Buzzmachine: Work collaboratively

 I'm convinced the only way we as a society are going to survive this series of journalists layoffs/buyouts/goodbyes -- Did you see More than 1,000 jobs eliminated in 2 months -- is to get more people interested in creating content, reflecting the communities we live in. It takes hard work and money.

I know lots of people had this dream of folks contributing to a rich community computer network back when free-nets were growing.

Jeff Jarvism in a post on Buzzmachine, shares ideas on getting the public involved with creating journalism, with covering a community.

Here's a summary,  

* Ask public to sort large amounts of data/documents put online 

* Ask the public to help gather data points around a story. 

* Get the public to help file FOIAs and create a FOIA repository 

(Plays nicely off the Empower readers, viewers with FOI advice a column in January Quill from Society of Professional Journalists (Sorry. You need to be a subscriber to read that, but here are some resources to help with FOI )

* Let public help assign reporters

* Establish communities of experts to help on stories, their reporting and checking and even their assignment.  

* Give citizens  camera and recorders and ask citizens to capture meetings, lectures, events.

* Get the advertising side involved in supporting curated, quality blog networks

Head to the original   for examples.

He closes with

To get started, I'd hire a collaboration editor charged with getting such projects going all around the newsroom.

And has this bit of advice:

But I'd make sure that job gets phased out as journalists collaborate on their own self-interested initiative.

And I suggest you make sure you carefully assign that job ... you need an enthusiastic champion right from the start. Actually, the more champions, the better