DigiDave | Communication is Key

A Journo-Entrepreneur's Important Relationships

If I were a journo-entrepreneur 30 years ago one of the more important relationships I'd have to cultivate would be with the labor union. They drove the trucks and delivered the paper. They were literally the manpower that took your information to the masses. It would be a subtle and important working relationship with the union leaders and the workers they represented. My paper would be dead without them.

Today one of the most important relationships I have is with my developers. The joke goes "developers are the new teamsters." (Can't remember who made this joke first, but I am a notorious joke-repeater).

So far Spot.Us has worked with Hashrocket and I am very happy with our working relationship.

Ideally you are an Adrian Holovaty and are your own programmer. For the rest of us I give you:

Tips on working with your dev-team.

1. Give credit and sing their praises.This one is a little obvious - but it doesn't hurt to say it out loud. You should work with developers that rock hard and when they do, let them know how hard they are, in fact, rocking.

If you can't find a way to sing their praises - consider a new developer.

2. Open source: Not just the code, but the process. Developers like working on open source projects. But they also want to feel like their work is being used and improved. This requires being open about the development process so it can be improved by users. Bottom line: Developers like that people are using the product and that it will improve through user suggestions. It's your responsibility to have that feedback with your users.

3. Understand the tools they are using and how that translates into practices. Drupal, Ruby on Rails, Django, Joomla, etc. Different development communities have different philosophies. There is the "Drupal Way" and there is "Getting Real" which the RoR community espouses. Know what these philosophies are and how they translate into their work flow.

Use their existing workflow, project management tools, etc. Don't dictate to them how they should work. A good developer has already established their own best practices.

4. Be SPECIFIC with what you want. Perhaps the MOST important tip! The more specific you are with your acceptance criteria - the less likely they will deliver something from left field. More importantly - they will appreciate that you (a. have a vision (b. can give the detailed steps to achieve that vision (c. have given thought into what you want them to build and how it can all come together.

I can't stress this enough. I'm not talking about a detailed 3-year strategic plan. I'm talking about the "what does every button on every page do" level of detail!

5. Learn to crawl with the technology, so they don't have. I've learned to run the spot.us code on my computer and edit the views when I can. This is an incredibly small feat to any programmer, so I'm not patting myself on the back (it's really just slightly advanced HTML). But when I want to change the FAQ's or any other text on the site - I can do so without bothering the developers. They can stay focused on the more difficult programming tasks. This also means all spelling errors are your fault and you have nobody else to blame.

6. Separate design and development. Unless of course you have a designer/developer. Let people work on their strengths.

What advice do you have? As always I don't claim to have written the book. But I'm learning as I go and these have helped me out a lot.

If You Don't Have Passion - Get Out Da' Kitchen

It's a motto for all things in life. But I do find that the internet/social media community has had a larger portion of this Kool-Aid than most.

Regardless - it's a topic worth exploring, especially for any journalist (young or old) that wants to explore their entrepreneurial side.

If you aren't passionate about what you are doing, stop right now, because you will fail.

Nobody makes a better case for this than Gary Vaynerchuk who absolutely oozes passion. Here are two of his recent posts: "Execute on Being You" and "PHCC (Patience, Hustle, Community and Content)." I hear Chris Brogan is also somebody to note on this topic, but haven't followed him much yet.

(on a side: I love watching Gary's videos. At first I found him obnoxious and wanted to tell him to stick to decaf, but slowly I got it - he's good at pumping people up. Let his enthusiasm wash over you and see if it spreads.)

PASSION - IT'S WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

• More than Just a Slogan

Saying "you must have passion" isn't selling snake oil. It's legit, and I'm finding out every day what that means.

I'm now dealing legal, marketing, hosting, development, design, community building, and other aspects of Spot.Us - the likes of which I never planned on making a part of my livelihood (it wasn't long ago that I was a humble beat reporter).

I never would have expected dealing with these issues to be fun. But they are - because they all add up to creating digital poetry. I continue to love every minute of every day working on spot.us. I'm exhausted, yes - but loving it.

What Passion Won't Do - Replace the Need to Hustle

The hustle part of Gary's video (second link) is incredibly important. But you have to realize that all that hustle isn't romantic. If you aren't passionate about what you are doing - all the travel, handshakes, link-love in the world won't make you happy. In the end - you gotta believe in what you are doing, or inside you'll feel like a phony.

• Passion is contagious

No man is an island and nothing, especially on the web, can work without collaboration. But you can't just expect people to work on any old project. They want to know what makes your idea special. They are often looking for inspiration - and that can come in the form of your passion.

Your passion can ooze and effect other people.

I'm incredibly lucky that I have people like Hashrocket, Jeremy Toeman from Stage Two Consulting, lawyers like David Ardia, diverse advisers like Dan Gillmor and Neil Vineberg, organizations like Public-Press and so on pitching in.

I'd like to think they've all come to help as a direct result of my passion, but that would be a stretch.

Success breeds success. Networks never stop with one person - they expand and bloom as more passionate people join.

What Passion Won't Do - Get People to Work For Free Forever

Know your strengths and apply all your force to them. For things you can't do - learn to rely on your network, but don't exploit it. That's not what passionate people do. Sharing your enthusiasm,  doesn't mean exploiting people for short-term gain. Sometimes it's hard to express your appreciation - but you must find a way, otherwise your passion won't spread and all your good will goes to waste.

• It's Authentic

You could probably try to fake the funk, but it won't work. It's what drives you to get up in the morning, answer that last email, make the extra phone call, and strive to create the best product you can.

At Columbia J-school a professor once told me to "never be a hack reporter."
We all know what that hack-job article looks like: It has a classic inverted pyramid lede, one or two quotes from the go-to source and wraps up the piece with a cliche.

Never be a "hack anything" .... and the best way to ensure you won't is if you really believe in what you are doing.

What Passion Won't Do - Pop Up Out of Nowhere

It has to be genuine. Don't think you can will your passion into existence.

• It Never Ends

You can run out of a lot of important things..... but passion is, in most respects, under your control and discretion. Nobody can take away your passion. They might disagree with you - perhaps with as much passion as you.

Be an adult about it. Take in their concerns and questions and see how you can learn from it. But even if their points are valid, passion can still be your guide.

What Passion Won't Do - Convince Everyone

The flip side of passion being contagious: Just because you believe in something adamantly doesn't mean that other people will agree with you. Learn to construct logic around your passion to state your case, but don't assume de-facto agreement.

• It Keeps You Focused

What Passion Won't Do - Your Actual Work

Which is why I have to end this blog post and get back to making stuff happen. Lots to do.

New Things Launching: NewsTrust.net, ReportingOn.Com, JTM and Soon...Spot.Us

I've done a semi-crappy job of noting things happening elsewhere in the web. But the link economy is strong and I should be adding to it.

So what's new?

NewsTrust.Net
Many of you know that before Spot.Us became a reality I was a contributing editor at NewsTrust.net (disclaimer). I'm happy to see that they've finished the redesign (which started just as I was leaving). From time-to-time Fabrice and the NewsTrust team would call me in as a fresh pair of eyes, so I know just how much thought and effort was put into this massive overhaul.

The site is aesthetically the same, but has been moved to Ruby on Rails, which means future development will happen quicker. But the site itself also moves faster, feels cleaner and is easier to navigate and use.

I always thought that NewsTrust's biggest hurdle was that they asked so much of the user. I think this is a step in lowering the bar. I am a big believer that aggregation is creation and that linking is an editorial service. NewsTrust, along with sites like Publish2.com and NewsCred are pushing this practice. Journalisim should find a way to own this space and with the right tools I believe that is possible.

ReportingOn.com
I am a HUGE fan of Ryan Sholin's. Always have been. Anyone involved in journalism just needs to take a few glances at his personal blog to become a fan as well. His effort at Wired Journalis has been a collosaul success. Ryan has probably done more singlehandedly to evangelize the "get on the web" effort than anyone else.

I was truly excited that Ryan was a Knight News Challenge winner as well - and very happy to see his ReportingOn.com launch. He is the type of colleague whom I'm honored to call my colleague.

Journalism That Matters

Journalism That Matters has a new Drupal based site up which can organize the many tentacles of this organization. If you already know JTM, then you know what a fantastically idealized organization it is. They essentially organize unconferences about media all across the country. When they started planning one in Silicon Valley - I jumped up and did my fair share of the organizing.

The problem as I understand it, was that JTM is trying to be more than a conference facilitator. I believe it's trying to start its own little movement and create a culture around journalism. If you've ever been to a JTM then this would make sense. Again, it comes from the unconference world, so don't attend thinking all your questions will be answered. In fact, you should be prepared to leave invigorated with three times as many questions as you came in with. Some people find that unsatisfying - I love it.

But to be more than an unconference facilitator JTM needed a single hub where they could collect all their achievements and let participants meet and greet each other online. This Drupal site is the first big step in that direction. That they've accomplished so much without a real hub site just goes to show how much force has been behind JTM - the people running this are its life blood.

Spot Us

Okay, so here's the part where I'll be brief, because if you've been following this blog, you know that Spot Us is moving forward and is getting closer and closer to launch.

But here's an interesting update. As many know I've been as open and transparent about this process as possible. I've been very lucky that my developers and designers have seen value in this as well. My developers are also entrenched in the Ruby on Rails community - and their openness has attracted some attention from other developers who get a chance to peek into how they do things.

The interesting thing about this project was that the source is freely available on Github for any Joe Bloggs to pour over (link).  Not only that, but the client taped his reaction upon seeing the application for the first time: (link).

I had a quick looksee at the application, and what I saw blew me away - how'd they get so much done in such a short space of time?

Here's some of the stuff I noticed....

That's it for now.

Next week I'll be flying over to Jacksonville Florida to, you guessed it, spend some more face-to-face time with the developers.

The goal was to be finished by the end of next week. As things are right now - we might need one more week, but I'd hardly consider that a failure - the amount of work that is involved in building a website is huge, waiting one extra week wouldn't kill anyone.

Also: Check me out at PSFK as a source in citizen journalism gone awry via the Steve Jobs incident on iReport. Lots can be said about this. I simply don't have the time to opine.

Get It In Quotes - Google

Damn. Google continues to be tooooo freak'n smart.

Organize the world's information - including quotes. Check out their newest lab project "In Quotes."

It lets you place two politicians (in this case Obama and McCain) and comapre their quotes on various issues.

Getting a quote and putting it ON the web, is different then taking that quote and making it OF the web. The news value should be obvious - so I won't belabor it.

I do think that something like this matched with NewsCred, NewsTrust data would provide that extra layer of content that would allow people to engage in real time Democratic debates. Scary crazy sci-fi stuff.

Check TechCrunch for more details.

Also Erica Smith.

Professional Startup-er Andrew Hyde

This last Sunday, in the middle of my drafting (twitter followers know that I tend to draft things on Sunday to be sent out on Monday), I took a nice break to have lunch with Andrew Hyde.

Andrew is the force behind Startup Weekend and also works on TechStars. Between the two - this guy has a lot of chops. Since journalism is being pumped with the entrepreneurial spirit, Andrew is somebody we can all learn from.

But you don't have to take my word for it (Reading Rainbow reference for all other children of the 80's out there).

Click To Play

Question to Readers: How Do I Describe My Blog?

It's time to change my the tagline of my blog. At the end of this post I have my own suggestions. You can skip right to them and leave a comment, but if you want the reason WHY I am changing the tagline to remove the word 'journalism' (until further notice) - keep reading.

While in Chicago I had coffee with John Bracken. I started rambling about all things internet/journalism, etc - and I came to explain a phrase that I have been using over and over since 2003.

"What we are seeing now is the most rapid evolution in the ability to exchange information."

Which is to say: Big-J "Journalism" is not at the heart of what interests me. What I believe in and want to protect and ensure is the "open and honest exchange of information." I believe that's what journalism is - and that's why I have dedicated myself to the industry/craft/ethics of journalism. -But by labeling myself as a 'journalist' or practicing 'journalism' I feel cornered. That word has lots of connotations. Either because the public has "lost faith in it" or because the definition of journalism is somewhat circular (ie: Journalism is something done by journalists or featured in journalistic publications).

I don't want to try and define journalism here - but I do know what motivates me. It is the "open and honest exchange of information." Taking a moment to reflect on that you'll understand why the tagline "journalism is a process, not a product" has been my personal motto for so long.

But I am no longer satisfied. I don't think the word "journalism" conveys the mission that spurred me into the field. Let me continue to explain and perhaps you can help me brainstorm.

I first wrote the underlined phrase above while working on my undergraduate honors thesis at U.C. Berkeley. It was a labor of love. If memory serves it was titled "A Re-actualization of Hegal, Information Exchange and a Free Society." I'm sure my parents were thrilled with how I spent my college education (and their $).

But writing that thesis was very formative for my thinking and lately I've been revisiting the themes. So, let's see if I can give a cliff's note version, which should explain why I'm changing the tagline of this blog.

1. The Narrative (trying to squeeze in 65 pages here)

All of history can be explained as the evolution in the exchange of information.

• In the beginning, we could exchange physical information (celestial objects colliding, exchanging genetic material ....wink wink, physical movement).
• Exchange of cultural information (cave drawings, language, and symbolic objects ie: crowns).

200 years ago if I wanted to get a piece of cultural information to somebody, I was limited by physical constraints. I had to write it down and get that piece of paper into their hands.

• Travel got faster and faster. Soon we could go around the world in one day.

Physical restraints today are meaningless for most cultural information exchange.

• If I want to exchange cultural information with somebody - I can do it instantly and nearly free.

Sci-Fi future...

• Beam me up Scottie!!!! (physical information exchange goes through similar revolution... but this is obviously just me being a nerd).

"Information exchange" alone doesn't guarantee a free society.
There are systems of abuse.

• Physical abuse: Harm or control (At a personal level this is akin to hitting or locking somebody in a cage).
• Cultural abuse: Lies and censorship.

In other words, I can exchange information that does harm.

The Generational Narrative to Freedom
(This part of the thesis is a little hazy in my memory).

• Every generation needs to have a civic dialog.
• That dialog needs to be "open and honest" in order to ensure freedom. I actually define freedom as the "open and honest exchange of information." So - it's a bit tautological.

The Drama of My Thesis (Cue the Violins)
(typical hippie/Marxist U.C. Berkeley thesis).

• I expressed concern that corporate control/consolidation of the media along with advertising were inhibiting the ability of society to engage in an open and honest dialog. The means of communication were being censored and advertisements can hardly be construed as "honest."

The last chapter of the thesis addressed the Internet

• It was 2004 (pre-Dean campaign). I acknowledged the internet as a potential force to reckon these issues but admitted that it was too early and too vast to explore the idea.

Following the steps of this thesis one can see how I ended up perusing journalism. I basically thought to myself: "Where is there still an open and honest exchange of cultural information?"

That's why "journalism is a process not a product.

I've spent enough time thinking about this phrase. I feel I've internalized it and I want to take it one step back, back to my roots, back to what got me here. I didn't have nostalgia for Woodward and Bernstein. I don't like hats with cards in them. I'm not even a particularly crafty wordsmith. But I do want to support the open and honest exchange of information.

Anyone with a careful eye may have noticed that my knight news project has gone from being called "Spot Journalism" (as noted on the Knight page) to "Spot Us." That was a conscious decision not just because it's a clever name/url - but also I thought labeling this "journalism" would have brought up some of the same confusions I expressed above. I don't care about that word persay. What I care about is the open and honest exchange of information, as I believe THAT'S what is needed to keep a democracy strong.

I have no idea what should replace it - but here are ideas off the top of my head.

• Digidave | The Information Needs of Society (too close to Knight's mission statement?)
• Digidave | The Evolution in Information (too vauge?)
  
• Digidave | Understanding Information Flow (eh....trying to hard)
  
• Digidave | The Evolution of Information Exchange (too long, jargony?)
  
• Digidave | How Do We Keep Info Open and Honest (too whiny, mission driven?

So You Wanna Be a Web 2.0 Super-Star?

Having trouble sleeping, so take this for what it is - 4:26am rambling (either my best or worst thinking, perhaps the comments will let me know).

Jason Calacanis' retirement from bloging. Like others makes me cry foul and B.S.

But the reason I'm upset isn't just because Calacanis' move is obviously egotistical (I mean, calling "blogging dead" because you are leaving is like Michael Jordan saying basketball is over because he retired. Kobe and Shaq would disagree. And, you are not the Michael Jordan of blogging).

What upsets me is that his post has a lot of good points about the state of the blogosphere.

Jason writes:

"Bloggers spend more time digging, tweeting, and SEOing their posts than they do on the posts themselves.....[Gawker pays] “not [by] the quality of the words but the number of page views those blog posts get....Excelling in blogging today is about link-baiting, the act of writing something inflammatory in order to get a link.”

Now my first response (and why I call B.S. on Jason) is that he has contributed to the state of things. This is a guy who gave away a Macbook Air to try and get more followers on Twitter and now he is complaining about hype over content?

If anything Jason quit because the above has been his experience with the medium. He has nobody to blame but himself. His statement "blogging is dead" is sort of like a coward-villain saying "if I can't have her nobody can" and shooting the love interest of a movie so the hero can't run off with her. As we know, that move never works.

Being distracted by Techmeme? Stop reading it. Worried your traffic is falling? Stop looking at the stats. Either way - blogging is a MUCH better way to stay in communication with people than a 1995 email newsletter.

The fact is, it is impossible to ignore the stats, techmeme and your Twitter followers. Why? Here's a phrase we all learned from our favorite high school history teacher: "follow the money!"

For some people there is too much money at stake. I'm reminded of a Cyprus Hill song called "So You Want to Be A Rock Super-Star." Go ahead, check the lyrics.

So you wanna be a rap/rock superstar, and live large
a big house, 5 cars, you're in charge
comin' up in the world don't trust nobody
gotta look over your shoulder constantly.

This notion of the A-list is creating a frenzy for the top. Indeed Robert Scoble has already handed over the keys to the blogosphere (who is Robert to make this decision and wtf does it mean?). And what awaits you at the top? Well - the dream is money, fame, respect, free gadgets sent to you for review and other geek dreams. But the truth is - it's just life. I think Robert Scoble is one of the few at the top who realizes that what he has been given is a privilege, not to be taken for granted. Other "A-list" bloggers seem to act as though "the world owes them a living" (see one of my all-time favorite moral-lesson cartoons).

I'm left with the same ill taste in my mouth from when I was compelled to write the post "What I hate About the Internet Everyone is a "Social Media Consultant."

The blogosphere needs to mature. The vast majority of people don't care about the tech/geek concerns of the "A-listers," so why do they dominate the air-waves? I am still amazed that tech as a subject dominates the blogosphere. Think about it. If you had to pick the top five topics that people in the world are concerned about in life, I doubt technology would be at the top. Even if it were, it wouldn't be this Apple iPhone gadgety-crap, it would be about useful stuff like solar technology or AI. Yet Engadget, Gizmodo and TechCrunch rule the day.

I just see so much more potential and I guess that's what frustrates me.
(hopefully, now that this is out of my head, I can fall asleep).
End transmission.

CopyCamp - The Idea Has Legs: What Worked and What Could be Improved

Long time readers will know a side passion of mine has been the proliferation of this idea I call "CopyCamp" - which was thought of with friend NoNeck Noel after attending a PodCamp.

Background on the idea: CopyCamp - an Unconference for News Organizations.

On Saturday the San Jose Mercury News held the first ever Copycamp. It's amazing when you get to see an idea become a reality. What's even better is taking a step back, figuring out what worked and what didn't, in the hopes that the idea will improve and benefit others in the future.

How it all happened. Pre-planning.

This is probably the most laborious part of putting on any kind of unconference.

1. Organizing Principle:  It requires somebody at the helms. That person was Chris O'brien. Without Chris' dedication to the concept - wrangling in other Merc staff and inviting members of the public, this never would have happened. I'm not sure how many hours Chris put into planning this but I assure you - these things don't organize themselves. Using the CopyCamp wiki will help - but won't make it magic.

2. Food. Creativity and innovation require food. The Mercury News was gracious enough to provide bagels, coffee, sandwiches and sodas. Total money spent: about $350. I can imagine a local pizza place sponsoring food in the future, bringing the cost of having a CopyCamp down to $0.

3. Space: The Mercury News had a perfect assembly room space that could easily fit everyone. In the event a newsroom doesn't have space cost goes up unless a local YMCA or civic-center place is willing to help out.

4. Focus: Unconferences are "unstructured" - but they have a focus. In this case the Merc was inviting community leaders into the newsroom to discuss issues of race and demographics and how the Merc could do a better job telling that story in the bay area.

What happened: The Day Itself

1. Setting up: People arrived 10am. By 10:30am everyone was socializing. Chris and the Merc team did an excellent job of getting a fantastic cross-section of community and civic leaders. Many of them knew each other, but we had nametags and plenty of time for everyone to do introductions.

2. Getting ready: By 11am the 35 in attendance sat in a circle and had already finished quick introductions (Name, affiliation and why they came). Then we asked participants to suggest topics that we could break into and discuss.

3. The topic breakouts: They were (a. Journalism that matters - ensuring that the Merc and journalism stay strong. (b. Racial marginalization - making sure certain topics aren't overlooked completely. (b. The immigrant experience in the bay area. Each group had a note taker who, after lunch, reported back to the larger group.

Low point: I'm willing to admit the day didn't go perfectly. The main issue was one of moderation. It was very easy for community members to accuse the Merc of not doing a good job or not listening to their readership enough. Conversely the Merc staff could have made the situation worse by retorting that their job is incredibly tough and the public just doesn't understand (the later didn't happen).

There were a few moments where it seemed that, as a paper, the Merc was taking on some harsh criticism. Criticism is good - as long as it's put forth in a constructive fashion. This whole day was planned to be a constructive event, not a shouting match. Luckily it never got out of control. The community members involved had a genuine interest in seeing the Merc succeed and their criticism had the best intentions and the Merc staff never took a high road in reaction.

Still - the point stands. These situations require the type of moderation that is a developed skill. We could have benefited from somebody with more experience in managing open space technology, especially in highly volatile situations.

The High: The end of the meeting was certainly a high. There was discussion about "next steps." YES!!!!!

As a group CopyCampers seemed excited about the fact that the news staff was listening to them and had invited them in to get their feedback. The paper belonged to them. They had the Mercs ears. Conversely it was a way for the Merc staff to explain some of the struggles and decisions they face day-to-day. That's the type of understanding that allows groups to move forward.

Perhaps it will help lead to the Merc becoming the host of community blogs? Perhaps it was just a morale boost - but connections were made, people who want to make a difference were introduced and from that there is no telling what could happen.

Future vision: What now?

For the Merc: Chris will have to spread the word about what the community members said that day. He will have to report back to the collective if there are any responses from the higher-ups at the Merc. Perhaps in 4-6 months there could be another CopyCamp that is twice as large - and will be able to start where we left off this weekend.

For your paper: HOST A COPYCAMP. The instructions are above and at our blog and wiki.

The potential: I would to see a copycamp with a different focus on "lessons we can share" - where local bloggers and citizen journalists can come in and talk about blogging, podcasting, twitter, etc and news reporters can talk about beat reporting. My bet - each part wants to learn from the other.

You name the issue: I think a CopyCamp could be convened.

More reading: Chris Amico got some good video as we were leaving.
Rob Knight's post: "CopyCamp was Awesome"

p.s. I will try and follow this post with video at CopyCamp.us.

Is (digital) journalism better the more local it is and what does that do to growth?

In keeping with last months Carnival of Journalism which focused on a theme, our host Andy Dickinson has posed the following question to the lot of us: "Is (digital) journalism better the more local it is and what does that do to growth?"

This question obviously goes back to the Rob Curley fiasco of LoudounExtra from a few weeks ago, which can (and was) dissected in every way possible.

What interests me more about this question is the second part, "what does that do to growth"? As for the "is local journalism better" part - that's a value judgment. As I see it some will say "yes" others will say "no" and they are both right. I'm not going to tell anybody "your opinion is wrong."

I will say this: national or international news isn't going to disappear and because of its larger scope - what is said below might not apply to that type of news coverage.

It was said best at the Future of Civic Media conference last week (I believe Dan Gillmor): "dog bites man" is news to somebody - especially if you are the dogs next door neighbor, or the man's co-worker, etc. That's the case for hyperlocal.

But that's exactly what leads to the second question "what does that do to growth"? Perhaps "dog bites man" is news to somebody, but the question is whether or not it is something newspapers can ever cover. Right now, probably not. Can they grow into that coverage?

Related to this question is - where do I see journalism in five years. What does a journalist or a news organization look like in the year 2013?

We constantly look at news and journalism as an industry - but the scenario played above "dog bites man" is more like life happening and being broadcast online. A newspaper isn't going to send a reporter out to cover that event. But that event will end up on Twitter, a blog, or a citizen journalism website. It will end up broadcast online not as 'news' but as part of somebody's life.

In my sci-fi vision of the world - there is no "media." People just live their lives online and to that extent - their lives are broadcast. Who wants to call their life "media"? Not me. It's almost as if the media dies - but journalism and news continues under a different name. This is something Jay Rosen has said many times. Lisa Williams describes it as "journalism surviving the death of its institutions." The question is how we can ensure that the better parts of the media (the part that informs and empowers communities to speak truth to power) continues.

This means that reporters are going to be the thread that weaves between people's lives. In my sci-fi reality if you want to professionalize news at the local level it has to be done by individuals who are already part of that community and also living their life in a public way. We see this now with Robert Scoble in the tech community. Granted - Scoble makes his living now from mainstream media, but I suspect if he left FastCompany he would find a way, perhaps even through small donations from readers, to continue as a source of news and information for heavy techno-geeks. As the blogosphere matures, I suspect we will see more Scobles for broader (local) communities.

The first time I had this realization was when I started working for Propeller as a scout. The best way to explain my job there is as a 'news recommender.' I get paid to recommend news articles.  Although not doing the reporting myself - I consider it an act of journalism. I am acting almost as an editor - helping to distinguish between what is and isn't important news that day. Granted - my decisions are subject to veto and voting by the community, but through that I learn to react to the communities needs and desires. Either way, I'm a news recommender and the community values me as such by paying me accordingly.

Now take a look at Spot.Us. I envision individual reporters beholden to a community and reporting on topics that are of direct concern to them. It's the Robert Scoble model I hinted at above. The reporter is a freelancer, a lone-gunmen, they make journalism happen without a news organization. It's news without the newspaper, journalism without the media. It doesn't grow, it just happens - because that's what people want.

Where did I find out about Tim Russert's death? Twitter.

Was it "media"? No, it was a friend who sent me a direct message knowing that I am interested in journalism. It was just two people living their lives and sharing information.

Now I could have found out about Russert's death via the AP (which I can't link or quote from article without being charged), but if that had been a local event (dog bites man) there wouldn't have been any other source of information except my friends. It would have been up to us, as a community to either (a. Try and piece together the information ourselves or (b. Decide we don't have time to piece it together and pay somebody else in our community to do it for us. That's spot.us, that's journalism in a world where local communities organize themselves online.

Where will local journalism happen? Between people. It will not be the media-sphere. The only way news organizations can play part is if they create the platform through which people live their lives. This requires a radically different approach to how newspapers organize their online presence. But that's how it will grow. The real question is if that platform will be built by somebody who holds the same values of traditional media or somebody who wants to make a quick buck. And that, my friends, is a question with real-world consequences for local democracies.

Interview - SocialActions, a Search Engine for Giving

When I was writing the proposal for Spot Us I began to study Kiva.org, SellaBand and DonorsChoose. Little did I know how many micro-philanthropy sites there were. SocialActions has made it their job to keep tabs on all the sites that allow somebody to take a positive social action on the web. Imagine if you could search across all these sites in one fell swoop? You'd know all the ways you could contribute to a cause.

But don't take my word for it.......