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We are working on it
Posted by Oliver Reichenstein 4/8/2007 10:52:50 PM

Funny! We have been working on a Wiki for a bigger news organization since January.

What is key in order to be successful with wikis as newspapers is identification of users and simplifying the user interface.

You can see an altered copy of the design here (we replaced colors and logos and adapted the design):

http://www.informationarchitects.jp/washington-post-redesign-as-a-wiki

The follow up post shows and explains how it works

Best

Oliver

Not a good fit for wikis
Posted by Terry Steichen 4/6/2007 1:50:12 PM

A wiki is designed to encourage multiple persons to contribute to developing, refining and maintaining a common content item. In order for the process to be successful, two conditions are essential. First,the participants must have the common intent to collaborate, to build the item incrementally and not to (except for rare circumstances remove aspects over the objections of other users. Second, wiki-based success also requires that the participants possess the information necessary to create the item.

To evaluate the potential usefulness of a wiki in an online newspaper setting, I suggest focusing on the types of products the wiki might be used to produce. The three main newspaper products that come to mind (the typical core news products) are (1) the news report, (2) the opinion article, and (3) the background article.

With a news article (describing some event), that isn't the case, almost by definition. The reporter has the information that others don't have, which is why the reporter's article is of potential interest to others. The readers are interested in receiving the information, not contributing it. Thus, a wiki would not be appropriate for the typical news article.

With an opinion article, it may be that lots of readers may have enough insight to contribute to it. But, presuming that it's focused on some specific controversy (otherwise it wouldn't be a useful opinion), by definition, many of the readers have differing, often contradictory insights. Thus, while readers may possess the necessary knowledge, the essential degree of collaboration (focusing on a common end) is normally not present. Thus, a wiki would not be appropriate for an opinion article.

In the case of a background article (assuming that it remains mostly factual rather than opinionated), some of those in the reader audience may indeed have the requisite background.

Wiki use
Posted by Peter Comings 3/23/2007 1:06:12 PM

We've had a print county guide (schools, government, et. al.) product in Gaylord, Mich. for years. This year we built it online as a Wiki and intend to make key government reps users there to update the information as needed. The idea, anyway, is that they are invested in keeping the content current and that at the end of the year we can take the electronic copy back to print.

See it at guide.gaylordheraldtimes.net.

As a three-member newspaper group of Schurz Communications, we also attempted to establish a community portal-style site as a Wiki for people to come and build/edit as they desired. I think the general sentiment I've seen expressed is true that there is a technology knowledge (and infrastructure) curve to overcome to see that built extensively.

See that at miseasons.com.

More food
Posted by Paul Bradshaw 3/21/2007 9:54:49 AM

Thanks for the links - I agree wikis have great potential, and wrote a column on the issue for Press Gazette (http://onlinejournalismblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/are-wikis-the-new-blogs/. The Telegraph have some plans here.

Wiki about Journalism
Posted by Maurreen Skowran 3/21/2007 1:59:55 AM

Here is the URL for a wiki about journalism that I founded:
http://journalism.wikia.com

Besides use as a regional guide, I think wikis have a lot of potential for newsrooms to use internally.

But it's often hard to build participation. Anyone starting a wiki might want to consider targeting their recruiting, especially initially, to the more technically-inclined segments of their audience.

Usually technical or pop culture has more success than other topics.

More on Sentinel wiki
Posted by Anthony Moor 3/20/2007 7:02:04 PM

Hi Amy,

Regarding what Sean Holton discussed at the Sentinel, I can add a few more details: We used to have a resources guide for newcomers online, but we didn't have the staff capability to keep things updated: Community profiles, phone numbers of government offices and the like.

While some of that might be doable in a database form, or in a hyperlocal format, we thought that wiki pages for communities plus wikis on newcomer topics could more effectively display the information we are trying to provide.

We're doing this to reach out to the large number of people who move in and through Orlando. It's a growing community, and like elsewhere in Florida, has people who consider 'home' somewhere else. We hope to capture the interest of these people through this site.

The constraints include the fact that we don't have wiki software as part of our CMS, and, frankly, scant online staff bandwidth to address this as aggressively as we'd like. We're moving as fast as we can on a number of fronts, so the timeframe for this initiative is still unclear.

And as for the business model, we in Editorial aren't yet looking at this through that lens, but I can tell you that in the past our newcomers' guide was an integral addition to our real estate channel. It has a natural application there, so I suspect when we get closer we'll be working with classifieds to explain what we're putting together so they can serve the anticipated audience.

The Wiki Conundrum
Posted by Mac Slocum 3/20/2007 5:26:32 PM

Amy -- I've been pondering the news/content applications for Wikis, but I keep running into mental walls. Wikis are great for encyclopedias and glossaries (Sci Fi channel put together a great "sci fi" wiki (scifipedia.scifi.com), and I could see similar applications extended to the news arena (perhaps a news wiki could offer biographical sketches on folks in the news, or folks who make the news, etc.)

But beyond archival/glossary formats, I can't really wrap my head around the applications. I know private wikis are sometimes used to trade notes and develop concepts around specific projects, so I suppose an in house "newsroom wiki" could be used for enterprise reporting and long-term features. But really, that's all I've been able to come up with. I'd love to see other applications. Like you, Amy, I'm sure there must be *some* news/wiki hybrid out there, I just haven't seen it yet.

The NewsMarket Editorial Wiki
Posted by David Murrow 3/20/2007 5:26:29 PM

Amy - Timely post! The NewsMarket has just launched an editorial news wiki at our site, to help alert our regsitered journalists to upcoming news opportunities with accompanying video.
Read more about it here:
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=225140

We invite journalists here to register at our site and contribute to the wiki.
http://www.thenewsmarket.com/Registrations/PreRegistrationPage.aspx?regtype=R

One is early planning
Posted by Ken Sands 3/20/2007 5:15:22 PM

I've been threatening for a couple of years to do a wiki-like encyclopedia of regional people, places and things in conjunction with the NIE program. My hope is to convince middle school and high school teachers to take on authorship of certain topics as a classroom project. It wouldn't be a true wiki, because only that class would be able to write and edit "their" topic. (At least as I envision it.) The problem is the idea will take a ton of coordination to implement. We have only one NIE staffer. Maybe soon...

This sounds like one to watch
Posted by Amy Gahran 3/20/2007 12:57:16 PM

Thanks for mentioning your upcoming project, Sean. Please do e-mail me a link when it's up, I'd love to do a follow-up. My e-mail is amy@gahran.com

Just out of curiousity, could you tell us in another comment what you hope to achieve with your wiki project, and what kinds of issues , opportunities, and constraints are you taking into account? Also, how will it complement your other online offerings and support your business model, if at all?

Thanks

- Amy Gahran

Orlando Sentinel wiki
Posted by Sean Holton 3/20/2007 12:00:54 PM

Amy...at the Orlando Sentinel, we're in the process of designing a wiki guide to the region. It started as a concept for a "newcomers guide," but as it has evolved we realized there should be much broader interest. Our plan is to launch a core version with staff-written articles on all the obvious topics -- then promote its existence online and in print in hopes of creating the critical mass needed to attract reader interest and contributions. We'd also treat the wiki as a source of material to repurpose to print. We'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'd love to hear what anyone else out there is up to, what roadblocks they hit, lessons learned, that kind of thing. Thanks for raising the topic.

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