I, Reporter

Small Community, Big Obstacles

It might seem a good starting point for building virtual community when people already know each other in the real one. But for our nearly year-old project, Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker, we've been surprised to find that doesn't seem so true. For many potential users of our online group blog and forums, the risks of speaking about a controversial topic so openly in an online public forum appear just too great.

When we launched our project in the summer of 2007 in the wake of the city's approval of a carbon tax to fight global warming, we began with the premise that experts and interested participants from the community would have enough to say that at least some would want to become "citizen journalists," that is, frequent contributors on the pro-am group weblog we were setting up. After all, the subject of global warming was, er, hot, and Boulder had just become a pioneer in acting locally on a issue of planetary scale.

But while we got enthusiastic feedback, no one seemed to be stepping forward. We came to believe this had mostly to do with the psychological barrier of become a (capital "J") journalist, a daunting prospect for folks with little to no background in reporting and writing skills (something we hoped to address through training).

But last winter, we decided to experiment with a different approach to grease the skids for participants.

Lowering the Hurdle for Participation

I,Reporter's Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker project is about to have its second major growth spurt since its start-up last summer. Today we launched a series of online forums, and with them hope to inaugurate a vibrant discussion of the city’s unique municipal carbon tax approach. But it'll be one that will be significantly easier for local residents to take part in. Check out the new discussion boards and read on to find out more about why we've gone this route. ...

Glimpse the Citizen Media of Tomorrow

The Knight Foundation, the funder behind the I, Reporter Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker project, today launched a new web site that provides a fascinating window into the citizen media innovation. The group blog is called MediaShift Idea Lab, and the idea is to allow the folks behind each of the Knight Challenge Grant winners to explore the progress of their innovative Internet projects with each other and in the public eye.

As the blog editor Mark Glaser puts it, "Idea Lab will be a place where you can read about what innovators are doing to help reinvent community news. The dozens of authors at this new group blog -- hosted by PBS.org and funded by the Knight Foundation -- have received grants from Knight in their 21st Century News Challenge, and are going to report first-hand on the status of their projects."

Check out our first entries on Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker-- a blog post about our initial progress with the project, and another about some lessons learned.

Public Radio Puts Our Project in Spotlight

Salt Lake City temple at dusk

Public radio station KCPW in Salt Lake City gave over a live, 20-minute midday interview segment yesterday, June 29, to I, Reporter's newly launched Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker project.  Blair Feulner, station president and host of the KCPW's Midday Utah segment, interviewed me about the project, which partner Amy Gahran and I launched following a $90,000 News Challenge grant from the Knight Foundation in late May.

The radio interview focused on Boulder's global warming initiative and the journalistic challenges of  covering it, as well as the basic ideas behind citizen journalism. Feulner described the project nicely in his intro as a "new way to combine digital journalism and community interaction. ... the web-based project is meant to keep the focus on this single community issue, and add to the dialogue a variety of opinions from many sources, including the public, professionals, and city government.  The idea is to go beyond the spotty media coverage important community concerns often get."

Hear the full interview.

Ka-Ching! I, Reporter Wins News Challenge

I, Reporter co-founders Adam Glenn and Amy Gahran explain how they felt when they heard they'd won a Knight News Challenge grant. (Watch video)

We've got great news to share – an I, Reporter project last week was awarded one of the prestigious new Knight News Challenge Grants!

The whole citJ community has been abuzz since last year about this unusual news contest, in which the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promised a pot of gold (up to $5 million) to anyone who could come up with the big ideas to use digital news and information to transform real communities. 

Not to miss out on the fun, my I, Reporter partner Amy Gahran and I decided to put our already frequent brainstorming to work by pitching a series of proposals for the contest. We figured at least one would have a chance to stick – and it turned out we were right.

Searching for CitMedia – Start Here!

So where are all these citizen journalists? We can help you find them.

One of I,Reporter’s biggest and most exciting projects in recent months has been our ongoing work for the newly launched Knight Citizen News Network website, KCNN.org. The task set for us by Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab at the University of Maryland, was to build a searchable database of hundreds of sites around the country that offer citizen journalism. 

Our Services

Web Site Launch and Maintenance Just getting started with your web strategy? Let us help you craft it from the ground up, from design to implementation to maintenance.

• Understand hosting options Find and use inexpensive online publishing tools
• Implement smart, simple, usable design Define an effective, sustainable content strategy
• Create efficient workflow Choose a successful advertising mix

Enhanced Online Strategy If you already have an online presence, are you using it to its fullest advantage? We’ll help you devise an online news strategy that maximizes your site’s effectiveness and reach.

• Optimize integration with newsroom practices Establish web-friendly content styles
• Create and publish multimedia content, including podcast and downloadable video
• Install a search engine for your site Strengthen reader relationships with feeds and e-mail alerts
• Mine audience data through registration, analytics, online surveys Increase and diversify revenue sources

Citizen Media Strategy Your audience can be your ally in covering the news. We can help you navigate one of the most important trends in new media, and discover what works for your organization.

• Make the most of user comments Foster strong community forums
• Create a citizen journalism team
• Generate citizen photo galleries and citizen media content
• Build a blog hosting service Republish online content in print (“reverse publishing”)

I, Reporter: E-mail subscriptions now available

If you look at this weblog's sidebar, you'll see a new feature: e-mail subscriptions. I, Reporter recently started using Feedblitz to deliver e-mail alerts of new postings to this blog.

On the day after new items are posted, our e-mail subscribers will receive a digest message containing a summary of all new I, Reporter postings. You won't receive more than one alert per day, but you'll usually get a few per week.

So if you prefer e-mail alerts to feeds, you might try this free service.

Notes from Tonight's BBC Interview

Just a few minutes ago, Adam Glenn and I were interviewed live on the BBC Radio 5 program "Up All Night." It was brief (about 10 min) but fun. I was pleasantly surprised that they also included Jason Pontin, editor of MIT's Technology Review, in this discussion.

Here's what we talked about, and some links that were mentioned...

Minor Housekeeping

Hi, everyone. Just a few minor details here...

First of all, thanks so much for all the support and attention so many folks have given this site! Despite initial appearances, I, Reporter is definitely NOT meant to be "The Adam and Amy Show." The lively participation we've had here and elsewhere in response to this project is very encouraging. We think we're on the right track, and we trust our readers will help us stay on track.

Next, a few housekeeping notes about this weblog and the other aspects of I, Reporter...