Civic Journalism

Video Interviews Continue - on the roof of City Hall

I interviewed Anderson Mayor Kris Ockomon again yesterday. Went really well. Questions came from readers of the website. Still haven't merged it with print, but think I will with this one. In the beginning I was able to present a gift from a reader in Oklahoma. It was a B&W photo of Chief Anderson. Gentleman who sent it called and thanked me. Felt good.

B-Roll:



Watching the Watchers

Here's a cool story for you. The local newspaper was ordered by a local judge recently to give up the name of one of their anonymous posters or at least the name of the company the plaintiff needs to go after for the information. The forums for the CNHI run newspaper are handled by a third party - Groupee's HeyMartha forums.



Citizens Breaking News in Elwood, Indiana

This is a few days old. I missed it for some reason and my buddy who runs the site (Al Jordan - the Computer Dude) didn't mention it. It's big news in my eyes, though. Another example of the people formerly known as the audience reporting news. Of course, a couple people said we'll have to wait on the paper to find out what happened, but still...

 



AFP Print - Volume 1 Issue 1

Ok, here you go, a PDF of the first copy of AFP Print. Selling of the second issue is going. Could be worse and could be better, but it's positive overall. Takes time to build relationships with local businesses.



Breaking News and Video Interviews

We're continuing to break news - a few fires and a robbery - beating the newspaper by a couple hours usually. And I say we because it's not me - it's people on the AFP Scanner News thread. I want to do more with the idea, but they like it just fine as it is. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, they told me. Heh.



Citizens Breaking News

It happened again. Maybe it's not a fluke? Three different posters tonight broke a robbery at a local tobacco store. About an hour and a half later the Anderson Herald Bulletin had a complete story, but it broke at AFP. Be different some of the members of the site told me last Friday when we met in person.



Of Content and the Community

I have two pieces of content from members of the AFP website (members of the AFP community...) that I'm working on adjusting for print. This process is going to need to be streamlined a lot over the next few weeks, but for now it's great working with people in the community to get information about topics they're interested in ou there.



Alex Halasz and Jay Flanagan own 1529 1/2 South A in Elwood - Would you Rent Here?

The following is a true story (without malice) of my experiences dealing with Jay Flannagan (Jay Flanagan) and Alex Halasz, who own a building at 1529 1/2 South A in Elwood, Indiana.



Classic Journalism?

This was pretty simple, but no one in the area is doing it yet. The readers seem to like the idea and it makes sense to ask them what questions they want answered. Of course, there's still a need for a gatekeeper, an editor, a JOURNALIST, but I've always seen a need for that. Indeed, I've seen a need for more of that.



Elwood Police Scanner Online - Beta Test

I've had this idea since I first saw it online for L.A. and New York, etc., but always thought it would take tons of resources to pull it off. I talked with Al Jordan (The Computer Dude - who runs ElwoodIndiana.org) about the idea and he ran with it.