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Newsvine is calling its contributors to join together in the first pro-am journalism project on the web. We're teaming up with NewAssignment.Net, Wired and other sites that embrace social media. Jay Rosen, the man behind the project, asks us and other citizen media outlets: "can large groups of widely scattered people, working together voluntarily on the Net, report on something happening in their world right now, and by dividing the work wisely tell the story more completely, while hitting high standards in truth, accuracy and free expression?"
Newsvine hopes to provide a resounding answer to that question from its many talented contributors, who we think are better suited than anyone on the web to tackle the challenge of Assignment Zero. Why do we think this? Newsvine members are already organized into several ideal groups, such as The Citizen Journalist and Citizen Journalism. These groups can team up with other interested users to organize a team which will put forth contributions on the behalf of Newsvine for Assignment Zero, which Rosen describes here:
* 1. We're going to take one big, moving story--the spread of crowdsourcing and peer production methods across wired society--and with your active assistance break it down into reportable parts. Some of these parts we already have. More of them is what we need.
* 2. Then we're going to develop those parts--in the open, at the site--into pieces we can formally assign to contributors. Each piece is a part of a larger puzzle we'll be fitting together. We don't know yet how many pieces there will be.
* 3. We'll set deadlines for those pieces, and with your help find contributors who are motivated and qualified to complete them. Not for pay (we're not at that stage yet...) but for public benefit and some by-line glory in the final results. An "author" in our system can be an individual writer, a two or three-person team. A class could get an assignment. A blog plus users could do one. In an agreement with Newsvine staff, we are going to ship to them a "box" of assignments for their users to complete. It will then be up to the Newsvine community to figure out how to get those pieces done.
* 4. We'll edit what comes in and with the crowd's help verify it to the best of our ability.
* 5. Final results will probably come two months or so from now. We plan to publish in a big, splashy package at NewAssignment.Net everything that came in and made the editor's final cut. Wired will run a piece by Jeff Howe drawing off Assignment Zero. Wired will be free to pick and choose from that material and publish any portion of it, in print or online. What doesn't run at our site or at Wired.com can appear elsewhere on the Net. (We won't own your content. An Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License will apply to it.)
Pro-am means just that: a mix of professional and amateur talent. Some formatting, some freestyling. Some things decided by editors, others left to participants. We don't know what the optimal mix is yet, but we'll find it.
As you can see, some of the details are still to be ironed out, but by participating in this project with your fellow Newsviners, you have a chance to make history - by contributing to the birth of a new breed of citizen journalism.
Please discuss this project here and in the appropriate Newsvine Groups. Soon, we will appoint a person to act as the head coordinator of the Newsvine effort. This person will be the main point of contact between the Newsvine participants and the people over at NewAssignment.Net. Ideally, the person should already have a strong background of reporting under their belt here at Newsvine, as well as the organizational skill and availability to help us put our best foot forward. Newsvine staff will be largely hands-off in this project, leaving it up to the Community to do its part in Assignment Zero.
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This is fantastic and kudos should go to the Newsvine team who have been at the forefront of the shift from day one! Thanks for helping to put a big piece of the puzzle out there, all of us. I have to say this quote made me laugh..
well duh, we know that :~)
Come on Pamela, Newsviners have been at that stage for some time now ;)
I know Calvin, the earnings bump forced me to revise my income for the year on my taxes! :~)
Wow! I think the future is happening.
I put in my vote for Killfile and/or Pamela Drew!
Okay, I am now registered with Assignment Zero. I find no info on the New Newsvine Association. I visited the Editor and the Assignments Desk. Where else should I look?
hi,
I'm really looking forward to working with everyone here through your coordinator.... awaiting the final vote :)). The press release we just put up on the site talks about the Assignment Zero - Newsvine collaboration:
Lauren "The Scoop" Sandler is going to blog about it in just a minute, too. She's here:
- Amanda
Sorry - the links don't appear in my post. If you go to AssignmentZero, click on about, and then go to 'press' you'll see our release. It talks about the Newsvine-Assignment Zero collaboration. Lauren blogged about it a little while ago. It's on the front page now....
Okay, I read the last paragraph of this article and think I now understand where we are headed. So what do I do now?
oldfogey, first thing is first. We need our leaders to accept their nomination(s). Then, they can start coordinating the effort with the Assignment Zero crew.
How you self-organize is up to all of you, whether one of the existing groups is used or if a new one is created, etc.
They will also be free to profit from it.
I hope they are able to draw revenue from this effort, since they are one of the primary backers of the project.
This actually sounds really interesting - it strikes me that with groups already active we have a lot of the division of labor taking care of itself. I'd be willing to bet that there's an active group of users centered around each of several major focal points we could address -
* Groups that have a strong collaborative dynamic could take a look at how large projects can be broken down into manageable chunks while still working towards a cohesive whole. I'm taking a (serious) look at you, Drollhouse.
* Groups with strong, explicit bias - ie atheists or conservatives or Green types - can take a moment to critically examine the dangers of self-reinforcing beliefs. I think it's a serious problem when we get the sort of cyber-balkanization going on where you only hear the voices of those that agree with you - well, we all know that there are a lot of places on the vine where we are all guilty of that.
* Groups like the aforementioned citizen journalists can take an honest look at how simple/complicated it is for any joe schmoe to make a few phone calls and learn about something. Also, I'd extend this to a few key users - Brian Ford and Benno Hansen in particular have lately jumped out at me as willing to go the extra mile to bring their readers an exclusive scoop with a personal touch.
* Niche groups can compare/contrast the role of folksonometric meta-groups to speciality magazines - what do you think, War Room? Artist Profiles? Newsvine:CNN :: your group: ??
* Newsvine Communty can take a look at how all the various people with all of their disparate (read: frequently violently opposed) perspectives can integrate into a single community. Newsvine is an organism, in spite of a LOT of internal conflict - how does that work? Can it be turned to our advantage?
Anyway that's my two cents. I'm happy to have a project and ya'll can count me in on this however it goes.
Your two cents always seem to be worth at least a dollar.
I knew I had the distinct sensation of a buzzard stepping on my grave.
Oh...and an enthusiastic "aye" to the Killfile/Pamela nomination.
Thanks Viki, that's the nicest thing I've heard all week. :)
As long as we're fleshing this out and trying to find a suitable roles for the various participants I'd like to throw my hat into the ring for the position of newsvine community liason. I think I could bring a lot to the table, which is not to disparage Killfile or Pamela in any way.
I second that self-nomination, Mykola. I think you'd do a fantastic job.
I second your nomination!
We've also got Dennis McCann interested in this bit as well. Likely a 2-person job anyway, and he'd also be a great choice.
Mykola is acceptable now that he finally shaved.
Me too.
I'd volunteer, except I'm not an organizing type -- and I worry that my day job would prevent me from working on it as closely as necessary.
Though, I definitely want to participate.
Might I also add Corey Spring to the list? Wasn't he the driving force behind the Cancer Walk?
I would also like to nominate Aine, for just about anything to do with this project.
So, I don't know if this should take place here, or in one of the groups, but I think a logical next-step is defining some of the roles we will need going forward. The list will grow, but we obviously have interest and willingness to help, all we need is a little focus and organization to get started.
(oops, I promised we'd be hands-off and here I am, meddling)
I'm thinking if we give it about another 12 hours or so (to take into account the world-wide time zones) to give everyone a chance to find this post and thread, we'll get a better idea of who's interested, etc.
I'm actually not so great as an organizer/coordinator of people, but if you put me on the trail of information digging on a specific topic, it'll make better use of my skills.
Eh... ad 3) say my name, say my name but ad 2) remember I did go that extra mile as an embedded teenage terrorist citizen journalist ;-)
Now what are we talking about here?
Heh Heh They got ya Aine :)
Sounds good Calvin can you flesh this comment out a bit please
There will be no fleshing from me. It's all up to Killfile now ;)
Phone call at 5:00 today should flesh some of this out.
Amazing. This is great news. I can't wait to see what happens next.
Hi everyone. This is David Cohn, I'm an editor at Assignment Zero and I wanted to drop in. I'm really encouraged by the process through which you guys have already started nominating a liason. Very democratic, organized and effective. Can't wait till we can start dishing out assignments. Feel free to go to the Assignment Desk and browse topics that you'll want to investigate.
I've been waiting for this announcement -- glad to see it come out. :)
(In the meantime, I've been holding off on my "month of citizen journalism" feature.)
So -- I guess -- let me know how the Citizen Journalism group can participate, and -- anyone would would like to participate under that banner -- raise your hand, say aye, contact me, etc.
I see that the Newsvine Blog has requested membership in my group. Did he mean to log out and log back in before doing so?
Oh -- and thanks for the tip of the hat, Mykola.
I'll pay it forward with a mention of Steve Watts and Stacy Malbon.
I will... er, I mean 'he' will log back in and publish this announcement to your group as well. :)
Heheh -- that's okay. I just now noticed that this was published to the group so, now it all makes sense.
:)
Okay, Calvin and All, I will try to keep my shirt on. Keep my horses in harness. Subdue my libido. Grit teeth till the Cows Come Home.
I will follow any leader as long as he/she takes me forward. I just hope you realize my motto is "lead or get out of my way."
To the Assignment Zero people logging in here with comments, welcome to Newsvine, Thanks for being here. Just tell me what I can do and I will do my best. At last I get to associate with someone who knows what an editor is. Now if I just had good software for typesetting.
To Newsvine Staff, let me know when we start selling advertising.
God loves a salesman.
When we figure out more, I'll help anyway that I can.
Wow. Yes, please... do feel free to use the Citizen Journalist group in this effort as well.
Thanks for the heads-up, too, Calvin. ;)
Alright, this sub-thread is for a discussion of what administrative roles are needed for this project. Here are my suggestions:
1) Community Liason - the "official" figure who serves as Newsvine's public face, speaking for the community and working closely with the Assignment Zero folks. The traits this person will need are: ability to assess and understand the specific challenges of this inter-community collaboration, a diplomatic personality capable of working with all sorts of people, an intuitive understanding of the newsvine community (what we're capable of, how the different groups work, what kind of content newsvine generates, etc).
2) One or Two people to delegate responsibilities to various groups. This position(s) works with the community liason in unpacking the "box" of issues AssignmentZero is going to send newsvine, and then gets in touch with specific community members or group leaders who are best-suited to address the issues at hand. Necessary traits: organizational skills, people skills, a thorough knowledge of who does what in this community. You've got to hear a problem and have a name pop into your head of the person best equipped to address it. We're looking for people who spend a lot of time here.
3) Task leaders - people willing to accpt responsibility for specific tasks. Once we figure out exactly what kind of things newsvine is going to be expected to provide, and the specific challenges are broken down, we'll need a group of leaders to take charge of the various issues. Traits: strong understanding of a specific subject, ability to nag people to turn stuff in on deadline, willingness to pick up any slack generated by people not coming through with their projects.
4) Editor: Typical, run of the mill grammar-checker-and-phrase-polisher. All output from newsvine will pass through the capable hands of this editor on its way out the door. He or she is responsible for making sure that subjects and verbs agree, that there are no embarassing typos, etc. Trait: where are you grammar nazis?
5) Fact-Checker: This is crucial and may in fact be the theoretical lynchpin of the entire process. We need someone willing to track down every claim, confirm every source - it's very important that no unsubstantiated claims leave newsvine. The only difference between a citizen journalist and a blogger is credibility - I believe we need a fact-checker to establish that. We can flesh out the details of this position in greater depth later. Traits: must have good research skills, must understand the sorts of things that can be challenged so as to undermine the challenge by providing citations. We're looking for someone who really knows how to argue and who really hates to be wrong.
What do you think? this is all very off-the-top-of-my-head and I have a vague fear it's turning into a high school student council election type thing but we need these sorts of positions, I think. We have to create credibility. Add/remove/argue/beat me to death as you see fit.
I think I'd probably be good @ #2.
As for #3, I'm willing to extend any writing or investigating skills as well as design skills.
I'm pretty good at #4 (Grammar Nazi). *grin*
I think that is a great guideline for what roles we need. I also think it gives us a good idea of how involved such a project can become and how huge it can be.
I'll just say that again, I'll volunteer for whatever to help out (anything except editor I think, me no good at grammar). I love this idea and I want to be as much a part of it as possible.
Nice, Myk. This is a good start.
I guess I could start a new thread for this aspect of the discussion. Has anyone created a group for this yet?
Ok, we've got this group. If you want in on this project join this group, unless someone else started one.
Ok, I've reposted my roles suggestion here. Let's hash it out. :)
Well they are in Brooklyn which is a place I'm far more fond of than the world above the Flat Iron so I would be happy to do half of number one and meet up with them to give them feedback and sense of community. We could throw another drinking contest and have me emcee the podcast to introduce them to the vine. *smirk*
Glad I finally decided to check out this article. The whole idea sounds exciting! I would love to be involved. From Mykola's suggestions I could get involved in #3 and/or #5. I'll go to Mykola's link above and go from there....
Former English teacher volunteers for editor role. Some of you may have noticed that I'm also pretty good at digging up data and references, so some fact-checking duties might suit me, too. I'm also guessing that these roles are in addition to any of the reporting and writing roles. Is that correct?
Whatever you do, DO NOT accept me as a volunteer for anything requiring organization no matter how desperate you may ever become. Remember: I've warned you! :)
Best thing I've heard or read in ages. This is fantabulous! I'll happily join the worker bees in any way I can. Day job demands dictate not much organizational or planning etc.
What an opportunity for Citizen Journalism. What an advert for crowdsourcing and social media. Newsvine - me thinks you've hit the jackpot with this one!
Bravo:-)
Here are a couple articles about the project, featured on Wired:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,72974-0.html
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/media/0,72970-0.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2
Calvin there's a link button on the comments here at Newsvine, so you can add them neatly. *smirk*
Re: money. Is that what that option is that says "earnings" or is that something else? Forgive the newbie question.
I think this project sounds fascinating. I'll try to figure out how to lend a hand.
sbutki,
Welcome to Newsvine. The 'Earnings' you see here relate to the overall amount of readership you gain here at Newsvine. The Assignment Zero project spans many sites, though your contributions here on Newsvine will tally earnings in the usual way.
More info here:
http://www.newsvine.com/_cms/help/faq
Cheers,
Calvin
This sounds amazing. I dig it, I'm down, I'm game, let's go!
I'd also like to point out that there are a great many users who probably haven't seen this yet, but who would be great for this project. Claus, Celestina, theannalog and Corey Spring all come to mind.
I think Claus should get his own team and we could, as a community, compete against him. I'm not sure who I'd bet on.
Calvin, you are really doing it! You people have taken all my ideas and put them in one big pot and come up with Assignment Zero. I love it! It is just what the Dr. ordered. This affiliation should really kick things off. Newsviners won't fail you. They will be participating in droves. I guess I can retire now.
Thank Mike D and all the rest. See, I told you all, have a little patience. Good things come to those who wait. ROFLMAO.
Myk, Claus will be a team all by himself.
Well, I am here now. And very excited about this project. I will help in whatever capacity is needed. Going to head over to the discussion on Mykola's column and see what I can do!
This is exactly what I was hoping for, one umbrella that would pull in all the orphans, the center of America! To the People, For the People and By the People. This was the equasion that was missing in our Goverment. In Order to Form a More Perfect Union. The Goverment now has it balances.
have I missed something? is this limited to just one country? pardon my ignorance if I had assumed this was a global project (-:
I'm probably the only one on Newsvine that cares about this after going to NewAssignment.Net, but it was built with Drupal.
Since they mention it in practically everything they write, I had to go look it up.
Have you worked with it before? How is it?
I didn't even notice they mentioned it. I've developed several sites with it and love it. I've tried just about every competing open source CMS out there and Drupal is by far my favorite.
Hey, Bazards and Adam: a group I've been working with has been looking at Drupal and at Joomla/Mambo. Most of the web development work I do and have done has always been custom, so I'm a little limited when it comes to adding anything of value. I've seen much prettier sites in Joomla than in Drupal, but I'm not sure if the difference is that most Drupal sites seem to be more tech oriented. Any experience with the two, and any comparative advice? (You can send me an email if you have time and if you think no one else is interested or if we'll be taking this too far off topic. Thanks!)
For a science site I write on, we looked at Wordpress MU, Drupal and Joomla during product planning and made sites with all three before choosing Drupal. Drupal uses MYSQL efficiently and if you ( or someone ) knows PHP and has some creativity with CSS it can look pretty good.
The best feature Drupal has is that you can have anonymous users look at cached content, which speeds up the database considerably.
This new Wired thing is Drupal also. So is NowPublic.
Cool... thanks for the pointers, Cash. I'll take a look at those sites. I'll let the PHP guy know about the cached content feature and I'll take a closer look at the CSS. I appreciate the input!
Wow.
This is very exciting.
You know my first thought about reading this
was, "What about Jay Rosen's project?"
I've been reading, promoting, linking to, etc. Jay Rosen's pieces for years, since he
and I crossed paths in Salon and other communities, and so I knew he
was doing a project.
What are the odds that I, a reporter-turned-media-critic who often cites
Rosen as a source, come to Newsvine a month ago because of the Wall
Street Journal piece, only to have Rosen and his project announced a month
later?
BTW, is Rosen a member here now?
As you can probably tell I'm very excited about this.
I'll help in any way I can - editing others' copy, giving advice to prospective
reporters, etc.
I probably won't have the time for straight news reporting but I can write and
post interviews, as I do with the authors I interview,
or write opinion pieces.
Just tell me where I'm needed. I'm a member of both Citizen's Journalim and
Citizens Journalist but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you the difference.
Am I reading this right, that this will be the first topic we write about? Or that it's the only
topic, albeit a huge one?
The topic reminds me of Smart Mobs, both the excellent book by Howard Rheingold, another
mutual friend of Jay Rosen and I, and his blog on the topic. I know many who write for
that blog so if those contacts would help just let me know.
This is a fine thing! Newsvine has a great community and it's fantastic to see it going to work.
I look forward to reading the results! No doubt Newsvine will pull off a fantastic product with all the great talent engaging in this. Maybe then I might come to understand what crowdsourcing and peer production means...
Oh well, do us proud!
Just found this after a busy week- sounds great! It will be exciting to see where it takes us all :) To a good place, I think!