User-generated breaking news and open source reporting website launched

 Finnish news publisher Sanoma Digital has launched a user-generated news website that also uses an open-source journalism platform to gather material for a series of weekly freesheet newspapers.

Launched last month, Vartti.fi is a fledgling project that allows users to break news by uploading multimedia content direct to the site.

Vartti editors also publish story threads on the website and ask for multimedia submissions from the readers - setting them deadlines for their contributions.

The stories are then published in a series of ultra-local weekly papers distributed in and around the Helsinki area.

"With the Jokela High School shooting we had one of the first pictures in Finland [from the scene] which was taken on a mobile phone, we then sold it on to publications in Norway and Sweden," Janne Kaijarvi, editor-in-chief of Vartti, told Journalism.co.uk.

The site also broke news about a train fire in Helsinki, Kaijarvi added, with reporters first finding out about the incident when a passenger uploaded a picture to the site from inside the train.

Contributors are paid for pictures that make it into the print edition, usually in the region of 50 euros, for which Sanoma then takes the copyright.

However, the contributor for the Jokela picture was paid significantly more, Kaijarvi added. Sanoma publishes seven local editions of Vartti in Helsinki and a further seven in other areas.

 

The papers in the Finnish capital serve catchments which populations that range from 60,000 to 100,000, with each paper having a fulltime editor.

Developers claim that 15 to 20 per cent of each paper is user-generated content. A figure they hope will be nearer 50/50 by next year.

"The market for these kind of news sites in Finland is very tough, we have tabloids which are very strong so we are trying to learn all the time what different approaches people may want," Kaijarvi added.

"By the end of next year the site might be totally different from what it is like now as we develop more and more user-generated content."

Vartti.fi is just one of five news site start-ups which have been launched Sanoma Digital, one of the largest Nordic publishers, since the start of the year.

 

http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/530794.php

 

blogging and vlogging an event

Do you want to learn more about blogging or video blogging at events?
Read Joitske Hulseboach excellent blog posting on this

See full text below

happy reading
Editor- penplusbytes

Blogging and vlogging an event

For a question by Simone Staiger on the knowledge management for development list, Peter Ballantyne, Chris Addison and myself compiled our experiences so far.

1. For the euforic annual meeting this year we tried to capture a lot of the discussions with blogs and short videos. see the Euforic AGM blog where we published a whole bunch of stuff. we started drafting stories on different sessions, by the end several participants were doing their own stories. At the feed you can also see some stories published by off our site about the conference. Doing videos has transformed our approach.

2. At the brusselsbriefings blog you can see where we use a more structured approach and a blog as the primary advertizing and reporting mechanism for, in this case, a series of short meetings. The blogging really changes the way the meeting is reported. Instead of a heavy policy paper we ended up with a four page newsletter format closely based on the blog. Interestingly the organisers offerred no comments on the blog postings but the moment the same text was in word it was closely edited. The video played an important role in the last

brussels briefing in the dynamic of the meeting itself. We were able to incorporate over 20 blips, many from non-speakers. As a result many people felt their views were taken seriously by the organisers. It also gives the meeting a buzz, we often get people thanking us for the
opportunity to talk to video.

3. We think it is VERY worthwhile to blog an event. Even if it just adds an extra documenting element and gets people used to the idea that others maybe listening. There is a difference in whether you want to capture the live presentations, or rather the voices of others who are
listening/reacting. You may have an aim of changing the conversations if you reach out to capturing other voices than the plenary speakers.

4. the blog (or site) MUST have feeds, and have the feeds on the sites of others [and get people to subscribe to them]. i think you want people to blog your conference and its blog on other blogs or platforms. Before, during and after. establishing a conference tag to be used
across different platforms may also be good. we need to go where the 'audiences' are and not expect them to come to us. I think the blog needs to have quite 'instant' stories, giving atmosphere and opinion as well as text and presentations. so the feeds change and it's worth
coming back.

5. However, a blog has a normal 'pace' and blogging an event can be overwhelming for the readers. Personally I still have 105 unread blogposts on the web2fordev blog. Suddenly
you are overwhelmed with information. ...So there could be other alternative ways of displaying
things too. For inspiration, here's an example of a vlogged event from rocket boom using a site which is very attractive. Erwin Blom wrote a great blogpost in Dutch (important language for all to know :). He writes about an aggregator page for an event. They asked people who were



interested to use twitter, youtube etc. to help cover the event. And aggregated all the content on a site of the event: Picnic07. They discovered (as we did) that you need a UNIQUE tag, picnic will also be used by anybody picnicking in 2007. You can have a look at the site, it's in english.

6. On tools: One thing that blogger allows (but not wordpress) is to be able to post directly to draft by email. This would make my job easier as I write posts in the meeting on my phone and email them for editing. It is also much more difficult to have relaxed blips if you use a tripod for the camera. We use small digital cameras rather than video cameras and talk to the person over the top of the camera. A little camera shake can add to the immediacy of the blip. (See Mabel
on euforic.blip.tv)

7. The experience of following meetings remotely. Although I don't have the stats for web2fordev, the anecdotal evidence was that very few followed the event live, and I only had direct feedback at the meeting from one person, watching the videos has been higher than I expected (over 100views for individual items) but the impact is far higher as videos are shown at other meetings and we show at individual training sessions.

Ethan Zuckerman and Bruno Giussani have compiled a tips for conference bloggers guide

Question for you: how do you as an online viewer experience an event from far? What makes it easier to connect? And how do you use the online documentation of events you have attended?

blogging and vlogging an event

Colleagues,

Do you want to learn more about blogging or video blogging at events?
Read Joitske Hulseboach excellent blog posting on this

See full text below

happy reading
Editor- penplusbytes

Blogging and vlogging an event

For a question by Simone Staiger on the knowledge management for development list, Peter Ballantyne, Chris Addison and myself compiled our experiences so far.

1. For the euforic annual meeting this year we tried to capture a lot of the discussions with blogs and short videos. see the Euforic AGM blog where we published a whole bunch of stuff. we started drafting stories on different sessions, by the end several participants were doing their own stories. At the feed you can also see some stories published by off our site about the conference. Doing videos has transformed our approach.

2. At the brusselsbriefings blog you can see where we use a more structured approach and a blog as the primary advertizing and reporting mechanism for, in this case, a series of short meetings. The blogging really changes the way the meeting is reported. Instead of a heavy policy paper we ended up with a four page newsletter format closely based on the blog. Interestingly the organisers offerred no comments on the blog postings but the moment the same text was in word it was closely edited. The video played an important role in the last

brussels briefing in the dynamic of the meeting itself. We were able to incorporate over 20 blips, many from non-speakers. As a result many people felt their views were taken seriously by the organisers. It also gives the meeting a buzz, we often get people thanking us for the
opportunity to talk to video.

3. We think it is VERY worthwhile to blog an event. Even if it just adds an extra documenting element and gets people used to the idea that others maybe listening. There is a difference in whether you want to capture the live presentations, or rather the voices of others who are
listening/reacting. You may have an aim of changing the conversations if you reach out to capturing other voices than the plenary speakers.

4. the blog (or site) MUST have feeds, and have the feeds on the sites of others [and get people to subscribe to them]. i think you want people to blog your conference and its blog on other blogs or platforms. Before, during and after. establishing a conference tag to be used
across different platforms may also be good. we need to go where the 'audiences' are and not expect them to come to us. I think the blog needs to have quite 'instant' stories, giving atmosphere and opinion as well as text and presentations. so the feeds change and it's worth
coming back.

5. However, a blog has a normal 'pace' and blogging an event can be overwhelming for the readers. Personally I still have 105 unread blogposts on the web2fordev blog. Suddenly
you are overwhelmed with information. ...So there could be other alternative ways of displaying
things too. For inspiration, here's an example of a vlogged event from rocket boom using a site which is very attractive. Erwin Blom wrote a great blogpost in Dutch (important language for all to know :). He writes about an aggregator page for an event. They asked people who were



interested to use twitter, youtube etc. to help cover the event. And aggregated all the content on a site of the event: Picnic07. They discovered (as we did) that you need a UNIQUE tag, picnic will also be used by anybody picnicking in 2007. You can have a look at the site, it's in english.

6. On tools: One thing that blogger allows (but not wordpress) is to be able to post directly to draft by email. This would make my job easier as I write posts in the meeting on my phone and email them for editing. It is also much more difficult to have relaxed blips if you use a tripod for the camera. We use small digital cameras rather than video cameras and talk to the person over the top of the camera. A little camera shake can add to the immediacy of the blip. (See Mabel
on euforic.blip.tv)

7. The experience of following meetings remotely. Although I don't have the stats for web2fordev, the anecdotal evidence was that very few followed the event live, and I only had direct feedback at the meeting from one person, watching the videos has been higher than I expected (over 100views for individual items) but the impact is far higher as videos are shown at other meetings and we show at individual training sessions.

Ethan Zuckerman and Bruno Giussani have compiled a tips for conference bloggers guide

Question for you: how do you as an online viewer experience an event from far? What makes it easier to connect? And how do you use the online documentation of events you have attended?

Let's Hope Kindle Is Only Chapter One

Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos has done the seemingly impossible: He's created a piece of technology more bookish than a book.

The Kindle, launched Monday, is a slim handheld device that holds around 200 novels' worth of words and--using electronic
ink technology that physically arranges a dark chemical under the screen--displays them so crisply that the text is only
barely distinguishable from ink on a page. Unlike the Sony Reader, a device launched about a year ago that uses the same
e-ink display technology, the Kindle connects to Amazon's servers with an EVDO cellular connection to download books
from a stock of more than 90,000 titles, and can pull an entire novel's text directly onto the device wirelessly in
less than a minute.

Weighing just over 10 ounces and displaying text on a 6-inch  diagonal screen, the Kindle does a remarkable job of
reproducing the feel of a book. The passive display  technology produces no light, so a two-hour charge of its
battery lasts for 30 hours of uninterrupted reading. In fact, it only takes thumbing through a few digital pages of a novel
to forget that you're using a newfangled gadget and become  completely immersed in its content. The goal, says Bezos, was
to create a device that "disappears completely and lets you  enter the author's world."

 

watch kindle video


But from a design perspective, the sooner the  Kindle "disappears" the better. Amazon's reader is in many
ways the anti-iPhone. It does one thing very well: downloading and displaying text. Unlike Steve Jobs'  wondertoy,

 it's not likely to become a status symbol for hip  digerati.

The Kindle is an off-white, asymmetrical tablet. Its screen  is entirely gray-scale and never gets brighter than a dingy
gray; images look as if they were printed in a Depression-era  newspaper. Menus are navigated with a clunky up-and-down
click-wheel, and when they load, the screen flashes black  like a TI-82 calculator.

The Kindle's business model has another set of problems. To avoid a monthly subscription fee, Amazon is charging a wallet-
taxing $399 for the device--then $9.99 or so for every book that you download from Amazon's "Kindle Store." Publishers
seem reluctant to put their entire stock into the discounted  e-book format. Bezos brags that 101 of the 112 current New
York Times best sellers and new releases are available for  download. Just don't ask about best sellers from past years.
I went searching for Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff and came back with only I Am Charlotte Simmons.

For content that's already available on the Web, the Kindle  is even less practical. A variety of magazines, including
Slate, The Atlantic Monthly, Time and Forbes are available by  subscription or individual purchase: for instance, $1.50 will
get you a single issue of Forbes, or $2.49 will get you a  month's subscription.

 

<http://tinyurl.com/2ypjh5>

Washington Post collective wisdom on blogging in the newsroom

With more than 50 blogs on its Web site, washingtonpost.com and their counterparts at the Washington Post have learned quite a bit about blogging. And lucky us, they've decided to package their collective wisdom in a single memo on this ever-evolving news art.

If you want to set standards of blogging in your newsroom, this article is a good read

 

Blogging at The Washington Post

All blogs should draw on our principles for Washington Post journalism on the web, including meeting our standards of accuracy and fairness and rules for expressing personal opinions.

WHAT WORKS?

• A news column/opinion blog with two or a single contributor. Examples: Raw Fisher, White House Watch.


• A breaking news or event-driven blog that can accept many contributors but should generally be supervised by one editor. Example: The Trail.


• A blog oriented around a relatively defined issue with two or a single contributor. Example: soccerinsider...
• Blogs with voice, a consistently strong (even provocative) writing tone. Example: Achenblog.


• Blogs with active editors. Guidance is important and all blogs need editing and benefit from the back-and-forth between the author and an editor.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK?

• Group blogs that lack focus.


• Blogs that lack voice.


• Blogs that are not updated (several times a week AT LEAST).


• Grab-bag blogs that are a dumping ground for notes that will not make the paper.

TYPES OF BLOGS
Breaking News Blogs. Created for a big breaking news story, such as the Virginia Tech shootings. One editor should supervise the blog content and another editor the coverage in the newspaper. The two editors should be in constant communication with each other and the corresponding wpni editor.

Event Related Blogs. Created for a one-time or periodic event, such as the Maryland Legislature or the ACC Tournament. An editor should be assigned to oversee the blog in collaboration with the editing of the newspaper's coverage.

Subject Blogs. These are long-term blogs around a clearly specified topic. In most cases the number of contributors should be limited to fewer than three reporters, with exceptions such as The Trail.


BLOG LAUNCH "9 POINT CHECKLIST"

1. What's the blog's topic or what event will it cover? Blogs with relatively narrow topics do better than loosely defined blogs. Either way, the topic of each blog needs to be clearly defined. A strong personality or voice can serve a similar defining function (Achenblog, the Kurtz media summary).


2. What's the competition, and how will your blog win? You're unlikely to find many topics that someone else isn't already blogging about. Identify the competition and tell us why your blog is special.


3. How will your blog supplement what appears in print and online? Blogs on washingtonpost.com must contain original material – newsworthy reporting, useful information and/or strong commentary. Some of the best blogs have a live and fresh feel precisely because they take readers inside the news. Outline how your blog will relate to existing print and online features.


4. How often will it be updated, and at what time(s) of day? Blogs need to be updated at least once each weekday.


5. Who will write your blog? Blogs usually benefit from a distinctive voice. At the same time, reporters can't offer personal opinions on a blog in a way that would not be acceptable in the newspaper (critics exempted, for example). Proposals should include at least three "test posts" to judge whether the writer can produce posts with effective and acceptable voice.


6. Who will edit your blog? Blog items need to be edited. Your proposal needs to say who will edit blog copy.


7. Who will moderate comments on your blog? User comments typically account for 10-25% of a blog's traffic and are a key to success – but need to be moderated. Who will review comments that appear to violate the site's discussion policy and delete them if necessary?


8. How and where will your blog be promoted? Successful blogs typically "live off the land" by attracting bloggers who link to them and a loyal audience. But promotion on washingtonpost.com and in print is helpful, particularly at launch. Work with appropriate editors on both sides on a realistic promotion plan.


9. What names and "taglines" do you propose for your blog? Since many names are already taken, you should include several possibilities in your proposal, and do a quick web check to make sure none is in use.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/wapoblog.pdf

 

 

Accessibility 2.0: How accessible are UK newspaper website

A report published earlier this year looking at website accessibility claimed that the UK's 10 most widely read newspaper websites are 'effectively barring millions of disabled people from obtaining up-to-date information' by failing to meet minimum standards.

AbilityNet, a charity that helps disabled people with their ICT needs, published its second State of the eNation report, detailing how it believed the online editions of those leading papers had failed to meet the criteria it claimed was required to facilitate access for users with visual impairment, dyslexia or a physical disability.

A Disability Rights Commission (DRC) review of 1,000 websites in 2004 found that 81 per cent failed to meet even the most basic standards of accessibility for the disabled.

In many cases, it seems, instead of liberating disabled people by providing greater access to news than ever before, the internet is proving as limiting a medium as the printed page.

Journalism.co.uk decided to conduct its own, first-hand assessment by asking members of the blind and visually impaired community to give us their views on the accessibility and ease of use of the websites of several leading UK newspaper websites.

Over the course of the next week Journalism.co.uk will publish the findings from its assessments of:

The Guardian
The Daily Telegraph
The Times
The Independent
The Sun
The Mirror
The Express
The Daily Mail

To conduct the study, Journalism.co.uk enlisted the help of retired research worker John Allnutt, whose bilateral retina blastoma rendered him blind for most of his life.

In addition to John's assessment, pupils from Dorton College of Further Education provided a further perspective.

(Read full profiles of our volunteers.)

The intention of the study was to evaluate what impact new media is having - positive and negative - on those with a keen interest in the news but an impairment that prevents them accessing it in a way millions of other Britons take for granted.


Despite the obvious benefits for users, good accessibility has advantages for publishers, including higher ranking and more matches from search engines, which can more accurately index the content.

Yet these benefits are overlooked by many of the UK's major newspapers in their online strategies. Our study found that only the Guardian and the Daily Mail have sections dedicated to accessibility on their sites. In addition, no newspaper site has yet earned an RNIB 'See It Right' logo, awarded for excellence in this area.

Usability experts told Journalism.co.uk that blind and visually impaired users tend to approach news sites in an inefficient way, persevering with the difficulties they find and working out 'best fit' ways to surf. We wanted to test this theory and see what other problems arose.

We took advice from behavioural research consultancy Bunnyfoot on the common difficulties visually impaired and blind users faced when interacting with websites and advised us on the criteria for our test.


Accordingly, we asked users for their general impressions of each site, then to attempt to access the lead story and then navigate to a news story of interest to them away from the home page.

We then asked them to locate and play a piece of audio or video, use the search function to track down a story, find the blogs or user-interaction sections - and interact with them, and locate the accessibility section.

To conclude our study of each newspaper site, we asked an expert on accessible design to comment on our findings and the paper in question to also respond.

Tags for this article: accessibility, blind, visual impairment

http://www.journalism.co.uk/5/articles/530590.php

Correspondent TV

 Correspondent.tv   a new platform for independent TV journalism is now live, introducing some major innovations and changes. According to correspondent tv their  overall aim is to create a global TV journalist network that connects you and other professionals worldwide to help deliver independent TV journalism.

(1) Correspondent.tv's new Video Portal has been introduced to help you showcase your work and so maximise your exposure to more broadcasters worldwide. Our aim here is to offer TV journalists a unique means of marketing and selling their video footage to broadcasters and other media organisations, online.

(2) Correspondent.tv's enhanced online Journalist Network aims to provide a single point of contact for the global TV journalism community. We have therefore introduced some changes to the platform so that all the players (TV reporters, freelancers, journalists, service providers [crew, edit, play out, satellite trucks, producers, technicians], as well asTV Broadcasters and Media Organisations) can make contacts, discuss and communicate securely.

BBC News reorganises into multidmedia newsroom

by Peter Horrocks,  head of BBC Newsroom

As a consumer of BBC News on the web, do you expect it to cover the same stories as BBC News on TV and radio? I ask, because today is a very big day for BBC News which has now been re-organised in a fully multimedia fashion. As the head of the new multimedia newsroom that is responsible for our core output on web, TV and radio, I want to know about our audiences' preferences in the world of multi-platform news.

I hope you agree, if you use our services on a number of platforms, that the BBC has a generally strong reputation in all media. But up until today the editorial decisions have been taken separately in three different departments – Radio News, News Interactive and TV News. Now those proud departments are no more. Instead we have a new system that allows the great strengths of each of our editorial areas to create an even stronger editorial proposition. We have re-organised into two main departments responsible for our audience-facing services:

• The multimedia newsroom comprises the BBC News website, the radio summaries and bulletins (except for Radio 1), BBC World Service news, BBC News 24, BBC World, BBC Breakfast and the bulletins on BBC One at 1, 6 and 10, among others.

• The multimedia programmes departments contains Five Live, the Today programme, World at One, Newsbeat, Newshour, Newsnight, Panorama, the Andrew Marr Show, Hardtalk and a wide range of other diverse programmes.

This new structure will help us to be more efficient and so save money to invest in improvements to BBC News. We will be putting more into on-demand news – for instance developing content for new platforms such as mobile and IPTV; increasing personalisation and providing purpose-made audio/video for the web.

The new organisation also allows for our journalism to be used more dynamically across our three main existing platforms – web, radio and TV. But I'd like to know how far we should go with this. So for web users such as you I'd like to know if you mainly look to BBC News for an in-depth approach on the day's most significant stories, or do you value more diversity in the range of subjects we cover?

If we drive our stories more across platforms you will see greater consistency within BBC News – with similar editorial judgments being made across different services. We could concentrate resources on developing the most significant and original stories in greater depth. However the downside could be a narrowing of the range of stories we cover, with less coverage that is distinctive and tailored for each medium.

Of course, I'm painting a somewhat polarised view of the strategic choices available to us. In reality we will choose a balance between these two extremes. But it would be helpful to know your broad preference– should we move in a more coherent or a more diversified direction in our core news?

For thousands of journalists in BBC News, today is the start of one of the biggest changes we have ever been through. Many of the people who bring you the news are uncertain of their own futures, but I know that all of us are determined to improve further the service we bring to you. BBC News wants to be the most successful multimedia news operation in the world – competing with and excelling against the best newspapers, broadcasters and news aggregators on the globe. Your comments will give us some indications to help us do that.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/11/multimedia_news.html

Workshop on Medias and ICT issues in West Africa :new journalism, new technologies, improved governance

Dakar (Senegal), December 13th to 15th, 2007

Call for productions – Grants for participation

Deadline : November 21st , 2007


THE WORKSHOP

The Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA, http://www.panos.ao.org), through its
"Uses and Policies of Digital Technology" Programme (ICT Programme),
will organize on December 13th to 15th, 2007, in Dakar, Senegal, a
workshop entitled "3rd Regional workshop on Medias and ICT issues in
West Africa : New journalism, new technologies, improved governance".

This workshop aims at:

- promoting uses of blogs and new ICT tools by medias for improved
governance in West Africa

- strengthening reporting on ICT in the region

The workshop will give the opportunity to assess the use of blogs by
medias and citizens in west Africa and to discuss about blogs and
"citizen journalism".

Apart from discussions, practical sessions will help participants learn
or strengthen knowledge on the use of blogs, podcasts, and new digital
communication applications.

About 40 people, including 30 journalists from West Africa (radio,
written press, English and French speaking countries) and some delegates
from media and ICT organizations will attend the event.

The workshop is organized within the framework of the West African
Portal (or Haayo) Project funded by Osiwa and of other PIWA projects
funded by Freevoice.

18 GRANTS TO SUPPORT JOURNALIST PARTICIPATION

To enlarge participation in the workshop, PIWA will provide 18 grants
for participation for selected African journalists. Priority will be
given to journalists from English speaking countries and to radio
journalists.

The grant covers expenses in relation to the participation in the
meeting except insurance. It costs in particular:

- international travel (air ticket from your country to Dakar, Senegal –
economy class),

- food and accommodation,

- Shuttle from and to airport.

How to apply:

To apply for the grants, journalists need to send either an article of
3, 000 letters or a 5 mn audio programme (such as reports, but not mere
interviews) in mp3 or ogg format. The article or audio production may
have been published in the past (not more that 6 months ago) or may be
original (produced for this call).

This production will deal with one of the 2 following themes:

- uses of blogs in Africa

- ICTs and local/democratic governance


PIWA will select best articles or audio programmes. Authors of selected
articles will received the grant for participation in the workshop.


APPLICATIONS AND MODALITIES

All applications should include the following:

- One article in French or in English dealing with one of the topics
proposed (if the article has already been published, attach a photocopy
of the newspaper and/or address of the website where it was published,
including the date of publication);


- OR one radio production in French or English, about 5 minutes long
(give precise references on the media in which it was broadcast, if this
is the case);

A CV that shows, if appropriate, a list of previous articles or radio
productions on ICTs (please indicate the newspaper/website where they
were published, the date of publication, etc.);

A document attesting that the candidate is actually a journalist in a
press organ.

An acknowledgement of receipt will be sent accordingly, via e-mail and
within 48 hours, to applicants whose files have been received.

The article or audio programme should be sent by electronic mail no
later than on November 21st 6:00 PM GMT, to the two following addresses:
contact@cipaco.org AND judith_lenti@yahoo.fr .

People living in Senegal may bring, in addition, their production
directly to PIWA to the address below:

INSTITUT PANOS AFRIQUE DE L'OUEST

6, rue Calmette

BP 21 132 Dakar – Ponty

Dakar – Senegal

Tel: +221 33 849 16 66

Authors of selected productions will be informed by November 26th, 2007.


PIWA will not return submitted productions to their authors. PIWA may in
the future publish, within the framework of its programmes, some
productions received; the authors therefore accord to PIWA the right to
publish, for non-commercial purpose, their productions.

The decisions made by PIWA are supreme and beyond all possible dispute.
All participants in this call for participation accept the rules
presented in this document.


MORE INFORMATION

For more information on this call for participation or on the workshop
or in case of sending troubles, please contact Judith LENTI
jlenti@panos-ao.org or Ken Lohento contact@cipaco.org at PIWA.

Who is Blogging and Why? Is the Blogosphere in a Digestion Phase?

Interesting post at who is blogging and why?
The article start with taking a look a tBlogging Trends and Stats then Professional Blogging,Blogging for a Cause,Blogging for Business and Pleasure, Personal Blogs and Spam blogging.

Study : UNESCO’s Series on Journalism Education Criteria and Indicators for Quality Journalism

Training Institutions & Identifying Potential Centres of Excellence in Journalism Training in Africa
by Prof Guy Berger & Corinne Matras
In association with:
School of Journalism & Media Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa & École supérieure de journalisme de Lille (ESJ), France
countries and schools  covered :
1. Kenya: University of Nairobi; United States International University; Daystar University
2. Uganda: University of Makerere
3. Namibia: University of Namibia; Namibia Polytechnic
4. Mozambique: Eduardo Mondlane University; Mozambican School of Journalism; NSJ media training centre
5. Ghana: University of Ghana at Legon; Ghana Institute of Journalism; African Institute of Journalism and Communications
6. Nigeria: University of Ibadan; University of Ilorin; University of Lagos; State University of Lagos; Polytechnic of Ibadan; Lagos State Polytechnic
7. South Africa: Rhodes University; Stellenbosch University, Tshwane University, Walter Sisulu University
8. Burkina Faso : University of Ouagadougou
9. Cameroon : École supérieure des sciences et techniques de l'information et de la communication – ESSTIC
10. Democratic Republic of Congo: FCK, IFASIC, UNIKIN, ICA
11. Rwanda: University of Butare (EJC)
12. Burundi: University of Tanganyika Lake
13. Zambia: ZAMCOM, University of Zambia
14. Zimbabwe: National University of Science and Technology; Midlands State University

see full report at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001514/151496E.pdf

Wall St. Journal to Make Web Site Free

The Wall Street Journal, one of the last major U.S. newspapers that still charges for online access to its content, may soon go free. According to News Co. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who has signed an agreement to acquire the Journal's parent company Dow Jones & Company, he plans to make access to WSJ.com free.

Speaking at a shareholders meeting in Australia on Tuesday, Murdoch said, "We are studying it and we expect to make that free." As a result, Murdoch anticipated having 10 to 15 million worldwide subscribers as opposed to the current 1 million.

In related news yesterday the WSJ.com site became populated with social-bookmarking site Digg buttons. According to a blog post by Digg founder Kevin Rose, the Journal will allow its users to submit WSJ.com articles to Digg and Digg users will also have free access to any WSJ.com article submitted to the service.

In September, the New York Times ceased its TimesSelect service, which previously cost subscribers $49.95 a year.

The Wall Street Journal currently charges $79 a year for its online edition.

PROMOTING VISITORS TO YOUR BLOG(Driving Traffic) AND VISITOR COUNT

 By Kwami Ahiabenu, II

 

Recently, one of my students sent me an interesting email with this question: how can he promote his blog that is drive traffic to it and secondly how can he count visitors to his blog. Good question because creating a blog is very easy but becoming a well read and influential blogger is a different ball game. But you  can achieve this objective if you work hard at it.

 

Driving traffic to your blog, is very possible and every blogger is encouraged to promote his and her blog to its intended audience

Broadly speaking there is a number of ways to promote your blog, namely using off line means, use of appropriate online promotion tools and quality of your content (posts)

 

1. OFFLINE Promotion

Though your blog is located in the virtual world, you can always use offline means to drive traffic to it

1.       Put your blog address on your card or complementary card, that is in addition to your telephone, fax, address, email, your blog address should be found on your card

2.        When published hard copy articles remember to add your blog address at the end of the article

3.        If you have the chance of doing public speaking remember to ask your audience to visit your blog at the end of your speech. This also true for lecturers and teachers, encourage your students or learners to visit your blog

4.        In meetings, do not feel sly to share your blog with participants if appropriate

5.        If you are can afford, you can place an ad in your local newspaper, or on the television or the radio

6.       What about a big billboard with your blog address ?

 

 

2. ONLINE Promotion

There is no doubt that the Internet is your best bet in driving traffic to your blog. The good news is that the Internet offers you thousand and one tools to help you promote your blog:

1.       Add your blog address to your email signature in additional to your contact details

2.        You can send email to your email contact list and invite relevant contacts to visit your blog. In addition to your contact list you can also capture email address of visitors to your blog by asking them to subscribe to your blog.

3.         You can post your blog address to relevant online mailing list or discussion boards

4.        Build links to your blogs. Exchanging links are great ways of promoting your blog ask your fellow bloggers to set links to your blog.

5.        Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines through search engine optimisation   and submit your blog to search engines as well. Submit your blog and RSS feed to directories as well

6.        The use of keywords is crucial to promoting traffic to your blog. Use appropriate keywords in the title of your post, in the body of your post and in the achor text of links inthe body of your posts. Most blog service would allow you to add tags to your blog, adding tags help visitors find your blog when they are searching for your blog. So for each post make use you add tags

7.        Create your own online community who are interested in your blog

8.         Make use of Ping your blog services such as Ping O Matic  which basically  a service which update your blog to different search engines when your blog is updated.

9.        Make use of Social marketing in promoting your blog sites such as  Digg or Bumpzee, Stumbleupon, etc comes to mind 

10.    Join blogging networks such as  LinkedIn Bloggers, 9rules, Blogrush

 

3. CONTENT IS THE KING.

At end of the day, people would visit your blog if the content is relevant to them since CONTENT IS THE KING.

In this direction:

1.       Write Posts that your audience will want to read. First you need to be clear about your audience, who are you writing for? Once you know your audience, make sure your posts are going to be relevant to their needs. There is no point in writing about pets if you blog is about knowledge management.

2.        Edit your blog post into articles and submit them to article directories

3.        Your posts should be topical and it should be very current

4.        Do not be afraid to write about controversial topics, it can help drive visitors to your blog

5.        Your blog should have a clear cut focus and it should attempt to reach out to specific community of practice or special interest topics

 

 

To read more about promoting traffic to your site and sustaining it, see 99 ways to promote your blog for free ,  promoting your blog from blogger and how to promote your blog .

 

How do you measure visitor to your blog?

After working hard to drive traffic to your site, you actually need to measure or count visitors to your site, where they are coming from, who are repeat visitors, which posts they read and how long they stay at your blog. Thus you basically need to count visitors to your blog in order to find out if your strategy of promoting visitors to your site is working. Take a quick read at website statistics article to find out more about web basis of measurement.

There are a number of services which count visitors to your blogs and you can sign up for this service by going through a simple registration and activation process.

See a selection of some visitor count services: 

1.       http://www.clustrmaps.com/

2.        http://www.hit-counter-download.com/

3.        http://www.statcounter.com/

4.        http://www.freestatscounter.com/

5.         http://www.maploco.com/view.php?id=695306

 

Ends

 

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP, COMPETITION, AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIP

1. The Reuters Foundation Fellowship Programme http://www.foundation.reuters.com/fellowships/oxford.asp

2. The Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) Science Journalism Award http://www.scidev.net/ms/journogrant/

3. Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT

http://web.mit.edu/knight-science/fellowships/overview.html

4. Annenberg-Oxford Summer Institute in Global Media Policy, St. Catherine's College, Oxford, cgcs@asc.upenn.edu

5. Uganda ICT journalism awards (UICTJA) http://www.i-network.or.ug/media-node/

6. Radio Production: Freelance radio producers are invited to submit story proposals for Smart Solutions for a Developing World Green Planet Monitor, a series of audio programs about global development created by Canada's Earth Chronicle Productions, with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency and the Social Justice Fund of the Canadian Autoworkers Union. kattenbu@westman.wave.ca  

7. John S Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists http://knight.stanford.edu/

8. African Information Society Initiative Media Awards http://www.uneca.org/aisi/mediaaward.htm

9. Nieman Fellowships for Study at Harvard University are awarded annually to 12 U.S. and 12 international journalists who have at least five years of experience. For more information or to apply, email nieman_applications@harvard.edu or visit http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/ .

10. Siemens Profile Awards for Journalistic Excellence in the fields of Science and Technology, sponsored by Siemens Southern Africa to develop, nurture, and advance quality science and technology reporting. Prizes include cash and business equipment. The grand prize winner will also receive an all-expenses paid overseas trip. For more information, visit http://www.profileawards.co.za/

11. Telkom ICT Journalist of the Year http://www.telkom.co.za/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/CONTENTS/COMMON/JOURNALIST/history_pa_frame.htm

12. Highway Africa Awards http://www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za/page.cfm?pID=9

13. The Jefferson Fellowships for Journalists are travel and study awards given twice a year to English-speaking print and broadcast journalists with a minimum of five years experiencehttp://www.eastwestcenter.org/  

14. The Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science & Religion enable up to twelve print, broadcast, or online journalists to pursue an intensive two-month course of study in issues of science and religion. www.templeton-cambridge.org

15. Online course in Science Journalism, A project by World Federation of Science Journalists and SciDev Net http://www.wfsj.org/projects/course.php

16. Amundsen Competition, Competition for Science Journalists http://www.wfsj.org/projects/page.php?id=62

17. Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (DCFRN) and CTA African Farmers' Strategies for Coping with Climate Change http://penplusbytes.blogspot.com/2007/11/competition-african-farmers-strategies.html

18. Summer Academy for African Journalists open to SADC Journalists check www.iaj.org.za for updates
    

19. Knight News Challenge http://www.newschallenge.org/index_lang.html

WEB SITES WITH FELLOWSHIP AND AWARDS LISTING AND INFORMATION

1. International Journalist' Network http://www.ijnet.org/Director.aspx?P=Home

2. JOURNALISM JOBS http://www.journalismjobs.com/Fellowship_Listings.cfm

3. NEW WISE http://www.newswise.com/resources/j_grants/

4. JOURNALISM SA http://www.journalism.co.za/iaj/scholarships-fellowships-2.html

5. CIN General Awards Including Journalism http://www.comminit.com/en/sections/terms/36%2C34/250%2C253%2C256

Visit our blog for latest info from the ICT Journalism World

penplusbytes

Do you want to keep up to date with latest news available on the Internet, then you need a WidSet

Widgets for phones = WidSets  

Using RSS feeds, Widgets  help you easily access information as soon as it's available on the Internet by  pushing  updates from your favorite sites directly to you. What about having a RSS feed delievered to your phone, here comes WidSets  which is a mobile  service built on mini-applications called widgets to enable  users  receive their favorite web content straight to their  mobile phone on the move. Using  WidSets you can find news and information, stay in touch with email and blogs, play games, share pictures and more.

Questions ? the WidSet FAQ   provides some answers

A particular question of interest is How do I get started with WidSets?  which describe the process of using the service on your phone :

- going to widset website and creating a user account( user name and password)

- registering your mobile phone

-  text message is then sent to you phone with a link to the widset download page

after downloading the WidSets to your phone you can start using WidSets to get web content on your phone

You can also download WidSets directly to the phone when connected to the Internet or download widsets client to your

computer then transfer it to your phone using bluetooth, USB etc