crowd sourcing…

Posted on 10. Oct, 2007 by in Uncategorized

Crowd sourcing. Going out, talking to those you cover and running with what they suggest.

Fort Meyers News-Press example of enlisting community….Fought a long costly battle in court with FEMA. Got the records on how the $$ was spent, flowed info into database and turned it to the public by posting immediately. The paper had it and the public had it. The public goes though, chooses which stories to investigate. 60,000 searches in database in 48 hrs.

Pocket book issues only? Can this model work with issues that don’t affect everyone?

What if the data isn’t great? How do you fact check, etc.?

Jim Colgan from the Brian Lehrer Show talked about sending people out asking for prices of Budweiser, lettuce and milk.

AND THEN THE POWER WENT OUT! CAME BACK AFTER 10 SECONDS, APPX. TALK ABOUT IRONY.

The data they got was questionable. calling to check for discrepancies wasn’t as easy as they thought. they had to hold the story.

Best crowd sourcing on national level, from gentleman at Philadelphia Daily News, is about partisan politics. Are journalists comfortable to get involved with partisan issues?

Gannett says “bring the debate” and that credibility is measured on the number of multiple viewpoints.

Editorial Director from About.com asks how do we trust those we’re enlisting?

Comments are closed.