The journalists don’t practice ‘collaborative journalism’ as far as I can tell. Nor do they seem to interact much with their readers once a piece has been published. Hopefully, the RepJ journalist will do both.

I recently read some good articles there about the transportation funding bill.

See the “About” page at MinnPost.com for more. Here is quote from it: “Our goal is to create a sustainable business model for this kind of journalism, supported by corporate sponsors, advertisers, and members who make annual donations.”

http://www.minnpost.com/about/

I picture a micro-funding model, where content is paid by small donations from lots of people. These afford a journalist the ability to investigate issues important to the collective: Think Digg meets eBay for journalists. With the issue of money aside - advertising isn’t needed and the content itself is licensed under the Creative Commons and given away for free. It’s similar to Leonard Witt’s Representative Journalism or Michale Stoll’s Public Press.

Pro-Publica is not the future of journalisms business model - that’s just the future of one rich-ass family’s endowment. Journalism belongs to the people.

I found out today that the RepJ trio (Len, Chris and Bill) are visting Northfield for several days in mid-March. I hope we can entice you to visit at some point, tho maybe when it’s warmer and greener.

(I’m currently looking for a RepJ to cover the field of professional coaching for http://www.coachingcommons.org FYI)

Thanks to all who are participating!

Bill, as far as I know, LG won’t own any rights to the content posted here by the RepJ reporter. I expect that the reporter and the RepJ project itself probably will, tho.

Jane, one of Len’s colleagues, Donica Mensing, blogged journalism ‘terms’ about a month ago. It’s a good summary, with links to ‘collaborative journalism’ and ‘networked journalism.’ Her blog post:

What’s in a name?
http://www.ourtahoe.org:16080/voices/mensing/?p=20

As you say, Griff, you’ll be making it up as you go along - so it will be enticing to see what that change will be. You also said: “We anticipate that that reporter will practice what’s called ‘collaborative journalism’ or ‘networked journalism’ — and that’s where we and you, the citizens, come in.”

Can’t wait to see what that’s all about. This is an evolving medium - and that’s what makes it exciting.

Kudos!

I looked at Mr. Witt’s bio and was impressed. He has some Minnesota connections too.

Griff, do you wear a motorcycle helmet? If so, why not join the helmeted crew, at least occasionally?

As another blogger, I have one question: Will your Creative Commons license change? Is that an issue you’ll have to look at?

If our opinions are worth $0.02, and you were counting posts the other month, when can we anticipate a full accounting and our checks?

That should be really close to enough for a cup of coffee!

We had at least two beers…er…ah…discussions about it before we agreed to it.

We anticipate some creative tension between the citizen bloggers and the professional journalists. But hey, that’s what Locally Grown has been about since the very beginning.

- Ross

Their focus will be entirely on the professional journalist that they will hire. We anticipate that that reporter will practice what’s called ‘collaborative journalism’ or ‘networked journalism’ — and that’s where we and you, the citizens, come in.

However, this is somewhat like a young athlete taking money or other incentives.

Once paid, all of you lose the “amateur” status, and become professionals.

Also, this brings back into the play the discussion that we had regarding “citizen blogger” -vs- “citizen journalist” and the responsibilities that that caries. (see http://locallygrownnorthfield.org/archives/1935/ )

I say that, because of this line on http://pjnet.org/representativejournalism/post/21/

Peck has agreed to share some of his time to be the editorial traffic cop to ensure that from the beginning this project produces high quality, ethically sound journalism.

This sounds like the “Citizen blogger” tag is falling away, in lieu of a new type of hybrid media reporter, that is part journalist, part blogger, part podcaster, part radio star. It will be interesting to see what other media LoGroNo will move into. Print? Local Cable Access Television? Much could be done with that grant money.

Again, I think this is a wonderful opportunity, and the fact Mr. Bill Densmore, and Mr. Chis Peck, will be joining you is a great step forward.

Congratulations again, I am looking forward to seeing where this goes.