The Rapidian Dev Blog

Surfing the Wave

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:15:00 -0500

In late May, Google announced its newest application, Google Wave. This application is supposed to revolutionize the Internet. Google developers described it as what email would look like if it were invented now.

A combination of live email threading, instant messaging and wiki editing, Google Wave dazzled web developers and professionals across all disciplines. To boot? It’s open source. For everything there is to know about Google Wave, read Mashable’s complete guide.

After four months of drum roll, Wave debuted in late September. Since then, there’s been a bit of confusion. For anyone who’s watched the Google I/O presentation on Wave, it’s exactly as the video described. Due to the sparse number of people using Wave, it’s also created this sort of experience:

In the one-and-a-half months since Wave hit the scene, there’s been very little news about what developers are doing with it. Invites have been slow to come. After more than a month on Google Wave, I only recently got the ability to distribute 20 invites. As we’ve seen in the past, developers create the infrastructure, but the most innovative uses for web apps come from users. Perhaps Wave would benefit by widening its early adopter pool.

Anyway, The Rapidian and Wave: I personally hope that Wave will replace our static commenting system.

In this social media age, conversations on the same topic in different forums is common. This is amplified if the original source for the material (i.e.: an article on The Rapidian) has a barrier to entry (i.e.: site registration; take a look at Chris Apap’s article). The material is reblogged, tweeted and crossposted to Facebook. Although these sites aren’t specifically themed, Quantcast will tell you each are dominated by socioeconomic strats and more. With these walled-off conversations, there is little cross-pollination of diverse perspectives. Often times, instead of building on a conversation, the same ideas are being rehashed.

Waves are embeddable on blogs and Web sites. My hope is there will be tweaks so that users do not first have to register a Google account to register for a Wave account; for Wave to be compatible with the way user accounts have been structured (i.e.: all Rapidian site users agree to a no-anonymity policy)*; and for existing accounts to be easily ported over to Wave accounts on the hosting site. Assuming this pie in the sky is possible, if Wave becomes the universal platform for commenting, then everybody would be participating in the same town hall despite where in the interwebs they’re coming from.

For more cool ways people are using Wave, check out Lifehacker’s compilation.

*I realize this has its own issues because not all sites prescribe to a no-anonymity policy. It looks like the web is starting to trend this way, but maybe if more sites became OpenID hosts?

Playing in the "everybody sandbox"

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:47:00 -0500

by Denise

Having come from a journalism background, I care very much about the industry’s future. But as the citizen journalism coordinator for The Rapidian, I’ve heard more than one professional journalist say, “I get paid for my content.” Sometimes, it’s said with a degree of smugness and other times, with desperation.

Traditionally, citizen journalism has been viewed by professional journalists as the amateur hour. Regardless of what it is, it can still be useful to professional journalists.

As a citizen journalism experiment, we’ve billed The Rapidian as a supplement—not a replacement—to a dwindling local press. Together, journalists and citizens will have to find a solution to the shrinking news scape.

Of course, professional journalists are not only concerned about the existence of solid information but also the suspension of their livelihoods. Meanwhile, almost every journalism theorist and expert is emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurship in this uncharted and potentially innovative chapter of journalism. You see it in J-schools. You see it in tweets. You see it in posts like this. The self-starters will be the ones who get ahead in this rocky news climate. In the absence of a formula, the common advice is to catch up on your Flash, HTML and Wordpress. Register on Digg. Become the Jack and Jill of Internet trades.

But having taught social media classes where there was always at least one laid-off journalist, registering for a Flickr account just to keep up is not necessarily the right answer. After all, many people who are successful in social media are driven by their passion for the Internet or a particular hobby.

No, no.

This is where The Rapidian comes in. Not as journalists but as local citizens: Why not contribute to your hyperlocal news source?

I’m not saying report for The Rapidian the same way you would produce a story for WZZM. That’s up to you and your employer. There are so many opportunities to highlight topics that wouldn’t normally make it past the cutting room floor. Are you into architecture? Do an urban exploring photo essay that highlights unusual building cornices around town. Planning a family outing? Let other people (especially new families or new parents) know about family-friendly places and events like Eastown Street Fair. Use a medium that you are not expected to use in the professional newsroom. Photo slideshows, audio clips, comics, Flip-cam it up!

Professional journalists who are the most indisposable tend to be embraced outside of the newsroom. Take Tommy Allen of Rapid Growth Media or GRPress’ Gonzo. Not every journalist is granted a blog, though. Most journalists cover very specific beats.

The marketing hype around social media can basically be melted down to this: Social media is about making a brand of your life and interests. Twitter, Drop.io, Bit.ly—they’re just tools you can use.

The Rapidian is another of these platforms. It’s shaping up to be a positive place for the Grand Rapids community, and that community grows every day. Arguing for the validity of journalism as an industry doesn’t do much for saving specific jobs, but making yourself a fixture in your community makes you an asset to any company’s reputation.

Flickr photo by ShironekoEuro, used under Creative Commons

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:34:49 -0400

Veer | Ideas: Pumpkin orange by Joe Buckland

"I am a husband, father of two and journalist who would rather be a proponent of free speech than..."

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:15:48 -0400

“I am a husband, father of two and journalist who would rather be a proponent of free speech than sell my abilities for market value.”

- Drew Storey, The Rapidian’s first content facilitator

Goodbye to our dear friend

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:08:00 -0400

by Denise

Drew Storey, The Rapidian’s content facilitator, passed away unexpectedly yesterday.

Drew has been involved with The Rapidian since before it was named The Rapidian, when “Log Jam,” “Red Button,” “16th Bridge” and others were part of the naming smorgasbord. He spearheaded our editorial committee as a volunteer chair and hammered out a comprehensive editorial policy that has been the beacon for The Rapidian. After joining The Rapidian staff, Drew said being content facilitator was his dream job.

Although softspoken, Drew was all about community. He was an active volunteer with The Rapidian for nine months prior to being hired on, a board member for the Grand Rapids Community Media Center and also volunteered with many local groups to help with their communications.

He is survived by his high school sweetheart and wife of many years, Danielle (née Schmidt), and their young daughters Madison and Taylor.

The Rapidian will post information as we receive it in the coming days including how the community can make contributions to help with expenses and provide support to the family. For full obituary and memorial service details, please visit MLive.

The Rapidian: A Powerpoint

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:56:00 -0400

by Denise

George and I recently presented at the Alliance for Community Media’s central states conference. Many people asked for our slides, so here they are:

Batter's up!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:23:00 -0400

by Denise

As a part of our Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge grant, we’re not only establishing an online presence but also four neighborhood news bureaus hosted at community centers in each quadrant of Grand Rapids.

Dun dun dun! And the first news bureau to step up to the plate: Cook Library! Our neighbors over at the Grandville Avenue Academy for the Arts have generously staked out a corner in Cook Library to establish a news bureau in what is predominantly a Hispanic community (72.7% in 2000, not including undocumented immigrants).

While we’re eager to establish The Rapidian as an outlet for this community, there are very unique questions coming up in such a grassroots approach. We’re currently putting together a Grandville-specific committee with members from the community. In the meantime, here’s a smattering of the sort of questions we’ve been trying to answer:

Within the Hispanic community, who will the news bureau be most accessible to? Children? Teenagers? Adults?
What is the most effective way to let people know we’re a resource?
- Bilingual printouts?
- Word of mouth via children?
- Churches?
- Schools?
How do we create an applicable news bureau to the widest audience in the Hispanic community?
- Equipment?
- Software?
- Volunteers and procedures?
What type of media will the community most naturally gravitate toward? How can we encourage content creation and deemphasize equipment savvy?
How do we add to the site to reflect new content from this community?
How do we incorporate non-English content?
If we’re able to establish ourselves within this community, how do we then open it up to others in the SW quadrant?

Cook Library is the first “guinea pig,” but “hyperlocal” isn’t just a way to describe news content, it’s also the definition of grassroots community building. I’m pretty sure every bureau that is established will become a guinea pig in its own right.

Observations 1.5 weeks after beta launch

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:40:00 -0400

by Denise

Here at The Rapidian, we’ve tried to create a framework for honest and relevant content. A week and a half after launch is still too early to assess the outlet’s strengths and weaknesses, but here’s what we’ve learned:

Content type

Since the beta launch, we’ve discovered our site structure is not sufficient. Currently, we have three main categories: News, local life and opinion. News has the most sections, but the majority of content we receive are features that fit under local life. Of the rest of the submissions, it’s a toss up between news and opinion, but even news submissions aren’t necessarily time-sensitive.

Coverage

With little prodding, few people are initially going to look at citizen journalism as an opportunity to explore issues they don’t know the answer to. People are going to start out creating content on what they care about, what they know and what they’re involved in.

With our general target audience, it might be a hyped up assumption that citizen reporters are most valuable because they cover what’s not published by professional media. In professional journalism, the news section is the heftiest because news pieces are generally succinct. They don’t necessarily ask the audience to think critically as they consume. At least in the first week, we’ve realized that citizen reporters will naturally start out reporting on specific aspects of news that have not been explored in-depth by mainstream media.

Disclosure

So what does this mean? Ithaca College Student TJ Gunther asked, “what’s more important, freedom of citizens to report or truth and preservation of the Rapidian name?”

To us, these aren’t polar opposites; they go hand-in-hand. We’ll only have a name to preserve if our citizens report truthfully, and the citizen reporters will determine what reputation we have to guard.

However, we also need to do our part to tease out content that is relevant to everyone. Quality information can sometimes be obscured by first-person narratives that keep audiences from digesting content critically. To address this, once we take care of the quirks on the Web site, we’re going to add another text field to each submission that goes something like this:

Disclosure: What motivated you to create this piece? (300 characters max)

We’ve received pieces that use first person in the intro but then continue as features. We’ve also received some very self-promotional pieces that needed to be edited down. The disclosure text field is our attempt to nudge citizen reporters to focus on the subjects in their pieces rather than their first-hand experiences by providing a separate space for that.

Meet Drew!

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:22:00 -0400

Drew Storey, the content facilitator for The Rapidian, is an ex-homecoming king who simply assumed he’d become famous one day. Surprisingly, none of the jobs he’s had since age 15—bus boy, pool boy, pizza boy, janitor, postal carrier, cab driver, park ranger, truck driver, warehouse worker, reporter—led to stardom.

While cutting his reporter chops at a local weekly community newspaper, Drew honed his limited, but natural writing abilities and found his voice. When a deeply-ingrained contempt for authority led to his termination, Drew dabbled in freelance writing, movie making and experimented with creating a local literary zine. He spends his free time reading, playing outdoors and simultaneously catering to his two daughters while cursing their names.

Having lived on the West Side for the past 6 years with his wife and two children, Drew couldn’t help but develop a pride for the City of Grand Rapids while feeding an appreciation for Polish food and beer. He looks forward to using the aforementioned experiences to help mold The Rapidian into something unique, relevant and inspiring.

#Rapidian

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:12:00 -0400

by Denise

A couple of days ago, in preparation for our beta launch, we tweeted that we were claiming #Rapidian for our own. If you saw breaking news going down in front of you, tweet with the hashtag #Rapidian to make it to our front page Twitter widget. We were expecting to see tweets like @TommyGSync’s:

Since then, we’ve had some surprising results. While most people use #Rapidian as a replacement for @TheRapidian, some particularly bright bulbs have used it to highlight pieces that actually don’t link back to The Rapidian. Before we even had a chance to turn our heads from the computer screen, @srdailey had made his mark on Rapidian history:

He had crossposted an opinion by Juliet Bennett Rylah on Founders Brewery forbidding a fundraising event on their premises for a politically controversial cause. After all, it is GR news.

Following the unveiling of The Rapidian, @ericbuist piggy-backed off the #Rapidian hashtag to bring attention to Spinneractive, a new interactive marketing group.

Then two posts from @hipphop:

All this to say that we asked our Twitter community to use #Rapidian for sharing newsworthy snippits, and you never know what sort of grab bag the interwebs will give you. These are the early stages, a time for experimenting. We’re looking forward to seeing how the community will determine what #Rapidian means.

HTML makes me feel so alive

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:16:00 -0400

by Denise

I was only partially kidding when I tweeted about HTML the other night. It’s been a while since we posted, but it’s because we’ve been in crunch mode. The site unveiling is just around the corner! So much to do!

Ron, George and I have been hacking away steadily on the Drupal site. Of course, Ron’s got the heaviest load with all that’s left to develop. George is working on graphics and permissions for the different roles we’ll have, from registered users to editors. I’m putting together all the static pages like terms and conditions, about us and pages that link back to the core static pages.

This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered Drupal through my work. In Portland, I worked on a project led by Denver’s Deproduction called the Open Media Project. Denver had already developed a Drupal tool set that allows site users to register for classes, reserve equipment, submit video content online and vote for favorite shows. Through a complicated algorithm, these votes (and many other factors) determine the cable access line up. They’re a pretty rad group that won a Knight Foundation News Challenge grant to generalize their tool set enough for other community media centers to adopt.

Drupal is a pretty overwhelming CMS. It can only be hosted on select web hosters and has an intense installation process. I used to attend the Portland Drupal meetups (I love and miss that group!) in hopes that I could ease into it. I came to understand some of the jargon used in Drupal, but when it came to web coding, forget it.

I like to mull over how I’m from Silicon Valley with family members that are all based in different branches of technology and engineering. In that respect, you could think of me as the black sheep since I shied away from anything to do with tech and web. My jobs just keep bringing me right back. Outside of design tools, I’m only proficient in HTML, am familiar with CSS and know I have to pursue PHP. I’ve been trying to build up to Drupal for two years.

It’s great because I feel like I’m getting kicked in the pants with this project. There is no time to be intimidated anymore, and as one of the admins for the site, I’m getting accustomed to the menus and set up. I’m seeing first hand just what Drupal is capable of and interacting with it. Ron is definitely doing all the heavy lifting here (we owe him something like a thousand cupcakes at this point), but even with my limited skills in HTML, I’m able to contribute. Together, we’re working on site interactivity and realizing what can be done in phase one by the time of the beta launch and what has to be done early in phase two.

Any structural things have to be done in PHP. I can’t help with that, but even with HTML, it’s amazing how one of the easiest web languages can be so incredibly empowering.

Promotional video for The Rapidian!

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:58:31 -0400

Check out the awesome Rapidian promo by Jen Proctor, super volunteer on The Rapidian steering committee! If you like it, consider embedding it!

WZZM13!

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:11:05 -0400

Check it out! Laurie and George were interviewed by WZZM13

by George Not to make this blog a total Laurie-fest, but she has...

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:14:00 -0400

by George

Not to make this blog a total Laurie-fest, but she has been doing some great PR work on behalf of The Rapidian lately. And, after all, this whole project is really her baby so it’s actually quite fitting. Check out this lil’ 5 minute segment of Laurie on last Thursday’s morning drive (that’s like 7:00am foks) with Smitty on 88.1 WYCE.

There are a few other media clips like this. I will track them down and post them when they become available.

Local citizen journalism... Establishing values

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:58:00 -0400

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 ambitious endeavor and we are just 20 days from launch. It combines a web based journalism structure with neighborhood news bureaus. Ultimately, we hope it can help stem the tide of decreasing local news reporting that is happening all over the country, much to the detriment of our communities.

We also recognize that for a project like this to gain wide support and use, it must balance openness and accessibility with expectations of civility and trusted content. Today I have been working on the statement of values for The Rapidian and I thought I would share. These are not “the rules,” but rather a stated basis for decision-making and the establishment of some common agreements. Here is the work in progress, so far. I would would be interested in feedback.

The Rapidian Statement of Values (a draft)

The Rapidian is a citizen journalism project created to increase the flow of local news and information in the Grand Rapids community and its neighborhoods.

Through tools, training, platforms and support, The Rapidian seeks to create meaningful dialogue and promote greater civic engagement. The following values are central to these goals and it is in the spirit of these principles that we encourage wide and robust use of The Rapidian by the community.

1. Inclusiveness: It is a core belief of The Rapidian that including many diverse voices will ultimately strengthen the community. We understand that within our community there are many points of view and and differing news priorities. We value and encourage such diversity over style of reporting, issues of seniority or story subject.

2. Civility: We believe in robust debate and spirited conversation. We also believe that meaningful conversation is best enabled through civil debate and respectful exchange of ideas. Content submitted to The Rapidian (including comments) is expected to reflect this value. Personal attacks, slanderous material, hate speech or unsubstantiated accusations will be flagged and removed.

3. Ethical Reporting: We value basic tenets of journalistic ethics and will continually strive to establish, support and encourage ethical reporting. Standards for The Rapidian reporters include: Seek truth; be honest and fair; minimize harm; do not misrepresent; seek alternate sources and points of view; do not use reporting for personal gain.

4. Original Works/Proper Attribution: We value and honor those who create and distribute meaningful content and set attribution standards accordingly. Plagiarism, failure to provide proper credit or unauthorized derivative works are not acceptable.

5. Open Identity (no anonymous posting): In pursuit of meaningful exchange and dissemination of valuable information, we believe we must each take responsibility for our words. Anonymous stories and comments do not support this value and will not be accepted.

6. Cooperative Distribution: All content posted on The Rapidian will be licensed under one of two possible Creative Commons licenses. This means that complete works may be redistributed and posted to other places, subject to the rules of these licenses. At the reporter’s option, some content may be restricted from commercial re-distribution. We use the Creative Commons licenses in the spirit of wide distribution and sharing of local information, a key value of this project.

The Rapidian is an experiment intended to demonstrate that as community, we can use the concepts and structures of citizen journalism to share information, empower new voices and increase meaningful interaction between all of us who call ourselves “Rapidian”.

Twitter @lcirivello

Meet Laurie!

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:47:00 -0400

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 movies with the old man; “up-cycling” things with paint, paper, glue and found objects; and making snarky comments at reality competition show judges on the tube are some of her favorite hobbies.

Laurie is also a huge fan of urban exploring and hopes to contribute a series of hometown photo stories for The Rapidian. Mostly, she’s thrilled that Grand Rapids has been given the chance to experiment with and create a unique framework for citizen journalism. Laurie is proud that the Community Media Center is the fortunate shepherd for this project. She’s looking forward to hearing new voices and points of view through The Rapidian!

The cultural factor

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:49:00 -0400

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 use pieces published in The Rapidian. Since we’ve had comments on this in the last blog entry, as an update, The Rapidian is looking into different levels of Creative Commons because sharing with local press would be ideal. However, there are more interesting issues to explore with the last point.

As an experimental project partially funded by the Knight Foundation, The Rapidian is in the midst of the journalism-blogosphere hoopla. We’re here to stress that The Rapidian is not an end-all, be-all alternative to traditional media. Titans in the journalism industry have fallen, legacies are marred and journalism strives to find a new business model. The idea of journalism has never really been lost, but the business model has not evolved to support it. In these adventurous times, almost all eyes are on journalism start-ups. This creates the opportunity for more robust news.

I’ve always been a strong believer in media literacy, and unfortunately, the United States does not emphasize this in its educational system. There are little hints of the need to triangulate issues in grade schools. After that, the emphasis is made only to journalists in training. Societally, we often believe so much in cultural literacy that we neglect the need for media literacy.

I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho (lə-sü-tü), a country that is midway between an agrarian and industrial society. It is practically a given that the international stereotype of Americans is promiscuous, white and rich. And if you were a Mosotho (a person from Lesotho) who ocasionally skipped school to catch Days of our Lives (practically every one has at some point), you’d probably also think Americans are never-aging backstabbers. A handful of Basotho (people from Lesotho) also treasured dilapidated, years-old magazines that a passing Westerner had bought as entertainment nosh for the plane ride over. To the Basotho, couture ads were not a suggestion but an American reality. I remember at the beginning of my service, trying to battle these artificially flavored perceptions by whipping out my subscription to Mother Jones, The Sun or Adbusters (does a more depressing magazine exist?). I’d try to explain post-traumatic stress, labor, racism, the prison system, corruption, suicide and other darker topics to unveil the stresses of industrial life not sealed in most glossies.

After much time, I came to understand that this inability to reconcile the few contrasting media portrayals that managed their way to the Mountain Kingdom also came from a lack of Western cultural literacy. A sprinkling of Basotho had traveled outside of southern Africa. Some had studied abroad and returned to change their countries. However, the vast majority would never go farther than South Africa.

This breakdown really highlighted that literacy comes in two parts: cultural and media literacies. As Americans, we rely too much on cultural literacy, and in some ways, it justifies the idea of objectivity and a singular source of news. We’re a population that doesn’t usually verify one news source against another and yet we feel justified in blaming the press when they don’t have absolute coverage. In Italy, a professor stressed to me that the best way to understand a culture is to read their news. Where there is no cultural fluency, strong media literacy practices are the key to understanding a different culture.

If we view all press as a collective where each publication complemented another publication’s ability to report accurately, then we are working toward robust news. As an opportunity to feature community voices, The Rapidian will be one more news source balanced out by the existence of the GRPress, Rapid Growth, WZZM, WOOD TV, FOX17, WGVU and many others. And because creating for The Rapidian familiarizes individuals with media tools and effective communication, we hope to contribute by turning out savvier news consumers.

The Gruen Transfer is a popular Australian show that examines the logic and tricks in advertising and marketing by dissecting recent commercials on air.

The outreach spoke-o-rama

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:17:00 -0400

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 you’re advertising is relevant to their lives. As a regular bike commuter, I’m keen on bringing in the biking community. After much thought, I figured spoke cards would be the cheapest, most effective and mobile way to publicize The Rapidian. Spoke cards are about the size of baseball cards and hang out in the spokes of bike wheels. The crossing spokes pinch them in place.

One thing about spoke cards though, they were originally enmeshed in a countercultural grit. Bike messengers used to be the predominant participants in alleycat races, and the cards were badges of pride in the fixie community. However, my feel has been that in the last several years, the rigidity has slowly crumbled and many now use spoke cards the same way drivers use bumper stickers. But I wasn’t really sure. At least not for Grand Rapids.

When trying to navigate GR bike culture, who better to consult than Dan Koert? Dan is the owner of local bike shop Commute GR and leads at least a hundred participants on a weekly evening ride. For reasons unknown, Dan explained, since last year, spoke cards are no longer in vogue. Since he’s so friendly, I think it was his way of cautioning me. George was more blunt: It’s a horrible idea! We’d be co-opting their culture. Thanks for finally putting in your two cents, George. Message heard: We may be a nonprofit, but we’d be getting off on the wrong foot.

All of this brings up a much bigger issue for me. I appreciate that The Rapidian has a lot of support from the professional, nonprofit and media community, but where are our everyday people? We’re getting a lot of conceptual feedback, but we need reporters, too.

Leading up to the launch, The Rapidian will be visible at festivals, collecting digital story content on what it means to be a Grand Rapidian and doing a lot more community outreach. I can’t help but feel, though, that the best advertising we’ve done is just mingling with people at events after hours, but this too can be hard. There are many people contributing to this project, but as the general staff, George and I make up only 1.5 FTEs for The Rapidian.

So ideas, please. How do we meet potential citizen journalists where they are?

Photo by anabananasplit, used under a Creative Commons license

The daily grind

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:26:00 -0400

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 ten-to-six, I spend so much of my personal time networking for this project in a way that tells me I love my job enough thus far not to cage it in an eight-hour pen. To me, it isn’t just a job. It’s something I moved 2,000 miles for. It’s something I believe in. It’s ideals and principles. In my free time, I’ve been attending GR events and getting to know the city, but it never fails that at least a couple times per night, I’m handing out my business card or mingling with people who already create remarkable content. We’re currently in the process of trying to network for coverage on ArtPrize and ArtPeers (ideas on how to cover both? Let us know!).

In this relative “down time,” I’ve been getting back into the Twitter swing and keeping up on web 2.0, the shaping of 3.0 and journalism industry leads. The most mind boggling but brilliant work advice I ever got was from an associate editor at In These Times. We’re in journalism, she told me. Feel free to spend the first two or three hours of the day getting up to speed on the news. A day passed while you were sleeping.

Of course, my editor meant politics and current events. But since then, I’ve realized that hefty digest is where ideas are born, where the leads are. It’s the key to thinking innovatively. Hopefully in a matter of months, we’ll be one of those sites, too—the kind you have with your morning cup o’ joe.

Guns blazing: The journalism saga continues...

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:06:00 -0400

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 bigger) waltz into your office. We’ve only just gotten letterpress blocks to make a hub sign and are still waiting on our iMacs and dispatch units. Power cords just got added to the shopping list. Needless to say, it is a very humble hub right now.

It was a refreshing visit. Laurie explained how citizen journalism doesn’t replace or even necessarily competes against corporate journalism; it supplements. We discussed how learning to create quality media makes savvier news consumers. It was a pleasant reminder in the chaos of our start up of just all the reasons we really believe in citizen journalism. Warm fuzzies all around.

But, as Chi Kong was from the corporate world, it was also a reminder of how important it is for us to make sure citizen journalism in Grand Rapids is sustainable. Since Chi Kong holds a lot of responsibility and accountability for his organization, a major concern for him (and all big media outlets right now) is the survival of his medium: cable television. As younger generations consume increasingly less on television and far more on computer and phone screens—free and on demand—how does for-profit media need to change to continue turning a buck? It is a crucial question that ties into all we value about big media, from The New York Times to CNN to your local news station.

The Rapidian cannot escape this dilemma either. For the next three years, we will be funded by the Grand Rapids Community Foundation and the Knight Foundation. In addition to a site launch, The Rapidian must also quickly figure out donation strategies for life post-Foundations. Having an Internet-based distribution, we need to navigate around the problems that plague many successful Internet startups (i.e.: Facebook, Twitter): We need to set up a “social contract” with our users to establish from the get-go that donor support is directly linked to the existence of hyperlocal journalism in Grand Rapids. Or else, like Facebook and Twitter, we will only barely cover costs each year.

Great lecture by Ellen Weiss, National Public Radio’s senior vice president for news. In discussing the success and future of NPR, she credited the age-long fund drive: As a noncommercial entity, NPR has forever asked its tuners to donate for what they can get for free.

Clay Shirky tackles thinking the unthinkable. Journalism as an ideal is not at risk of going under, but the funding model that supports it is. In describing the scramble at hand, Shirky says,

And so it is today. When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.
There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.