1. Using Social Media for Community Engagement Andy Carvin National Public Radio andycarvin@yahoo.com www.pbs.org/learningnow www.andycarvin.com andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt

2. Traditional Media Production Until recently, to produce content for a large audience you needed to be a... Publisher Broadcaster Billboard owner Pilot flying a sign-dragging airplane Guy holding up signs at televised football game

3. Enter stage left: Web 1.0 Most people read the Net instead of producing for it, because producers needed: HTML coding skills Programming skills Graphic design skills Hosting ability Promotion mechanisms

4. Today: Web 2.0 Late 1990s: New classes of online software to simplify content creation Allowed people to focus on ideas and creativity rather than technical know-how “The Read-Write Web” AKA “Web 2.0” AKA “We Media”

5. Social Software and the Democratization of Content classblogmeister.com: edublogging tool classblogmeister.com flickr.com: photo blogging community flickr.com epnweb.org: education podcast network epnweb.org blip.tv: make your own video blog blip.tv youtube.com: 100 m videos downloaded daily youtube.com Common thread: Online communities where people are actively encouraged to use and share each other’s original content

6. Content Production: All The Cool Kids Are Doin’ It 48 mil Americans have posted content online One in 12 Internet users publish a blog One in four have shared original content Young people more likely to post content Race, income, education less of a factor Latinos, African Americans slightly more likely to post online content than whites Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Home Broadband Adoption 2006Home Broadband Adoption 2006

7. The Web 2.0 Universe Geotags Blogging Aggregation Podcasting Folksonomies Rating Tools Vlogging Community Discussions Online Social Networks Tagging Instant Messaging mashups RSS Citizen Journalism Wikis

8. Most Famous Example: Blogs Early days: online geeks posted personal homepages or diaries (example: me)me Blogging software made online publishing easy; anyone can do it (again: me)me Fill-out-a-form publishing Today: 60-100 million+ blogs online, including many of you Perception: A media-blogger war of attrition

9. The Media Hates Bloggers Can’t trust bloggers or “citizen journalists” to get the story right Bloggers have agendas/bias/grudges etc. Web 2.0 dominated by mob mentality Bloggers don’t respect journalists Bloggers don’t do hard news

10. Bloggers Hate the Media Can’t trust big media (or “old media”) Big media claim they’re unbiased – right. Big media dominated by soundbites They don’t respect the public’s brains, collectively or individually They do hard news anymore, pandering to lowest common denominator

11. Today: Happy Internet (War is Over) Concerted attempts at finding understanding between the media and the blogosphere Media/blog collaboration now more common Greater emphasis on “networked journalism” (Jeff Jarvis) Finding ways for the media to work with “The people formerly known as the audience” (Jay Rosen)

12. Why Are Media Outlets Embracing Web 2.0? Improving journalistic transparency Creating a public dialogue Tapping into public knowledge and creativity New collaborative opportunities with affiliates Maybe it’s profitable, too?

13. Open Piloting Inviting the public to help create new broadcast programming Sharing rough drafts of shows before they’re ready for prime time A focus group, but everyone’s welcome Examples: Rough Cuts, Bryant ParkRough CutsBryant Park

14. Radio Open Source http://www.radioopensource.org http://www.radioopensource.org “A blog with a radio show” Not about open source software! Opens editorial process to the public Invites users to submit, debate program ideas Users recommend guests, questions Asks users to participate on-air Hosts online debriefs after each show Similar: TOTN, WHYSTOTNWHYS

15. BBC Have Your Say Centralized forum for discussing news Only select stories covered Two-tiered moderation Users can rate each others’ comments Best comments integrated into stories

16. CNN iReport http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ CNN citizen journalism project with Blip.tv CNN asks users to submit photos, video for specific stories Very best clips included on air, other highlights archived in an online gallery Published early video from VT shooting “Tell your friends, “iReport for CNN”

17. USA Today Embedding social networking across sitesite Not balkanized to a special section Users can comment on any story Comments featured on homepage, elsewhere Syndicating blogs from around the Internet

18. OhmyNews http://english.ohmynews.com/ http://english.ohmynews.com/ Korean online news service Publishes in Korean, English, Japanese Dedicates 20% of its space to citizen journalists Invites public to submit content as volunteers Ones that submit consistently get paid

19. Global Voices http://www.globalvoicesonline.org http://www.globalvoicesonline.org Project of the Harvard Berkman Center International citizens media news service “Bridge bloggers” monitor blog discussions around the world and summarize them GV/Witness.org Human Rights VideoHuman Rights Video Works closely with Reuters

20. VoteGuide Organized by Center for Citizen MediaCenter for Citizen Media Berkeley journalism students created blog and aggregator for California’s 11 th Congressional District Automatically collects news, photos, etc using tags Citizen journalists encouraged to cover candidates Test case for larger project during next cycle

21. Minnesota E-Debate http://e-democracy.org/ http://e-democracy.org/ Used blogging to host gubernatorial debate Candidates submitted text, video, voicemail Public rated responses, posted comments Users uploaded video, photos, text and audio to various Web 2.0 and tagged them “MNpolitics” Result: Dozens of podcasts, 100 videos, hundreds of photos, text comments Could be replicated nationally in ‘08

22. NewAssignment.net Networked journalism project by Jay Rosen Launching in April 2007 Will provide a platform for pro and amateur journalists to collaborate on stories together Developing endowment to pay pro journalists, cover expenses of amateur journalists First project: collaborating with Wired Newscollaborating

23. H2OTown http://www.h2otown.info http://www.h2otown.info Community blog for Watertown, MA All news stories produced by town residents Includes text stories, photos, video Excellent example of “placeblogging” H2OTown founder Lisa Williams launching placeblog platform for other communities

24. Outside.In http://www.outside.in http://www.outside.in Neighborhood content aggregator Combines placeblogging, citizen journalism with mapping and geotagging Allows users to explore community news as a blog, or on a neighborhood map

25. Tunisian Prison Map Created by expat Tunisian A new form of civil disobedience Uses Google Maps to chart Tunisian prisons Lets users track down famous dissidents Built with free tool: gMapEZgMapEZ

26. The Gates @ Central Park http://nycgates.blogspot.com http://nycgates.blogspot.com Event blog: “The Gates” art project in NYC Anyone could post their own content: Blog entries by email Photos by email Voicemails converted to podcasts Used free tools (Blogger.com and Flickr.com)

27. Katrina Aftermath http://katrina05.blogspot.com http://katrina05.blogspot.com Based on “Gates” website Solicited public contributions Aggregated news, blogs, missing persons info, photos Also used free tools Blogger.com Flickr.com Feeddigest.com

28. The Echo Chamber Project http://www.echochamberproject.com http://www.echochambermovie.com http://www.echochamberproject.com http://www.echochambermovie.com Collaborative documentary by Kent Bye about pre-war media coverage Recorded hundreds of video clips interviewing journalists, experts Public invited to work on segments, review and edit video clips into playlists Playlists exported into Final Cut Pro to produce the documentary Open Source version of Jumpcut.com, focused on collaborative video storytellingJumpcut.com

29. So What Should You Do? Community blogs and discussions? User-generated photos, videos or podcasts? Collaborative documentaries? Citizen journalism? Citizen policymaking? All of the above? What else?

30. Photographed by Ethan Zuckerman Bathroom, Rhodes University, South Africa (cc) 2006 by-nc

31. Thanks! Andy Carvin andycarvin@yahoo.com www.pbs.org/learningnow www.andycarvin.com Presentation: andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt