Digital Media Buzz > Open Source Innovations in Media

Open Source Innovations in Media

By Emily J. Cappiello

While many media companies are confused as to how to stay afloat in an evolving field and struggle to keep up with new waves of technology changing the sector’s environment, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation embraces technology and uses it to improve the field of investigative journalism. The company’s mission — to seek opportunities that can transform both communities and journalism, and help them reach their highest potential — helps it evaluate projects that truly transform the field of journalism.

One of the company’s main outlets for projects and ideas stems from a five-year contest, The Knight News Challenge, with award winnings of $5 million each year. “With now more than 45 projects launched, Knight News Challenge winners aren’t just individuals with a prize, but a community of innovators working together on improving news and information for communities around the world,” says Gary Kebbel, Knight Foundation journalism program director. Without technology and the desire to continually get an edge on competition, these ideas would never have come to fruition and with that, the field of journalism would never evolve.

This year’s recipients are no different. With news breaking by the second from cell phone photos and videos, YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook.com and Twitter, there is an urgency to journalism that was never there before, Kebbel explains, and that is preventing journalists from making that extra phone call to verify details. The Knight News Challenge winners have developed ways to bring the diligence back to the field.

The winner of the largest award of 2009 is The New York Times/ProPublica, which took  $719,000 for a project to build and maintain a crowd-sourced database of primary source material for use by investigative reporters. The project, dubbed DocumentCloud, would make information available online to reporters, watchdog groups, bloggers and the public. The information would come from contributing sources, such as newspapers.

Other award winners that will have a large impact on technology in the journalism field include Scott Rosenberg, co-founder of Salon.com and Joe Boydston, vice president of technology and new media for the McNaughton Newspaper Group of Placerville, Calif. Rosenberg created a website to post journalists’ mistakes or short-sightedness on a topic. The writer can than engage with others to gain perspective and see if a correction should be made or additional reporting conducted. Boydston created an upload utility tool to take files that were originally intended for a print audience and, with a drag-and-drop method, make them readily available for the Web. The method is universal for print and web organizations, from large companies like Meredith and Hearst down to small community newspapers. “News organizations have typically solved the problem by creating proprietary publishing systems for their sole benefit. The process will save news organizations, particularly small community newspapers, significant time, money and manpower, allowing them to direct their resources to bring their community the news and information it needs,” he explains.

To apply for the 2010 Knight News Challenge, there are three rules to follow: use digital, open-source technology, distribute news in the public interest and test your project in a local community.

Emily J. Cappiello is a New York-based journalist who writes for Hearst Business Media, among other media companies. She specializes in business, technology and home improvement.