Photos

As an Assignment Zero editor, my first tasks are revisions and cleanup on two interviews: one with Kyle MacRae of Scoopt, and another with Jon Donley of NOLA.com. This is as much as experiment for me as it is for my assigning editors.

So far, I've completed the MacRae interview. I've been a copy editor for years. Editing this first interview felt different — more like blogging. Part of it was thinking about linking out. As a print journalist, I think more about sidebars or information that can be pulled out and highlighted for the reader. As a blogger, I think about hyperlinks to add context to what I write on my blog.

Next, I'm on to the Donley interview. That one's shorter and, now that I have the hang of it, should go much quicker.

As Lauren noted Friday in the Scoop (www.assignmentzero.net) , AZ editors like me are taking a good look at their topic areas early this week and cutting some of the topics that don’t seem to be drawing much interest. I’m supposed to give Lauren et al a revised list of what I’m up to and with whom. So I thought I’d just blog it …

My topics are taking me out of my comfort zone (print journalism) which is a lot of fun. I got into this because I know I have a lot to learn. Hooray. I’m learning!

Here’s my list from the world of Media and Publishing: http://zero.newassignment.net/desk?filter0=245

Crowdsourced Photos
The very energetic Shazz Mack is our first contributor. Shazz already interviewed iStock contributor Lise Gagne and I read Shazz’ Q&A (http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/cs/2006/11/ive_always_said.html) as my intro to this new way for photograpers to get their work seen by people, including buyers. Shazz and I have been e-mailing a little bit about her focus. We are thinking she could follow up with Lise and get some examples of actual work. How it started all the way through publication. Shazz is also interested in the Canada angle – three major services started in Canada.
Meanwhile, we foresee a lot of assignments for people who only have time to do a couple of calls or maybe a few e-mails. Things like researching the major services online, helping us identify other services and buyers who have switched from traditional stock photo services to online.

Crowdsourced Novels
We’re looking for a good list of crowdsourced novels and an indepth look at a couple of them (read them, talk to participating writers.) Newsvine has been working on this. On Monday, the Newsvine folks will file their reporting to the AZ site and then we’ll coordinate more of a plan.
Meanwhile, though, two great contributors have jumped in to each read a different novel and identify participants. George Karimalil has started reading “A Million Penguins” and Kristin Gorski is reading “These Wicked Games,” a crowdsourced romance novel.
We’re looking for as many contributors as possible to help us interview people who have participated in writing crowdsourced fiction. We want to get to the human/creative aspect of the experience.

Crowdsourced Non-Fiction Books. Just getting started here with one potential contributor so far. I hope to be in touch with him Monday. I think Tapscott and Williams, authors of “Wikinomics” fits really well under this umbrella. Would love to get contributors with further ideas.

NewsTrust. Muhammad Saleem interviewed the founder of this Web site, which allows users to rate the quality of the news they receive. Muhammad is interested in following up.

That’s it for me for now. I’ll give this to the AZ editors who are, as Lauren said, going to be pruning the hedges next week. Meanwhile, I’ll be working with contributors to focus assignments (and looking for more contributors.) Once the redesigned site is up and running, I will make the assignments a little more organized in hopes of luring a few more people to help out!

Michele McLellan
www.newsimproved.org

I've been e-talking with contributor Shazz Mack about CS Photos, an exciting new way for photographers to share their work on the Web. Shazz has a great idea for a story (see below). Since it will involved a lot of moving parts, we could use some help.

Shazz' idea: A "six degrees of separation" sort of longer piece the follows the story of a crowdsourced image from the "final product" that used the image ... back to the graphic designer, web designer, printer, photographer, model, teacher, camera shop, etc. I think this could be a very interesting story (reminds me of the Web site that followed everyday products like your coffee beans back to their source) and really good from a visual perspective. Also brings the human angle and features the businesses that now rely on this kind of resource.

Interested? Please contact me at michele.newassignment@gmail.com