Idea Lab

Knocking Down Barriers for Newspapers to Try New Technologies

by Dan Schultz
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

During my time at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, I had a chance to learn about some of the harsh realities that come with taking on yet another technology. The general idea was that even if it's "free," there is unfortunate baggage that comes with adding tools to the newsroom -- baggage like increased overhead, learning curves, and brand new risks that have to be mitigated. I hate to think that a newspaper can't take advantage of free, open source, low hanging fruit simply because it would create another system that has to be taught and maintained! At the same time, though,...

• June 16, 2009
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Wiki Our Next Segment

by Amanda Hickman
2009 Knight News Challenge Winner

I was pretty sad when Radio Open Source went off the air, because I thought they were tugging at the loose threads of something interesting, and they never got to properly unravel it. Breaking news and reporters getting leads from the short message service Twitter are interesting phenomena but I don't think they can create the kind of community that you need to bring an audience into reporting. Radio Open Source never quite got it -- they had great comments but the community stayed tiny. Still, they were breaking new ground. I've been keeping an eye on The Takeaway for...

• September 24, 2008
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Starting Small and the Importance of Being Iterative

by David Cohn
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

The short story: People are starting to ask me how they can get involved in Spot.Us. The site won't really be ready until the Fall, but I hate telling people to wait. In an effort to start community building, so we don't lose track of ideas and to keep everything transparent, I'm happy to point people to the Spot Us Community Wiki. It's not high-tech but this wiki, combined with a blog and a third party e-commerce solution is enough to organize "community funded reporting." If you are a citizen and have a story idea or a reporter and want...

• July 3, 2008
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