Submitted for your approval…

Team 3 has debated and collaborated, fusing together its massive amounts of brainpower to come up with one idea. We have decided to focus on geograpic tagging (geotagging or geocoding) of news stories. This information would be included in the article’s metadata in a GeoRSS style [or something similar]. Our idea is to create a framework which would make this geocoding easier for journalists – both traditional and ‘citizen journalists’ – allowing them to easily incude one or more sets of coordinates with a news story. The framework would include the ability to show all current stories on a map, providing a new way to navigate stories.

The inclusion of geodata in the RSS feed would provide a great opportunity for someone to hack together new applications – Google Earth representations, email or SMS alerts, or something completely new and innovative. But having the map data is the first step!

Links to other teams…

KU: http://ehub.journalism.ku.edu/innovation
Team Voltron: http://group1voltron.wordpress.com/
Group 2: http://innovationteam2.blogspot.com/
Kansas State: http://chanticle.blogspot.com/
Team Awesome: http://teamawesomeinnovationincubator.blogspot.com/
All-Knighters (UNLV): http://all-knighter.blogspot.com/

Sorry

Sorry i missed the chat tonight, We had to stay late on the Hill because of this immigration vote, Ill read the transcript.

Great Minds Think Alike

So, our idea must not be too shabby, because it turns out other people are attempting to develop some of the same applications:

This lady’s working towards universal geotagging for bloggers:

This dude’s doing something akin to the storynode idea.  Story linking is already in the works.

Finally, this guys aiming to provide tools for cit journalists, ala the cellphone app idea we were throwing around.

I’m not sure what this means for us.  Most of these folks are fellow Knight Granters, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to continue to develop our ideas just because someone else is trying to do something similar.  At the same time, it will dramatically reduce the coolness factor of our idea if it’s not exactly unique.  I dunno.

Tonight’s transcript posted

Tonight’s transcript is posted. Please take a look at it in preparation for Thursday’s chat at 9:30pm.

Feedback #1

Hi there, here is the first feedback from mixed group C – thanks to Christina Caraco.

1) Geoalerts – This is interesting in that you can draw on a map to choose
which areas you’d like to get feeds from. I think the biggest problem
would be getting news sites to agree to contribute. Also consider what
kind of dely you’re going to be working with (how long it is between the
news happening and someone from a local news provider writing about it) I
don’t think you could make this an instantaneous alert system…but it’s
cool, I’d use it.

2)Storynodes – This is a good idea for a research tool… When I have to
come up with sources for research papers it would be great to find a
story-development map. I don’t think, however, that I’d utilize something
like this on a daily basis, for me the most current state of an issue
seems to be sufficient enough for me.

3)Quiz – interesting, but I don’t think it’s enough to attract a new
audience. This may just be a service that preaches to the choir. Also, I
wonder how it would be maintained.

4) Journalism app – Cool, but what happens to the articles after they’re
written, where do they go?

5)Facebook/myspace news – I agree that there is something missing there…

an interesting images link

http://www.clipaday.com/videos/ridiculous-image-technology-coming

you may find this useful for the project or just for fun.  in any case, it’s fun for the imagination.  this is my test post for the blog, although my happy publish button has finally shown its face and understands that i’m allowed to be here. 

regards,

~m

One more Idea

I missed a bit with the group for this week, but I’m still here.  I had one more idea to contribute.  I thought that the most essential part of a hard news story (or soft for that matter) is the primary source.  If a continuing story like the Iraq War or AIDS in Africa or gay rights or the like could have a consistent primary source on the scene and presenting a pertinent, relevant primary source to the story, the source could blog along side a news story.

Instead of reading about a reporter’s highlights of a day’s events in Iraq, a reader could augment that story with a local Iraqi’s blog of what they witnessed or heard about during the same day in the same place.

Next Chat

We will be having a quick (less than a half hour) Group 3 chat on Sunday at 9pm EST after we have met with our lettered groups. If you haven’t joined the Google Group and added yourself to a lettered group (A, B, C, etc) then do so ASAP.

Top Five Ideas

{ jon – just edit this post to give details. i will do so today or tomorrow. }

(1) geoalerts – each news story will be tagged with coordinates for where the story took place. (possibly more than one set of coordinates could be used if a story has more than one relevant place) The user can create a customized map (by drawing shapes on a map) of areas he/she would like to receive stories about – for example home, work, school, former homes. When stories happen in those areas, the user will receive an alert (email or SMS) in the Google Alerts style.

(2) storynodes – a new method of providing instant context to a news story. The idea is that readers or reporters will link together existing articles, so that you can trace the history and evolution of a news story. The path of a story may fracture, and you’ll be able to trace those divisions. When a reader or reporter links a story with an existing one, the new story will be displayed as an off-shoot of the previous story and be connected with the context of that story as well. The relationships between stories will be displayed visually in a sort of node matrix. Rolling over a node will pop up a text box displaying the first paragraph of the article and link to the full text. Visually, stories with many links will become larger, identifying them as major nodes. It’s a bit difficult to explain (and to think about and develop), but here’s a rough sample of a screen shot created using the powerful image software Paintshop.

(3) virtual news quiz – creating a system for news quizzes than can be implemented at multiple levels (children, teens, general adults, adult trivia buffs). It rewards users for paying attention to the news, and offers prizes from sponsors. It could also be a competition between friends or among all the players. (Many details to be worked out…)

(4) Cellphone and web-based citizen journalism app. I envision this as a free, downloadable app that walks citizens through the citizen journalism process, prompting them to upload a photo or video, write a headline, transcribe a quote and provide relevant information. The program should have a bit of flexibility – allowing advanced cit journalists more freedom in the process. For example, new users might simply be asked the who, what, when, where, why questions and their answers will form a rude informational format for transmitting news. Meanwhile, more advanced users might be given the option to write a traditional news story, but may still be reminded of how to craft a lead and body paragraphs. The goal is to take the mystery out of producing a news story, therefore encouraging those who are reluctant to participate because of fear of the unknown or a lack of basic skills.

(5) news on social sites – MySpace news was a failure. Facebook’s ‘news feed’ has nothing to do with the news that happens outside your circle of friends. Perhaps adding a news agency’s news feed into Facebook or allowing users to create stories to share within Facebook would be a good idea. We aren’t sure where we want to go, we just know that it is an area that needs to be addressed.