User Profile: David Cohn

That's right.

It's time for a meetup in New York, the unofficial home of Assignment Zero.

Where: Odessa, a nice little bar/restaurant in the east village. We will be hanging out in the bar, not the restaurant, but if you are hungry -- the other half of Odessa serves great Polish food.

When: This Thursday. Let's meet at 7pm and hang out until we get tired (note: I have school the next day, but I'll suck it up for as long as I can).

Who: You, me, and other Assignment Zero editors I can rustle up.

Why: Because the pro-am model doesn't live in a vacum. We can get together and talk about all kinds of things. The project in general, journalism, citizen journalism, and perhaps the prospect of a journalism unconference.

So you aren't getting the help you want on a topic page?

As my old homie Ghandi would say: "Be the change that you want to see."

This is punk rock journalism. There are no rules. If you don't have a big enough team to tackle a subject, go out and get that team!

All these topics are covered by bloggers all over the world. Well, reach out and tap them on the shoulder. Let them know they can donate old blog posts -- or invite their own readers to come and help too. Nothing is out of our control.

I personally send a few dozen emails a day to bloggers that I read, inviting them to join topics. You can too. It takes 10 minutes and hey, it's an excuse to write to that blogger you've always had a crush on.

Just let them know what Assignment Zero is about (we are covering crowdsourcing), what topic they might find interesting (hey, I know you like photos, you should check out Crowdsourced Photos), how easy it is to join (just register and join a team -- after that you can donate just 10 minutes or 10 hours, it's up to you), and let them know how if we are able to tap into the network effect of the blogosphere, everyone wins (content belongs to all) and we could change journalism in the process).

What do you have to lose (.005 megabites of your email account).

What do you have to gain: A new friend, colleague, and the chance to get published in Wired News.

You can even invite top-knotch bloggers. Maybe they'd like to be part of a topic's editorial team?

Isn't it exciting building an open source platform out of nothing?

We've re-thought the Assignment Desk to show the entire story on one page. That was pretty cool.

Then we took a good long hard look at our front page and asked "what is this page for?"

To give you the latest news in the site. True. But with the topic home pages, one for every subject we are covering, that's where the changes will be really happening.

Every topic has (or will soon) an editor. That's where the action is. We don't want to keep you on the "scoop" more than we have to (and we know you don't want to be there -- you want to get going on a topic).

So we've combined the assignment desk and the scoop into one page. It's a tight squeeze and it isn't as pretty, we know. But the old newsroom is still around. You can always visit it here. Note the nifty url...hehe. And we think this view is much more functional.

Of course -- this is everyone's site. If we get massive protest we will change it back. But before you leave a hateful comment -- think about functionality. From one page you can get the latest blog posts from the scoop -- and jump right into the story. If you want to see the editors blogroll -- go to the About page -- and visit "The Team" page. The same information is on the site -- and the most important information is now all on the front page -- info from the scoop -- and the evolving story itself. Me and Amanda will be cleaning up the other pages over the next 24 hours. I'll also be tweaking our new Assignment Desk -- which is directly underneath the latest blog post on the front page -- hot dog.

Note: as of writing this the "Assignment Desk" is still in the navigation. It will remain there until our AMAZING developers forward the existing links out there back to the home page --- only then will it be safe to dismantle that navigation bar.

The goal is to create teams. So go to a topic (the list is right below the latest blog post on the homepage) and join a team. Editors are standing by.

Much Love
David
aka: Digidave

So what did you make of the coverage of the VA disaster yesterday? Did you see a tragedy? That's what was portrayed. But behind it was actually an emerging network, the birth of yet another citizen journalism network. Incidents like these, which are sad and horrible and I hope are few and far between, are also usually the catalyst for networks of people to organize on the Web with the goal to help inform others about unfolding events. The tragedy for these groups (aside from the very real and human tragedy of course) is that there are no set tools they can use (out of the box) to help organize their coverage. And that's what we are trying to figure out at Assignment Zero.

Poynter put together a series of links, a good part of it them were citizen journalism, facebook, cnn's cj initiative, etc.

"This morning's shooting at Virginia Tech is destined to become one of those cornerstone events in citizen journalism and participatory media. When news breaks in a location where nearly everyone has a camera-equipped cell phone, and where Internet connectivity abounds, people on the spot will be supplying as much coverage as news organizations -- if not more.

On the VA tech site, students were filing their own first person coverage under "around campus"

This one was filed while a student was under lockdown yesterday morning.

Traditional journalism which only exists online has failed at covering this event. Newsvine (where I first saw the breaking news), Gather, Netscape etc - they were giving it its due.

In some respects this was an important moment in citizen journalism. Of course, the Washington Post, the NYT, etc were doing their best to cover it. And now that the story has broke, I imagine they'll do the best job. But as it was breaking, a savvy reader would have gone to the darker corners of the Net to find the most relevant information.

This was a dividing moment between the online pubs of yesteryear and the networked ones especially the student network from VA tech.

There was, of course, criticism of the citizen journalism coverage:

"In the weeks to come there will be considerable discussion about the on-scene coverage of this event, and I'm sure there will be plenty of "pro-citizen journalism" analysis. But I also hope there's some serious debate about the merits of citizen journalism."

So what does this all mean?

The blogosphere has proved it can fact check itself pretty well. It can also cover breaking news. The problem is, it requires a certain level of organizing before people from the MSM will give it any credence for the flexibility it has.

And until the blogosphere massively organizes itself around topics it will remain skeptic. But it isn't without the potential for an answer -- a single blog is only as reliable as the person behind it -- just like a freelance journalist.

But when a freelance journalist gets a writing gig for the New York Times, their credibility soars -- as a result of the prestige of that organizations.

And I think a single blogger will be able to do the same in the future -- by teaming up with networks of bloggers -- once those networks are able to organize themselves.

And somehow I brought it back to Assignment Zero.

Assignment Zero -- now with topic pages.

What this means?

Every topic we are covering has a team that takes charge of their story. Lots of these topics have editors arleady. Joining a team is as easy as clicking a button and once you join, it will be represented in your user page. Join early and join often.

Jay will be chiming in later to write about how these pages can be used to really make Assignment Zero take-off.

As Lauren has said before, the Pro-Am model that we are trying to create is a bit like throwing a party. We made plenty of appetizers and sent out the invitations. In the beginning we were just hoping people would show up.

And they did. Over 900 as of writing this!

Well, we didn't really make a dance floor that big.

We noticed that the site's interface wasn't up to the task and so we've moved some furniture around to make space. We are still in the process of getting those final chairs out of the way. But here's what we will have for you. Most of these features are in place, some will be getting functionality very soon.

Topic Home Pages

On a topic home page you'll find:

A list of team members (if you join a team, a link to the homepage will be put in your bio page, so you can access that page again in one click).

The editor of that topic and a link to their blog

A discussion thread for that topic so you can talk on site to each other (should be functional soon)

A "send this page to a friend feature, to help crowdsource your reporting

A list of "related topics," so you can jump from two topics that are editorially linked (let your editor know if you think two topics should be linked)

Key Links, which Jay describes as the important back reading that someone should do if they are interested in a topic.

A way to view ALL reporting that has come in from every assignment, so you can get a bigger picture of what reporting has occured.

And more changes are coming. Soon the Assignment Desk is going to get re-worked too. Give us another day or two.

I can't tell you how excited I am about the team function that we have created. The whole idea of Assignment Zero is that a team of people can do the job of one reporter better than one. We are working on a HUGE story. Together we create one large team. But since we've broken the story down into smaller bits, it's time to break ourselves down into smaller teams -- each focusing on their piece of the pie. I think this will help foster a sense of community along with an effective means to get work done. And while it will create clarity on our work, it will also make the site much easier to navigate. Because if you know what topic you want to tackle, just join the team and the home page for that topic will end up in your bio page -- so you can get back to it quickly every time you log-in.

So our D.J., mix-master Lauren Sandler can turn up the music and now we can really get our groove on.

Just wait till you see the new pages. I mean --- THEY ARE SOOOO COOL

What if you could 1. Email everyone on your team at once. 2. Start discussion on your topic home page, so all coversations can take place there 3. With the click of a button "send this page to a friend" as a way to do outreach and get help. 4. After joining a team have that link bookmarked in your user profile

you will have all that and more

Oh yes. And if you order now, I'll throw in a way to view all reporting that has come in no matter what assignment it's on -- as long as it's related to your topic.

Operators are standing by.

But first I need to go in and do some tweaking. If the site looks or acts weird for the next 15 minutes. That's just me poking around. Sorry.

You asked for... a way to find important and relevant posts from the scoop.

We give you -- "newsroom topics" -- basically links to specific tagged entries.

I'm a big fan of the "question for the day" tag.

If someone on a topic has a question they need help on -- they will be put here -- so people can go here and see where other people need help. Think of it as a help wanted area.

"A way to see what everyone else is doing..."

We give you the Assignment Zero tracker (Also found on the front page, left hand coloumn).

First, a note from my personal blog Digidave, if you are interested in how a geek goes on a date with himself.

More importantly. One more update to the site.

Editors' information will start to appear on topic home pages. As we get more editors on board I will continue to place them on pages. The asthetic isn't there yet. But the function is more imporant at this time.

Next up: If you have been assigned a single person assignment like "write the profile on..." your avatar will replace the single person icon. The whole point is to bring some of the interaction and information that exists on the assignments to higher level pages so people can see what is going on.

Much more on the way.