Role of the news org

I've been working on rewording/reordering the presentation. Kate and I are meeting at 12 today to finish it up. We'll send it out to everyone for before the call tonight.

One thing though: can everyone send us a like one sentence idea of what they see Locker Talker doing for the news organization. It's still kind of a whole, presentation wise. Having other people's wording would be really helpful.

Thanks everyone!

feedback

Hey guys,

So here's what I took to be notable feedback...

1) Dianne thinks we need to allow users to show off their filp books to other people... She said that it isn't really fun if you can't show it off.

2) someone brought up that the news org. should actually make magnets for kids to put on their real school lockers... so they can show off that they are 'in the know'

3) someone suggested there being music in the locker.

4) It was emphasized that we need to know what the consequences of Locker Talker are on the demographic, and why it means good business for the news org.

Harry has everything

So the four hour process of sending Harry all the files is complete (don't ask .... it took forever). Tyler redid the main mockup this afternoon to make it look a little more realistic and appealing, so he now has everything & hopes to have it back to us for Monday.

Dave - Harry needs file

Dave can you send Harry the original file you have for the flip book?
I'll send you an email too in case you check that first.

Thanks!
Andrea

Valuable feedback from Christina..

via e-mail:

"The stickers on the lockers need to look like advertisements, many of them didn't. Post-it notes need to look like post-it, many times they do not.

Also, kid-friendly headlines are better than '2 soldiers dead in Iraq' as people protested the severity of content... I say we just avoid the issue all together in the mock-ups...there was more feedback, but I do not have the opportunity to post it at this moment... this is all I think we need to be concerned about with the mock-ups. Also a sense of consistency is key.. the tyler-made ones looked different from the andrea/kate-made ones."

Discuss this as a group and then communicate decisions to Harry pronto.

mock up help

so we've found a Flash guy. can we just use this post to quickly iron out what needs doing in the mockups? we obviously need the notebooks "coming forward" from the locker. anything else? also, are we looking to get it so that we can click on the notebooks to make them come forward in the mockups, or do we need only a few Flash animation files to put into the Powerpoint?

also, Christina and Dave, did you guys get any feedback on the mockups?

last thing--I think Kate has the mockup files so she will have to send them to the Flash guy.

presentation

hi guys - christina is working on the presentation hand outs - she didn't get a copy of the presentation so far - can somebody from st. mike's shoot her a copy so she can get started thinking about order and what extra content needs to be there

thanks...kim

Webinar call tonight..

..at 9:30 p.m. You should have the numbers sent last week by Kim. If not, let me know. Kim's in CA and may be late to the call.

Come prepared to finalize lingering questions re: the presentation.

We are planning a Sunday, Oct. 14 Webinar call at 8:30 p.m.--another mock presentation with the three presenters; we will all listen, ask questions, and comment.

Talk to you later.

check out this blog post

with a story about a multimedia package - uses the bulletin board as a theme - iwth photos and videos - kind of interesting

The SMC mock presentation...

...went extremely well. Kate, Andrea and Tyler did a terrific job on the first run and they received some pertinent feedback. (Andrea has already given you a summary in a previous post.)

From my perspective (having listened to the presentation, as well as read the individual surveys that audience members filled out), a few key elements need to be strongly emphasized in the Toronto presentation:

1) clarify the problem (i.e. young people not reading newspapers, not tuning to local news; high percentages of youth on online sites; existing sites are superficial, play-based; no online sites out there (cite your research) allowing youth to personalize news interests and share info with other youth groups in a secure environment).

One SMC audience member suggested beginning the presentation with: Do you (as news execs) want to help spawn the citizens of the future? This is attention-getting!

2) mission of LockerTalker (a written mission statement in a PowerPoint slide) communicated in 2-3 bullets. (Citizen journalism is a buzz word that online news executives are all discussing--looking to implement; needs to be emphasized in presentation--this connects to Knight Foundation goal of Incubator Project.)

3) explanation of social networking sites (i.e.Facebook) and how LT differs--how it's an "alternative to social networking for social-networking wannabees"; why parents will like this platform for middle-school age (you all need to clarify exact age range re: Andrea's previous question--many listeners didn't get the narrowed demographic info--there were quite a range of answers to the survey question, "what is the target audience?"); secure news and education environment; privacy rules.

4) explanation of 6 primary LockerTalker features (i.e. notebooks, laptop, post-its, etc.); a suggestion to add video headlines on the laptop, which is a great suggestion--hitting viewers with even more news. (I would definitely suggest ripping from current headlines and inserting them in the mock-ups. This will give news execs a feel for the types of stories that will appear.)

5) explanation of why this is a valuable application for a news organization (what are the concrete benefits for them?); advertising revenue; sparking an interest in news/information and connecting youth to their news sites at formative ages; news is being consumed by a virgin, untapped target market for most news orgs.

6) how LT is financially feasible for the news org--how you envision oversight of the site? How many staff needed to monitor and customize news stories? What kind of labor hours are required to monitor/produce content for site? Play generation card here!

7) restatement of mission, demographic, benefit to news org.

youth groups

We need to contact some youth groups (try, at least) to see if the interest is there before Toronto. I know some of the big ones we came up with were Girl Scouts, 4-H, CYO, Girls Inc.!, Babe Ruth and Little League baseball and softball ... I honestly can't remember what else but people had more creative ones.

Just post which ones you contact, that way we don't all do the same ones.

I'll start with Girl Scouts and 4-H ...

focus group

Both Jordan and the SMC group received the same feeback re: the idea of using a focus group before Toronto. We're trying to contact the director of our community service office, as she runs a Middle School Mentors program. Hopefully, we can show our mockups and ideas to some of these middle schoolers this week (unfortuanately I think they are all girls). We'll let you know...

more SMC feedback

Here's the feedback from the multimedia guy at the Free Press addressing first, whether this is classified as an Intranet or not and second, the possiblity of Locker Talker being a browser:


Your second question first: I'm inclined to agree with you that classifying the project as an intranet would be too insular/limiting. A primary strength of Locker Talker, as I see it, is the way it interfaces between the vastness of the web (which no one can navigate alone) and an individual's interests and tastes. Also, I think there's a pragmatic reason to avoid conceptualizing the project as such: most newsrooms have intranet systems that store photos and stories...generally speaking, those systems are slow and outdated. As for the suggestion about locker talker as a browser: Social networking sites typically cater to niche audiences. The Free Press has a social networking site for moms , for example. The idea there is to bring a particular demographic together for a particular reason. Locker Talker, on the other hand, seems to have a larger potential to be an environment through which people navigate the web. For example, I go to YouTube to see videos but YouTube does not become my web navigation system. It's merely a stop along the way. Facebook, as you mentioned in the presentation, comes closest to being an environment that helps people navigate the web via groups, hobbies, taste, etc. And it's major drawback is definitely privacy concerns. (This: "We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship" is fom Facebook's "privacy" policy). Locker Talker offers the privacy -- it respects individuals sense of space -- without shutting out the really fantastic elements of social networking. Why a browser? Browsers are the tools that currently structure our web environment. It is always with you, no matter where you go on the web. Explorer is the most popular...but it doesn't offer much in the way of personalized space. Check out Flock, which does a lot more by giving accessing to feeds, ability to upload photos, blogging capabilities, etc... Locker Talker, I think, would work very nicely like this.

Feeback from my presentations, finally.

Feedback from Presentations:

There was a lot of feedback that I got that has been unnecessary to post. People gave me ideas like making a power point (of course college professors would say that) and maybe doing a focus group, which I think is something that should be done after we prevent these ideas to the ONA by whoever decides to pick it up. In general there was extremely positive feedback and most people thought it could be implemented, etc.

People said some general comments which they thought were stronger were:

Our goal

Our use of technology/the internet

Starting with a smaller community newspaper

Clear concept

They liked our name for it

The relevant interests to our age demographic

Using buzz words like hyper-local, etc. were responded to well.

Easing networking into news

Safety

Personalization and privacy of lockers

That our demographic is too young for MySpace and Facebook.

They liked our ability to adapt to potential sponsors and the flexibility for change

Tricking the students into reading news

Still using the professional journalists while involving the community

What they felt still needed work (based on a rough presentation and then a little smoother one the second time around from me by myself – keep this in mind.):

We need to look more into what the target audience wants to learn about

Risk of censorship

Streaming video potential?

Will the content be repackaged for these kids?

Wondering if there are strong community newspapers online (I SAY YES TO THAT)

How to convince fearful adults (TO THIS I SAY, THE KIDS ARE ALREADY ON THE INTERNET DOING THINGS, LET’S GIVE THEM AN ACTUAL SAFE PLACE TO SPEND THEIR TIME.)

Approaching a paper for moch content instead of creating headlines in our presentations ourselves.

Some other random suggestions:

Look for smaller community newspaper, not one owned by the big guys

Advertising money worth the audience (I SAY YES)

Are we doing this more as a community service or as a way to make money… (I’D SAY THAT’S A REAL QUESTION WE’D BEEN STRUGGLING WITH IN THIS PROJECT OVERALL. I TOOK IT ORIGINALLY TO BE MORE ABOUT A PUBLIC SERVICE AT FIRST, BUT SINCE THE LAST TIME IN ITHACA, MY THOUGHTS HAVE CHANGED.)

Have a really clear overview of the moderator (WHICH IS SOMETHING I THINK WE ALREADY HAVE, I JUST DIDN’T HAVE ALL DAY TO TALK ABOUT THIS PROJECT.)

It was really quite the learning experience for me being on the other side. I feel less bad for professors than I used to because I can’t tell you how many of them looked like they weren’t giving me their full attention, several half-assed their comments or were playing on their phones the whole time. I guess now I know how they feel, but it’s not like they are any better.

Also, several questions arose that I already stated in my presentation and I had to reanswer them. Maybe that means we should stress them more in our presentation?? Things like how to implement it in the first place, advertising revenue, and moderation of the site were big ones I got questions about.

Thanks guys.

PS – Andrea/Kate, whenever you get a chance, can you send me the powerpoint and script so I can look over it and stuff? I still haven’t gotten it from you.

another possible tie-in

When looking up for info on the Girl Scouts tonight for the Interest Project/cit jo tie in, I found Girl Scout TV. It's basically TV clips of things relating to the Web site. Perhaps if this youth organization relationship actually takes off, such clips could work off the computer along with the video components and PSAs. Just a thought?

Check it out: http://www.girlscouts.org/news/gs_tv/