Norgdom

One of the questions I get asked a lot is whether I think traditional media is dead. The quick answer is “this is not a battle”.

New media/citizen media/we media allows for opportunities in media not available to people outside the Fourth Estate prior to the birth of the internet.

And for a long time the reality for many has been that a voice on the internet was only made possible if you had the technical ability to build web pages.

This is where social networking platforms like  Blogger, Wordpress and MySpace have lead the pack in that they have allowed people to create their own space on the internet with very little technical knowledge. This has allowed the internet to open up to the masses.

What this also has created is the genuine opportunity for everyone to have their say on the isssues that matter to them. From where I’m standing, and after having worked in traditional media for the better part of seven years as a print journalist, this can only be a positive thing for the media.
People can now engage with the news. There have been some great examples of traditional media companies beginning to embrace the community they serve. The BBC would have to be the leader in that area, but I think the SMH and The Age have also been outstanding early adapters.

The Norg fits in, because when it comes to news models, there are limitations on traditional media that we don’t have. By giving Cit J’s the ability to fully control the news we create a truly user-empowered news site. It’s evolutionary, not revolutionary. But significant all the same.
So see all you evolutionaries round the Norg.

As most of you know norg is short for ‘news organisation’. I came across the term when I was researching my vision for a new media that allowed the public to engage with the news and give them an authentic voice in a way that only the internet could allow.

At the same time that I was developing the model, there was a conference in Philadelphia called “Norg: the unconference”. An unconference in a non-agenda, brain-storming, collaborative excercise to discuss and develop an idea in a democratic way.

The term was orginally coined by Will Bunch (pictured above) over at the blog Attytood on October 24 of 2005 as a way of opening up the debate on the future of news organisations. The amazing thing is I have never read Will’s original article until tonight and I got goosebumps. Have a read and you’ll see why.
Five months later there was the unconference, which you can read about here. It inspired me that I was on the right track, but I didn’t want to wait for one to be built and so I started putting together my own vision of a norg.

For me, Perth was the obvious place to start. For so long we have been brushed out of the media landscape. There were of a couple of people a long the way who told me that Perth would never embrace such an innovative concept. Quite frankly, I think they’re wrong.

I think the world is ready for norgs and I think Perth is the perfect place to start them.

While, believe it or not, I have not been in touch with Will , he has heard about PerthNorg and was a bit chuffed that I used his word.

So Will this is my thanks for what I think is great word! So let’s not let down those Philly visionaries and get posting.

See you round the Norg

Yay, today my name wasn’t in the top news - which is cause to celebrate.

Keep it coming …

A quick congratulations to Freckle Creative, our developers, who scooped the awards pool at the West Australian Awards (or WAWAs as it is more affectionately known) on Friday.

They won five of the 13 awards up for grabs, including best site for 2006, so well done Freckle. If you have a look at the WAWA site you’ll see that WA is home to some great creative talents.

It’s great to see a few of our Cit J’s take the plunge and write their own stories. This is really what we want to encourage everyone to have a go at doing. Finally you have a place to share the news - so get in and share. And vote ofcourse!
You don’t have to submit a ‘news’ item - it can be a more informal observation. It’s really up to you to develop the style you are comfortable with.

Have a look at some local blogs at AustralianBlogs.com.au to get some idea of the new media’s approach to writing. You will see that Australia has a healthy and thriving blog community and we are just an extension of the whole blogging phenomenon - in some ways you could say we are a community blog.
So let the Cit J in you have their say and see you round the Norg.

We have been very fortunate here at PerthNorg to have had Eric Shackle, the oldest citizen journalist in the world, stop by and submit an article on Perth - a slow city?

Mr Shackle discovered the internet at 80, when he ‘retired’ from his life as a journalist and has become quite well-known around the world for his various stories. He has built up his reputation in the lat seven years as one of the most prolific citizen journalists,
You can read more about Mr Shackle here.

Thanks for the kind words Eric and we look forward to some more contributions from you.

Hello all Cit J’s - well we’ve been busy all day here at PerthNorg working on the next few things we have planned for it.

We’ve got some great little features to add to the site that will only make it better. I can’t give too much away for now, but I can tell you that I think you’ll alll embrace it - as you have PerthNorg.

We’re getting huge traffic here - so much so that we have already used 80 per cent of our allocated bandwidth for the month. So keep coming and spread the word.

It’s great to see some people having ago here and writing up some stories for us. You may not realise it now, but in a lot of ways what you have contributed is revolutionary.
And, as you’ll from our current top story see we’ve already rated a mention over at the Sydney Morning Herald.

So sit up and be noticed and let Perth know what you think.

We’ll be looking at our voting this morning to make sure we don’t land up with stories being stuck at the top, while a load of fresher news comes in.

For those of you who may not know our voting is set to reduce votes by 20 per cent every 24 hours with the aim of increasing that to 50 per cent when we get the news pouring in. It looks like we’ll have to revise that today and I’ll be talking to my trusty developers about that first thing this morning. We may crank it up some more … wondering whether we should go the 50?
We are going to do a few minor redesigns this week - putting things in better places from the feedback we’ve had from you. Did I mention you can leave any comments here?

One of the first things on my list is to move the vote buttons up the page! So, vote … it’s vital to keep the news moving. You drive the news.

If you are not logged in and are having trouble you’ll notice the little red “bomb” button at the top. Give us a hoy and we’ll help.

Just a quick note to make sure passwords aren’t being sent to junk folders - if you don’t receive one this is where it will be. Either that or you have posted the wrong email address.

See you round the Norg.