What’s in it for you?

AmericanTowns.com has solicited placebloggers to provide hyperlocal content to their national platform. Have you gotten a solicitation? Have you considered it? Now, they’ve launched a new widget for their calendar, which makes it easy for a placeblogger to add a calendar sourced from AmericanTowns contributors. Would you use it? So What’s In It For You?

So, I’m tracking down the chief of this outfit to find out, but want to know — do you see competition, cooperation, or confusion with these national platform/hyperlocal sites?

See press release info: AmericanTowns.com, the Web’s fastest growing site in the hyperlocal space, (www.americantowns.com) is expanding the reach of its community event database content via a new widget they are releasing today.  As you know, useful hyperlocal community information (vs. just local news) is growing in appeal to local users and many sites are looking to move that direction and to monetize that experience via advertising. 

Michelle Ferrier
Daytona Beach

My friend and colleague, Tom Atlee, founder of the The Co-Intelligence Institute, developed a map of stories entitled Whole System Learning and Evolution — and the New Journalism that I think has great potential as a way of thinking about what is required for both great stories and great story-telling organizations.
In the version below, I changed a few terms (e.g., “community” became “connect” to create consistency of form) and I added four verbs (in blue) that, framed as questions, I think could provide a tool for assessing the likely effectiveness of a story or a news organization. The questions that Tom’s model sparked for me:

• Does it inform? (a primary focus of traditional journalism)
• Does it engage? (a primary focus of the emerging social networking sites)
• Does it inspire? (almost virgin territory, but hinted at by the idea of “possibility journalism”)
• Does it activate? (also exciting terrain)

As I read people’s registration comments for NewPamphleteers/New Reporters - the upcoming JtM gathering in Minnesota, it struck me that people were asking questions and bringing expertise in six areas:

• Business models
• Cultivating community
• Partnerships
• Content choices
• Craft
• Technology

Here’s a picture of what seems to be emerging:

We’ve now got a twitter stream for Journalism that Matters: jtmstream. Join us from June 4-5.

As I reflected on Journalism that Matters-Silicon Valley, it struck me that my favorite subject - the power of story to inspire and engage, was a very quiet theme at this particular gathering. It got me thinking about the need to say something about what is emerging is this arena.
It began for me with three threads of the Journalism that Matters-Memphis session:

• Geneva Overholser, Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting, University of Missouri, introduced herself saying:

“I had been depressed. A couple of years ago, I resolved to find hope. When you open yourself to possibility you are willing to experience stuff you haven’t experienced before.”
What a fabulous discovery: finding hope is a choice. Could Geneva’s comment be indicative of an emerging trend?

• Then I saw a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. at the National Civil Rights Museum:

“But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. …”

What a profound insight when so much coverage is about the dark! Why not also look at the stars in the story?

• The capper was witnessing two veteran reporters interview the mother of Josh Wolf — the video blogger who went to jail for refusing a federal grand jury’s request to turn over video he shot of a burning police car during last year’s G8 protest. The interview prompted me to ask her a question that struck me as a way to see the stars:

“Given all you’ve experienced, what the best possible outcome you can imagine?”

I was stunned by her powerful and cogent response — that she hoped Josh’s situation provided clarity about the application of first amendment rights to emerging types of journalists — because it shifted the interview’s tone from frustration and defeat to hope and possibility.

It made me wonder what would happen if the essential questions of journalism added something to

who? what? when? where? why? and how? — namely,
What’s possible now?

And then Stephen Silha and I interviewed Journalism that Matters alum Sarah Stuteville and one of her partners, Jessica Partnow about the Common Language Project, a startup that took shape at Journalism that Matters-Kalamazoo. CLP puts a human face on international stories.

To my surprise, Jessica told us that asking “what’s possible now” has become central to their style of reporting. Sarah then told us this story:

The first time I used “what’s possible now” was reporting in little Pakistan in Brooklyn. I was hearing about the experience of families of deportations, mostly young men. I was talking to that community and to the non-Pakistani community who had very different feelings. People felt strongly on different sides of same issues. I think the first time I asked “what’s possible now”, may have come out of frustration. It is hard to have conversations and not get anywhere. I threw my hands up and said ok, “what is your ideal solution?” And everything changed. (the interview)

Sarah then offered a second story:

We - Jessica and I - were in the Middle East, talking with a Palestinian about frustrating, polarizing material. He kept repeating the same ideas over and over so we asked that magic question: “given what’s happening, what’s possible now?” It shifted the interview completely, as our contact began envisioning the situation in a completely new way. (the interview)

The stories we tell ourselves shape the way we see the world. And that shapes our behavior. A trend towards asking “what’s possible now?” follows the energy towards our hopes and aspirations. Sounds to me like a trend worth amplifying!!!

A coda to this story: Josh Wolf attended NewsTools 2008. Here’s a video interview done by David Cohn during NewsTools. In a second interview, by From the Frontline, Josh describes an interesting idea for a live internet news network that harnesses live video broadcasting tools like Qik, Flixwagon and Ustream.tv coupled with the microblogging tool Twitter and Skype call ins.

Our colleague, Carol Daniel Kasbari hosted a gathering among Cypriot journalists on October 26 & 27, 2007 in Cypress sponsored by the U.S. Embassy’s Bi-communal Support Program. The conference design was in part inspired by Journalism that Matters, using our signature conversational process, Open Space Technology. It was entitled:

Cyprus 2008: What is and might be the role of journalists?

The Symposium brought together journalists from both sides of the “Green Line” as well as from Greece and Turkey for an in-depth discussion on questions such as: objectivity when covering conflict; representation of the Cyprus issue in the media;the importance of maintaining meaningful collaborations among journalists working in the region. A report of the meeting is here: journalists-training-booklet-cyprus.

150 journalists, technologists, educators, and others gathered at Yahoo! this afternoon for the launch of NewsTools2008 - the most current JtM gathering that is focused on innovations for “journalism that matters.”

To provide a common framework for the diverse participants, we introduced two “value network maps”; one of the old newsroom and the other of the emerging news ecology, along with a description of Value Network Mapping and Analysis. Here’s the mapping-handout; the same text follows.

At the beginning of the 21^st century, the World Wide Web changed the business and information distribution model for all media.

No longer were printing presses and transmission towers the only means of communication. A laptop and a broadband hookup did the same work, thank-you.

Journalists for a day, a weekend, or a cause began to supplant journalists at desks, with their pensions and a boss.

The audience formerly known as newspaper readers and television viewers awoke to the freedom of connectivity in a digital age. Virtual communities and international communities of interest transcended geographic communities and the sense of place.

In a flash, media expectations, models and roles all changed.

Media morphed into many-to-many conversations. Content emerged raw and unedited, rather than as carefully parsed verified tidbits produced by trained journalists.

Stories grew on their own, without an editor. Photos were shared without a darkroom.

Bloggers filled content gaps left open or once occupied by paid, professional reporters. User-generated content both encroached on and enriched the media.

Money that once went to news content writers and editors began to flow instead to those who aggregated the news, but did not create it.

Public policy could be shaped by Matt Drudge working in his basement or by a YouTube video captured on a $100 digital camera.

The old media world staggered.

New roles and a new vocabulary have begun emerging.

Some reporters become “beat bloggers” tapping into networks of bloggers to bring complex stories into focus. “Community weavers” create a sense of community among the former audience and with formal news entities. “Information architects” make intelligible the vast amounts of data and images now available. While editors continue to be sense makers, connecting facts and making story lines visible, ultimately who filters news from noise, how it happens, and who pays for it is still unfolding. Even the definition of “news” is up for grabs as memes — cultural units of information equivalent to genes in the body — replace an event orientation to story.

The new media world has opened the floodgates of opportunity.

- Chris Peck, Peggy Holman, and Stephen Silha

_____________________________________________________

Value Network Mapping and Analysis

Value Network Mapping and Analysis is a tool developed by Verna Allee that displays a holistic picture of a system. This tool was brought to News Tools 2008 to:

· give those unfamiliar with the ‘traditional’ newsroom a clear map of how news was produced and value flowed;

· give those familiar with the “traditional” newsroom an explicit articulation of value flow in that system in contrast to emerging systems of news sourcing and distribution;

· give everyone a common “language” or “mapping tool” to consider the emerging news ecology and how new roles and value flows can help create a thriving environment.

The first step in the process is to identify roles in a system and the second step is to map the value flows.

Roles are real people or groups of people that generate transactions, send messages, engage in interactions, add value, and make decisions. The journalism maps include “reporter” “editor” “source” “community weaver” “advertisers”.

Once these roles were identified, we considered two kinds of value exchange:

Tangible value: All exchanges of goods, services or revenue, including all transactions involving contracts, invoices, return receipt of orders, requests for proposals, confirmations and payments are considered to be tangible value. Products or services that generate revenue or are expected as part of a service are also included in the tangible value flow of goods, services, and revenue.

A simple example is a customer (this is a role) goes to a store and buys groceries from the cashier (role). Money is paid in return for goods - vegetables. If the customer lives in a small town and has an ongoing patronage relationship with the cashier, there might be an intangible value exchange of information about their families and the neighborhood.

Intangible value: Two primary subcategories are included in intangible value: knowledge and benefits. Intangible knowledge exchanges include strategic information, planning knowledge, process knowledge, technical know-how, collaborative design and policy development; which support the product and service tangible value network. Intangible benefits are also considered favors that can be offered from one person to another. Examples include offering political or emotional support to someone. Another example is a research organization asking someone to volunteer their time and expertise in exchange for the intangible benefit of prestige by affiliation.

Once the roles and value flows are mapped, the picture of the whole system can be used to facilitate relationship management in an ecosystem, consider the business web and ecosystem development, consider options for process re-design, support communities of practice, or consider cost benefits and risks in existing and emerging systems.

For more information on Value Network Mapping. visit www.value-networks.com.

Prepared by Kaliya Hamlin, www.unconference.net

Other Emerging Roles
We chose three roles – community, beat blogger, and sense-maker to begin to create a map of the emerging news ecology. Other roles that surfaced as we shared stories that provided insight into the map are:
• Curator
• Aggregator
• News Recommender
• Community Host/Manager
• Data Base Manager
• Video Blogger
• Funder
• Information Architect
• Developer
• Programmer
• Network reporter
• Group filter

]]> http://journalismthatmatters.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/value-network-maps-at-newstools2008/feed/ peggyholman Old News Story Emerging News Ecology V1.0 http://journalismthatmatters.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/jtm-minneapolis-a-passion-for-place/ http://journalismthatmatters.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/jtm-minneapolis-a-passion-for-place/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:34:26 +0000 peggyholman http://journalismthatmatters.wordpress.com/?p=32

June 4-6, 2008 / Minnesota Journalism Center at the Univ. of Minnesota
New Pamphleteers/New Reporters:
Convening Entrepreneurs Who Combine Journalism, Democracy, Place and Blogs

One of the first national gatherings for local, online citizen journalists and entrepreneurs, sometimes called “placebloggers.” Designed for existing and prospective journalists and entrepreneurs. Including workshops on the legal, business, journalistic, marketing, advertising and social aspects of starting and running a local online news and commerce community. Timed and located to coincide with the National Conference on Media Reform.

While preparing for News Tools 2008, a small group, including Chris Peck, Chris O’brien, Martin Reynolds, Kara Andrade, Kaliya Hamlin, Dave Cohn, Stephen Silha, and Peggy Holman, and others came together to develop a value network map of the existing news room:

And a first pass at key roles and relationships of the emerging “news ecology”:

PHOTOS by Ytaelena López

The value network analysis process developed by Verna Allee has been used successfully in a number of settings. This process examines organizations or industries as networks in order to increase cross-boundary collaboration and productivity. The essential focus is on how work gets discussed and done through both formal and informal networks. This approach focuses on how work is performed and how change is implemented. For example, the Boeing Company utilized this approach to create a new organization from the ground up in order to design, build and manage its new 787 Dreamliner fleet.

Join us for

Journalism’s ideals meet Silicon Valley’s tools in a three-day, conceptual mashup hosted by the Journalism That Matters Collaborative, the Media Giraffe Project, the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and Yahoo! Inc.

www.NewsTools2008.org is three days to describe and invent tools for sustaining “journalism that matters.” Strip away the legacy platforms, and what remains of journalism that is needed to support participatory democracy and community?