[Sigia-l] OhmyNews perspective

[Rachel-Pace]

OhmyNews <http://www.ohmynews.com/>
Oh my!  I always swore that I would stick to learning languages that that
used the same alphabet - better to learn a new pronunciation of the same old
letters than a whole set of new letters - but now I am sorely tempted... 

This is a brilliant example of online community in action.

>>Questions:
>>What's our closest analogue to OhmyNews in the U.S.?
Pick your favorite blog spot - while they may not all be news oriented,
neither is OhMy. From the article: "...ordinary readers all over the
country, who send dispatches about everything from local happenings and
personal musings to national politics." and "The newspaper deals with
questions of objectivity and accuracy by grading articles according to their
content. Those that are presented as straight news are fact-checked by
editors."

>>Would the OhmyNews model be successful in the U.S.?
Some people even pay to blog - the reverse of OhMy paying news contributors
based on a news-worthiness scale. From the article: "Writers are paid small
amounts, which vary according to how the stories are ranked, using
forestry terminology, from "kindling" to "rare species.""

>>Is there anything else like OhmyNews in another country?
Not sure, would love to see some examples - besides more blogs of course

>>What are the IA implications for this model?
Without speaking the language it would be hard to say what they are doing
but I would imagine that it would be similar to any other newspaper with
added interfaces to allow submitters to submit articles, upload images and
so forth with behind the scenes work flows to allow editors to view, fact
check, and rate articles. 

Rachel
Sigless