August 2009
11 posts
9 tags
Local citizen journalism... Establishing values
Crossposted from Laurie’s blog. Read the original here
My blog has been quiet of late, much due to the fact that I have been immersed in work related to the pending launch of The Rapidian, a new citizen journalism project in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A project of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center (with support from the GR Community Foundation and the Knight Foundation), it is an...
9 tags
Meet Laurie!
Laurie may be lots of things (depending on your POV), but at heart, she is a mom. As the executive director of the Community Media Center, her Rapidian role is very mom-like: Nurture the project, provide sustenance and guidance where needed, but don’t stand in the way of growth and maturity. When not running around being a general busybody, Laurie enjoys being a homebody. Watching old...
17 tags
The cultural factor
by Denise
Following our steering committee meeting on Wednesday, Drew, Laurie and I raced off to a mushroomish building downtown that the Grand Rapids Press calls home.
There, we met with Editor-in-Chief Paul Keep and a number of the GRPress bigwigs to demystify The Rapidian, In the course of our meeting, we talked about editorial standards, Web site functionality and whether local press could...
13 tags
The outreach spoke-o-rama
by Denise
Last Wednesday, we more or less finalized brainstorming on how to get the word out about The Rapidian. Among the more interesting suggestions for passive adverts were orange chalk stencils on sidewalks, coasters for local bars, and coaxing Rapid drivers to stock the Rapidian version of Sochi cards.
It’s clear that the best way to catch people’s eyes is to make sure how...
12 tags
The daily grind
by Denise
I’m currently working out of CMC’s third office, Sparrows. Relatively speaking, today has been a slow(er) day. Much of my job is about keeping everything on track, so once the copy is written and links linked, what’s left is the people side of things, which relies on a convergence of schedules.
A pleasant surprise is although it’s normally a very full...
15 tags
Guns blazing: The journalism saga continues...
by Denise
Today we were visited by now TV’s senior vice president, Cheung Chi Kong. As a guest of the U.S. Department of State, he’s touring different parts of the U.S. to observe the execution of social media with traditional media for information delivery.
It’s a bit intimidating to have an executive who manages Hong Kong’s equivalent of Turner Broadcasting System (but...
11 tags
Potato Head
by Denise
To the untrained eye, Community Media Center on Bridge Street is a maze of wood slabs, classic TV sets and oases of deep armchairs. In the heart of CMC-Bridge sits the IT staff where Web Developer Ron Woldyk, near right, is coding the ticker tape of 1s and 0s that will be the structure for TheRapidian.org. Early in the project, we decided TheRapidian.org would operate from a content...
8 tags
In the beginning...
by Denise
The first couple of days are always the slowest. Time is spent setting up, making the office your own and chatting up seasoned coworkers who are probably laughing on the inside that the new girl doesn’t know what she’s gotten into. Although I’ve been involved with The Rapidian since before it was named, I haven’t had a great sense of urgency, being two time zones...
8 tags
Meet George!
George is the New Media Planner for the Community Media Center (CMC), and is acting as “project manager” for The Rapidian. As a nearly life-long Grand Rapidian, George is incredibly excited for the chance to help create a new local outlet for participatory culture. George gets really excited about: multidisciplinary art projects, bicycle commuting, cassette culture, the shift from DIY...
9 tags
Meet Denise!
Denise hails from California’s Silicon Valley but has lived in Ohio, Chicago, Lesotho and Portland. She has always been passionate about the power of media and media empowerment and is currently the citizen journalism coordinator for The Rapidian. In the summer time, Denise really enjoys rasp/blackberries and doesn’t get the hype around soy milk. Her topics are journalism (of course),...
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About this Blog
Hi folks!
Welcome to the the development blog for The Rapidian. Here George and Denise (and hopefully a few others) will document what’s going on behind the scenes as we put together Grand Rapids’ new platform for citizen journalism.