Watchdog editor to address Community Council, teach Quest class

On Wednesday, I will speak during a panel discussion on alternative media to the Community Council task force studying citizen-government communication in the Walla Walla Valley region.

After my talk, I will post copies the slides I used, and give a general summary of the reaction.  (Community Council discussions are open to the public, but not recorded or shared until the council’s long-term deliberations are complete.)

On February 13, I will start teaching a five-session class on “Digital Journalism” in the Quest program at WWCC. Registration is still open for eligible students, and I’m looking forward to testing our premise that volunteer citizen journalism is a viable option for the information needs of communities like Walla Walla.

Esther Dyson endorses WW Watchdogs!

Well, not really, but pretty close.

Esther Dyson was one of 17 CEO, investors, or professors that Business Week recently asked to give a 10-word answer to a “Big Question.” Since she is described elsewhere as “one of the world’s leading entrepreneurs focusing on emerging digital technologies,” she was asked “What is the next big thing VCs should invest in?”

Her 10-word answer surprised and electrified me: “Quantified community. Applying citizen-led big-data analysis and oversight to cities.”

This describes exactly and concisely one of the founding hopes for Walla Walla Watchdogs — my dream is to apply citizen-led journalism, and especially data analytics and interactive data visualization, to the nuts and bolts of local government … to questions like these:

• Where can the City of Walla Walla find the money to maintain the public library budget without funding from the county’s Rural Library District?
• Is there any way to squeeze funding for the Aviary if it remains at the bottom of the Parks Department’s priority list?

A quick web search led me to the longer article Dyson wrote last month to spell out her ideas and the evidence to support them. There, I found even more encouragement and suggestions for positive action.

The money quote:

“One institution capable of leading the way is local newspapers, many of which are searching for a new business model and a new source of unique content. They have the connections, the resources, and the respect to play a key role.

Indeed, I believe that local newspapers will often find that the Quantified Community offers them the business model that they need at a time when many advertisers are bypassing them for social marketing and running their own Web sites. Despite the pending demise of print journalism, local papers still generally reach more local citizens than any other single institution. They need a way to remain relevant; this could be it.”

Shall we see if anyone else agrees?

Digital journalism course coming to WWCC

A new course, Digital Media Journalism, will be offered by Walla Walla Community College this fall.

The course is scheduled to be taught by Walla Walla Watchdogs co-founder Bart Preecs, who is a part-time instructor in the college’s Communications Studies department.

“The course will apply the traditional journalistic value of fairness, accuracy, and news judgement to the radically changing digital media landscape,” Preecs said.

Walla Walla Watchdogs is an example of the user-generated, “citizen journalism” that can be created using low-cost digital publishing tools.  “When every cellphone is a video camera, anyone with a phone, a laptop, or just access to the Internet, can do some of what journalists traditionally have done,” Preecs said. “But there’s more to making effective journalism than just pointing a camera, or typing up your opinions in a blog post. The course will equip students to gather, organize, and distribute relevant local news and information through new and evolving channels.”

Check the WWCC website for registration information as it becomes available.

Three little pigs launch new journalism model

On Leap Day, one of the world’s best news organizations, the Guardian in the UK, launched a new promotional campaign for its “Open Journalism” initiative.

Walla Walla Watchdogs can claim no affiliation with the Guardian, but we strongly support the concepts behind Open Journalism . . . and we love the video about how the breaking news story of the Three Little Pigs might have unfolded under Open Journalism.

There are articles and videos at the Guardian site about OJ*  and sports, OJ and arts/culture, and pointedly, OJ and the Guardian’s famous “Comment is Free” section.

We stand in awe . . . and hope to follow their example . . .  and that they’ll ignore the unfortunate acronym.

* OJ = Open Journalism

A hard look at journalism’s future

The Washington Post is one of the pillars of American journalism.  But like all news-gathering organizations in the digital 21st century, WaPo is struggling to find a path through a shaky economic climate on the way to an unknowable future.

Managing editor Marcus Brauchli is deeply aware of the challenge:

Mr. Brauchli refuses to be held hostage to the past. “There are a lot of nostalgia-drenched people in the journalism field who look back at what newspapers were and have a fairly static view of what they should be,” he said in an interview. “Just because The Washington Post used to be a certain way doesn’t mean The Washington Post has to be that way in the future.”

 Walla Walla Watchdogs agree, and with all due humility, we hope this experiment in citizen-based, community journalism will be able to add a few checkpoints to the task of mapping a new path for digital journalism in the years ahead.

Data driven journalists will need help

For more than 150 years, journalism has revolved around a simple question:  what happened yesterday?

Today, thanks to advances in computing and communications technology, it’s possible to start asking whole new set of questions.  An article in today’s NY Times discusses “Big Data” primarily as the growing opportunity for mathematically skilled individuals to pursue emerging careers in data analysis.

But the opportunities are not limited to just Math Camp whiz kids. One of the founding principles of Walla Walla Watchdogs  is that data analysis and accessible information graphics can be applied to local journalism. Again, the NY Times pioneers how to do this, with its recent interactive feature asking readers across the country to suggest the best way to reduce the nation’s defense budget.

Our goal here over the next few months, will be to apply similar tools and strategies to the 2013 Walla Walla City budget, for example. It’s an exciting opportunity and if you have expertise in accounting, finance, statistics, design, or multimedia technology, we would love to have you help us.

UW prof, students cover 2012 election

David Domke, the chair of the UW Communication Dept., spoke at Whitman College last night, and shared his thoughts about the “political rhetoric” of the presidential campaign.  His perspective was shaped, in large part, by his experiences leading a group of UW Communication students through a nationwide effort to report, blog, tweet, record, and video the campaign around the nation.

The results are on display at the Seattle Times, but Domke told Whitman students that his takeaway was that Americans across the country still have more in common than news coverage might suggest.  Domke encouraged his audience to “get engaged and stay engaged” with the political process.  “The people who show up are the people who get to make the decisions,” he said.

it’s a motto that Walla Walla Watchdogs intends to take seriously.