I'm looking back at an older Almighty Link post with new eyes today. In the post, Kevin Sablan from the Orange County Register imagines a story-streaming platform, similar to what some people do with lifestreaming. "Thinking of each story as an individual 'life' helps identify the opportunity for developers to create or modify a platform that can meet the needs of news organization."
Sablan says a story-streaming platform should have three key characteristics. It should be story-centric, of course, including elements that make for a good story, such as characters and plot. It should provide the opportunity for real-time curation (one of Sablan's big interests) and filtering. And it should be integrated with what the newspaper already produces, such as making a story-stream out of each item in the police blotter.
Granted, some smaller communities might not have enough information capital to put into a system like this -- or the reporting manpower to accomplish it -- but I think that when small additions here or there are combined with the long tail, you can make something rich online that readers will find value in.
Michael Becker has been blogging about academia, digital culture and journalism since 2005. He is the Web editor of the
2 Comments
Kevin’s ahead of his time. I think while presenting a storystream will be critical, inspiring one’s readership to create for you and connect WITH you will be key. The technology will come.
Some of the technology is out there right now, but it’s piecemeal. The kind of integration he’s suggesting hasn’t really been actively tried yet.
One concern about having the users do it for you though is that you run into the possibility of overflow. I suppose that’s why Kevin values curation so much. Let the readers do some of the information gathering and then let the “experts” sort it into something meaningful.