News for Digital Journalists
September 01, 2010
On Aug. 26, the OpenBlock project launched its first demo site, serving the Boston area in partnership with the Boston Globe.
This project is the open-source successor to EveryBlock, a Knight News Challenge-funded project that was acquired by MSNBC one year ago. OpenBlock is “an open-source software initiative to bring hyperlocal news and data capabilities to news organizations of all sizes.”
Here’s how this project could benefit all news organizations…
OpenPlans (a nonprofit technology organization focused on civic engagement and open government) is developing OpenBlock. In June, Information Today reported: “Now, through three interrelated Knight-funded projects, OpenPlans is, according to Nick Grossman (the company’s director of civic works) aiming to ‘take [EveryBlock’s] source code and make it better and easier to use, so that other online news organizations can build similar sites in their towns.’”
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation funded its OpenBlock Initiative through three grants totaling $458,625, to:
- “Streamline and extend the EveryBlock code base and build a community of open source software developers and newspapers who can use and improve the software.”
- “Install and test OpenBlock at The Columbia Tribune (Columbia, MO), and add new features in the context of a smaller newspaper.”
- “Install and test OpenBlock at The Boston Globe, to add new features in the context of a larger newspaper.”
The Boston OpenBlock demo site is fairly minimal so far. The OpenBlock Project blog says that there are “plenty of known rough spots. The home page map doesn’t have popups yet, the theme could use work, and there are some broken pages. And there are no maps on pages other than the front page.”
News organizations of all sizes should keep an eye on this project, explore the test sites as they develop, and offer input to the development team. Such participation will help make make OpenBlock a more useful, practical tool for news organizations. And perhaps a lucrative tool, as well—OpenBlock is an example of a structured information service that could support the news business model through new kinds of data-supported products.
By Amy Gahran, 09/01/10 at 10:49 am
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August 31, 2010
Objectivity, once viewed as the key attribute of mainstream journalism, is increasingly seen as unlikely or at best secondary in importance to journalistic transparency, according to a survey of the online community for open-source crowdfunded reporting project Spot.Us...
In an Aug. 31 post, “What the Spot.Us Community Thinks of Objectivity,” published in the IdeaLab blog, Spot.Us contributor Sameer Bhuchar writes that of 500 users asked their views of objectivity (in an admittedly unscientific poll) only 13.5 percent identified “objectivity” as what journalism is about.
By contrast, the largest group of respondents (roughly 45 percent) suggested objectivity was really about honest, factual reporting. And nearly 28 percent answered that “transparency is the new objectivity,” which he said implied “it is the reporting of truth that is most important, rather than a detached account. ...”
Bhuchar went on to write: “One thing the respondents did uniformly agree upon is that reporters should unabashedly seek truth. While pure objectivity may be impossible, being honest isn’t.”
The IdeaLab blog post also includes a selection of some three dozen comments on objectivity from Spot.Us community members, including NewsTrust Executive Director Fabrice Florin, DocumentCloud’s Amanda Hickman, and InvestigateWest correspondent Robert McClure.
August 31, 2010
If you’re a member of the ethnic or community media or are with a nonprofit, mark your calendar for an Oct. 1-2 Bay Area multimedia training conference that features more than a half-dozen workshops, plus an all-day intensive boot camp…
The Renaissance Journalism Center’s LearningLab event offers sessions on video and audio storytelling for the web, training in WordPress and social media, plus an introduction to micro-volunteering and crowdsourcing.
The second day features two multimedia production bootcamps—including one in Spanish, facilitated by Oakland Local and Nuestra Voz.
The fee is $30 per day, with registration limited to 16 for each of the Day 2 bootcamps. Register now. For more info, see visit the Facebook event page.
August 31, 2010
Journalist-programmer collaborations have been one of the most fruitful areas of web innovation in recent years—bringing us everything from news map mashups to the integration of social networks into news sites. But the two professions still generally speak a very different language, making work together challenging at times. To help journalists and coders bridge that gap, a group of so-called “hacks” and “hackers” are organizing an online course, Open Journalism on the Open Web...
This six-week course, which begins Sept. 15 and is presented through the Peer 2 Peer University, is the brainchild of a group of journalists and technologists dubbed Hacks & Hackers, which include Medill’s Rich Gordon, NY Times’ Aron Pilhofer and journalist Burt Herman.
The training covers not only the fundamentals of journalism and of programming, but also delves into managing projects, collaborating for digital journalism, handling datasets and mapping, and exploring open government information sources. Presenters include editors and programmers from the data mapping experts at Ushahidi and editors from the Economist, Personal Democracy Forum, Stroome, Spot.Us and PBS NewsHour.
See a full list of topic leaders and a draft syllabus. The free course has 40 open slots—but you must pre-register, have experience in either journalism or programming, and submit a short piece with your thoughts on the open web. Expect 4-6 hours of work on the course each week.
Pre-register for the Sept. 15-Oct. 27 course.
By A. Adam Glenn, 08/31/10 at 2:39 pm
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