:: LNR Journalism ::

Reddit as journalism: Crowdsourcing an interview with the President

GigaOM :: Reddit landed a personal appearance by the President of the United States on Wednesday when Barack Obama stopped by for one of the site’s “Ask Me Anything” interviews — an event that further adds to the web community’s reputation as an alternative source of journalism.

Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything. I’ll be taking your questions for half an hour starting at about 4:30 ET.

Proof it's me: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/240903767350968320

Hey, everyone: I'll be taking your questions online today. Ask yours here: OFA.BO/gBof44 -bo

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 29, 2012

A report by Mathew Ingram, gigaom.com

Twitter's Clockwork Raven: Crowdsourced analytics

GigaOM :: Twitter says its Clockwork Raven web app will make it easier for even non-technical people to post job requests to Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing job site. The app is now available for download from Github.

A report by Barb Darrow, gigaom.com

Startup Togather thinks crowdsourcing is key to profitable author book tours

paidContent :: Author tours have never been a guaranteed way to sell books, so many publishers have cut back on them. Togather, a new Brooklyn-based startup, hopes it can reinvent the author tour by guaranteeing that a certain number of books will be sold in advance.

A report by Laura Hazard Owen, paidcontent.org

Washington Post, Golf Digest: Publishers turn to the crowd

Digiday :: Two old-school publications, Golf Digest and The Washington Post, are trying their hands at turning to their audience as content creators. They both bet they can augment their solid brands with low-cost (and, hopefully, high-quality) content created by the masses — for free.

A report by Josh Sternberg, www.digiday.com

The Washington Post launches crowdsourcing platform

Washington Post :: The Washington Post today announced it has launched a new platform for crowdsourcing. “Crowd Sourced” is The Post’s special feature that allows Post journalists to ask questions about today’s concerns and begin a conversation about these issues. Users will be able to answer those questions and vote for the ideas they value most, so the most popular responses are surfaced on the page.

Clipped from: www.washingtonpost.com (share this clip)

Continue to read here www.washingtonpost.com

Collaborative art project: Exquisite Forest, crowdsourced storytelling

Exquisite Forest :: This Exquisite Forest is an online collaborative art project that lets users create short animations that build off one another as they explore a specific theme. The result is a collection of branching narratives resembling trees. The project was conceived by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, and produced by Google and Tate. It makes extensive use of Google Chrome’s HTML5 and JavaScript support, as well as Google App Engine and Google Cloud Storage. A physical installation is located in the collection galleries on Level 3 at Tate Modern.

It will be open for approximately 6 months beginning on July 23, 2012.

Explore the project here www.exquisiteforest.com

HT: Cendrine Marrouat, Examiner.com

Crowdsourced mobile 'reporting': Vyclone mashes video views together for an equal-length clip

Business Insider :: Two years ago, British musician Joe Sumner approached his relative David King Lassman with an idea. He noticed on tour that a lot of fans took mobile videos during concerts. There'd be hundreds of videos on YouTube from a single event, but there was no way to connect them all.

A report by Alyson Shontell, www.businessinsider.com

Rbutr finds contrary opinions for stories you’re reading

Will need some time to build critical mass, but that's up to us to use it and to experiment with it and increase its quality.

Poynter :: Need to find a quick rebuttal to a news report or opinion piece you read online? There’s now an app for that. Introducing Rbutr.com, a new digital platform that uses crowdsourcing to provide arguments and counter-arguments on any number of subjects. It’s sort of like Wikipedia meets Politifact, but without journalists or other experts necessarily in the mix.

Note: requires Google Chrome

A review - Continue to read Tracie Powell, www.poynter.org

Open Garden lets mobile users cultivate a crowdsourced mesh network

I have just installed a version on my MacBook here and will give it a try. During our LNR test in Madrid recently we faced the problem to report live from the scene. Too many people in a mobile cell made it impossible to share footage because of bandwidth limits.

GigaOM :: Internet access is limited by service providers who act as gatekeepers to the treasures of connectivity. But could crowdsourcing connectivity be the solution to the problem for mobile users? That’s the question startup Open Garden is looking to answer.

A review - Continue to read Ryan Kim, gigaom.com

Social media 'cold calls': ProPublica takes a different approach

Niemanlab :: When reporters use social media for crowdsourcing, they’re often just cold calling in the form of a passing tweet — Did you lose your house to foreclosure? Were you the victim of discrimination in the workplace? Have you ever donated your eggs? Contact me for a story I’m working on! ProPublica takes a warmer approach with its recently formed Patient Harm Community Facebook group.

Continue to read Adrienne LaFrance, www.niemanlab.org