Participatory Journalism Project

Not directly Weblog related, but personal publishing related nonetheless:

The Bakersfield Californian has embarked on one of the most ambitious participatory journalism efforts to date in the United States, launching a community newspaper and Web site in which nearly all the articles and pictures are contributed for free by people in the community.

Since the first print edition of The Northwest Voice was launched May 13, more than 200 individuals have contributed articles, pictures and events, and revenue has grown 33 percent. In all, about 90 percent of the content on the Web site and in the newspaper is contributed by the community.

I just think this is very cool, and it’s hopefully what will happen here once we get our project set up.

And I love this quote as it relates to education as well…

“In a world in which a growing number of readers are becoming publishers, we ignore this trend at our own peril…”

If we don’t start tapping into the potential of the read/write Web for our students, I think we do them a great disservice. A lot of us have been writing about the literacy requirements of a Web infused culture that is changing at a very fast pace. How long will it be before students expect to be contributors of information and not just consumers of it? How long will it be before producing products for the teacher just won’t be enough? How long will it take before competitive jobs require an ability not only to read and write but to edit unedited texts, to collaborate with others to create content, to publish that content in ways that are accessible, and to manage all of the information out there in an efficient, organized, sensible way?