E-Media Tidbits

Tantek, via Flickr.com Wired News reporter Ryan Singel has a lot of editors these days.

Wired News is trying something I find very interesting. Reporter Ryan Singel had an assignment for an article about wikis -- a type of site where users are invited to easily edit and change the content, such as Wikipedia. So Singel did his research and turned in a 1,059-word first draft.

After discussion with editors, Wired News then took Singel's unedited draft, posted it to a wiki, and invited readers and experts to "whip it into shape."

The intro to the wiki says, in part: "Don't change the quotations, but feel free to reorganize [the story], make cuts, smooth the prose, or add links -- whatever it takes to make it a lively, engaging news piece. ...Editors who register with the Wired Wiki will be listed on a credit page. We'll release the edited story under a Creative Commons license and, if the whole thing doesn't turn into a disaster, run it on Wired News on September 7th."

In a recent Future Tense interview, Singel said that so far the wiki is generally helping his article. "Right now, the worry is less about quality of content as it is about length. As people edit, they want to add more and more. Which I understand as a writer, I always want to write more than my editor will give me space for."

I'm glad to see a mainstream news organization use wikis so creatively and constructively in the journalistic process. Wikis are great for projects where the goal is comprehensiveness, inclusiveness, or consensus.

As the painfully ill-conceived L.A. Times wikitorial fiasco showed, a wiki is not the right tool to foster discussion on hot-button public controversies.