Friday, March 3, 2006

Every year I look forward to "Sunshine Week," that annual ASNE-led campaign to highlight threats to open government. Think of it as the news industry's attempt to make the world safe for democracy.

In January, ASNE published "Bright Ideas," a 72-page booklet highlighting exemplary Sunshine Week efforts by various news organizations. This offers plenty of creative fodder. However, in my opinion this publication is too light on opportunities for online media. It covers special Web pages, and a little bit about forums and communities, but that's about it. Also, ASNE has started its own Sunshine Week blog -- but so far it's rather sparse.

Over at my weblog Contentious, I've just posted an article listing six ways that anyone -- in or out of mainstream news organizations -- can leverage the new online tools of social and conversational media to make the most of Sunshine Week. I discuss tagging, blogging, wikis, citizen journalism, flashmobs, and forums/communities.

It seems to me that even though Sunshine Week started as a project primarily for print and broadcast news organizations, it could well evolve to become a premiere online media event. And it's an especially ripe opportunity for news professionals to collaborate with their audiences and with citizen journalists. We're all in this together.

(UPDATE MARCH 12: Continuing Tidbits coverage of Sunshine Week...)

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