Alex Gamela - Digital Media & Journalism

Building a hyperlocal website: final thoughts

Alex Gamela — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:02:33 +0000

Keywords for hyperlocal

This is the final post about hyperlocal websites, that started with my own experience with HashBrum, as described in one, two, three posts, and with the special contribution of five sapient minds that work on hyperlocal endeavors. I learned a lot from my own efforts – mine and the rest of the team’s – and also from this reflection. It was interesting to analyze the list of characteristics presented by different people for hyperlocal websites and find common terms, common ideas, a common ground, even in the choice of words. Here’s what i learned, organized around a few main concepts. To understand them better, you should have read the previous posts of this series, but i think this will be quite clear and straight to the point.

Relevance

Why are hyperlocal news websites important? Why do people feel inclined to “backyard news”? Precisely. Proximity is the keyword here, and it’s not only a geographical concept, it’s also about the relationships that a hyperlocal blogger/journalist must have with the community (s)he covers. You have to live there, be a part of it, like Will Perrin said. You’ll beat any other local newspaper because of your knowledge, you know the ground better than them, the real problems, because they are your problems too. And since you are there, you can get to the news faster, and stay on them for a longer period of time, without deadline constraints: you have availability. And will the local media send a reporter for every story you find interesting? Not really, no. Your broken streetlight is not an issue for the general audience, but it is for the people who live in that street: granularity, or , it’s the small stuff that counts.

Another good thing that hyperlocal websites are good at is by providing a better user experience. Innovation and experimentation in storytelling, using maps, multimedia, different ways to look at and navigate through the news. And without the need for a huge investment, because most of the tools to create a website like this are free and open source, so only a small financial investment is required, the real expense here is time. But to be effective, the hyperlocal website’s technology must promote participation, allow people to offer their input, and the users should be able to conform their experience through customization, getting the information they want, the way they want.

Attitude

At the core of hyperlocal behavior is passion. It’s your reality, or at least a reality that is right outside your front door. The level of engagement and commitment hyperlocal news websites have are huge, compared to the average reporter, who is assigned for a story and educated to be detached. Hyperlocal reporters are involved in the story and they can afford to be critical and assertive close to the local authorities, and use their work to improve their community’s living standards and environment. It’s what matters to a few, that becomes really important.

Another relevant characteristic is adaptability. A good hyperlocal website is aware of it’s shortcomings and is constantly looking for new ways to do their work, something quite impossible to do in the bigger, slower structures of traditional media, and their sluggish procedures and bureaucracies. They can be built and developed fast, and still bring added value.

A new market is open for these projects: since it’s about and for the local community, it is also an advertising opportunity for local businesses, who can’t afford ads in the pages of a newspaper. If instructed to develop interaction and user experience like the hyperlocal website should do, there is a lot to get out of this, for local businesses.

The bottom line is, your neighborhood news matter, whether it’s a poorly made manhole, or a broken streetlight, or crime. It’s these bits of information that become important when you are living – or wanting to live – in a neighborhood. And if there’s a way to connect us back to our neighbors, whom we usually don’t know, and join efforts to improve our real, every day life experience, it was well worth it. And if you want to do it, there isn’t much stopping you. All you have to do is to talk to people who live next to you, see what is already being discussed online, and build a space to host the information that matters. All it takes is time, and quick thinking.

When we first thought about HashBrum, we believed we could create a small network of street level information, and let the different communities take part in the process. In the end we leaned towards reporting specific issues neglected by the local media, who didn’t have room in their agendas or the resources to cover them, or do comprehensive follow ups on the developments. It’s the idea that a brief article in local media can be a huge story for a community/hyperlocal website. And do you know what?, sometimes they’re huge for other communities too, that have the same problems, and what seemed to be an isolated event might be a more general issue within society.

With the fragmentation brought by the internet, the rule is no longer defined by the majority. It’’s the individual’s rules and needs that matter, and we can customize them in size, subject and location. With all this power, citizens can start improving the world, starting at their doorsteps. Or just have their garbage collected more often. If you have your own ideas on this, please, do share them in the comment box below. If you aren’t already starting to build your own hyperlocal news thing…

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Building a hyperlocal website: 5 things hyperlocal can do and be, times 5

Alex Gamela — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:35:23 +0000

I’ve been posting about my experience with the HashBrum project (Parts one , two and three), a hyperlocal news project, with all the things that were and could have been. But what i haven’t discussed here in detail is why the hyperlocal news websites are so darn important. Are they just a fad? I don’t think so. But although i think they can’t substitute traditional media, they can do things traditional media can’t do, for several reasons, mostly structural and strategic. There is a gap in the local coverage that these websites and their creators can fill, and a need for this type of news.

I asked to Adam Westbrook, Adrian Holovaty, Josh Halliday, Rob Powell and William Perrin for five things hyperlocal websites can do (or do better) that mainstream news websites can’t. It is interesting to see there are a lot of common ideas, and a inherent philosophy and attitude to these projects.

Adrian Holovaty, EveryBlock

EveryBlock, New York edition

Adrian Holovaty is the mind behind chicagocrime.org and EveryBlock, the websites that set the standards for all things hyperlocal. He is also probably the most well known journalist/programmer of the 2.0 era, and most likely the first to find success. He was awarded with a Knight Foundation grant in 2007. Adrian kindly accepted my challenge, and he wanted to make one thing clear:

“I’m only qualified to talk about what EveryBlock does, as opposed to hyperlocal news sites in general, so here’s a list of five things EveryBlock does that mainstream media sites don’t do.”

Here’s Adrian’s list:

1. Geographic granularity. Give people a way to follow news around a particular block. This is the main focus of EveryBlock, where we give each city block its own Web page, its own RSS feed and its own e-mail alerts. Here’s an example, the 1030 block of W. Addison St. in Chicago: http://chicago.everyblock.com/streets/addison-st/1030-1063w/

2. Geographic customization. Give people a way to draw custom geographic boundaries to specify their area of interest. Our “custom locations” feature lets you draw an arbitrary area in your neighborhood that selects the streets you’re interested in following. Here’s a video that demonstrates the feature: http://www.everyblock.com/screencasts/customlocations/

3. Geographic messaging. Give people a way to post news to specific geographic areas. Our “Notify your neighbors” feature lets people post messages (news reports, classifieds, etc.) to their blocks, with a sophisticated level of targeting.

4. Subject matter granularity. Give people information that’s “too small” or otherwise not important enough for mainstream news sites, such as restaurant inspections (http://sf.everyblock.com/restaurant-inspections/), building permits (http://chicago.everyblock.com/building-permits/) and fire department dispatches (http://seattle.everyblock.com/fire-dispatch/).

5. Topic customization. Give people ways to control which types of information they get and how often they get it. For example, EveryBlock lets you choose which types of information you want to get daily, weekly or “as it happens”: http://seattle.everyblock.com/locations/neighborhoods/capitol-hill/alerts/

William Perrin, Talk About Local

A Will Perrin production

William Perrin is well known in the british hyperlocal scene, if we consider there’s one. He is a resident of Kings Cross, and one of the creators and contributors of kingscrossenvironment.com. Nowadays he is working on Talk About Local, “a project to give people in their communities a powerful online voice. “

I asked for five things, Will delivered six, just for you.

1. Live there, right in the thick of it. As papers migrate to regional production centers their connection with the community is often lost.
2. Respond rapidly in near real time to a situation on the ground. By virtue of being there in the first place and using simple web technology with no editorial processes.
3. More granularity. Dog shit outside my front door is of interest to my neighbours but, reasonably can’t be of interest to people on the other side of a newspapers patch.
4. Do it for free. People are inspired to do things for their community and contribute to hyperlocal sites as part of their local volunteering. Local campaigning is mainly about communication – the web enables them to do that more effectively and using less precious time.
5. Show real passion and commitment. Creating a more genuine effective voice – this comes from all the above – see digbethisgood versus RDA promotional literature.

6. Follow stories that have no reall commerical value. ie you couldn’t sell advertising against them – such as excruciating detail of council meetings – see pitsnpots.

Josh Halliday, SR2blog.com

Sunderland's hyperlocal news website

I met Josh at the news:rewired event, and I didn’t know then he was the behind SR2, a “community-run neighbourhood news website, dedicated to the SR2 area of Sunderland.” When I imagined Hashbrum’s layout in my mind, it was exactly like his website is designed. So I like his work, and I think he has an excellent taste. And he is a smart an industrious young man.

Here’s what he has to say:

1. One of the fundamental advantages of independent hyperlocal news sites over ‘mainstream media’ local/regional websites is the bottom-up, reactive way they can implement the changes to the way their information is consumed. There’s no proprietorial template or organizational hierarchy they have to adhere to, there’s no middlemen based hundreds/thousands of miles away deciding the best way for visitors to use your site.

2. Quite a few (not all) local/regional newsrooms in the UK have found themselves in a situation where only a handful of people are trained to publish news online, either due to lack of resource (time and/or money) and/or a lack of digital strategy. Thus when news breaks post-4pm on a weekday or throughout the weekend there’s no one to get the information out there on any other platform than the newspaper. I found myself in that situation last month – news broke early on a Saturday, the local newspaper reported with two paragraphs but then missed the next 31+hours developments which SR2 Blog scooped up. [Full story at the link]

3. Hyperlocal news websites generally give a much better instantaneous picture of the relevant area than the website of the local/regional newspaper. Embedded maps, which have become something of a must-have for hyperlocal sites, have great potential for presenting trends and developing issues in an area – as EveryBlock perfectly demonstrates. These maps are something that proprietorial local news publishers have so far not pursued and even snorted at. Should I live in Villette Road, Sunderland SR2, I can find my street on the map and within seconds I can see that in the last few weeks on my streets and those within a couple of minutes walking distance, there have been three assaults, a murder and a Christmas day fight outside a pub. You’ll then make of that what you will.

4. Hyperlocal news websites, as with all niche offerings, can serve up a tightly-focused audience (and new opportunities) for advertisers. Addiply has made placing an advertisement online as easy and transparent (and more measurable) as placing a notice in the corner shop window – this is advantageous for both publisher and visitor.

5. Hyperlocal is (usually) built atop an open-source platform with dozens/hundreds/thousands of people building new add-ons, plug-ins and customisations all the time. This extends the development side of the workforce well outside proprietorial boundaries and means small-staffed independent start-ups often have more easily navigable, usable and useful websites than mainstream local news publishers.

Rob Powell, Hyperlocal.co.uk

Hyperlocal websites in a map

When I was looking for examples of hyperlocal websites, I came across with Hyperlocal.co.uk in one of my Google Reader feeds. It’s a map of most of the hyperlocal news websites in the UK, and a fantastic idea. I had to ask Rob about what he believes to be the top differences between hyperlocal, community based websites and the mainstream media. He went for something different, nonetheless, great.

“I tried to think of some stuff other than the obvious “cover street level news better than local press” (or regional press pretending to be local press) and I came up with 3!”

1. Respond quickly and “out of hours”. Because running a local website is often a labour of love, I can find myself putting stories up in the middle of the night. Competitor sites from the mainstream aren’t so hot out of normal office hours, and in at least one case I can think of, content doesn’t go on the website until its been in the printed paper which could be almost a week later.

2. Experiment and innovate. I find it easy to try out new layouts, widgets, plugins and tools because there’s no corporate bureaucracy involved. I can just try stuff out and see how it goes or ask the readers what they think.

3. Build relationships with other bloggers. My experience of traditional local press is they quite often pick up stories and rarely credit the source. They often have that mindset of pretending other news sources don’t exist. Whereas if I am following up on a story which I have seen on a blog, news site or Twitter, I will certainly link to it which gives a nice feeling of engaging with people and becoming more like part of a conversation.

Adam Westbrook, AdamWestbrook.wordpress.com

Buy the book

Last but not least, Adam Westbrook, another of the young bright minds that I have met recently. Adam recently wrote a book dedicated “to help all hyperlocal bloggers big or small, young or old, get the news that matters to their community” (you can get it here, and it’s worth the price).

1. Innovate & experiment. Although many newspapers might think differently, they (like all large companies) are terrible at innovation. It requires creativity, a chance of failure and a risk of losing money, all three of which are discouraged in a busy newsroom. And these are valid concerns. Small hyperlocals – sometimes only one person – are the antidote to this. They can afford to risk failure as they build their brand, especially if it becomes part of the brand itself. They are able to experiment with lower costs than the mainstream media. So my message to hyperlocals is: take advantage of this! Discard your first idea for covering a story and try to reinvent the wheel just a little every time you publish.

2. React quickly to new technology. On a similar note, the mainstream media struggles to pick up new technology quickly. We’ve all seen how long it took them to bring in blogs, podcasts and introduce social media. Many haven’t even managed that yet. So how quickly will they react when the next big thing comes along? Almost certainly at a snails pace again. Hyperlocals websites on the other hand should put themselves on the frontline and try new software, new plugins and even new kit. Be the ones showing everyone else how it can be done.

3. Dig the dirt.Even though they are much smaller, hyperlocal blogs do have a newsgathering advantage over mainstream alternatives. Sure, many newspapers are very good at covering the council/city hall beat. But if you’re a hardpressed reporter, with two deadlines in the next hour, and that police chief still hasn’t called you back, how long are you really going to spend reading through that Licensing Committee meeting agenda? The hyperlocal blog – with no formal deadline needs – can afford to spend time really leafing through the tomes which enable democracy to work – and afford to spend time getting it to print before anyone else.

4. Build a community. I don’t just mean an online community, because many newspapers do that well. The hyperlocal blog has the advantage of covering a much smaller area, and can build not just an online community of readers and contributors, but a real-world community as well. Don’t just be a website with your town’s name at the top – be part of your town’s beating heart! Fundraising pub quiz nights and regular contributor coffee mornings are just two examples I just came up with.

5. Collaborate & outsource. And newspapers, like all large traditional companies, have to go through a lot of red tape to collaborate with outside bodies. Normally if you work with them you’re a full time employee, freelancer or sub contracted. That limits the opportunities newspapers have to work with really talented journalists and creatives. Not a problem for hyperlocal bloggers though, who can find and work with excellent investigators in the next town or great designers in Tokyo.

I guess you have enough food for thought for now. I’ll sum this up and finish this hyperlocal series in the next post. Leave your own ideas in the comment box.

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‘Semantic news’ and the rise of the robots: Mario Tascón’s full interview

Alex Gamela — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:51:46 +0000

La Informacion's bizarre process triangle

Journalism.co.uk asked me to write an article about interesting online projects in the Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian publishing markets, and I decided to start with LaInformacion.com, a spanish online news website that has some special characteristics. I interviewed Mario Tascón, head of Diximedia, the company that runs the project, for the article, that you can read here. Below is the full interview, in the English version. Tascón also writes in 233grados, his blog about media. If you understand Spanish, check it out.

If you know other interesting and groundbreaking online news projects in any of these countries, let me know. Thanks.

Mario Tascón’s interview

-At first sight, La informacion seems like an ordinary news website. What makes it different?

The fact that it looks like a regular website when a big part of it is made by machines is already a difference. From 12.am until 6.30 in the morning, the editor in chief is an algorithm that selects and organizes the news that we get. It analyzes trends in real time in social networks and search engines. It’s a less expensive way to maintain a website during certain periods, and if you can’t notice it, it’s because it doesn’t work that bad

Another difference is the amount of information. More than 5.000 stories get into the system every day, among videos, texts and infographics. A website like elpais.com doesn’t have more than 1.000 stories like those each day.

I believe that usability and the design of the website make also a difference, that has been recognized by users and professionals (in such a short amount of time we had lots of international awards in both of those areas.)

The way the newsroom is designed is another difference. It’s a networked newsroom, as it is a network of partnerships with other players. As an example, a great deal of information about football is made with resultados-futbol.com, which is a social network with thousands of youngsters.

The international affairs are also covered mostly through the partnership with the Global Post, and the Technology news are covered with Microsiervos, which is the most well known blog about the subject in Spain.

The way we deal with the different channels (Twitter, Facebook, etc…) is different too. Most of the media treat them all the in same way, but for us, the language itself is quite specific.

-How does La Informacion work? It’s not a traditional process of journalistic newsgathering, but it’s not just aggregation. Where does the concept of “semantic news” fit in?

Lainformacion has a great technological frame that lists thousands of news in real time, so we use fewer resources regarding the “breaking news” traditional concept, to which the digital media dedicate so much effort. Breaking news are analyzed by the machines, using that “semantic intelligence”. Having that part of the job in the hands of the algorithms most of the journalistic resources are dedicated to search or elaborate stories and provide them added value when published, and also to try new narratives and experiment with different technologies:

a.- Panoramical Megafotos panorámicas of landscapes, monuments, events or exhibitions
http://blogs.lainformacion.com/megafotos/2010/01/12/el-palacio-de-cristal-bajo-la-nieve/
b.- tag clouds of political speeches

http://graficos.lainformacion.com/2010/01/bush-hablaba-de-guerra-obama-habla-de-economia/

c.-F1 drivers comparisons
http://graficos.lainformacion.com/2010/01/comparativa-de-pilotos-favoritos-para-el-mundial-de-formula-1/
d.- own production vídeos http://videos.lainformacion.com/
e.- special packages
http://graficos.lainformacion.com/2010/01/haiti-siete-dias-y-la-nada/
http://especiales.lainformacion.com/ciencia/hombre-en-la-luna-40-aniversario/

The semantic listing systems allow us to treat more than 100.00 pages in real time with information about 100.00 concepts from companies to people.
http://tags.lainformacion.com/steve-jobs_P_MyGx3iZlNvxaKogkbIOtb3/

Here you have collected the most important news about Apple, eliminating the noise and listing the news immediately. You have to remember that we don’t reproduce full texts, so the analysis work is complex but with an accuracy rate of 95%.

We eliminate the noise (most of the news come from the wire and get repeated) and we select from each subject group within a category the best, the most interesting or complete. It’s impossible to do that work manually.

-Is user generated content a part of your sources? Why? What is the real value that UGC brings?

It’s one of the areas that we still haven’t developed in lainformacion and we have examples of what we want to do in that field with Praticopedia.com ,where we even share the ad revenue with the users.

-What has been the biggest investment in La informacion? I don’t have the idea you have much of your own multimedia content production, for example.

Technology and newsroom. There’s a lot of content that we create and buy.

-La informacion is just one year old, and it is freshly out of the beta phase. How has it been so far? I know it has been having a steady, fast growth in audience.

We have grown a lot in terms of audience (in December we had 1.6 million users in Nielsen’s ratings whereas elmundo.es had 6 million). Considering that we only launched officially in September (after a few months in beta) it’s a good number. We need to establish an audience, that visit us regularly and transfer the success we have on twitter and facebook to create a larger virtual community.

-What is your business model? Is it just based in advertising? What do you think about the pay wall proposals, can it happen with La Informacion?

It is mostly supported by publicity. [Pay walls] are not going to work for those who want to develop the business. If the main goal is to protect print let them shut down their websites but they will kill their brands by doing so. I ran elpais.com in the time where we set up a wall like that…

-What is the importance of social media in your strategy?

Paramount. It’s one of the keys to our success right now. We differentiate the channels, and apply to each one of them a specific language that we learn from our users every day.

Lainformacion.com is the only medium in the world that has its “status” in the header. It’s a declaration of principles.

-The market and the technology are developing faster than any model has time to establish itself. What are the next steps for La informacion?

To be fast and focus on what we know how to do best. And in the rest associate with those who do it well [...]. Invest more in new contents and apps for news contents.

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Alex Gamela - Digital Media & Journalism

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