Assignment Zero: Difference between revisions

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"His role in the early days of Wikipedia was important -- he was considered the 'editor-in-chief' -- but it was not the role of founder. Larry was never comfortable with the open wiki process, and he has been critical of it from the beginning and to this day.")
"His role in the early days of Wikipedia was important -- he was considered the 'editor-in-chief' -- but it was not the role of founder. Larry was never comfortable with the open wiki process, and he has been critical of it from the beginning and to this day.")


The modification occured after an interview<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zero.newassignment.net/filed/wales_interview_done_marla_crockett_heres_raw_q_an|author=Crockett, Marla|date=04 May 2007|title=What should ask Wales?|accessdate=2007-05-10}}</ref> that occurred on 04 May 2007, and published on the Assignment Zero site on 06 May 2007.
The modification occured after an interview<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zero.newassignment.net/filed/wales_interview_done_marla_crockett_heres_raw_q_an|author=Crockett, Marla|date=04 May 2007|title=What should ask Wales?|accessdate=2007-05-10}}</ref> that occurred on 04 May 2007, and published on the Assignment Zero site on 06 May 2007. The original main writer of the piece, Michael Ho, <ref>noticed the adjustment{{cite web|url=http://zero.newassignment.net/blog/michael_ho/may2007/08/wired_com_modifies_citizendium_story_post_publicat|author=Ho, Michael|date=08 May 2007|title=Wired.Com Modifies The Citizendium Story Post-Publication|accessdate=2007-05-10}} on 08 May 2007, which spurred comment from both Jay Rosen, editor of Wired.com, and prompted Larry Sanger to respond<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/05/08/wales-comments-on-wiredcom/#more-180|author=Sanger, Larry|Citizendium Blog >> Wales' comments on Wired.com|date=08 May 2007|accessdate=2007-05-10}}.
 
The original main writer of the piece, Michael Ho, <ref>noticed the adjustment{{cite web|url=http://zero.newassignment.net/blog/michael_ho/may2007/08/wired_com_modifies_citizendium_story_post_publicat|author=Ho, Michael|date=08 May 2007|title=Wired.Com Modifies The Citizendium Story Post-Publication|accessdate=2007-05-10}} on 08 May 2007, which spurred comment from both Jay Rosen, editor of Wired.com, and prompted Larry Sanger to respond<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/05/08/wales-comments-on-wiredcom/#more-180|author=Sanger, Larry|Citizendium Blog >> Wales' comments on Wired.com|date=08 May 2007|accessdate=2007-05-10}}.




Revision as of 13:01, 10 May 2007

Assignment Zero (AZ) is an experiment in crowd-sourced journalism, allowing collaboration between amateur and professional journalists to collectively produce a piece of work that describes correlations between crowd-sourced techniques and a popular movement.

Assignment Zero Front Page

Staff

The following is a partial list of the individuals responsible for the execution of AZ:

  • David Cohn - David Cohn is the associate editor for Assignment Zero. He is currently working toward a master's degree in Journalism at Columbia Univerity, and holds a degree in Philosophy from University of California at Berkeley.[1][2] David has also contributed articles to Seed Magazine. [3]
  • Steve Fox - Steve Fox is the regional coordinator for the Online News Association(ONA) in the Midatlantic Region, based in Washington, D.C.[4] Up until late 2006, Steve was also the Politics Editor at Washingtonpost.com.[5] He is also an adjunct instructor at the University of Maryland's School of Journalism.[6][7]
  • Tish Grier - Tish Grier was the Editorial Blogger at Corante Media Hub[8] until October 2006. She has also contributed to The Huffington Post[9] and writes at the blog the Constant Observer[10].
  • Evan Hansen - Evan Hansen was a writer for CNet's News.com, and a 2006 Finalist for UCLA Anderson School of Management's Gerald Loeb Award in the category of "News Services or Online Content."[11] He is currently the editor-in-chief of Wired News and the consulting editor of AZ.
  • Amanda Michael - Amanda Michael was the Communications Director for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School from March 2004 to November 2006[12].
  • Jay Rosen - Jay Rosen is the Executive Editor of Assignment Zero. Rosen has been a member of the Journalism faculty at New York University(NYU) since 1986. He has taught courses in media criticism, cultural journalism, press ethics, and other subjects related to journalism.[13]
  • Lauren Sandler - Lauren Sandler was also a former producer and reporter at National Public Radio.[14] In 2000, Lauren graduated from New York University's Cultural Reporting and Criticism program to launch a freelance career in journalism.[15][16]

Origin of "Crowdsourcing"

So far, the earliest use of the term "crowdsourcing" can be attributed to Jeff Howe's Blog[17] post which was published on 24 May, 2006. This predates the Wired Article[18] that Howe wrote on the subject which appeared in the June 2006 issue.

Although Howe may have coined the term, it is apparent by virtue of Howe's research that the concept predates the inception of the word. In a blog post by Howe[19], he references an article written for Wired by Thomas Goetz[20] that discusses peer production itself. Howe notes that "while the fact of peer production itself was becoming well-documented... no one we were aware of had documented the ways in which corporations were employing intelligent networks to put peer production to work."

Theory

The goal of Assignment Zero is to create a publishable, edited story that is an amalgamation of input from various "real" sources. In Jeff Howe's "Guide to Crowdsourcing" on the AZ Site[21], the method of contribution is broken down into three categories:

  • Tapping the Collective Brain
  • The Crowd Creates
  • The Crowd Filters

Collectively, these three categories attempt to illustrate a concept that: many people ("Crowds") by virtue of their size and diversity have the capability to contribute, create, and peer-review much of the content that is submitted to the project.

Wikipedia and Citizendium, both offering the capability for many people to contribute content for the masses, follow this basic model. The idea behind AZ is to implement this model with journalistic oversight, coupled with the ethics of journalism.[22].

Produced Work

On May 1, 2007, a final draft of a piece on Citizendium was completed, and submitted to Wired for on-line publication. The article ran on 3 May 2007, and has not yet been subject to peer review, although it has generated some controvery due to the article being edited beyond the publish date.

Between 3 May 2007 and 8 May 2007, the Wired article was modified to include the following:

(Editor's note: Following publication of this article, Wales offered the following on-the-record comment in an e-mail to NewAssignment.net editor Jay Rosen:

"'Instigator' does not mean 'founder' is the main other comment I would make. My claim in this matter is quite simple, and this is on the record:

"Larry Sanger was my employee working under my direct supervision during the entire process of launching Wikipedia. He was not the originator of the proposal to use a Wiki for the encyclopedia project -- that was Jeremy Rosenfeld. And Larry has himself publicly stated, 'To be clear, the idea of an open source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy's, not mine.'

"His role in the early days of Wikipedia was important -- he was considered the 'editor-in-chief' -- but it was not the role of founder. Larry was never comfortable with the open wiki process, and he has been critical of it from the beginning and to this day.")

The modification occured after an interview[23] that occurred on 04 May 2007, and published on the Assignment Zero site on 06 May 2007. The original main writer of the piece, Michael Ho, Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag, and currently focuses on crowdsourcing ventures in Brazil, Europe, and Canada. International subjects are not discouraged, but currently there is not a predominate focus on them.

Contributors Vs Users

The AZ site maintains two lists of users: one that displays the profiles of all AZ Site Members and a masthead that shows a listing of actual AZ staff and a list of clickable profiles for Contributors. This suggests that there exists a criteria that separates users which are (possibly) real contributors to the site, and those that simply create an account; however this criteria is as of yet undetermined.

Copyright

AZ is currently operating under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License[24]

Support

AZ is a collaborative experiment between Wired Magazine, NewAssignment.net and other participants.

References

  1. ↑ About Page, David Cohn, Journalist. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  2. ↑ LinkedIn: David Cohn, LinkedIn public profile. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  3. ↑ Author: David Cohn, Latest ArticlesSeed: Author: David Cohn. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  4. ↑ ONA News: ONA Regional coordinators, ONA Regional Coordinators. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  5. ↑ Fox, Steve, washingtonpost.com -- Revisiting Watergate - Deep Throat, Woodward, Bernstein. 2006, The Washington Post Company. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  6. ↑ Steve Fox - NewAssignmet.net (profile). Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  7. ↑ Nenf/steve-fox - MediaGiraffe. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  8. ↑ Grier, Tish. Editorial Section at Corante Media Hub. Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
  9. ↑ Bio Page, The Huffington Post - Tish Grier. Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
  10. ↑ Grier, Tish. the Constant Observer. Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
  11. ↑ UCLA Anderson School of Management, 2006 Gerald Loeb Award Finalists, News Service/Online. Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
  12. ↑ Archived Bio for Amanda Michael, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, Profile: Amanda Michael. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  13. ↑ Faculty: Jay Rosen, Journalism at NYU - Faculty. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  14. ↑ All Things Considered, November 2, 1998, NPR: Young Voters. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  15. ↑ Faculty: Lauren Sandler, Journalism at NYU - Faculty. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  16. ↑ Righteous, laurensandler.com, About the Author. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  17. ↑ Howe, Jeff. Crowdsourcing: tracking the rise of the amateur. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
  18. ↑ Howe, Jeff. June 2006. Wired 14.06: The Rise of Crowdsourcing. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
  19. ↑ Howe, Jeff. 02 June 2006. Crowdsourcing: A Definition. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
  20. ↑ Goetz, Thomas. November 2003. Open Source Everywhere. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
  21. ↑ Howe, Jeff. A Guide to Crowdsourcing. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  22. ↑ Fox, Steve. An Ethics Primer. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  23. ↑ Crockett, Marla (04 May 2007). What should ask Wales?. Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
  24. ↑ CreativeCommons.Org. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.

External Links

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