OhmyNews: Omni International's New Approach to Citizen Journalism - relaunch as Blog

OhmyNews just spread news on the future of OhmyNews International ... the site will freeze end of August and relaunch as Blog on what citizen journalists, academics, and professionals thinking about networked journalism and the the future of News.

From the post:

Welcome to a fresh approach for OhmyNews International. In a month’s time, the site will a re-launch and reboot. The old site will remain online, but it cannot accept new stories.

Instead, we are launching a new blog dedicated to covering and discussing the world of citizen journalism itself. Our new aim is to help raise the bar for the future. The new OhmyNews International is a guide to what citizen journalists, academics, and even professionals are thinking about how everyone will collaborate on the news of the future.

As we wrote in our new mission statement:

“OMNI is the barometer for citizen journalism. In a Venn diagram between participatory media and news, OMNI makes the grey space its home. Grassroots journalism, citizen media, crowdsourcing are all related terms that tackle the same question: How are regular people making and changing the news?”

We will do this through a team of curators. They will, with your help, highlight the most important events and stories in the citizen journalism world. In addition, curators will work with our citizen reporters all over the globe to do original reporting about the citizen journalism happening everywhere. Finally, curators will commission critical essays on where citizen media is headed.

Our new home is located at http://international.ohmynews.com/. Please stop by.

Why?

more and why

Congrats to Citizen Journalism Site 'Voices of Africa'

voted as BOBs Best Videoblog 2008!



Deutsche Welle: BOBs 2008 Voices of Africa

Earlier entries:
The Voices of Africa: A Step Up in Citizen Journalism in Africa

Focus: Social Media in Africa

OhmyNews Japan has finally been closed...

via / more at GlobalVoices:

"At the end of August, 2008, OhmyNews, the citizen journalism site from South Korea that entered the Japanese market in 2006 with much fanfare, closed its doors.

First officially announced on February 22, 2006, and launched shortly thereafter with help from the Japanese media giant Softbank and an investment contract valued at 1.3 billion yen [US$11 million], OhmyNews had a rough ride in Japan right from the beginning ...

Many Japanese bloggers reflected on the rise and fall of OhmyNews Japan, and on why the citizen journalism project failed ... One blogger points out that while the editor-in-chief was earning 30 million yen [about 300,000 USD] annually, and the copy editors 10 million yen [100,000 USD], writers were only paid 300 yen per piece, and argues ..." more

Through changing (political) conditions in Korea since the start of OhmyNews South Korea in 2000, there are lots of problems also in the homeland and the "much grander plan [after the Start in Japan] and want the OhmyNews model to go around the world with OhmyNews as the center of a worldwide network of citizen journalism" will be over.

Citizen Journalism must come from, with and through the citizen and serve the urgent need / want of citizen ... a purpose citizen acknowledge, love, hate, ..

Biz Problems At and With OhmyNews

More posts about OhmyNews

Neues aus myheimat

Matthias Möller, Mitbegründer und Leiter Marketing & Produkt von myheimat.de schickt eine eMail, in der er mitteilt, dass sich am Wochenende 450 (von inzwischen 14.000) Mitschreibern getroffen hätten und man zu diesem Anlass "einige Informationen dargestellt, die einen Einblick geben in die Idee von myheimat und den Menschen, die hier mitschreiben", na und?

Ist das eine variante des 'Social Media Release' nach dem Motto, lass doch die faulen Säcke selbst herausfinden, ob es was Interessantes gabe?

Schon interessanter sind einige Angaben die Matthias Möller als Kommentar zu Robert Basics Beitrag Web to Print III: MyHeimat.de - ein Online-Redaktionssystem für Print, abgegeben hat. Er schreibt am 22.07.2008, 19:47 u.a.:

- (gratis) verteilte Auflage: Im Moment haben wir 18 eigenständige Magazine mit einer Gesamtauflage von 138.000 Exemplaren.

- seit April erscheint myheimat aber nicht nur als eigenständiges Magazin, sondern die Beiträge werden auch in den Lokalteilen von Tageszeitungen (des Investors Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack) veröffentlicht.

- Altersstruktur: Ist in der Tat ziemlich gleichverteilt: myheimat spricht vor allem 30-65 Jährige an, die sich mitteilen wollen, über das, was in ihrem Ort los ist.

- das Projekt wurde bis zum Einstieg von Madsack komplett eigenfinanziert aus den operativen Mitteln ... Seit der Investitionsrunde wird allerdings in die strategische Weiterentwicklung des Konzeptes investiert.

Stimmt, wir haben schon mehrmal zu myheimat.de berichtet.

Huffington Post starts with Local News in Chicago

Jemima Kiss writes on the guardian.co.uk:

"The Huffington Post is planning to expand into local news across the US, founder Arianna Huffington said last night, beginning with a site edited for the community of Chicago.

Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources as well as contributions from bloggers in what will be the first of a series of projects in "dozens of US cities". The Chicago site will initially be curated by just one editor ..." more

OhmyNews International Citizen Reporters' Forum 2008 Program

Only 9 days to go, OhmyNews announced the program details for the fourth annual OhmyNews International Citizen Reporters' Forum 2008 in Seoul (June 27, 2008)

"This year's forum will focus on "Candlelight 2008" (more about the Candlelight Vigils) and its effects on media leadership. Korean media outlets that engaged with the "Candlelight 2008" both directly and indirectly, will actively debate related issues in live-Webcast panels over the course of 10 hours. This forum will be simultaneously translated into English and be broadcast live to an international audience through OhmyTV. Netizens will be able to participate through a special online debate forum ..."

The program, speakers and more

taz.de: myHeimat macht in heile-welt.de

Schreibt Karsten Höhnke in seinem taz Beitrag vom 17. Juni 2008:

"Das Bürgerjournalismusportal myheimat.de bedient die Vorliebe seiner Nutzer für gute Nachrichten und zeigt, "was deine Heimat lebenswert macht" ... "

Kritisches? Da seien sich Martin Huber (Gogol) und Andreas Arntzen (Madsack) einig, das liest niemand - da bräuchte es schon -irgendwann Impulse von der Redaktion an die Community ... zum Beitrag

Ist das typische für Bürgerjournalismus? W.C.

Früherer Eintrag:
myHeimat findet einen Investor

myheimat Bürgerjournalismus Online & Print

Rue89.com launched Local News Site Marseille

Rue89.com a PRO-AM site (see our links Citizen Journalism Projects FR) goes Marseille



Quote Pierre Haski:
"You take a city like Marseille, which has a very specific economic and cultural life and a very strong civic society, and you can replicate the idea of participation on the site" ...

via / more at journalism.co.uk

If it works, it might be not the last city on Rue89

Citizen Journalism Site SKOEPS is closing

after failing to find a viable financial model for SKOEPS and as we all know, advertising as sole revenue stream is not enough to support such an ambitious venture. SKOEPS, a joint venture between PcM Uitgevers and Talpa Media, claimed to have 7,500 registered contributors and contracted about 0,5 Mio. Euro advertising in 2007.

via Journalism.co.uk

myheimat.de findet einen Investor

Über Madsack MediaLab investiert in die Heimat, genauer gesagt in myheimat.de (Print & Online Venture) von Gogol Medien. Könnte spannend werden, wenn, ja wenn "nicht alles beim Alten bleiben sollte".

WUV bezieht sich auf eine Aussage von Andreas Arntzen, dem Geschäftsführer 'Elektronische Medien' der Madsack Verlagsgruppe, der die (Minderheit-)Beteiligung bestätigt habe ... mehr auf WUV

Früherer Eintrag:
myheimat Bürgerjournalismus Online & Print

Andere Madsack MediaLab Beteiligungen:

DOC Insider

jobdoo.de

kununu

meinsport.de

radio.de

Madsack steigt bei myheimat.de / Gogol Medien ein

Über Madsack MediaLab investiert in die Heimat, genauer gesagt in myheimat.de (Print & Online Venture) von Gogol Medien. Könnte spannend werden, wenn, ja wenn "nicht alles beim Alten bleiben sollte".

WUV bezieht sich auf eine Aussage von Andreas Arntzen, dem Geschäftsführer 'Elektronische Medien' der Madsack Verlagsgruppe, der die (Minderheit-)Beteiligung bestätigt habe ... mehr auf WUV

Pressetext auf Gogol Medien (PDF)

Früherer Eintrag:
myheimat Bürgerjournalismus Online & Print

Andere Madsack MediaLab Beteiligungen:
- DOC Insider
- jobdoo.de
- kununu
- meinsport.de
- radio.de

Zu Radio.de gibt es heute ein Interview mit Andreas Arntzen auf Medienhandbuch.de
(von Oliver Hein-Behrens)

Citizen Journalism Project Lithuania: atvirai.lt

Recently a new - and according to Tomek Albecki (editor-in-chief pino.pl / iThink.pl) - the first real Lithuanian citizen journalism site started: atvirai.lt



Coordinator of atvirai.lt is Tomas Aleksiejunas

As I don’t read and understand Lithuanian, so I quote (and extract) some statements about the project from Tomek's eMail:

The project in Lithuanian is in an early stage. Until now, they have 40+ authors who published at least one article and 100 registered member or 'could-be-authors' and looking for more.

If we touch at atwirai.it some of the more controversial topic in our country, then we attract high interest and higher traffic. E.g. there were some articles about gays and we got a huge discussions and series of articles - for and against.

We tried to provide information for the target groups (politicians, non profit organizations), who could be interested in publishing their opinions in atvirai.lt. The first responses were very warm and good. They wrote articles, but the problem is that they are often ‘too serious’. The mainstream audience likes blood, celebrities and something like that, but we do not have such articles (yet).

As all Lithuanian larger news portals (lrytas.lt, delfi.lt, balsas.lt, alfa.lt, lrt.lt) have (separate) sections for citizen opinions, getting the word out about this initiative and developing traffic was not so easy.

Atvirai.it has a daily Lithuanian blog review - so we can network and help each other to grow readership.


Tomek Albecki runs also the Polish Citizen Journalism project iThink.pl

Y! live Citizen Broadcast - the world is watching

o.k. not exactly. Right know there are 387 people watching ... 31 Live Channels ...



more | more technically

Der Schockwellenreiter (via) fragt ist das nun Bürgerfernsehen und zeigt, wie andere auch, kentbrew's aired broadcast vom US Wahlkampf ...

(cross-posted at HEM on Media, Marketing & Interent)

Y! live Broadcast for all, and the the world is watching

o.k. not exactly. Right know there are 387 people watching ... 31 Live Channels ...



more | more technically

Der Schockwellenreiter (via) fragt ist das nun Bürgerfernsehen und zeigt, wie andere auch, kentbrew's aired broadcast vom US Wahlkampf ...

Limiting Legal Risk - some great advice not only for Citizen Journalist

but also for the New York Times or the Süddeutsche Zeitung, for Bild respectively Bildblog and/or Robert Basic ... from the Knight Citizen News Network and CUNY Journalism School / Prof. Geanne Rosenberg



Writing, Pictures, Video, Exercises, Quizzes and more to avoid ...


more

CUNY Journalism School Press release

(Cross-posted at Hugo E. Martin on Media, Marketing & Internet)

The force of citizen journalism

Source: article

explained my friend Serhiy Danylenko (Editor in Chief highway) in the Ukrainian journal Civic society No. 1(3)/2008 of UCIPR (Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research) Article

Of course he looks at the situation, challenges and chances in Ukraine, but he employs the experience around the world to make his cause.

He posted a copy (in English) on his blog ... recommended reading

Earlier post:
UA's Generation On The Highway

Introduction to Citizen Media

from Global Voice Online in English (8 pg., PDF) ... Spanish PDF

South Korean Cit-Journalism OhmyNews Chances in Europe and elsewhere

Emma Thelwell wrote on Telegraph.co.uk (in the Money Section, how come, Emma?)

South Korean news pioneer targets Europe

and was quoting Oh Yeon Ho (OhmyNews) with

"I hope I can keep introducing our model to other countries including Europe, North America and hopefully North Korea in the future. Why not?

Actually, we are in talks with a European partner to launch an OhmyNews site in Europe."

Is Why not good enough?

Over the last 18 month I studied the situation in Europe and specially in Germany. How Startups and established Publisher can make use of Citizen Journalism and Networked Journalism for the better for their

- readers / users
- writer / users / reader
- advertiser / user / readers
- publisher / user / reader / writer

Most, if not all countries in Europe are not in a similar situation South Korea was in 2000 and btw., the situation in South Korea since has changed quite a bit and OhmyNews has to run, if the will keep their relevance for Korea!

Of course it is always good to study examples, but in the end you need to develop a compelling play / show for the stage you want to be successful on ...

Three years ago, I was recommending the model to a client and checked with Seoul - but he client declined to consider. Today, I still praise the founders and start of OhmyNews, but for me it is now more about the Do and Don’ts - OhmyNews is becoming to established, does not adapt to the changes in South Korea’s society and does not care enough about their community needs and wants.

Earlier entries:

Citizen Journalism Front Runner OhmyNews Faces More Challenges Ahead

more

(Cross posted on HEM on Media, Marketing & Internet)

Lokales Newsportal: Newskraft.de kurz vor dem Start?

laut turi2 geht Newskraft.de ein neues Portal für Lokalnachrichten und Bürgerjournalismus in rund zwei Wochen aus der 'closed Beta' public (wahrscheinlich eine public Beta). Das wäre in etwas zeitgleich mit dem im Moment gehandeltem Termin für den Start 'DerWesten', dem neuen WAZ Portal (und ca. zwei Wochen nach dem Start von des Spiegels einestages.

Newskraft ist ein Projekt der dotSource, Jena im IntershopTower und sicher bald im NewskraftTower.

Turi2 hat's schon getestet:
"In der von turi2 getesten nicht-öffentlichen Beta-Version sind die Meldungen noch recht unvollständig und inaktuell. Und die Blogosphäre wird sich über die Nutzung ihrer Inhalte vermutlich nicht unbedingt freuen ..."

Neben den 'Bürgerjournalisten / Citizen Journalisten' die direkt auf der Plattform schreiben 'dürfen', sollen (laut Turi2) angeblich 210.000 Blogs syndiziert werden ... wo man 210.000 Blogs mit relevanten Inhalten für eine Plattform für LokalNews finden will, die auch willens sind ihre Inhalte zu syndizieren - ist mir schleierhaft. Dagegen nimmt sich unsere kleine Liste der deutschsprachigen Placeblogs doch sehr, sehr bescheiden aus.

Mehr auf Turi2

Des Spiegels journalistische Antwort auf das Mitmach-Web

soll / will die Mitmach-Community

einestages

sein und vernetzt mit den Lesern und Leser-Autoren zu einem kollektiven Gedächtnis unserer Gesellschaft in Text, Fotos und Videos machen. Sammeln dürfen alle, die Soiegelredaktion übernimmt die Qualitätssicherung.



Klingt nicht unbedingt nach einem Spass-Projekt ... und wird nach Turi2 am Montag starten.


Ich denke, wir müssen uns daran gewöhnen, dass die ehemaligen Leser / Konsumenten sagen und bestimmen, was sie wollen, für relevant halten und wofür sie sich enagieren wollen und können erst dann können / sollten wir unsere 'Skills' anbieten, die vielleicht helfen das Projekt professioneller und erfolgreicher zu machen.