http://virtualeconomics.typepad.com/virtualeconomics/2008/06/second-order-reasoning-comes-to-user-edited-news.html

And he’s quite right – there is something intriguing going on here as you discover once you start to nose round a bit more – http://knewsroom.com/news/home/learn_more

It all starts with the bright young man from www.kluster.com – the bit I really liked is the ‘what happened here…’ link; the black and white, Manhattan sky-line stuff is wholly over-shadowed by the restless narrator with all this obvious vitality and energy bubbling up from within.

And the fact that he doesn’t know where or what next. But almost rejoices in being in that particular space. It energises him. And he drives on. Fantastic.

But there is something that we should be able to tap into here – this whole wisdom of the crowd thing; this predictive game we can play with news. One of the HubDubs was at JEE Camp the other month and his ‘pitch’ was superb.

In common with Seamus’ comments, I still struggle with the rewards system both Kluster and HubDub operate. Don’t know whether winning ‘watts’ would work when you try and drill some of the Kluster thought processes down to a local news level.

Because that is to where I always return; that if we think that any eventual MyLocalWriter.com ‘outlet’ needs to be as collaborative a community effort as possible, there likewise needs to be a mechanism for this to happen – that’s why I’ve always rated www.yoosk.com – not in its in ‘Any questions for the new Lord Mayor?’ form, rather in its question for the new headmaster form… drill it right down; give the local community a chance to frame a question of their collective liking.

For me, in there lies one way of holding local elected officials to account. What, Mr Parish chairman, are you going to do about the gangs of kids hanging around on the car park late at night? Why, Ms Librarian, are you not open more often in the early evenings?

That’s a fabulous tool of community enpowerment if Yoosk could be re-calibrated to work at that parish pump level.

Which is why I wonder the same about Kluster. Can you build a tool whereby the community can start to dictate the news agenda; that the community ‘rep’ – the journalist – can be gently guided into areas of genuine community concern?

There is something in that opening phrase on the website, www.kluster.com, that rings very true: ‘Stop telling people what’s new, and start asking them what’s next…’

It needs tweaking. To my mind, a fully functioning democracy needs someone to be charged with telling the community with ‘what’s new…’ from the town council meeting; thereafter, I suspect there ought to be a mechanism that allows that same community to answer the rep’s follow-up question: ‘Where next, people?’

Where do you, the community, want me to go with this piece of news? Guide me…

I used the word ‘gently’ with reason. Because community-directed news can be fraught with peril; particularly out there on some pretty mean, local streets.

Extreme example, but let’s propose a www.mylocalwriter.com for Dewsbury and watch the local community there direct traffic news-wise following the ‘disappearance’ of Shannon Matthews.

It would be a circus. And if those hands that guided www.mylocalwriter.com/dewsbury were anonymous, it would be poisonous and vindictive and with every capacity to become a witch-hunt of the pillow and burning crosses variety.

If we are looking for a future in which responsible local journalism thrives and survives then it has to maintain the same legal integrity of its newsprint forebears. Neither Yoosk.com nor Kluster.com can be allowed to ‘descend’ into pointing fingers at the dodgy-looking old boy in No47B.

And that’s a big, big challenge – avoiding the kind of ugly frenzy that can, on occasion, be unleashed within local communities.

I suspect, on occasion, it will inevitably bubble up; passions will be stirred, opinions will be aired. A moderating influence will be needed in some shape or guise.

Can the ‘wisdom of the community’ be entrusted with that capacity? To be the moderators of a community’s news agenda?

It is a fascinating arena and one into which I think we are going to have to step. Because the world, news-wise, has been turned upside-down; what once was no more than a mute and dutiful audience, is now ‘twittered’ to the teeth with all the tools of the modern day news-gatherer.

And if we don’t engage their help, then they’ll march on without us; that the ‘news’, as they deem it, will be Facebook’d and Bebo’d before we’ve even touched the keyboard; we have to step back into that news loop; make ourselves an integral and trusted part of the local community’s 24/7 news process.

And, somewhere, within that task lies a Yoosk or a Kluster. Or a mixture of the both. But some tool of enpowerment and engagement within that news decision-making process is going to be essential.

Our ‘news desk’ of the future is going to have to be a broad church; our ‘news editors’ many and varied. Setting the news agenda is no longer the exclusive right of the local newspaper editor. That power belongs to the people.�

For those of you who don’t actually know what the Knight News Challenge is – www.newschallenge.org – it is a highly-laudable effort by the Knight Foundation people to further innovation in community-centred, digital news.

In their own words: “We are a national foundation with local roots. We choose, as our founders John S. and James L. Knight chose, to focus on journalism and communities. We invest in the vitality and improvement of quality journalism and community life.

Since its creation in 1950, Knight Foundation has invested nearly $315 million to advance journalism quality and freedom of expression….”

To that highly-commendable end, they run an annual News Challenge competition in which digital innovators can apply for up to $5 million in grant-like funding. And having had an e-mail conversation with one of last year’s big winners – Adrian Holovaty of EveryBlock fame – they appear to be every start-ups dream backers; hands-off when it comes to day-to-day developments, hands-on when the cash starts to run out…

Obviously there’s nothing like them here; although, in fairness, Channel Four’s 4iP project might come close.

How do I know all this? Because along with at least three other UK-based digital innovators, we made it through to the last and final round of this year’s competition.

And having thought of a number and added a nought, we had $2 million of funding riding on our ownership of www.mybasketballwriter.com, www.mybaseballwriter.com and www.myhockeywriter.com – the theory being that what you can do with football out of Norwich, could you do with hockey out of Chicago, baseball out of Boston, etc, etc…

Three of us were actually gathered in the same place the night we all heard that our entries had made it to the last 67-odd of the 3,000-strong field only to fall at the final hurdle – the one before the ticket to Las Vegas and yesterday’s glittering prize ceremony attended by one of our number.

Anyway, there at JEECamp in Birmingham that day were – and I hope neither gentlemen mind me mentioning their names – Tim Hood, our man in Vietnam with his www.yoosk.com platform and the day’s host and organiser, Paul Bradshaw who actually had two entries in that final round – due recognition of his innovative and imaginative edge.

Back in the hotel room after some post-conference refreshment, the phone rang at just before midnight – it was Tim wishing me the best of luck; he’d opened his e-mail from the Knight people and read the worst…

It was a nice gesture; one long, soak in the bath later and I gingerly opened my own email – $2 million bucks and a ticket to Vegas on the line. I duly phoned Paul in the morning to repeat Tim’s gesture and wished him all the best…

I think Paul finally summoned up the courage and opened his email up on the Sunday morning; like Tim and I, there was no ticket to Vegas.

That night Neil and I decided to launch the blog; to start throwing big, f*cking rocks into the nearest pond knowing that none of us were going to Vegas.

But one person did, however, wave the flag for the UK.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

He – and his co-partner Martin Moore – picked up a cheque for $350,000 for the Media Standards Trust. Scroll down and you’ll find their winning entry here:

http://www.31415926535.net/upload/2008_winners_projects_and_bios.pdf

Now I have nothing whatsoever against the Media Standards Trust; in fact, given the emphasis we all place on shouting from the roof-tops that we’re the ones with the freshest, most organically gathered quotes out there, I have every reason to celebrate the Media Trust’s work.

But the thing that niggles me is the fact that the only person from the UK to walk away with a Knight cheque this year was the bloke who invented the world-wide web.

Like he needs the money; like he can’t walk into every VC office, every development agency, every Parliamentary corridor and office and not ask them to write out a cheque…

‘Why, of course, Sir Tim… and can I just say, I love your work… the family and I use it every day…

‘Thank you; very kind. Now, just add another nought, there’s a good fellow…’

Bitter? Twisted? Me?

Er, yes.

Still nice to have the inventor of the world-wide web on the stage in Vegas.

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