BREAKOUT REPORT

Session Two, March 2, 2010

• Facilitator: Susan Mernit, Consultant/Entrepreneur, founder Oakland Local

• Scribe: Roberta King, Grand Rapids Foundation

How can people who are not journalists tell their stories? Simply by being in a place when things happen and reporting on it. Many people (news users) are not getting news and information from traditional sources anymore.

Local video reaches across the world: check out Ustream for local breaking news video. Flickr is great for photos.

Via search and reputation, news can be both grassroots and filtered.

Local can go global now. Via data on phones, people can share information with the world – fast.

Problems:

Local news as we have known it is not being delivered.

Citizens often do not get the information they need to make informed decisions.

Many issues people care about are not being covered and not seen as newsworthy.

New news sites are:

• Grassroots;

• Blending volunteers with professionals;

• Nonprofit and mission-driven;

• Potentially transformative.

New media is a social action tool.

Some new news sites that are worth checking out:

• Oakland Local – Oakland, Ca.

• West Seattle Blog – hyperlocal in Seattle

• The Loop – Westchester N.Y.

• City Limits – New York City

• Chicago Current – news and politics

• Baristanet – Montclair, N.J.

• Deerfield Forum – Deerfield, NH

Oakland Local was meant to fill in the gaps in news. It’s a partnership between nonprofits and journalists. Oakland Local focuses on issues: environment, food, development, identity, arts and education, and justice.

The site has two paid part-time staffers; 15 people are freelancers and 25 are volunteers. There is a focus on training and volunteer interaction. Live meet-ups attract 25-40 people. Oakland Local wants to create a feeling of community.

Oakland Local believes writing simple stories isn’t something you need to go to journalism school for; anyone with coaching can do it. It sees itself as a service organization, doing things with people; not for them. This philosophy avoids creating one voice or view.

Three kinds of volunteers are attracted to Oakland Local:

• People who care about an issue and have an opinion
• People with a passion for a subject
• People who are unemployed and looking for a new skill or to help themselves keep busy while looking for work.

Oakland Local articles are assigned and commissioned; blog posts are not. Blogging permissions are given to people who are “real;” they are identified and explain what they want to blog about.

Validation of local groups by Oakland Local is important. Some groups (nonprofits and neighbors) just need this validation so they can thrive.

Many issues to consider:

• Staffing;
• A community manager is needed: who is it and where does one come from?
• How do you set goals?
• Open source (Drupal) is a MUST for a community project and for continuity from developer to developer;
• What about training and support?
• What does being a translator and connector mean?
• What about impact? What does success look like?
• Be small and focused; what does your community foundation care about?

Group discussion points:

How do you make wonky policy stuff interesting to people?

Video! Video is easy to make, easy to understand. See Oakland Local video on Healthy Food for All in Oakland and Detroit. Video can make things fun.

What are the obstacles that Oakland Local has faced?

The site started a month late and is working on sustainability.

Why focus on issues and not neighborhoods?

There are 42 neighborhoods in Oakland and it’s hard to be competitive covering so many areas, but issues cut across all neighborhoods.

Oakland Local has partners in two smaller local colleges in the area.  Many large journalism schools want their students to learn to work in traditional media forms – not on local sites. Sometimes they are difficult partners.

Discussion on Google Analytics and its use in watching trends and traffic:

This is an important tool. Facebook insight also gives more detailed information about Facebook users accessing the news sites.

Using Facebook and Twitter is a great way to cross-pollinate news sharing.