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Here's a link to Alf Hermida's blog post on the latest stats.

Go to Google Groups: Rebel Knight News

Hey All Knighters,

It's Jenna. I posted the power point and the presentation (which is about halfway finished) on Google groups. Please look through and see what you think. We scrapped a lot of what we originally were using in the power point that I e-mailed last week to Lauren and Charlotte Anne because it was not very "presentable." Tell us what you think. The blank slides are for the mockups of the corresponding slides before. But there should be some photos on other slides. The last four slides need some new photos, but I could be wrong. And I ran out of great words on the speech document. I will work some more tomorrow. But if anyone wants to add to it, please do so. Thanks guys, talk to you all soon;)

Jenna

Leave it to Idaho

Hey all,

I really wanted to appologize for not being on the chat tonight. My parents network crashed last night (blue screen of death) and we have been trying to get it up all day with no luck until now. I also do not have a great connection on my cellular phone because I am in the mountains in a new area and they don't have a tower yet. I am available now thru wednesday if you need to get ahold of me the best way is to email me and then when i go into town I can call you also. Please let me know anything that I may be able to do to help! Can't wait to see you all in 4 days!

Link-o-rama from our chat last night

Okie dokie, here we go.
Last night I mentioned a bunch of things to check out. Here's the collection all in one neat tidy package.

1) This is the Online Journalism Review (OJR) article by Mike Orren, the guy who started Pegasus. You need to read this to see why something worked well there. I thought the bit about 75% of his traffic coming from data was very interesting:
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070117orren/
For those not at last night's chat, Pegasus, in Dallas, got bought last week by Seattle-based Fisher Communications. Link to that here. You can message Mike through my Facebook friends. He is a good guy and should reply within hours.

2) More good resources in this online only book. Some very good stuff that is applicable to your idea in Chapter 4:

Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive
A digital literacy guide for the information age

3) Also, I commend to you a Page One story in the NYTimes today (props to my husband who found it first). This piece is about geomapping, and you should be aware of what is out there even if that's not exactly what your idea is trying to do. Here's the link.

With Tools on Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapmaking

By MIGUEL HELFT

Published: July 27, 2007

New tools are allowing people with minimal skills to do what only professional mapmakers were able to do before.

What are we trying to accomplish?

I promised to get you several links and I will do that, but first need to point to this fabulous part of a Q&A about crowdsourcing and citizen journalism with Jay Rosen (PressThink, NYU). Here's the link to the full interview, but I highlighted the important part below in red and in bold -- think about this for your presentation:

Rosen: Your Wikipedia example is critically important. Here's why. I am on the Wikipedia advisory board, and in the spring I had coffee with Jimmy Wales when he was in town. I asked him why did Wikipedia work when the odds are that most things don't work, and he said something very important, although its significance escaped me at the time. People come to Wikipedia not knowing how it works, but they do know how a regular, 'ol encyclopedia works and so the "leap" to knowing what a free online encyclopedia would be like is not that great. This prior knowledge is critical to a system's viability because is constrains users and points them in the logical directions. How much did it cost Wikipedia to put that common understanding into each contributor's head? Zero! They already knew it. Explaining the way it works takes all of six words: "The online encyclopedia anyone can edit." With 6,000 words we did not get clarity on what a crowdsourced investigation asked of participants because there was no common image to start with, nothing comparable to "encyclopedia, right!..."

Pixel Art

above image by eboy.

So for the more zoomed in views were thinking that maybe we can switch to pixel art. There is already a huge community of people online creating and showing it so it shouldnt be too hard to get it done once the site would actually get launched- if ever. Theres even some social networking websites based on it like Cyworld and Habbo Hotel.

So check out of this stuff me and Hepi came across today.

Love Pixel

Quick Honey

Eboy

And an About.com Entry about creating Pixel Art.

The type of art we choose isnt all that important but I think this can give us and the audience a better idea of how it might look once completed at the zoomed in levels. We would not of course be creating th whole city but just neighborhoods and mostly the more important buildings would be detailed like the nodes we were talking about. Nodes = Buildings or landmarks that are clickable and take to you content directly or to content portals.

-Rob and Hepi

[edit]
I found an Isometric map of Washington DC thats pretty similar what were going for at their Tourism website. I think we can use this as an example.

Stuff to think about for our project...

This is a link to an article Adrian Holovaty (she worked at Lawrence World Journal online with Rob Curley) wrote in response to newspapers going web. It's full of great answers to questions one might pose as a traditional journalist, and includes some great pointers we should keep in mind while we design our web product...

JK
http://www.holovaty.com/blog/archive/2006/09/06/0307

More CJ Stuff

The New York Times launched it's City Room last week. It's more of a blog but I think it allows readers to submit stories and comment on everything. Check it out, it is kind of cool. We might use it to consider the type of hyperlocal content we want to publish with our project. They had a video introduction up there but I can't seem to find it now.

And as some of us know, OhMyNews held a conference in Korea about CitJ on the weekend. Might want to check out some of the keynotes and hear what people are talking about for the future of CitJ and online journalism in general. Lots of neat stuff to check out from the OMNI Forum.

And thats it!

rob

Community Journalism roundup

A bunch of people who are a lot smarter than I am have weighed in about the future of community journalism/citizen journalism in light of the demise of Backfence.com. I'll try to give you a guide to some of the most thoughtful pieces that I have run across. I urge you to meander through this and "click on through," sideways and otherwise to the places these folk suggest, so you get more facets of the picture.
One of the first roundups of the Backfence.com situation came from Paul Farhi of the Washington Post. Here is a link to Paul's piece.
One of the most recent pieces comes from the always thoughtful Steve Yelvington, who also, thoughtfully rounds up all of the other blogs who posted on this. Check out his post, Learning from Backfence.
While you're there, you should be sure to click through to the other links, which are to some very provocative posts. They made me think ...
And then you should check out the Facebook group, Exploding Newsrooms, where the Wall has a post from none other than Backfence founder Mark Potts, who weighs in on the situation.
that's all for now ...

More Flash training guide

Here's another good place to go for honing multimedia skills -- UC Berkeley and USC Annenberg in combo with our good friends at Knight put this puppy together.
In their own words:

This site is sponsored by Knight New Media Center, which offers workshops to mid-career journalists to enhance their expertise and multimedia skills. The center is a partnership of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

Flash Tutorial

If you need to do some learnin'.

http://www.entheosweb.com/Flash/

And if you need flash, ask me how today! And so can you!

-Rob

The Final Idea

In your face interface/News Views/City Window/My View/Our Town(working title)
An interface designed for online publications to use in order to provide news and community involvement in an interactive and hyper local format.

Idea: A panoramic computer graphic based view of a user's city/town that allows the user to get their news. It would be like getting the news by looking out of a window. Through the use of icons/symbols, the city's landscape reveals headlines. As the user navigates throughout the city and into specific communities, they will be able to view stories and interact with the rest of the community by posting bulletins and keeping other members of the community informed about local events. The user will be able to become a part of the story.
Content will be generated both by users, and from the town's proffesional journalists. The plan is for two overlays to exist: one for citizen journalism and another for staff-written journalism.
"In Your Face Interface" will not only allow people to acquire information but will also enable the exploration and discovery of the city through hidden easter eggs and games. For example, at night there will be stars in the sky and if you click on the astrological sign you will receive your horoscope.
The site is interactive, entertaining and informative. The image of the city itself will provide a sense of the current conditions of the city. If it is raining outside, it will be raining on the site. Airplanes will fly by as if the site is living. People will enjoy exploring the site and seeing not only news updates, but community involvement as well. The site can still be sponsored by advertisers on billboards throughout the city. In order to give the interface a much more interactive feel, the site will be comprised of computer graphics/animation. This may also attract a younger audience as well as adults.

Collaborative Portal
This will be an element of the interface which creates an environment where people can work on stories together. Users can provide different elements (pictures, videos, text) to a single story which will be rated or commented on by the community and then posted to the front page or inside different pertaining overlays. This element should meld seamlessly into our inteface and be reachable through most screens. This would also facilitate new sources to come forward on new stories and add to a developing story though comments or other interactions. Moderation of user based content would come with the ability to "blam" bad or incorrect articles from appearing on the site and elevate better stories to a correct place on the main site, similar to Newground's method.

Reasons Why "In Your Face Interface" Will Work:
1.) As media consumers, people want to know what stories will impact them the most. This service will deliver that information to users in an innovative, efficient and stimulating interface.
2.) Users would be able to see what news stories will impact them the most, due to their geographic proximity. The website would strengthen neighborly bonds through heightened community awarness.
3.) Through navigating the city's landscape the user will become engaged in the news.
4.) The "news" will consist of more than just hard news stories...but will keep a community tied together with what's news to them.

Groupware Incorporation

Sup Groupies,

So I saw this speech on the research channel about groupware and how it hasn't changed much since the 60's and how prime it is for innovation (or just implementation). So I started thinking maybe we should incorporate some collaborative aspects into our final project. Maybe we can try to make it all about collaboration between users?

So what I'm thinking is having the main front page like we talked about before that shows stories using overlays and portrays data geographically and all that. Behind that you can pop up a content portal, like at the Newgrounds Flash Portal (which is not their main page), that would show the latest stories, pictures, data, videos and such uploaded as independent stories. There would also be columns for top rated, award winning (we could give out daily awards if theres enough people using it, for ex. top daily views), weekly top 20, monthly , etc. Parallel to that (and this is the innovative part) there would be a collaboration portal. Here you could post stories that you are not quite finished with or that you need pictures for or that you want some input on before you post. You could also post pictures up if your a photographer for people to use with their stories or data visualizations for other projects. There would also be a forum of some sort (not necessarily linear) where you can discuss story ideas and figure out who will get what roles in putting together a story or a feature (with multiple stories) and give you a place to stay in contact throughout the process. All of this could be connected to the main pages as well so that if I'm checking out the Henderson view and looking at the posted local stories, I could click on an overlay that shows stories in progress and lets me comment if I think something is incorrect or if I have better info or personal experience with the topic. This could also work as a way of connecting sources with reporters before the article is finalized, or after.

*I should have checked before but wikinews does appear to have a collaboration tab which functions the same as the discussion tab on wikipedia. To basically talk about articles, which is not exactly what I was talking about.

Anyways, lemme know what you think, we can talk about it tonight.

-Rob

Feedback for Members of Group E

to philip.andrews
show details
Jul 2
I am giving feedback to you becuase each group is suppose to I like all of the ideas that your group came up with. I am numbering them according to the order you have place the ideas in.1. I think this idea is a good one, however it seems as if it is too close to flicka where people post pictures I mean it is original in a sense considering you want to place coordinates. 2. This idea is good too, but can't you check out news and history from the archives on the website? I am a little confused on what you want to do here, I like the idea of including photos from photbucket.3. This is cool considering everything is starting to turn virtual I like this idea of having a video game aspect with the news and quiz included. This would definetly attract the younger generation. 4. This I think would kind of be hard to place on a phone, but with the new Iphone I am sure it could be done. 5. I think this is a great Idea to put news on social sites have you seen the new ads thewy place on facebook of apartments to rent and so forth check it out its in the corner of the paghe as soon as you log on.

I am giving feedback to you becuase each group is suppose to I like all of the ideas that your group came up with. I am numbering them according to the order you have place the ideas in.

1. I think this idea is a good one, however it seems as if it is too close to flicka where people post pictures I mean it is original in a sense considering you want to place coordinates.
2. This idea is good too, but can't you check out news and history from the archives on the website? I am a little confused on what you want to do here, I like the idea of including photos from photbucket.
3. This is cool considering everything is starting to turn virtual I like this idea of having a video game aspect with the news and quiz included. This would definetly attract the younger generation.
4. This I think would kind of be hard to place on a phone, but with the new Iphone I am sure it could be done.
5. I think this is a great Idea to put news on social sites have you seen the new ads thewy place on facebook of apartments to rent and so forth check it out its in the corner of the paghe as soon as you log on.




to kbosman1
show details
Jul 2
I am giving you feedback on your ideas because we are suppose to do that I am placing them in the order that you put them.I think all of your ideas were well thought out and that the one I am impressed with the most is the Health clinic guide. I really think that is an important issue and most people will pay attention to it.


I am giving you feedback on your ideas because we are suppose to do that I am placing them in the order that you put them.

I think all of your ideas were well thought out and that the one I am impressed with the most is the Health clinic guide. I really think that is an important issue and most people will pay attention to it.




to cfarr
show details
Jul 2
I know this is late due to much confusion, but we are suppose to give you some feedback on your ideas. I liked all of your ideas, I know that we are all still workign things out and ideas, so I just gave a little feedback, all of the ideas, we awesome. Good work. I numbered the


1.The first idea you have is very cool, but it seems as if it has already been done. I know you said that it is suppose to serve the community better, that could be a plus, but watch out for what is already out there.
2. This idea is pretty good, but it sounds like a tool that you could use on facebook, or myspace, I am not sure if that is where your group wants to use it or what exactly you all were thinking of.
3.I think this is a good idea to track and rate the doctors, but it could be biased.
4. would this site help people to write better? I am not too clear on this idea, but I like it too I am sure you all are still working it out.
5. I love this idea most I think that we should be allowed to see where government money is going especially with everything going on in society, I think many people of all age groups would defintetly use

Just in Case

If you have yet to comment on our top 5 and need to do so you may do it here.

1. Information overload
This is kind of based on a premise of what a Magazine might look like if it were completely made for the Internet and it was maybe 5 years in the future. Mostly evolution of current ideas that are already out there so this might not make a good project. Its also sort of based on a single website rather than a tool that many websites could use. Right now were thinking of having a main page that's completely focused on multimedia presentation of stories. So for instance, your page would simply consist of a wall of pictures that attempt to sum up the stories being presented. Hovering over pictures would give some more information and maybe cause it to animate or change a bit. Clicking on the image will start a sort of interactive slideshow and enlarge so you can see it better. The slideshows themselves would be arranged in linear fashion with a possible narrative track or text depending on the authors decision. Slides could be composed of pictures or visualized data (graphs and such) or 3D maps that you can spin and zoom of where the stories took place, pretty much anything that can be done visually. It would hopefully be better quality audio and picture resolution than youtube since it wouldn't have to deal with video. The source of content could include users and full commentary functions could be applied. So basically youtube for slideshows, it could also establish some kind of standard slideshow medium like .mpg for videos, and you could compile the slideshow though an online tool and record audio and such without leaving the website. Focus would obviously be toward documentary type presentations, could also serve as a repository for academic slideshows (not sure who else loves the Research Channel but it's surprisingly pretty cool [its just a bunch of academic slide shows]). Like I said, somewhat of an obvious step so it might not be appropriate for this project but it doesn't exist and I'd like to see it.

2. Facebook/ Myspace/ Social Network News Categorization System
We thoroughly discussed whether this would qualify as original or appropriate to the project. And we concluded- Maybe. This would not be a tool to help people present news or information in a different or new way but instead would simply function as a system of connecting people to news. Those connections themselves could be mapped and analyzed as a feature of the system or individual stories but on the whole this would function as a news acquisition tool. The focus would be on bringing relevant news to people who might not otherwise be interested. Most likely it would work kind of like google's adsense- and I think that google news uses a similar algorithm to hook people up with news- but would incorporate people and relationships into the equation. So it would take into account what kinds of things interest yourfriends or what they have read and liked or disliked and try to produce a communal sort of news page where you can discuss with friends certain stories or topics. Discussions would ideally be conducted among people you know or who are within your social (or academic/professional/etc) networks. So you wouldn't see all the comments that a story got(although you could probably have the option), but just those made within your community. In my experience people tend to be slightly more civilized and reasonable among friends andcolleagues than in a general anonymous forum.

3. Online Fact Checker/ Plagiarism Exposer/ Summarizing Compiler type tool thing
The main problem with this one is that it would be difficult to do. It would either rely on writers to break their stories into variable data types and quick summations or would require a very sophisticated language interpreter to do the same type of thing (which I dont think exists yet). The more difficult part would be analyzing contextualization, which might be easy for a person but impossible for a computer program. The tool itself would be a system that compares various stories from different sources and analyzes the differences in style and character or tone and more importantly tags and categorizes omissions or additions of individual facts or data. So, due to technology restraints this would rely on journalists themselves breaking their stories down into computable variables or an army of analyzers doing it for them. The end of the process might produce a veryconcise break down of stories and provide users with a lot of media analysis in the process. Of course, some stories might not be divisible in such a way. So this is still kind of a squishy idea that were still working on.

4. Locational News/In-Your-Face Interface updated*

So we are updating our Locational News idea to include our inteface idea thing which follows- for pictures scroll down through posts to appropriate thread.

So I was thinking about the whole passive news feed thing again and I thought, how bout if I could just get my news by looking out the window? Like I get the weather? Well I dont have any windows with any kind of view so its not very useful to look out the window but what if there was a place I could go to and look at a virtual view from a really nice view and get all the information I need from that angle?

This is really more of an interface for delivering news than it is a way of reporting but I think it would be pretty cool. You would have the whole city out in front of you and by clicking on different elements of the picture, different overlays would pop up and give you the news on that aspect. Color coded arrows or something would pop up in different areas to clue you in on where a particular story happened. So instead of having a frantic front news page with every story crammed in and vying for your attention, you would initially just have a view of the city. Current weather conditions and time of day would be reflected on screen. If there was a major fire or something in town you would also be able to see the virtual fire plume. Planes and birds and helicopters would fly overhead. Freeways would reflect actual traffic, fireworks would crackle on holidays, flags would blow in the wind, etc. I would want the default screen to be something that can be left up like a screen saver or a second browser window, like for my second screen. Something pretty but also highly informative if I want it to be.

Hovering over different neighborhoods and clicking would bring up a similar miniature version of them but restricted by that areas borders, maybe a 3/4 angle to get more of the actual geography in. Similar arrow-news system and overlays would be used on the more local level as well. Clicking on actual stories would pop up the text and pictures with an option to have the stories read as audio. you should be able to browse and queue up a few stories to be read while your doing something else pretty easily. Maybe show the story's pictures as a slide show if you want to look over occasionally.

I think that this as an interface can work in combination with our other ideas. It doesn't solve the news gathering dilemma but I think it creates a cool place to show stories off. You could integrate citizen journalism as an overlay option or as the main method. Community pictures or videos can be integrated as well. Features can be done according to topic, but thats a whole nother issue I will possibly post up later. Lemme know if this fits our project parameters and what you think in general. I think that flash would work brilliantly but doing big flash programs is hardware intensive so maybe java would work better in this case. I'm also not sure I can learn enough of either within a month to actually make a working model of this. Also if anyone has seen ANYTHING like this lemme know. I know that the Rob Curley was doing something similar on his weather page by using the actual city as a backdrop but I think this goes way farther, in the same vein.

--original-->
News has always been categorized and distributed according to location. So were still figuring out the originality aspect of this idea but basically our idea is to bring it to a critical mass level and start to cover new types of stories with hyper local news and make it easier to aggregate.

So here's Hepi's original idea and how we interpreted it in our group. (Since I'm not sure I understand it myself yet)

News stories generated to you via your physical location (on your laptop, cell phone or pda). Kinda like Chicago crimes, but with news stories good and bad. It'd be useful for finding events, and knowing when certain things have happened and it could indicate the potential interest or impact stories in your proximity would have.

Not sure if it's possible anymore with all the privacy software out there, unless you type in your zipcode or something. I guess IP address can do it for you. Seems like it would be more of a feature though like at the side of the news page- here's what happened on your block- who got arrested, who sold a house, which restaurant is good, etc. could be a nice element in the whole interrelated content thing though.

I am intrigued by Hepi's idea of physical location news....I picture it being like a tour of a city with information each place you stop....could be great for tourists. If not, then it would be a great feature to add with the Flicker/Second Life (map with proximity news).

Sorry to toot my own horn, but I really like my first idea. The only thing is I think it maybe more of a cellphone/pda type application because of the GPS/tracking capabilities of these devices. However there could also be a database, that's accessible online, that people in their homes could use to check out the news in areas they are going (or just out of curiosity).

5. Mood simulator/ Storytelling graphic enhancer type thing
I'm a little confused on this one too! It was sort of last minute and I probably didn't catch all of it but here goes.
My explanation probably sounds very simplistic but basically it would be a program where the website would change its look and style according to the type of story. I think this is based on the the idea of how movies or pictures or text can set a mood where the story fits into and cues the viewer about what they should expect or what kind of environment they should imagine. So this would be way of changing the atmosphere or mood according to the story. It could be just simple colors or something more complex. I'll try to get more info on this idea since I'm not really sure about it but yeah, probably needs a lot of work.

Some cool Flash Stuff

So i think we've sort of generally decided on where we want to go, at least as far as look and interface. And we will probably use flash to build it. So heres some flash sites to check out and see whats being done with it and how we can make news more interesting with it. We might think about targeting kids but a lot of adults love this stuff too (like me) so feel free to post any cool flash websites or interfaces you find. Think about how to make news more interactive using flash and what kinds of easter eggs to throw in or how to reward people for exploring the site and creating content.

Some cartoony examples. Our project should look neat and polished but still have some humor and irreverence sometimes i think. Sort of like a form of diversion but where you naturally get a lot of important news and info as well, presented in a cool interactive (and fun) way.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/

http://www.newgrounds.com/

http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/saladfingers.html -is awesome

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/flash-tub/index.php

I'll try to find some more relevant stuff later.

+
Not sure if it will use flash but its a cool concept done in a cool newish sort of way- check out the video intro. we should do something like this to introduce our project.

Encyclopedia of Life

rob

SMS feeds and more Facebook apps talk

Check out this story from the New York Times on text message news alerts about traffic:

Personal Traffic Alerts, With Made-to-Order Data

By JACQUES STEINBERG

Published: July 5, 2007

In the latest incarnation of traffic reporting, information is being sent using personalized text or voice messages to users’ cellphones or BlackBerrys, often at no charge.

Very interesting approach -- and it is not taking it as far as you folks have discussed in your ideas.

Also, I went over and joined The Exploding Newsroom on Facebook, a group that several of my friends are in. I found a link from there to a blog by a Philadelpia Inquirer reporter about newsy Facebook Apps. It sounds like they are channelling youse guys (that's how they tawk in Philly, trust me, I know). Here's a sample from that post:

What newsrooms or writers have developed Facebook apps that turn Facebook into a distribution channel for their work? Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic has a Facebook group, Atlantic Politics. Chris Cillizza has The Fix, a Facebook group for readers of his work for washingtonpost.com. TechCrunch offers a TechCrunch app that users can use to add to their profiles. Others?

Facebook's Exploding Newsroom group has a whole discussion on Facebook as a venue for news.
Worth checking out, I think ...
enuf for now ...

::Later addition: Yo Rob! There's a post in the Exploding Newsroom by someone else who's seriously into visualizing news: Serial Consign

Don't laugh...I was trying to blend...

1.) I was thinking that this idea could be implicated on Facebook, but it could also be a tool on a news site as well. The idea being that users/readers would vote on what they want news to be about...Each week/month/whatever users/readers would vote on the top 10 (or whatever number) images of the town/city/people and news stories would by written from the top 10. The images or video could be posted by users or professionals.

2.) Within Facebook or some social networking community there would be a central spot where members of thaeir specific community can post on a "clipboard" images, video, headlines, that will comprise that community's "news."
Mirrors those tag boards all over the university that post offers/requests for jobs, renters, events (Community Clipboard).

3.) Story Tracer or Story Web...I'll give you a visual at the actual meet up, it's kind of hard to put into words...

Link to Blogdex story...

Hey guys, this was sort of a neat article about weblogging and this new device called Blogdex. I thought it would be sort of inspirational and a hint to us that we're in the right direction...kinda cool, thought I would let everyone in on it. Talk to you tomorrow;) http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/07/45546 ~Jenna

Rob's In-Your-Face Interface

OK, lets hope these pictures work. Sorry too lazy to scan, my digital cam will have to do.




So I was thinking about the whole passive news feed thing again and I thought, how bout if I could just get my news by looking out the window? Like I get the weather? Well I dont have any windows with any kind of view so its not very useful to look out the window but what if there was a place I could go to and look at a virtual view from a really nice view and get all the information I need from that angle?

This is really more of an interface for delivering news than it is a way of reporting but I think it would be pretty cool. You would have the whole city out in front of you and by clicking on different elements of the picture, different overlays would pop up and give you the news on that aspect. Color coded arrows or something would pop up in different areas to clue you in on where a particular story happened. So instead of having a frantic front news page with every story crammed in and vying for your attention, you would initially just have a view of the city. Current weather conditions and time of day would be reflected on screen. If there was a major fire or something in town you would also be able to see the virtual fire plume. Planes and birds and helicopters would fly overhead. Freeways would reflect actual traffic, fireworks would crackle on holidays, flags would blow in the wind, etc. I would want the default screen to be something that can be left up like a screen saver or a second browser window, like for my second screen. Something pretty but also highly informative if I want it to be.

Hovering over different neighborhoods and clicking would bring up a similar miniature version of them but restricted by that areas borders, maybe a 3/4 angle to get more of the actual geography in. Similar arrow-news system and overlays would be used on the more local level as well. Clicking on actual stories would pop up the text and pictures with an option to have the stories read as audio. you should be able to browse and queue up a few stories to be read while your doing something else pretty easily. Maybe show the story's pictures as a slide show if you want to look over occasionally.

I think that this as an interface can work in combination with our other ideas. It doesn't solve the news gathering dilemma but I think it creates a cool place to show stories off. You could integrate citizen journalism as an overlay option or as the main method. Community pictures or videos can be integrated as well. Features can be done according to topic, but thats a whole nother issue I will possibly post up later. Lemme know if this fits our project parameters and what you think in general. I think that flash would work brilliantly but doing big flash programs is hardware intensive so maybe java would work better in this case. I'm also not sure I can learn enough of either within a month to actually make a working model of this. Also if anyone has seen ANYTHING like this lemme know. I know that the Rob Curley was doing something similar on his weather page by using the actual city as a backdrop but I think this goes way farther, in the same vein.

Another Idea

OK, so I was at a casino this morning (get the gamblin done early) and I noticed that a couple of slot machines had those LCDs above the game area and it was tuned to ESPN. So this got me thinking, what about a passive news feeder on the internet. I usually have my TV on when I'm browsing the internet on to listen to the local news or CNN or something so this wouldn't be a huge departure for a lot of people.

I was looking around for something similar and I found a Firefox add-on called Wizz RSS. It's bulky and requires your full attention to browse but it does pop up on the left panel area, where I usually just have my bookmarks. So I was thinking maybe an add-on that can pop out on the side bar and provide options to listen to a constant feed or choose stories individually or that analyzes what your currently looking at and pulls up related news articles. I would want something very passive like if I don't want to read the news it wouldn't interfere with what I'm doing but if it finds something it knows I would be interested in it would flash a green light or something. I also have dual monitors and I know a lot of people have wide screens now so we can also have something that takes up a little more room but doesn't require much input on your part to do its thing and provide the news.

Anyways, just a thought

Wizz RSS
BlogRover -similar but for blogs

Oh and heres a BBC article about using cell phones in Rome to alleviate traffic congestion, its got bus tracking too!

Beating Congestion with Mobiles

Rob

Potential Idea

While I was studying for a JOUR 101 test last week, I was reading about media standards and ratings. When it came to the internet, I found out that measuring the success of a website is a very difficult task. Some companies use page views to measure success, but these statistics have tended to be unreliable because of variables such as page refreshes, bots, etc. This subject was also discussed last semester in my JOUR 170 class. If we were to come up with an innovative solution to this problem I think we would have a product that generates a lot of demand. It's just an idea for an idea, but I want to see what you guys think about it...

Team A responses

Below are the 2 responses I received from Group A.... But before I get to that I wanted to post my understanding of the fact finder/error checker tool (idea 3), this is cut from my reply to the groups responses:

"But the way I interpreted the idea is that it
is a news website just like cnn or whatever, but when you click on a headline
to read a story you receive a story that is made up of all the information that
several credible news agencies have. Let me give you an example. During the
2002 Afghan war CNN quoted Pentagon officials who said that b-52s dropped
dozens of precision targeted bombs in the Tora Bora area in an attempt to flush
out Osama Bin Laden. At the same time the BBC reported the story but also added
in the detail that bombs had killed over 115 people in the village of Karma
Ado. Using the tool/website proposed in our idea, you would click on the
headline about the bombing and it would generate a story using the information
unique to CNN's report as well as the information unique to the BBC's report.
This would not only provide readers with all possible information about a story
but it would also provide you multiple perspectives on a story. "

do you guys think this expanded explanation gives a better sense of the idea?
Anyway, to the responses:

1st Response:

Information overload: You're right about how original/innovative and therefore project appropriate it is. Check out this site: http://www.zreportage.com/. It's like a photo essay/story, and reminds be a lot of your idea. One way to differentiate might be to add audio? I think one way which your idea differs, a strong point on your end, is the inclusion of more multimedia. The idea of commentary strengthens this project's idea of community/participatory journalism. I like the idea but a.) agree there are things too similar to it out there and b.) can tell you're not sold on it, which means it's going to be hard to sell to someone else.

Social Network News Categorization System: To be honest, I don't understand this explanation of this project. Is it adding a "hard" news application to social networking sites? If so, this was one of my ideas, and I'm all for it. But I can't tell if this is what you're talking about or not. I like how you intend to gear it to the interests of you and your friends, and the fact that it has commentary. I'm not so sure, however, about only seeing the comments of people in your community. Isn't that almost censoring what you are seeing? And what about people who comment on story because they are in one community, but a friend can't what they were responding to because it was from a different community? Seems to me to be a lot of room for confusion. And can you be a member of more than one community (like you can join more than one Facebook network, for instance)?

Online fact check, etc tool: I guess my question for this one is the tool name didn't correspond with the explanation. I was imagining it as something that looked for plagiarism within papers (or even stories) and I know tons of those in the academic arena. But is this tool voice interpretation? So if a source gives a story to more than one journalist, or you get more than one story from the same source, you can tell if what they are saying is accurate. Kind of like the theory behind a lie detector test? I think there is too much responsibility on the journalist here. I guess that's my understanding, but again, correct me if I'm wrong.

Locational news: I like this idea. Like you say, news is already largely based on location, but this uses your actual location, not just where you originate from. What I mean by that is if you're on vacation, you might still tend to read your news from back home (especially with online newspapers) versus going in picking up the local paper. This is even more true if you're looking for the national news aspect. There isn't a lot of explanation here, so I don't have a lot of feedback, but I'm definitely in agreeance that it's more geared toward PDA/cell phone type devices. It's also something that has come up in several groups, which leads me to think there might be something like it out there.

Mood simulator: The explanation here says there would be more information to come on this since it wasn't fully developed, so I didn't know where that was at? I like the idea behind this a lot, and it is something that can be applied to more than once site, versus your project being totally devoted to a single site. I think this is a good idea because it is applicable with both hard news and entertainment-based news. And maybe this could go beyond news ... maybe it could actually be applied to your browser. On a MUCH MUCH more basic level, I was just thinking how Yahoo! tends to "accessorize" its home page with animations, etc. during holidays, seasons, etc.. Something to think about beyond the news front. I'd be interested to read what has been come up with if it's been further developed.

That's all for now. I hope this helps. Sorry if my lack of technological ability inhibited me from really delving into your ideas, but I'm definitely tried my best. You guys have some really creative ideas ... and some other groups haven't mentioned yet in my browsing, so you're on the track to originality and innovation.

2nd Response


1. First of all, I am very confused about this idea. Basically, instead
of video, it would be still photos of the event with a
narrator/reporter telling the story? Maybe I don’t fully understand
this idea, but I don’t think it’s terribly new or original. You also
have to ask yourself, what problem is this solving? To me, this is
already being done with traditional news and the only difference is
that it would be photos, instead of video, and the graphics (maps)
would be interactive.
2. This reminds me of a Facebook news application. I could see this
working if it were attached to a social networking site that’s already
got an established audience. As a stand-alone idea, I don’t know if it
would work very well. The idea of each person filtering the news so
they only got what they wanted is, in my opinion, where news needs to
go. People really only want to read what’s relevant to them.
3. It’s an interesting idea, but who is your audience? It may only
appeal to journalists and scholars. So this would be like taking 2
different stories about the same event, written by two different
papers, and doing like a side-by-side comparison of facts? Yeah, I’m
not sold on this one…
4. The idea of using RSS feeds to get local news on your cell phone or
any internet-accessible device is good. It pretty simple, it makes me
wonder if it’s being done already? My group had a sort of similar idea.
Again, this idea needs more development.
5. This idea is different. I don’t know how revolutionary it is, but it
would be a different way to communicate the news. It would make it a
little more cinematic and dramatic, but what problem is it really
solving? Are you trying to make the reader emotionally compelled to
read the story? If that’s the case, I wonder if the “straight facts”
type of writing that we do in news would vibe well with the “dramatic”
visual representation you are talking about?

I know this sounds pretty critical; I am just having a hard time
understanding your ideas. I think your group should narrow the focus of
these ideas and try to solve a particular problem, while still making
it compelling and relevant. Sounds easy, right? Good luck and I can’t
wait to hear what your group decides in August!

D's Responses

Still expecting 1 more.

From: Jordan Barnes

1. I love the idea. Magazines haven't really started looking at the online world as a platform for taking it to the next level. Style.com is probably the most visually appealing place. However, like
style.com, this idea seems like it might be hard to get around in. Remember, information overload is called information overload for a reason.

2. I think this is really the next step facebook needs to take. However, I feel like most of my friends are not just annoyed with applications, but don't really read online news, so I'm not sure how much it would help people. I guess it all depends on how you define news. I feel like I would get a lot more hits to Perez Hilton than New York Times. Is there a line drawn?

3. Maybe I'm not understanding it correctly, but can't you often just type stuff into google to see if anyone stole it? Would this instead, automatically do the checking to see if things are coming up on more than one web site? and if so, what about sites like AP that whore their stories out to nearly every major online publications.

4. I don't know how often this would get used but it's a good idea. The technology is there, like many weather sites, track your IP address to give you the weather wherever you are. Or even the top headlines in your area. I feel like it already exists.

5. Very novel idea. However, not extremely innovative. I don't know how much the mood of site would make a difference compared to the content.

From: Jon Taylor

1. This is a great idea in general, I just think that it needs to be more fully realized. The ideas that you're approaching with this are all ideas that make for a great project, but I'm not sure if all of the ideas (mixing YouTube, slide shows, and news content) will necessarily gel with each other.

2.I love this idea. Using inspiration like AdSense is the perfect medium between news content and sales. It also helps determine what people want to see in news aggregation on the internet. The only downside is that it sounds a lot like RSS feed programs - try and add a few more elements to really spice it up.
3. An online fact checker would be difficult to start up, but overall it's a good idea. Unfortunately, it's already out there on the web - at the moment, I can't remember any specifically, but there are a few very in-depth plagiarism and fact-checking bots out there.

4. This idea is not exactly new. Many news sites (that support their own content as well as RSS) localize the news to individual users based on zip codes. One example of this is Yahoo News. Your presentation of this news could be entirely different from these existing sites, but it would need to be very innovative.

5. This is an interesting idea, it just needs to be fleshed out more. I'm not exactly sure what your group is going for so I can't really add my own opinion.

-Jon

NewWest site and article

Through some random website "webbing" I ran into this site and specifically this article that I'm going to give you the link to. Some of the information gives you a business look at start up hyper-local news sites and citizen journalism, and some of it I thought was right up our alley. On the left hand side is a drop down bar to "Find your town page here," which gives this regional news site an even more local look. Check it out...

Newswest Article

Jenna

*Reformatted by Rob

Feed back from Chris Raine in Team C from KU...

Here's some feedback for UNLV's ideas: 1. I'm not so sure about this one. It seems to me that it wouldn't be that terribly different than a normal website, except you can only access certain pages by going through the sequence rather than going directly to where you want to go. Slides, as I understand this idea, would really just be kind of like webpages, and it seems a lot like a Flash program. Perhaps with more explanation I would better understand what makes this unique. 2. I like the idea of providing the news using an adsense-like program, but my big fear would be that it would be a very complex, and possibly very annoying application. This idea has a lot of potential, but it would have to work very well to justify the adsense-esque collection of news rather than simply allowing users to specify what topics or geographies they want. That said, this is a very intriguing idea, and it's definitely worth exploring. 3. This is a good idea. So good, in fact, that I think it might already exist, at least in a limited form. The key, as you stated, would be to create the very complex algorithm/program that could effectively aggregate and compare stories to determine if plagiarism took place. 4. I like the idea of hyperlocal news, and it sounds like that would definitely be this idea's angle. This sounds at least somewhat similar to one of Ithaca's ideas, as well as our hyperlocal wiki idea. The cell phone/GPS/physical location angle is interesting, and is worth exploring, although I'll be honest, it kind of makes me think of Big Brother. 5. This idea sounds very interesting. An immediate concern is that it may throw any supposed objectivity over the side. A story that is presented as "sad" will automatically influence readers to interpret the information a certain way. Kind of like journalistic bias in a graphic form. Still, very intriguing, and could be useful for certain types of stories, particularly soft news and stuff like that.

Cooler than the iPhone: Eventstreaming

Really interesting and provocative post today over at one of my favorite blogs, TechCrunch. If you couldn't (or didn't want to) stand in line for the iPhone, you could be almost right there thanks to the live videostream folks were putting up.
In this post, TechCrunch calls eventstreaming "the missing link in Web 2.0’s challenge to network television."
Pretty compelling.
Another interesting place to stop and ponder is this post on Seth Goldstein's blog about Facebook, and how and why it is becoming the "social network of choice for us chic geeks." One reason, Goldstein says, is because Facebook is allowing peole to create new applications for use on the network .You've no doubt seen some new apps lately on Facebook, and I think some of you have proposed creating new apps as part of this project. Well, guess what? Facebook would *love* that!
And then, because I am a cockeyed optimist and like to hang with the "half-full" crowd, I urge you to slide over to the MediaShift blog where Mark Glaser lists 10 Reasons there's a bright future for journalism.
And talk back. What helps you and what inspires you?

What we are trying to accomplish here

Every so often it's important to ponder our mission and refocus. I promised you I would post this, so here it is, straight from the grant document.

First, here is the big picture from Knight :

The Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge Initiative seeks…

• New ways for people to communicate interactively to help people better understand one another in geographic communities, share know-how and generate passion in solving local problems;
• New ways for people to use information, news and journalism in geographic communities to imagine their collective possibilities as communities, and to set and reach common community goals;

• New ways to dig for news and act on it in geographic communities, including new ways to collect, prepare and distribute information, news and journalism that reveals hard-to-know facts, identifies common problems, clarifies community issues or points out practical courses of action.

Now, here is what Dr. Dianne promised we would deliver:

"... an effective, efficient and replicable system with the capacity to generate and execute entirely new approaches to and examples of participatory community news."

"... original and relevant models of news production, format and distribution, and it will make those models available to individual, independent and industry news producers

"... an entirely new form of participatory community journalism, one that is scalable, replicable, affordable and effective. Deliverables may adopt any digital format or approach – from a Web site, to a news application, to an immersive media simulation or platform. But they must be adaptable and relevant, useful to real people and real communities."

"... Most important, the project will generate new approaches to community news production and delivery, which will be made available to all news producers across the country."

Think about it. Ponder it. Print it out and put it inside your AP Stylebook under your pillow and grok it.

And first one to send me a link with the real origin of the word "grok" wins. ;-) (hint: it ain't Steve Jobs!)

Adam Moss on Charlie Rose

Thought I would post this, Moss is the editor of New York magazine and has done a lot of other magazine stuff. Towards the end of the interview he talks about how the website is different from the magazine and how they plan to proceed online in the future. Their website isn't actually that innovative but it gives you a feel for what magazine editors are thinking right now.

CharlieRose.com

New York Magazine

Team blog links

Here are the links to the other teams' blogs. Check em out:

Team Awesome: http://teamawesomeinnovationincubator.blogspot.com/
Group 2: http://innovationteam2.blogspot.com/
Group 3: http://incubator3.wordpress.com/
Team Voltron: http://group1voltron.wordpress.com/
Kansas State: http://chanticle.blogspot.com/
KU: http://ehub.journalism.ku.edu/innovation

Feedback from Team C member...

Hey Jenna,
I should start off by saying that my comments may sound harsh, but I onlymean to help your group pick out all the little bugs that may be lurkingin your ideas.

Good luck,
Christina

#5) I'm really not into this idea. I think that putting a stylistic spinon a story is irresponsible journalism - it cuts out objectivity. Thissounds like a tool for making propogranda.
#4) This sounds cool, but how different is it from a local news paper?I don't see the value proposition. I think that if you were a person whoconstantly travels that it would be great, but I don't know how manypeople fall into that category. I think maybe I misunderstood this alittle bit.
#3)Very, very cool... If you can do it, go for it. I don't know how youcan make the technology work for you, bit if it's there, that's awesome.
#2)I think that social networking-sites need work when it comes to news,but I wonder how much interest there is. Why would a person choose to gettheir news here and not someplace else, just something to think about.
#1) This sounds neat, but how is the information organized? What is thethread that ties it all together. The whole 'rolling over images and theychange' thing has already been happening for a long time.

More Rambling

Hey guys,

OK, new idea. Not sure how many of you guys are familiar with websites like DeviantArt or Newgrounds, but they all are based on a model where art or photos or cartoons are created and rated or judged by other artists within the community. The best rated or newest creations are posted to the front page which is where most people will arrive and get their fix. Once you are looking at something you can also easily see other stuff by that artist or look at their favorites section, which usually links to similar stuff which is very useful.

At their core these places are communities. Artists often team up on projects or emulate each other and really strive to create better art as a community. Most of them do it for fun, in their free time, but there are a few professionals who make a living off of either flash cartoons or artwork or photography. Thanks to creative commons licensing they can post their professional work to these sites and sell them or license them to companies or whatever. Kind of like the whole creation nets concept.

So I was thinking, how can we do this for journalism? How can we do it effectively? And I'm not just talking about citizen journalism. It should be a place where any journalist can post their stories, or photos or whatever and have them looked at and commented on or reviewed by a large community of fellow journalists (amateur or professional). The best content would be promoted though some system to the portal area where anyone can look at it. The problem is of course that news is fleeting. It might not be any good after a couple of days so the content would have to be "evergreen". Not just todays headlines but really analytical, in depth pieces. I'm also not sure if there is a community out there willing to put all that time into reporting without any prospect of a paycheck. I think if people used it, it would help to elevate our field and provide a community for freelance journalists but there are a lot of problems.

For instance, OhMyNews has citJ by individual reporters but they aren't very thoroughly checked or reviewed by the community. Most of the stories are also about very recent events and focus on the who, what and where instead of the why.

WikiNews is a good place to put together all the articles on a news item that are already out there together and strain out the facts and important info, but don't expect to get much credit and don't expect a lot of original reporting. Its also heavily focused on the latest happenings rather than the slow ongoing stories you might find in the New York Times or watching Frontline or something.

So yeah I don't know if this kind of thing is possible or realistic but it would be cool. Probably asking way too much at this point.

Ok so if we are doing the DATA stuff then wouldn't that be a tool, because I think that is a good tool to use I think Rob's idea is great, is this only marketing to Magazines, or can we make it news related? My computer has been going crazy so I am a little behind, I am catching up though.

Data Visualization

As you all know, I love data. I've been noticing that more and more newspapers and magazines are taking lessons learned online and implementing cool new ways of data visualization for print in more advanced or cool looking ways. Kind of reverse engineering. I'm not sure if these are helpful to our project but maybe somebody will get a bolt of innovation from looking at them.

Some Jonathan Harris stuff

Good Magazine is All about Visual Data

So I was thinking, man this stuff would be a lot cooler online. I could click on stuff and it would take me to more info. It would be cleaner since you wouldn't have to squeeze all that text in there.But how can I make THIS post more visual, how can I implement some cool visuals into ordinary stories? Can it be done automatically? Anyways just trying to get the juices flowing.

Another Idea we can pick apart;) Oh yea...and it's me, Jenna

Ok...So I don't have a name for this idea yet, but I've been thinking that it's sort of a geographic picture database. It's pretty primitive, and I came up with it while trying to think of some of the problems I run into reading news stories. It's an idea that definitely works for internet news story-telling... When reading a story, even a local news story, I run into descriptions of locations that I've never been to or am not very familiar with. For me (and I'm assuming others?) this presents a bit of a problem. Once I can't visualize what the writer is actually talking about, I lose interest in the story and I find it hard to keep reading. Now, I've never seen this done (aside from proper nouns in a news story that link you to a specific website), but that doesn't mean much. I was thinking that somehow we could create a database that would link locations in stories (cross streets, landmarks, buildings, etc.) to pictures. And not just a snapshot, but those photos that let you turn 180 or 360 degrees so you can get a good feel for what and where the location being described looks like. I was trying to search for this on the internet, but it's kind of difficult because I'm not pitching the idea as a website. It would be a tool- there's that magic word;)- that journalists can place in their internet stories for readers to use as they choose. The NewYork Times links certain proper nouns and other nouns mentioned in articles to other stories (relative or not) in their archives. So while they use a link, their link promotes a different idea than what I'm proposing. The database I was thinking would solely be for pictures/images, and they would be semi-virtual;) Ok...that's my contribution for the day...j/k...but really let me know what you all think...even if this doesn't work, we could use it for a springboard for other things or add it to one of our existing ideas. This just happens to be the biggest lightbulb moment I've experienced during this whole project, so I thought I would share it. I still like our number 3 (Online Fact Checker/Plagiarism Exposer) and number 5 (Mood simulator) ideas...good stuff;) Jenna

Top 5

1) We all came up with ideas that combined all channels of news, so I think we should try and figure out a way to implement this idea creatively (maybe we could do this in second life)

2) Sorry to toot my own horn, but I really like my first idea. The only thing is I think it maybe more of a cellphone/pda type application because of the GPS/tracking capabilities of these devices. However there could also be a database, that's accessible online, that people in their homes could use to check out the news in areas they are going (or just out of curiosity).

3) We all had ideas that used Myspace and Facebook or some other form of community/social networking websits. I really like these ideas because I believe that social networking websites are going to be popular for a long time. The ideas can all easily be combined and I think this is something we should talk about during our next meeting.

4) I really liked Rob's information overload idea, however the technology and potential bandwidth of the site is a little bit out of my league. Of course I'd be willing to investigate how to make it into a reality.

5) I like the idea of interactive/filckr news sites also, my own problem is that stories with a lot of action (sporting events, wars, etc.) will be easy to report, whereas stories with little action (politics for example) might be difficult to generate interest in, based on images alone.

Lauren J's Top 5

1. Cell phone ticker this could really appeal to everyone of all walks life.
2. A Myspace or Facebook app that Hepi came up with with I think it could just be so much more easier to get more people involved.
3.Information overload this could be really intersting.
4.IPOD news ALMOST everyone has an IPOD!!!
5.Online community that references comments and captions in blogs I like this one.

Narrowing it down

Jenna was nice enough to let us use her digital recorder during the lecture and will be posting it for you all as soon as I get it back to her today. It raised an interesting question for me about our purpose....are we supposed to design one cool story/site or something that can be applied universally? Anyway, here is my list of smooshy ideas:

1. I like the idea of combining flicker news and second life news. At first it is just a map with news pictures and headlines flashing up but give the people the opportunity to zoom into their location and have a look around. Everything would be linked, like Rob suggested, to more information and archives.

2. Combining Facebook and Who cares news? might be NEAT! If we could add another page for people to fill out for their profile including interests and then create a news page for them based on those interests. This is cool because they wouldln't have to create another/new profile (that can be annoying).

3. I am intrigued by Hepi's idea of physical location news....I picture it being like a tour of a city with information each place you stop....could be great for tourists. If not, then it would be a great featue to add with the Flicker/Second Life (map with proximity news).

4. I like the idea of readers getting to know their journalists. However, I want to implement some type of technology with it...Any suggestions? Perhaps we could use a dictation software and have journalists talk into their cell phones that would post to blogs. It would be more immediate this way.

5. I still like the idea of creating a data base that includes all formats of news, news on youtube, news discussion in blogs and news chats. It would also include acual news room news coverage too to make it LEGIT. If nothing else it would get people to talk about news so that they could get posted and receive their 15 min.

Rob's Picks

So, the presentation was very interesting. I think I've sort of changed my perspective on this project as a result. Hopefully someone can put up that mp3 pretty quick. I recommend giving it a listen. Warning- long post ahead.

So this is just coming out of my ass but here's what I'm thinking. Maybe we shouldn't be focusing on individual gadgets so much (not that we necessarily are since a lot of our ideas don't) but really look at how to present the major tools of journalism(photos, data, writing, video, interviews, etc) in a more cohesive, web-only manner. I think that if we can figure out a new way of combining all the elements into a truly cohesive mash thats quick and useful that it will work out very well. Right now a typical story is text, pics, and maybe a video, or a podcast of the same info. All of which are presented almost as separate entities. We should be combining each piece as a critical section of the whole story. Rob Curley showed some really cool projects by the Washington Post and um the Naples Paper where he did that kind thing with flash. They were very large projects though. I'm thinking maybe we could devise something like those but on a smaller scale, like for each story, and make every story really interrelated to the others. Anyways I'll try and find those so ya'll can see. I was thinking something like browsing through news the same way you would browse google earth(click on locations for pictures, video, wikepedia articles and such) but maybe not based on actual location, not sure how they would be "mapped" though. I need to give it some thought. Not just a simple list of course. I don't know, just thinking.

Anyways top 5

1. Jenna's #7 and my #1.
I think they can easily be combined. I was really thinking like maybe a news website where theres only a few Journalists but the audience really gets to know them and is able to participate and see everything thats going on. They would have to be likable though, no Norm!'s. Of course some people might say that getting to know a journalist makes them less objective to the audience but I don't think so. They would have to be willing to lead a "Real Worldish" life though. Although a bit classier I would hope.

2. Hepi's #1 is interesting.
Not sure if it's possible anymore with all the privacy software out there, unless you type in your zipcode or something. I guess IP address can do it for you. Seems like it would be more of a feature though like at the side of the news page- heres what happened on your block- who got arrested, who sold a house, which restaurant is good, etc. could be a nice element in the whole interrelated content thing though.

3. Hepi's #6 + Lauren's #8 + Rob's #9, 4 & 5.
Okay this is big one but all of our ideas are basically about having people report and be able to easily post the stories and integrate or meld their stuff into other people's stuff. This is already being done of course. I think we can work on a new protocol maybe that standardizes and sort of combines your material into the existing mesh, once there is one. Defining aspect I think would have to be a heavy lean toward multimedia resources. I dont think for instance, that there is a place where soldiers or reporters or locals can post pictures up of Iraq (as a group) and really discuss the problems depicted in the pictures. but I did find some gems like- here- but its not really grouped with other Iraq stuff- most Iraq tagged photos are of protests. I'd like to post pictures of all the crashes I see on the streets (or into walls) up to a place where other people do the same and we can talk about why people drive so terrible in this city and what intersections are the worst or what drivers you should watch out for (anyone in a Hummer).

4. Rob's #6 + Hepi's #2 + Lauren's #1, 2 & 5 + Dero's #6.
I think all of us, except Jenna, did something with Facebook or Myspace. Not sure I understand Lauren's ideas but maybe we should talk about this one next meeting. I think there is a niche there but Its tough to fill. I just signed up for facebook so I'm still feeling that out. I mean Networks? I cant just look people up? wtf? And Myspace seems hostile to the idea of news but who knows.

5. Jenna's #8 + Hepi's #4 & 7 + Rob's #3 + Dero's #2
All these are sort of based on the 'Why should I care?' aspect of journalism. Or narrowing down of the story parameters to appeal to a certain type of reader. Smart targeting type stuff. I think this might be interesting to do. Like when you're writing a story you might be thinking about who would really want to read this article. And how can you get it to them? I always think about how I can make it interesting to people beside myself. I think this might also be a good way to approach the interrelation thing I was talking about.

OK, have a snack.

Jenna's Top 5 Favorite Ideas

Okay groupies...here's the deal...I'm posting my top 5 favorite ideas late-Sunday night cause tomorrow is looking to be a real doozie of a day for me (and thank God 'cause I've been pretty stagnant in the mental stimulation department since Ithaca). But I may or may not put in an extra idea on my top 5 cause I really like 6 (at least). I know it sounds pretty blasphemous of me to decide I'm gonna post 6 ideas on my top 5, but it just feels right...that or I'm super indecisive...whichever the case may be...I think we definitely have some ideas to work with...I thought I would also add in that we should be thinking of some problems that digital/online news is having and work on how to fix those small problems - this goes back to those two guys who judged our online travel ideas and the group that won came up with an innovative idea to fix a niche travel problem. I'm just throwing that out there...but yea...I will see who ever is going to the GVR tomorrow at 9 a.m. sharp;) Here goes...

Jenna's Top 5 Favorite Ideas...in no particular order;)

1.) I like Rob's #8 idea...N0-News-News...it's hot...no but really...I like...

2.) I like Kristin's #2 idea...very user oriented...

3.) I dig Hepi's #6 idea...Second Life-esque news story recreations...it's very virtual vacation...we could have taken the gold with that one guys;) I'm only kidding...but I really do dig Hepi's #6

4.) I like Lauren's idea for flicker news...but we could call it, like, flashing news;) Not serious about the name...but serious about liking the idea...

5.) And I have to add one of mine in my top five cause if I don't believe in myself...then who will? Right...that and Rob (or was it Hepi?) had expressed liking this one during Sunday's semi-functional chat;) Hows about Jenna's #7...Follow-a-journalist...sort of hoakey at first thought...but I promise there's some depth behind it;)

***And as for my sixth idea (kinda like the sixth sense) I was really diggin Rob's #9 idea...Information Overload...just puttin it out there...

Interesting new futuristic video

one version of the future


This is called Prometeus -- The Media Revolution

1.) Cell phone news ticker

2.) Audio-Visual-Virtual newspaper

3.) Interactive news- sort of like a second life but centered around breaking news and news stories

4.) User news sites; example...when we were stuck in the airport for six hours...users can write their own news story and even post up video...for users to view...

5.) Project news list...like project playlist but news based instead of music based

6.) News sharing networks...like file sharing, but legal and with news not music...gives users ability to share news stories accross the nation and compare with each other...this enables users to see what kind of a job their local news authorities are doing and make valid assessments of the news

7.) Follow a journalist online...let the user virtually follow the journalist int the journalists world...breakdown of a story...also cuts down on gatekeeping and opens up forum for transparency...

8.) News that applies to you...type in your interests and concerns...and news is brought to you...kinda like tivo...

Hepi's 10 ideas

1)News stories generated to you via your physical location (on your laptop, cell phone or pda). Kinda like Chicago crimes, but with news stories good and bad. It'd be useful for finding events, and knowing when certain things have happened and it coulkd indicate the potential interest or impact stories in your proximity would have.

2) A Myspace or Facebook app that uses the information you have already put into your profile to generate news content that you may be interested in. It could also tell you what news stories your friends have recently read or are interested in and could incite discussion about those issues.

3) The ultimate news aggregate that combines stories from the internet, from local, national and international news television stations, as well as podcasts and streaming news radio. You would chose the stories you want to watch.

4) A television service in which you chose what news stories you want to watch. (kinda like on the internet you only pick the stories seem interesting to you).

5) An online community journalism watch dog group that uses user input to rate news stories and the people who write them. It would focus on issues such as accuracy of reporting, possible slanting of stories by the author, etc.

6) Accurate Second Life recreations of major news stories (such as 9/11, the launch of space shuttle atlantis etc.)

7) Programmable news radio that lets you listen to the stories you want to hear rather than the stories the station gives you.

8) A television news aggregate.

9) It will come to me...

10) It will come to me...

Rob's Ideas

Hey guys,

I think I got most of my list. I did have to throw out my News wiki idea since its already been done. Some of these may have already been done as well but I didn't find anything.

1. Serious Journalism Website but staff is able to tell a sub story about themselves and open all background communication and story discussion to public. Audience comes to know and is able to communicate easily with staff through forums or other method. Website becomes sort of public commodity, completely open to examination.

2. Big Picture Journalism Site. Instead of reporting on individual events and connecting up to larger issue, start with big issue, then narrow down to reported events. For example a crime page would have thorough statistics and overall analysis of where and why crime is being committed then filter down to show individual incidents and details.

3. Different Lens Journalism. Have the same stories told by different people. For example and economist might tell a story that emphasizes the economic impact while a political reporter will report it through a policy or public approval viewpoint. Maybe have discussions about differences in reporting.

4. Video. Let viewer use your footage or interviews and their own to make their own segments. Have them reviewed by community and aired or posted as content.

5. Same as above but with all content, pictures, data, text, sources etc. Hopefully readers will be able to make connections with unrelated content that staff may have missed.

6. In conjunction with some social network site. Have a news or issue segment where you can discuss recent news or popular issues but just with people you are friends with. People seem to be more reasonable when they’re talking to people they know. Well some people.

7. Forums- the whole geographic/political block/ small democracy replicated town hall thing. People in you shared political jurisdiction talk about issues or news items. Something like this appears to have already been done but is just focused on particular stories.

8. No news News- site covers major stories from 1 year ago and updates their status and gives updates on the current conditions or what has happened since. Can also cover current stories but with a lean toward their historical context and links to similar events that happened in the past.

9. Information Overload- Front page is just a wall of images from different stories. Mouse over one and it will start a slideshow with audio. Stop by mousing over to another image and it too will start telling story. Mousing back will resume other stories where they stopped. Clicking will take you into full page for each slideshow and let you comment or see background info and such.

10. Still working on it!

Lauren's ideas

News box on FacebookNews
box on Myspace that will exsist on every pagenews
PDA'SPortables GPS news
IPOD news
CategoriesFacebook news messages in the InboxNews
Text messages on cell phone
helloworld news networking
flicker news instead of photos of people photos of news happening all over the world
e-mail beeps of informing news

Dero's ideas

1. Scrolling ticker on flash/ajax pages maybe even pop ups
2. Who cares? data base/search engine that categorizes stories based on who it effects
3. Photo caption contests (lol news) that reference inside news jokes ex. http://www.zerosummind.com/2007/05/l337-katz0rz.htmlhttp://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/06/06/this-not-a-truk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes
4. Link news blog sites with other news sites and personal blog that touches similar topic
5. Control the stockmarket game (fantasy stock market) ex. http://www.youngmoney.com/stock_market_game
6. Online community that references comments and captions in blogs/on youtube to links about the news story that informs.

What time does the list need to be submitted? I get off of work at 5:30.

Lauren J.

Yay, Rob! now post ideas

Thanks for tweaking us into a team blog. We're flying!
Now that you all can get in here, this is where you need to post your 10 ideas.
Innovate aqui, por favor!
cherio,

I'm hip...I'm cool!

Sorry all,
I am just really excited about this being my first blog post (yeah me)! Okay, now that I got that out of my system, what time are we meeting? P.S. Rob, thank you for setting this up for us! peace

Hello World!

Welcome to the UNLV All-Knighters web log. Hope everybody is busy working on them lists. Post them here when they are ready. And let me know if you cant get in here to post or anything.

And yeah not sure about the template, feel free to play around with it.