I think this open news assignment system would be worthwhile to build, although it wouldn’t necessarily require funding from Knight. News Challenge funding would mean development wouldn’t start until at least 16 months from now, too long in my opinion. Instead, i’d start prototyping this and building it in stages. Newspapers should be taking their online development into their own hands. I think what would be immediately useful for newspapers in this is an assignment system that made an open database of all their scheduled work. There was a post on MediaShift today that talked about how newspapers in Ohio are taking preliminary steps to share content. I’d bet that the software solution they have for that is pretty darn atrocious. If you could build something that allowed newspapers to share with one another which stories they’re allocating resources towards, I think that would be immediately useful. The next step would be to convince them of the values of opening that information (a la transparent newsroom). Then you start building the community collaboration features. And so on.

This is something our news startup has already identified we would like to pursue – perhaps also with you – in spirit, in partnership, with funding – without… How could we also get involved? We’re just a few hours south of you!

my best & kudos,
jake bayless
editor@empirereport.org