ONA’s annual conference is underway in Toronto.

In a pre-conference workshop on Wednesday, J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism, explored “why and how citizen news ventures are launching, how the public is participating, what’s working in the Pro/Am world – and when does journalism not have to be ‘journalism’ to get the job done.”

Bottom Up: Starting from Scratch

Barb Iverson and Suzanne McBride, the “odd couple” of CreatingCommunityConnections.org, a community-driven site for reporting on Chicago-area neighborhoods: As much as you want to rely on all these bloggers, readers are very sophisticated, and even if its small, you want to maintain and compensate them, at least for expenses.

Jeremy Iggers, founder of TCDailyPlanet.net agreed: Not a lot of people are willing to do it out of civic mindedness. Payment, even if small, strengthens quality.

Their projects are largely driven by grants and foundations, such as the J-lab, Knight News Challenge. “Donate Now” buttons have not been resounding successes. Ad revenues are the greater hope of profitability.

Filling the Gaps in Local Coverage

Urban Vancouver.com‘s founder, Richard Eriksson: High SEO goes a long way towards legitimizing non-mainstream media online, search-engine ranking, especially Google ranking.

Lisa Williams, creator of H2OTown and Placeblogger.com: Spam comments aren’t the problem. More problematic is community members not realizing they shouldn’t repost press releases, or government junior officers not knowing they shouldn’t write as their bosses.

“Journalism is becoming a high-tech industry” says Lisa Williams.

Layoffs are a part of the tech industry, and increasingly part of journalism. Journos have low salaries, but get paid traditionally, in social capital (prestige, trust recognition). Example: The Pulitzer prize.

But are online or tech journos ever going to get that kind of recognition?

On polish: You can always get bogged down fixing things, but at some point, you’re going to get so caught up in it, you won’t know how you got there. So you just have to let a few loose strings go.

Failure is an option if you play it safe and make it incredibly cheap. Try open source.

The web rewards narrow comprehensiveness. E.g. local restaurants.

Web 2.0: 20 in 30
20 ideas for gathering tips, stories, photo, reviews, videos, sources, mash-ups and investigations from your community – Jennifer Carroll, VP new media, Gannett Co. Inc.

Gaming is on the rise, but what about news games? Why? The next evolution is immersion it is no longer centered around the information but about the person.

Success from World of Warcraft: constantly new content, especially drawn user suggestions. And gaming is also about reward- winning weapons, equipment, prestige/recognition.

The more you participate, the more you are rewarded.

MySpace example- you earn friends. eBay gives you scores/rating. Digg is pretty evident. Newsvine also.

News should be a conversation, a dialogue.

See Ganett’s IndyMoms.com – discussion is the high point, women sharing their stories.

Crowdsourcing is about acknowledging that readers are experts and giving them the tools they need, to drive investigative journalism.

Comprehensive user-drive databases: Check out Cincinavigator.

Pro/Am I: AP’s Now Public partnership

Lou Ferrera, the Associated Press: There is a limited ability for news orgs to evaluate the authenticity of citizen photos.

Parntership with Now Public adds an extra level of filters, and prevents greater investment. The project’s quick successes are in photo and video.

One example: A typhoon in Oman.

AP had no photogs there, and it would take a day longer to get one there. Now Public reached out to members from Oman and then passed them on to AP.

The lesson: Partnering works so far as technology and reach. But constant engagement with partners is essential.

Don’t rely on one partner though, explore other sources. And remember citizen journalism story arcs: Don’t expect a flood of images or content. Some might come out immediately, but a strong second wave can come the next day, the next month, the next year. Asking people is also important.

Provide advice and tips to citizen journalists as well.

Inside LoudounExtra.com

Rob Curley, vice president, product development Washingtonpost-Newsweek Interactive: Newsrooms must “own” local breaking news. E.g.: If everyone can see smoke on the horizon and your site doesn’t have the story, they’ll go somewhere else for it.

Hyper-local content, in-depth database-driven coverage are key newspaper strengths.

Multimedia overkill is a must: Evidnet importance – Google believes YouTube is its number one product.

Platform independent delivery: Embrace it. It doesn’t matter how they get it.

A dialogue is necessary, not a monologue. And we’re terrible at that.

The big issue: Build websites the way the Internet really works, not the way old-time publishers or editors wishes or think the Internet works.

An example: OnBeing has an intuitive, engaging design. Your first look is one of interactivity.

Steerable 360s are an example of really harnessing the online medium – its isn’t something that works on TV, newspaper or radio.

LoudounExtra is documenting schools, restaurants, events all be in painstaking detail. Churches in the neighborhood have been equipped with video cameras, school sports are reported on with animated play by plays and video reports. These are all hyper-local details communities want.

Pro/Am II: AssignmentZero

What worked, what didn’t. Jay Rosen, New York University

Dan Gilmore’s realization is that “my readers know more than I do”. Now though, media companies, journalists have the ability, the technology to harness that knowledge.

Assignment Zero is Rosen’s experiment in professional/amateur journalism, partnering with Wired. Here’s what he learned from it.

Managing Content/Making Money

Considerations from Teresa Hanafin, Director of Community Publishing, Boston.com: Active community organisations, good municipal website, lively political culture, interest from competing sites- these all help community journalism projects succeed and save on costs.

She calls them “Communities of Passion”.

Courtney Lowery, Managing Editor, NewWest.net: Hire tinkerers – find someone doing something cool and hire them instead of putting out a wanted ad.

NewWest’s business model is based on local and regional online advertisements, regional conferences and indoor physical advertisements.

NW also intents to launch a print product. And a local membership model also brings in cash. NW sells venue page on the site, displaying show listings etc.

Their big lesson in money making: Keep focused. Don’t grow too fast.
Know the difference between brand and action advertising (NewWest sponsors coffee wi-fi hubs, and is developing blog widgets). Content comes first, then marketing, and branding, then sales.

Summary: Break new ground, add value, remember your audience, hire tinkerers.

BlufftonToday – Steve Yelvington, VP Strategy and Content, Morris Communications: Bury the idea that blogging is for ranting slacks.

Its not about technology. There is a lot that we can learn from the way open source software is developed. There are ground rules, expectations and structures that we can and should study.

Drupal is one free, open source content management system increasingly used for news sites.