An interesting little experiment in collaborative journalism happened a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd call attention to it.
Sam Whitmore is a media columnist for Forbes. In his work to prepare for an article on Tivo, he floated up a 9 question survey that was picked up by Gizmodo and by PVR Blog (where I am a contributor.)
Sam wrote the article, Forbes.com: What TiVo Teaches Us, and while he did not directly use much of the data from the survey in his article, he was kind enough to release all of the survey data back to us, his readers, via his MediaSurvey.com site.
When I first came across Whitmore's request, I was a little taken aback.
"Do your own homework!" I thought to myself.
But I supported his effort because we all know some technology journalists often do not cover the technology as well as some of the better writers within the tech markets themselves (i.e. there are some good programmers who are also good writers.)
Whitmore has really taken this project full-circle. By re-releasing all of the survey data to us, he has allowed all of us to learn what he has learned. Product marketers can learn more about what makes Tivo such a pivotal product. Customer service specialists can glean what are the key points for supporting a media/entertainment service. Product designers can learn why Tivo has such a loyal following. There's A LOT to learn in those 56 pages of user survey data.
This is the power of the Internet that really invigorates me. Learning, profiting to a point, but sharing more back with the 'net. It may sound cheesy but I get up every day and am amazed at what I can learn, what I can share, what I can do, who I can communicate with via the Internet.
If Whitmore or others of a similar ethic keep pushing this "user-supported journalism" I think we can start moving towards what South Korea has with OhMyNews.com.
Thank you Sam Whitmore!
Very cool. The complete transparency made possible by Internet journalism (as opposed to the restrictions imposed and taken advantage of my traditional media) is awesome. What I'd like to see traditional publications with online content do is link quotes that feature the dreaded ellipses to the full quote so out of context remarks won't be subject to abuse. Context is critical, and selectively omitting things is perhaps the most effective way of misleading readers (NYT is the guiltiest of this).
This is tech. journalism in your post, but the applications are broad.
cdg
Very true. Thanks for your comment Chris.
for those who don't read Korean there's ohmynews for the rest of us - http://english.ohmynews.com/
I tried something like this last week, through my blog ( http://www.itestrategies.com ), through an e-newsletter linked to my blog ( http://tinyurl.com/2r3pa ) and through a posting on the AlwaysOn Network ( http://www.alwayson-network.com ).
The AON replies were kind of like extremist rants; the replies that I received from my e-newsletter and blog postings were "professional" and thoughtful, NOT rants.
David Scott Lewis