, that's not quite true, I also took a copy of Business Times.

Some people are chocaholics. I tend(ed) to buy newspapers on a daily basis. Even in Korea. So it makes sense to work for a company where I am at the source, so to speak, of such chronic deforestation (AKA newspaper making).

It's a relief to live in a city where I am not forced to read one Afrikaans paper: My Daaglikse Brood. The local alternative ranges from The Times, to The Star and Sowetan. What's quite interesting is with online versions of all these papers (in fact most newspapers out there) it's not always necessary to buy the paper.

But something can be said for a bedside read, or an after dinner mint sucked while browsing through a large paged newspaper. A time may come where we do this (only) while sitting beside our notebooks, but they have suggested the end to books and paper.

The thing is, computers will always represent a virtual world. Including the world of thoughts and subliminals. There is something reassuring about a paperback, or a book, or magazine. You can feel it. You can tell how far through it you are. You can feel from its weight something about what went into it. Online is faster and more clinical. If it's sheer info you're after, go online. If you're after more of an atmosphere, paper can be good. Of course the 'video' and 'podcasting' nature of the internet is giving it more of an 'ethos'.

Citizen Journalism to the Rescue: AP Buys Citizen Journalist's Photos

by jordan
12 wks ago 91 views

I just got off the phone with NowPublic's very own TheArgus, who brought us some incredible eyewitness photos of the forest fires in New Jersey. While on the way to work, this gentleman found himself in the middle of a world exclusive: he was one of the first people on the scene, and was called upon to direct traffic; someone's gotta do it. He was then brought to the nearby township to help evacuate neighboring towns. During the course of this all-day all-night work, TheArgus was able to bring us this amazing coverage.

The Associated Press, which maintains a relationship with NowPublic, got wind of the pictures attached to the article and wanted to use them as part of global news distribution. Via one if NowPublic's managing editors, AP purchased from TheArgus the high-res versions of the photos that they wanted to use, and TheArgus stepped into citizen-journalism history. With his modest point-and-shoot digicam, our citizen reporter was able to do what no DSLR-equipped photojournalist could have done under the circumstances, simply as a function of his daily routine and of doing his civic duty. Something newsworthy was taking place and one person was there with a camera and an inquisitive mind, bringing us, and the world, some breathtaking photos and superb first-person coverage.

Ultimately, this is what NowPublic is all about: you, the contributors sharing with the rest of us your experiences when you witness or take part in newsworthy events.

As illustrated above, NowPublic contributors can actually get paid for their work with us: if you bring in an image or story or article that AP needs, they will indeed pay you for it. Just promise that you'll remember us when you're an Internet news superstar.

By the way, during the course of the telephone interview TheArgus provided me
with an update: meteorologists predict 50mh winds ahead of a storm
front heading towards the site of the fire. This guy never rests.

What’s Happening in Citizen Journalism?

You can earn as much as R1400 per month on reporter.co.za

Every citizen can be a reporter. So if you see it, report it! And if you don’t like the news you’re reading, write your own news.

"Will more participation and better information make us happier and more fulfilled?" This question was posed by the mastermind behind the world’s most successful citizen mediated news site, Korean based Ohmynews.com. Ohmynews now has almost 60 000 members, but other copycats and upgrades to the idea are springing up everywhere. NowPublic.com in Canada is a good example. The answer to the question is YES! But only if our participation is influential, if it presents meaningful solutions to problems.

Youtube is growing at a phenomenal rate, but of course it is not strictly a news site as it is a video page. Similar sites like Metacafe reward contributors - $5 for every 1000 views. One contributor ‘Reel Stunts’ is Metacafe’s top earner at just under $25 000.

Daytipper is another site that rewards consumers at $3 per published tip (which can cover anything from technology to cooking). FavoriteThingz involves the endorsement of anything from bands, teams or movies – displayed as sideshows on numerous blogs – with badge creators earning a commission of 1-4% based on clickrates on these sideshows.

The latest statistics also demonstrate that people are spending a lot more time online searching for content in proportion to mere communication. There has been a 37% increase in time spent viewing content online since 2003, The possible reasons underlying this trend include a host of quality sites, including blogs, that have been added to the world wide web, as well as broadband speeds allowing for greater speed and access, thus enabling more time to communicate and browse.

Moreover, citizen mediated coverage is growing. We have seen video footage of 911, the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the London train bombings, coverage of U.S. Senator George Allen's political suicide, and recently the Virginia Tech massacre.

In South Africa, on Reporter.co.za citizens have the opportunity to get involved and have their say in the upcoming presidential elections. Citizen reporting really means that every citizen can be a reporter. In South Africa we need to know what is happening in our communities, what people are feeling and saying, and how to respond to these situations. Crime is one area citizens can play a vital role. Find out who was a victim of crime in your area. Interview them. How was the crime perpetrated? Have the police identified similar crimes (is there a pattern). Is this a crime category that the police are winning, or could they do with community support?

Corruption, AIDS, Unemployment, extreme weather, how the Zimbabwe-crisis is effecting South Africans, poverty and other personal issues – all these can be exposed and represented by citizens that live these experiences on a daily basis.

Has the latest Harry potter book been reviewed? Or the latest PC/Xbox/Playstations Games? Has anyone reviewed the movie: Becoming Jane? Even if you don’t personally own or haven’t personally experienced any of these products you can interview someone who has. At reporter.co.za you’re free to review everything – your city, the local mall, your university or your school. Just do so honestly and fairly, and balance your opinion as far as possible.

At Reporter.co.za I once earned R1400 in a single month. To achieve this you have to be consistent. You’ll work very hard. You’ve also got to submit stories in a constant stream, preferably the evening before the day you’re anticipating publication. It helps if one is not only sending stories, but also photographs. Photographs are theoretically a much easier source of income; especially if you start your own image library (keeping it updated though), and then submitting images regularly to Reporter.co.za.

Keep your stories relevant to what is happening around you. Editors like to use the most top-of-mind stories, and Reporter.co.za has an insatiable appetite for NEWS stories. They love facts, interviews, statistics, and articles backed up by research. So far, and I am implicated here too, almost all reporting on reporter.co.za is opinion pieces. If you want a job as a real journalist at a major publication, start cutting your teeth on real news. Go out and interview people, get interested in your community. Write about what matters to you, and it ought to matter to others too. If the editors at reporter.co.za like it, and other editors notice it, you could be hand plucked for plum jobs elsewhere.

The difference citizen journalists make can make all the difference. The world needs citizens everywhere to get involved in their communities, for us to record and write purposefully and meaningfully what we’re seeing in our world. We can change our world into a better world, and a world worth having, and by writing the wrongs citizen mediation can achieve great things. Get cracking!