jtm2008

Talking with Tony Kuttner about Deadline

Deadline is a fun game. It's actually really fun, and at the same time, it's about the news. Well, it's not just about the news, it is the news. It's just delivered differently.

Deadline is a game played through facebook that tests the player's knowledge of the news. The first time I encountered it, I was knee deep in school work. Yet, this facebook app managed to steal over an hour of my time. It was a fair trade though as I found myself thoroughly caught up on recent events when I finally managed to quit.

At NewsTools2008 yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Tony Kuttner of NewzWag.com. He's on the team that created Deadline and shared his thoughts on

Here are the highlights:

-Other news quiz applications have relied on the player knowing trivia (what was the general's name that...) rather than knowing about the story. Someone who just quotes trivia when talking makes for a dull conversationalist. Delivering more of the story and what's interesting about that story makes for better conversations and therefore a better game.

-Regular, new content is key. They aim to get 15-20 new stories up every weekday and 10 each day on weekends.

-Aesthetics were important to the team. It had to look good. It's hard to test exactly how much of an effect this has on whether people play, but it seems important. (Anecdotaly, I think the design makes me more prone to stick around.)

-Including interesting, sometimes offbeat, stories and making it easy to share with your friends is important to the community aspect.

-The application was created as part of a team that included 3 developers. None were game developers, but some members of the team were avid gamers. (Avid gaming seems important as they get a lot of little things right).

AUDIO: Excerpt of Richard Anderson's VillageSoup talk

A 12-minute audio excerpt of Richard Anderson's talk about VillageSoup at NewsTools2008 on May 1, 2008 in Sunnyvale, Calif.

From Paul Lamb's talk on geocoding the news

Arizona State journalism student Jocelyn Buras posted thoughts from Lamb's talk on geocoding the news:

This idea is that people will be able to connect as a community to disseminate knowledge surrounding a specific geographic location. In most cases it would be up to members of the community to contribute information and keep the project rolling. An example of this citizen mashup would be in Michigan where drivers mapped out current potholes and recently patched potholes. Lack of moderation does raise a question of trustworthiness, but for the most part it's assumed that someone taking the time to contribute to the community really does care about the project being created.

The affect this has on journalism is that news no longer has to live and die in one day, after being interpreted by one group of people. Instead it is able to continually grow as time passes with people contributing to its evolution. This is a process where news and information can live in a physical, geographic location. Lamb had an example of where the Berlin Wall formally stood. People can rent GPS devices that detect where the wall used to stand. As someone passes across the barrier they can hear speeches from the former Chancellor, or biographical stories of those affected by the wall. The story lives on and evolves in a physical place.

Richard Anderson describes the VillageSoup service

At NewsTools2008, VillageSoup.com founder Richard Anderson described via a PowerPoint presentation his open-source platform for learning, sharing, shopping -- a way to foster community:

Download soupslidessunnyvale.ppt

Thoughts: Map and Disruptive Technologies

This morning we're sharing thoughts from the emerging news ecology map and the disruptive technology sessions.

What's missing from the map (pdf):
-Where are the artists?
-Need more on funding
-Couldn't find a bridge to officials, civic life, anything journalism was supposed to follow
-Students and grass roots
-How are we educating the community on communicating with us?

Using the map:
-How would you find hem on the fly? How would you know they were who they said they were? How would you find a way to transact with them on the fly?

Thoughts from disruptive technoloy sessions:
-How do we see ourselves as public and private entities? Many of us have strong feelings on privacy, while an entire generation doesn't hesitate to put their whole lives online
-What legal problems need to be discussed? (What new ways can we get sued?)

Disruptive Technologies: Social, Civic, News and Gaming Networks

Sat in on session last night about gaming principles applied to news. Jim Moore co-facilitated (with Dave Mathison) and described how a massively multiplayer game designer he had talked to really seemed to understand engaging people in a way the news tends to miss. He said he was surprised how much social psychology was being applied in game communities, but not in political communities and even less in the news.

Moore outlined three gaming principles that could be applied to the news:
1. Games allow the player to take on a glamorous role.
2. Games dole out points for positive behaviors in their worlds.
3. Games are fun to play.

Gabriel Coan from KQED mentioned a story bringing together all of these that was done by WNYC in New York. The goal was to use the crowd to cover price gouging in the city. Listeners were asked to go to upload local shop prices for milk, lettuce and beer. The result was a map mashup of gougy businesses and a citizen force that felt like part of the WNYC team.

The session included other cool ideas like a real life game that gave points to students for getting involved in community coverage of local gentrification and geocache games to get people to explore parts of their community they wouldn't otherwise go.

Sidenote: Gabriel, someone found your name badge outside the room.

When You Want to Have a Conversation, but Can't

The E-Media Tidbits blog asks....

clipped from www.poynter.org ...And then along comes Hermida with his BBC example. I'm not saying he's proving my point, or implying that there's anything wrong with the BBC's blog software. I'm just saying I'm often appalled at how limited and/or Byzantine news orgs' CMS tools are compared to Wordpress and other tools available to the general public. Just food for thought. This particular line of inquiry is especially timely since in just under two weeks I'll be attending NewsTools 2008, "a flexible, three-day convening that will offer journalists, technologists, entrepreneurs and funders a chance to explore ideas, form partnerships, develop projects, outline systems and businesses for sustaining 'journalism that matters.'" In preparation for this, I'd like to ask Tidbits readers: What bugs you about the tools you currently use to gather information, create news and information content, publish and share that content, and engage your communities? What tools or features would you like to have?

Joe Grimm Getting Ready for Journalism That Matters Conference

clipped from jobspage.typepad.com I'm excited. I will take most of the week to attend the Journalism that Matters conference in Silicon Valley to see what I can learn about my future, your future, the future of journalism. I signed up, hoping to get a look down the path we are all on. I wanted to know what might lie ahead for me as a journalist and as a news recruiter. The conference s attracting traditional journalists, new-media journalists, academics and digital innovators. I am looking forward to making some new friends and shifting my network a little further toward digital journalism. As I have talked with people, though, I have come to understand that this conference will only be as successful as I and my peers are able to put the karger mission ahead of our own. If we do that, I am sure, we will benefit from what Wayne Baker of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business calls "the law of reciprocity."

Journalism's Ideals Meet Silicon Valley's Tools

clipped from www.cmswire.com Journalism's Ideals Meet Silicon Valley's Tools NewsTools2008 takes place April 30-May 3 at the yahoo! Conference Center in Sunnyvale, California If you’re a Drupal programmer, user-experience expert, social-network innovator, or web 2.0 entrepreneur, you’re invited! The topic of the event is “Technology and the New Ecology of News: How will technology innovation support journalism and participatory democracy?” It’s billed as an event in which journalism’s ideals will meet Silicon Valley’s tools in a three-day, conceptual mashup. Groovy. Hosted by the Journalism That Matters Collaborative, the Media Giraffe Project, the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and Yahoo! Inc., this three day event aims to describe and invent tools for sustaining “journalism that matters.”

Interview M.G. Siegler - How Has His Reporting Changed?

A quick interview with M.G. Siegler, a reporter from VentureBeat, on the tech-tools he uses that aid his reporting.

If you are curious about: Twitter, social news sites, Mixx, or the higher level conversation of whether or not these tools will ever translate to help reporters who cover beats outside of technology - check out this video.