I, Reporter

Planning for User Content

In recent months, some colleagues and I outside I,Reporter have heard more and more from clients: How do I manage the content on my site, especially if I want to incorporate web 2.0 technologies? Careful planning is definitely in order, especially if you're expecting to make the most of user-generated content. You don't want to build an expensive web site, only to discover that you can't even easily allow for user comments.

So another partner and I, former ABCNews.com colleague Dorian Benkoil of Teeming Media, have put together a document that we hope provides some of those answers. "Choosing the Right Content Management System for Your Web Site(s)" is our comprehensive  67-page analysis of content management systems, products and solutions, as well as best practices and common pitfalls. The report was written together with digital media consultant Amy Webb of WebbMedia Group. You can click here to download an excerpt.

Could Citizen Journalists Have Saved These Lives?

I couldn't help but think about citizen journalists' potential role as tipsters, after hearing a fascinating talk over at Columbia Journalism School by David Barstow, the NY Times investigative reporter, about his 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning series on workplace safety at McWane Industries, a iron pipe maker labeled by the paper as one of the most dangerous employers in America.

One thing that jumped out at me in the remarkable discussion on how the series came about, and the varied and impressive range of techniques Barstow used to report it, was this –- despite the company’s deliberate indifference to worker safety, Barstow said no local papers near various McWane plants had ever touched the larger story. The weak quality of the local news organizations, Barstow argued, was further hampered by a mentality that left beyond question anything that seemed to contribute to the local economy.

Is it possible citizen journalism could have made a difference in this case?

Going by Gertrude

In embarking us on this project together, Amy's put her finger on a key point: "Good journalism mainly springs from asking good questions."

And while I'm terminally sunny about most things, I've always turned to a famed deathbed for inspiration on that one. Gertrude Stein, in her last moment, asked companion Alice B. Toklas, "What is the answer?" When Toklas remained silent, Stein added: "In that case, what is the question?"

That’s worth pondering for journalists and citizen journalists alike...