Having studied online journalism for four years we’ve thought a lot on how to enhance journalism with excisting tools. We experimented with Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, Diigo – let’s say dozens of services. But I’m not sure if we – despite our diploma thesis – have spent any minute thinking about new tools for better journalism. Which is a pity. Germany in general and Darmstadt in particular might not be the Silicon Valley but we have a bunch of talented hacks and hackers around. Though, most of the time separated.
And that’s where Burt Herman steps into our virtual #MozNewsLab classroom. He is a journalist and entrepreneur, he co-founded Storify as well as Hacks/Hackers, an organization and network that brings together journalism and technology. Taking Storify as an example, Burt gave us advice on how to realize our ideas.
By the way: As I already had the chance to work with Storify, I have to say that it’s a smart tool for the kind of journalism, Jeff Jarvis once named process journalism. Due to the fact that “online, the story, the reporting, the knowledge are never done and never perfect” building a tool which helps journalists picking up tweets, blogposts, videos and photos, to rearrange and to comment on them is a great idea.
But as Jeff Jarvis’ lecture will come soon enough, let’s get back to Burt Herman’s advices. Let’s focus on these: Build a community, build a team and hey, just build it! So far our team consists of two hacks. Now it’s time to find some hackers and Burt Herman encouraged us to do so.
To pick up on Kersten’s thoughts on Aza’s lecture about prototyping, a maker space or a hackathon could be a good start.
Hacken! Love the term. Some great insights into the first week of lecture material.