I found this passage to be pretty interesting:

"Uses for the money will include ways to reward people that upload stories or images, and developing a system to "geo-locate" contributors so they can be found if they are in range of developments deemed newsworthy.

"We are moving to geo-locating people so we can do some cool stuff," Brody said.

"For example, if there is a bomb in a subway station in London or a virus breaks out in Google's cafeteria and media can't get their fast enough we can identify people on the scene already and get their content," Brody said.

Contributors own stories they post on NowPublic, which does not pay for submissions.

"This is really going to help us start compensating those folks," said Brody."

So, in essence, wouldn't the natural evolution of this make NowPublic a brand of "normal" media, in which journalists are paid to cover certain geographies or topics? It kind of seems like what some traditional media outlets, like CNN.com, etc., are trying to do, just coming at it from the other direction, with the same ultimate goal in mind.

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Rosen: Your Wikipedia example is critically important. Here's why. I am on the Wikipedia advisory board, and in the spring I had coffee with Jimmy Wales when he was in town. I asked him why did Wikipedia work when the odds are that most things don't work, and he said something very important, although its significance escaped me at the time. People come to Wikipedia not knowing how it works, but they do know how a regular, 'ol encyclopedia works and so the "leap" to knowing what a free online encyclopedia would be like is not that great. This prior knowledge is critical to a system's viability because is constrains users and points them in the logical directions. How much did it cost Wikipedia to put that common understanding into each contributor's head? Zero! They already knew it. Explaining the way it works takes all of six words: "The online encyclopedia anyone can edit." With 6,000 words we did not get clarity on what a crowdsourced investigation asked of participants because there was no common image to start with, nothing comparable to "encyclopedia, right!..."

I think we pass the bar on part of the simplicity of explanation (even though we've been having problems explaining it). I think we just might be over thinking it. Essentially, it's consuming news and writing letters/emails. People understand both of those things, so the leap to directly tying them together shouldn't be too big.

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The Internet will eventually be full of such 3-D environments; Second Life might even be one of them. But in the meantime, it's just slurping up corporate dollars and delivering little in return.

The article is also worth reading for its discussion of why Second Life's architecture will hold it back from being what everyone wants it to be.

That big Google Maps article is online now too for those who missed it in the print edition.

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(Chris on Jul 29, 2007 1:12 PM) This reminds me of something we talked about during the first Ithaca trip - a 3D world like Second Life definitely has potential, but it's unlikely that Second Life itself is the one that changes anything. Second Life is a good idea with mediocre execution.

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The reason we report on the legislative process is to empower citizens to more easily follow what their government is doing. That makes it easier for citizens to get involved in the legislative process.

She also had a follow up column with some reaction.

Also, yet another map/wiki idea in action: Placeopedia. I'm increasingly happy that Brian had the balls intelligence to challenge that idea.

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(Chris on Jul 25, 2007 9:59 PM) These are things we definitely need to emphasize in the presentation, as it seems like our strongest argument for the existence of our project. Good find.

The 39 questions posed by ordinary citizens highlighted "the role new media is playing in politics and everything else in society," he added.

Phil Noble, founder of PoliticsOnline.com, said the format would get more people engaged in the political process and give politicians a better chance to connect with the voters.

Clearly what we're presenting is different, but I think it does highlight the belief that people should be finding new ways to use the Internet to interact with their politicians and that news organizations can help people do that.

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(brian lewis-jones on Jul 24, 2007 8:24 PM) The more and more I read about it (NY Times and BBC have been talking about it nonstop) the more and more I think that we need to get a working model of our project up and running pronto. It's only a matter of time before Google swipes our big idea pre-launch..

More than 4,000 buildings were submitted.

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Power to the people. Write your Congressperson. Have we thought of a better name than BetterLetter?

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(Courtney Farr on Jul 23, 2007 12:51 AM) I've tried coming up with something as catchy and still haven't. I keep going back to things like People's Voice. I've also thought about maybe extending Better Letter a little, something like Better Letter: Be Heard (a extra bit to make it a little more obvious what it is).

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(Nate Martin on Jul 23, 2007 10:20 AM) If there's anything that makes our simple project stand out among the flying cars, it has to do with thinking like this (from the article): "[David] Bohrman, [Washington bureau chief for CNN], said he had been surprised by how few questions there were about Iraq, how broad the age range was of the questioners and how many of the videos showed a person just talking into the camera. He said that although he had expected some flashy production values and backgrounds, the simplicity of those submitted made him think more about the question." 1. Just because mainstream media pumps Iraq news (somewhat justifiably) to us 24/7 doesn't mean that that is the only issue that people care about (although that does contrast with McCombs and Shaw's agenda setting theory). There are a lot of things that people would like to communicate with their elected leaders about. 2. While CNN works on its new interlude graphics and snazzy anchor backdrops (and is baffled that citizen journalists aren't doing the same), you don't need that kind of shit to make a point -- in fact, flashy production is distracting. No revolutions have begun because of a video. Text is revolutionary.

(Nate Martin on Jul 23, 2007 10:21 AM) If there's anything that makes our simple project stand out among the flying cars, it has to do with thinking like this (from the article): "[David] Bohrman, [Washington bureau chief for CNN], said he had been surprised by how few questions there were about Iraq, how broad the age range was of the questioners and how many of the videos showed a person just talking into the camera. He said that although he had expected some flashy production values and backgrounds, the simplicity of those submitted made him think more about the question." 1. Just because mainstream media pumps Iraq news (somewhat justifiably) to us 24/7 doesn't mean that that is the only issue that people care about (although that does contrast with McCombs and Shaw's agenda setting theory). There are a lot of things that people would like to communicate with their elected leaders about. 2. While CNN works on its new interlude graphics and snazzy anchor backdrops (and is baffled that citizen journalists aren't doing the same), you don't need that kind of shit to make a point -- in fact, flashy production is distracting. No revolutions have begun because of a video. Text is revolutionary. (Or, in this case, I guess video that acts like text is revolutionary).

Japan has rechristened the island of Iwo Jima, site of one of World War II's most horrific battles, with its pre-war name in an attempt to rectify a misnomer proliferated for a half-century by such movies as Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima."

...

The change was championed by surviving islanders evacuated during the war, who wanted to reclaim an identity they said had been hijacked.

American maps will not rename the island.

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http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/07/remake-the-star.html

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Text:

Nowadays, consuming news is a passive experience.

We receive information, but what do we do with it?

How do you use your news?

Scene 1: Quill writing on parchment
Scene 2: Pencil writing on paper
Scene 3: Typewriter
Scene 4: Computer screen

Text: People have used letters historically to communicate with their leaders

Scene 1: Wax stamping a letter
Scene 2: Putting normal stamp on letter
Scene 3: Putting letter in mailbox
Scene 4: Email sent button

Text: In order to represent their electorate, politicians need to know where people stand on issues.

Then go to the soundbytes.

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”Web site, news application or immersive media simulation/platform”

“promote knowledge among people”

“share know-how”

“solve local problems”

“using information to imagine collective possibilities” (a site that helps people see a larger/bigger vision for life on this planet–this goal stood out to me)

“reach common community goals”

“participatory community news”

“useful to real people/communities”

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It turns out that I'm going camping tonight instead of this weekend. Who would have thought (since I'm without a job, I work around the lady's days off).

Anyhow, here is the conceptual framework for the video that I came up with today based off of Chris, Sam and my statements of fact about letter writing:

I. Letter writing has historically been a tool people have used in America to communicate with their elected representatives and others in power.

II. Communication between elected leaders and their constituency is essential for democracy.
A. There could be a whole shitload of subcategories to this: take your pick

III. News provides information to people about the world in which they live, but what are people supposed to do with that information? How do they use it?

IV. People can write letters to leaders using the information they learn from the news.

V. Letters are good because they're personal, a historically approved of thing (see I), and they're cheap (I was going to put that they're easy, but I don't think that's a very good selling point).

VI. The Internet makes it easy to both receive information and "send letters" to leaders all in one place, possibly all in one site using one application...

So yeah, it's rough and not visualized (that's the next step, right?), but that's what I've got. Since I'm going camping I wouldn't be able to meet tomorrow until evening-ish, but I could meet on Wednesday or you could meet without me. I care not.

In other news, were any of you at the Yello Sub closing party last night? I was there until about 12:30, and things were getting hairy (people throwing chairs through walls, etc.), and then this morning they found a body there. Crazy shit.

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True democracy is dependent on the public communicating clearly with its electorate.

Personal communication is the foundation of democracy. Thus, the first amendment.

The fourth estate's power to keep the government in check is reliant on the voice of the people.

Today, government officials have an unlimited number of issues they can address; they only know what's important by listening to the voices of their constituency.

But in an age where communication is a nuisance, messages lose their impact.

But no method of communication is as effective at transmitting the thoughts and passions of one person to the mind of another as a personal letter.

Yet in a digital age, where information is seconds away, few have the patience to rely on a personal letter.

Letters connect media consumers with the issues, fulfilling the potential power of the first amendment to change the government.

If only there was a way to combine the power of the digital age with power of the personal letter...

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