Short presentation given to news::rewired conference in London, June 25, 2010. It was meant to be a 5-7 minute presentation on "What are the benefits of letting users become part of the editorial process?", so is necessarily brief.

1. User-driven projects
What are the benefits of letting users
become part of the editorial process?
&
How can you use your audience to produce
better reporting and special features?
News::Rewired, June 25, 2010

2. Me: Chris Taggart
@countculture
✤ Former magazine journalist/
publisher
✤ Journo: The Face/Arena
✤ Publisher: Sugar, Inside Soap, Junior
✤ Sold magazine publishing company
just in time
✤ Developer of OpenlyLocal.com
✤ Makes local data (esp govt) available
in consistent and accessible form
✤ Scrapes council and govt websites
✤ All open data
✤ Hyperlocal directory

3. Me: Chris Taggart
@countculture
✤ Former magazine journalist/
publisher
✤ Journo: The Face/Arena
✤ Publisher: Sugar, Inside Soap, Junior
✤ Sold magazine publishing company
just in time
✤ Developer of OpenlyLocal.com
✤ Makes local data (esp govt) available
in consistent and accessible form
✤ Scrapes council and govt websites
✤ All open data
✤ Hyperlocal directory

4. Me: Chris Taggart
@countculture
✤ Former magazine journalist/
publisher
✤ Journo: The Face/Arena
✤ Publisher: Sugar, Inside Soap, Junior
✤ Sold magazine publishing company
just in time
✤ Developer of OpenlyLocal.com
✤ Makes local data (esp govt) available
in consistent and accessible form
✤ Scrapes council and govt websites
✤ All open data
✤ Hyperlocal directory

5. Me: Chris Taggart
@countculture
✤ Former magazine journalist/
publisher
✤ Journo: The Face/Arena
✤ Publisher: Sugar, Inside Soap, Junior
✤ Sold magazine publishing company
just in time
✤ Developer of OpenlyLocal.com
✤ Makes local data (esp govt) available
in consistent and accessible form
✤ Scrapes council and govt websites
✤ All open data
✤ Hyperlocal directory

6. Me: Chris Taggart
@countculture
✤ Former magazine journalist/
publisher
✤ Journo: The Face/Arena
✤ Publisher: Sugar, Inside Soap, Junior
✤ Sold magazine publishing company
just in time
RDF JSON XML
✤ Developer of OpenlyLocal.com
✤ Makes local data (esp govt) available
in consistent and accessible form
✤ Scrapes council and govt websites
✤ All open data
✤ Hyperlocal directory

7. Me: Chris Taggart
@countculture
✤ Former magazine journalist/
publisher
✤ Journo: The Face/Arena
✤ Publisher: Sugar, Inside Soap, Junior
✤ Sold magazine publishing company
just in time
RDF JSON XML
✤ Developer of OpenlyLocal.com
✤ Makes local data (esp govt) available
in consistent and accessible form
✤ Scrapes council and govt websites
✤ All open data
✤ Hyperlocal directory

8. Me: Chris Taggart
@countculture
✤ Former magazine journalist/
publisher
✤ Journo: The Face/Arena
✤ Publisher: Sugar, Inside Soap, Junior
✤ Sold magazine publishing company
just in time
RDF JSON XML
✤ Developer of OpenlyLocal.com
✤ Makes local data (esp govt) available
in consistent and accessible form
✤ Scrapes council and govt websites
✤ All open data
✤ Hyperlocal directory

9. Why?
✤ Journalists don’t generally All photos from His Girl Friday (sometimes
just for the hell of it)
know much about anything
(but know a bit about lots
of things)
✤ They aren’t really interested in
subjects (but they are interested
in stories)

10. Which is fine
for...
✤ Basic reporting
✤ Schedule-driven stories
✤ Many features
✤ PR rewrites

11. and in the past
was OK for...
✤ Breaking stories
✤ Background features
✤ Investigative reporting

12. because only they
had access to...
✤ Cuttings libraries
✤ Reference sources/directories
✤ Experience & skills
✤ A network of contacts

13. But the web has
changed all that
WEB
D BY
✤ Cuttings LACE
R EP libraries
WEB
D BY
✤
REP LACE
Reference sources/directories
✤ Experience WLE DGE
KNO
KING
✤ A network of ETWOR
N contacts
SO CIAL

14. But...
✤ The most important thing are
still the stories (but readers are
a great source – many good
stories in plain sight to a small
number of people)
✤ And also a focal point to have
the conversation
✤ And it is a conversation

15. So how do you do it?
✤ There are few examples of mainstream media doing this – for them,
reader/viewer contributions are mostly vacuous comments that’s
treated as free content
✤ My favourite examples:
✤ Naked Capitalism – excellent financial blogger (Yves Smith) who asks her
knowledgeable audience as a core resource/sounding board. Asks readers with
specific expertise for their opinion;
✤ FT’s Alphaville – great conversations;
✤ The Straight Choice/Democracy Club – excellent during the election.
✤ Radio 4’s More or Less – knowledgeable audience, and prog acknowledges this
✤ Openly Local is starting to tie into hyperlocal site news, as well as
getting users to contribute core info about councillors/companies