NowPublic Blog

Leonard Brody, founder of NowPublic, rejects the term ” target=”_blank”citizen journalism,” which has often been applied to his business. “What [our contributors] do is not journalism. We don’t call it that and never have.” In spite of that, he did construct NowPublic to serve as a new kind of media site. His initial goal, he said, was, “Let’s go build Reuters 2.0.”

NowPublic is a site about current events, and it is powered by its users. Brody feels that, “Journalism is an art form. What we are is an army of eyes and ears.” So Brody’s army of contributors aren’t known for creating original reporting in the way we usually think about it. “The fantasy of the 300 word post doesn’t exist.” Rather, his contributors perform two other functions.

Source: webware.com via mtippett

NowPublic

Tags: Army | NowPublic | citizen journalism | Reuters | Site | Ears | Leonard Brody | eyes | word | users | CURRENT EVENTS | founder | Tech & Biz | original reporting

Headline: Citizen Journalism site NowPublic adds new features to “increase credibility and trust”

According to a press release from PRNewswire, the citizen journalism website NowPublic has added three news features, which include  “a member ranking system, a presence stream and a news dashboard.”

Source: editorsweblog.org

NowPublic

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Headline: NowPublic - Now with Trust and Twitter

Vancouver-based news bookmarking and citizen journalism site NowPublic relaunched its website earlier this month and added a few new features that Mashable picked up on today. The new site design is less conservative that it’s predecessor and better reflects the irreverence and personality of NowPublic’s members.

Source: techvibes.com

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Headline: CITIZEN-JOURNALISM SITE RELAUNCHES WITH NEW FEATURES

NowPublic.com, a leading Vancouver-based “citizen-journalism” site that allows users from around the world to post their comments, photos and video of news events, has relaunched its website with new features. Among them is the ranking of contributors to the site on the basis of their activity level, so that other users can gauge how trustworthy their contributions are likely to be.

Source: theglobeandmail.com

NowPublic

Tags: Vancouver | NowPublic | video | photos | Site | Website | ranking | stories | times | GAUGE | NUMBER | CONTRIBUTIONS | Comments | among | user | likely | contributors | From | trustworthy | citizen-journalism | Tech & Biz | news events

“I get asked, on a daily basis, about the trust factor in user generated news. The new features NowPublic just released are our answers, and, frankly, I think it gets to the heart of the matter in a way that traditional media has never been able to - by being transparent and open.” - Leonard Brody, CEO of NowPublic.com

VANCOUVER, British Columbia/PRNewswire/ — NowPublic.com (http://www.nowpublic.com/), the world’s largest participatory news network, today announced the launch of three new features that raise the bar for trust and credibility in a crowd-powered media platform and community. These features include a member ranking system, a presence stream and a news dashboard.

NowPublic was founded to empower the average citizen to capture and chronicle the news around him/her. It has distinguished itself in the burgeoning crowd-powered media space as the category leader with reporters in more than 5,500 cities and 160 countries.

Source: socialmediaportal.com

NowPublic

Tags: British Columbia | Vancouver | NowPublic | launch | open | Citizen | Leonard Brody | trust | platform | dashboard | CREDIBILITY | transparent | traditional media | new website | crowd-powered | Tech & Biz | Largest Participatory Network | Member Ranking System | Presence stream

Miami real estate agent Lucas Lechuga began blogging to share his knowledge of the local market. He didn’t bargain for a $25 million defamation lawsuit when he wrote that a Miami developer had gone bankrupt decades ago.

In Lake Geneva, Wis., commodities trader Gary Millitte registered the Internet domain name LakeGenevaNews.com eight years ago, but is so worried about the legal boundaries of writing online that he still hasn’t started the ultra-local news site.

Non-journalists entering the world of blogs, online feedback forums, online videos and news websites provide information that newspapers and other media can’t or don’t. But many are now turning to professional journalists for help with dilemmas they’re facing: When is something libellous? What’s the difference between opinion and news? And how do you find public documents?

About a dozen would-be reporters navigated the basics of journalism at a recent training offered by the Society of Professional Journalists in Chicago. The group plans similar seminars this month in Greensboro, N.C., and Los Angeles.

Source: canadianpress.google.com via mtippett

This is an interesting evolution in the world of citizen journalism.  We are considering offering an insurance solution to our members (or a sub set of them) and I’d love to hear what you all thought of this.  Would this be useful to you?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments here or by sending me a note.  Thanks, M.

NowPublic

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It’s always nice when people are watching — especially since the re-design went live.

BURLINGAME, Calif. and LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–While there has been a litany of commentary and analysis covering online social networks in the consumer world, there has been a lack of serious study of these networks in the business and professional world. With the new release of its CEO Topics report Social Communities & Expert Networks in B2B, Outsell, Inc. closes this gap.

The report:

• Delivers a thorough analysis of social and expert networks, framing this sector and its revolution in the business and professional space;
• Defines the market and analyzes the key players, their business models, and their revenue streams;
• Provides a view of how these communities work, how they make money (or not), and what their implications are – from making significant changes in the way work is done to disrupting the information industry as we know it;
• Names 10 companies to watch in this space—ALMExperts, Doostang, InnoCentive, ITtoolbox, LECG, LinkedIn, NowPublic, Sermo, XING and Yelp.
• Recommends essential actions for organizations that choose to facilitate and harness the power of social and expert networks currently lying untapped in their communities.

Source: businesswire.com

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Rumors are that TIME magazine is going to drop a bombshell about Net Neutrality.  See more here.

NowPublic

Tags: Canada | Toronto | Ottawa | Montreal | Vancouver | porn | net neutrality | Tech & Biz

Yesterday I met with Olivia Ma who is running Youtube’s new CJ operation.  She gets it.  This should be interesting and in my opinion good for participatory news and NowPublic members (stay tuned).

Want to see Brian Williams do his stuff, online? Head to MSNBC’s Web site. Want to see thousands of would-be Brians trying their own hand at video reporting/news reading? Head to YouTube, which has a gazillion of them. Some are even kind of good!

But how to find them all? YouTube’s helpful solution: Shove them all into a new reporter “channel”, just like the one the site offers for musicians, politicians, etc.

YouTube, by the way, isn’t the first to try aggregate the public’s impulse to play TV reporter; CNN’s ireport.com and Nowpublic are trying to do the same thing.

Source: alleyinsider.com via mtippett

NowPublic

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NowPublic’s own Len Brody is heading to Halifax.

NowPublic

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