Posts filed under 'UGC'
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By Nicolas Kayser-Bril
What do they say it is?
“Neaju is the Internet’s first true citizen journalism site. It was built to allow anyone to report news as it is happening, and to post it for everyone to read, bypassing the normal editorial process that typically distorts reporting and inserts opinions and spin.”
What do I say it is?
What used to be a smart way of making money using other people’s sweat. The terms and conditions clearly state that Neaju will monetize your content by any means necessary and you won’t get a dime for it.
Content-wise, the total lack of editing allows for anything to be published on the front page. Bar-room journalism has found its home. Conspiracy theorists, rejoice!
What’s great about it?
The whole concept is supposed to be mobile-based. Great! But when I tried to access the site from the WAP Proof emulator, an error message popped up.
What could be better?
The absence of any journalism notwithstanding, Neaju doesn’t allow for much editing, as even in-text linking is off-limits. Some features could be interesting, such as the ability to follow a theme or a writer, but the system is so closed it makes it useless. Why not allow RSS instead?
How is it going to make money?
AdSense everywhere! They seem to have an in-house salesperson, but who would dare leaving a brand in such an unsafe environment?
Should I pay it any attention?
No. The total lack of journalistic work is a clever way to reduce costs. But it certainly doesn’t create any value for readers, who would have to fact-check themselves. For writers, the incentive to publish on Neaju instead of blogging is thin, as they lose control over content and leave behind any advertising revenue.
Neaju’s model isn’t about value creation, but merely about shifting value from writers to the publisher.
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February 8th, 2008
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What do they say it is?
7iber is an independent web-based citizen-media news outlet from Jordan.”
What do I say it is?
7iber (‘ink’ in Arabic written on a Latin keyboard) are four freelancers that got together to publish English-language content about Jordan. The project relies also on community-generated content, but it feels more like open-minded journalism than “citizen-media”.
What’s great about it?
Just like iNorden, 7iber aims at much more than milking the 2.0 cow. The 7iber team believes in the transforming power of the web and hopes to harness its power to actually change the Jordanian society at large.
What could be better?
7iber wants us to believe it’s “people-powered”, even though it’s written in a language only a minority speaks on a medium only a minority has access to.
Less than a third of traffic actually comes from Jordan. The project represents more of a toy for the elite (and orientalist American kids) and won’t make a difference for the unconnected masses. But it’s worth trying.
How is it going to make money?
Web-based publishing remaining dirt-cheap, 7iber relies solely on the founders’ capital. It might look for advertising dollars but shows no hurry. The dryness of the revenue stream seems not to affect the project, which publishes non-stop since May. Passion is a handy substitute for money.
Should I pay it any attention?
Just wait for the headline ‘Jordan Censors Homegrown CitJ Website’ on your favorite journalism blog. To succeed, 7iber must grow loud enough to bother the local government. Otherwise, it will become a collaborative, loss-making Lonely Planet copycat.
(Btw, Mark Glaser interviewed 7iber’s founder at Mediashift.)
By Nicolas Kayser-Bril
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December 26th, 2007
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What do they say it is?
“Thisismereporting.com was set up to combat all of the one sided journalism we are currently exposed to. You never hear the real story from real people, you never hear about anything good, you never see reports about ordinary people and their day to day lives.So here it is, show us your world.”
What do I say it is?
A place for video footage that may be considered as newsworthy. Most cases, it’s just a collection of extreme situations that were caught on tape by common citizens.
What’s great about it?
Not much, they just follow an equation to which all videos must agree: videos and citizens plus event equals news. Not really, though. But the main idea is great, turning common citizens into ENGs (Electronic News Gatherers, aka video reporters).
What could be better?
The design could be a whole lot better and that camera on the logo is totally wrong, it should be a cell phone. There is no context for most of the videos. This isn’t journalism, it’s voyeurism. The videos can´t be easily embedded, so the website’s purpose stays within it’s bounds, and dies there. And so does the intention of reporting anything, because the drama is there, but not the plot, so they fail completely. Besides, citizen videos that are used in breaking news reports go all to the big media outlets, not here.
How is it going to make money?
Is it? Ok, they have some ads, and it doesn’t look like they’re spending a lot of money, but survival is going to be hard in my opinion, unless they change something. Or maybe they’re just hoping to be absorbed by a major news corp.
Should I pay it any attention?
Yes, if you want to see some dramatic footage and be happy with just that.
by Alexandre Gamela
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December 19th, 2007
What do they say it is?“Yoosk is a news interplay magazine and community where you, the members are the reporters. Put your questions directly to politicians and celebrities and watch those questions gain support as other Yoosk members vote for them. Our pledge to you is that any question which reaches 100 votes will be submitted by us to the person involved and we will do our best to get an answer”
What do I say it is?
An interesting attempt of doing collaborative journalistic interviews. People choose what to ask and who will be interviewed, vote for the best questions, and then Yoosk tries to contact the public figure in order to answer them – directly, or by trying to include those questions in the interviews this person is regularly assigned to answer.
What’s great about it?
The collaborative way of creating interviews is interesting. And the idea that you can come back later to comment on the answers obtained. The interview becomes more dynamic with the possibility of coming back later to discuss the answers given. The collaboration doesn’t end with getting the answers.
What could be better?
By asking people to suggest who is going to be interviewed and what will then be asked, they are risking not to be able to contact those people. Maybe if they contact people first, and they opened for questions, things would work out better. And faster.
Another point is the broadness of the topics (and area) covered by the website. Do people really want to discuss gossip interviews? Narrowing the audience would be good to get more focused interviews.
Also, it is not so clear what questions are already answered, and what is still under votation. Maybe different colors would help to distinguish.
How is it going to make money?
Once they have content to offer, more people will access, generating page views, what will attract advertisers. So far, it is just a lot of people asking, and almost no answers. So far, there are very few ads, incorporated into the content.
Should I pay it any attention?
The idea is interesting. If it works, it can be used to improve the way collaborative work, at least for interviews, happens.
The voting system and the possibility of allowing people to comment on the answers given make people come back to visit the website often, generating page views, and, more importantly – discussions.
By Gabriela Zago
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December 12th, 2007
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What do they say it is?
“iNorden.org is a joint Nordic citizen journalism initiative inviting bloggers, writers, aspiring and experienced journalists to contribute in the creation of a Nordic news portal.”
What do I say it is?
iNorden is yet another citJ experiment. The difference here is that it’s driven by a sort of pan-Scandinavian post-nationalism rather than profit.
What’s great about it?
Its wide network of semi-professional editors brings cohesion to the nascent community of contributors. A two-tier, pro-am-like structure like this allows for real brand image development while remaining very open to audience-generated content.
A fully grown website running on Wordpress also makes great economic sense (and, incidentally, exemplifies the uselessness of Instant Journalism).
What could be better?
Its much-advertised modesty is palpable in the web0.2 design. The site’s activity suffers, maybe as a result. iNorden ranks 2 millionth on Alexa. (That’s still significant, even when we take into account Alexa’s 110% error margin.)
It needs better positioning, moving further away from traditional, old-media brands to develop its own identity. Looking at the stories in English, it still seems iNorden follows the same leads. Competing with AP isn’t a good idea when you have no capital to start with.
How is it going to make money?
It’s not going to and it doesn’t want to. iNorden is non-profit and proud of it. That gives the brand a lot of credibility at a time where everyone tries to milk users for their content. User experience could very well be enhanced as a result.
Should I pay it any attention?
Yes, if you want to check on the web’s ability to deliver fresh ideas. With all its sincerity and, maybe, naiveté, iNorden’s getting the success it deserves would prove, once again, that the web has crushed the barriers of the offline world.
by Nicolas Kayser-Bril
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December 6th, 2007