Perhaps there is a more strategic reason newspapers have not implemented the Everyblock software yet. What exactly would a newspaper implementation of everyblock look like?
⁃ A stand alone site, that the newspaper links to?
⁃ A separate section of the newspaper site?
⁃ Somehow integrated into the CMS providing context?
⁃ Something else entirely?
In order to answer these questions I think it’s important to define the expected outcome. What would be the expected goal if implementing Everyblock on a new website? Here are my top three:
1. Build online “hyper-local” neighborhood resources – Many newspapers lack a true hyper local aspect to their site. The ambition would be to segment news and information down to the neighborhood or even block level. Something most CMS’s don’t do, or newsroom organizations are not equipped to manage. Everyblock could in theory provide a framework for a newsroom with a narrowly focused workflow.
2. Publish public records – Everyblock includes some powerful data tools. From scraping & parsing data to publishing subsets in logical groups. Many smaller news organizations still collect data the old fashioned way. Individual spreadsheets are not uncommon, but completely unuseful in creating data driven web features. Portions of the Everyblock code could be used by newspapers to collect, store, organize and retrieve public data in a highly structured and consistent manner.
3. Content discovery tool – Everyblock.com in it’s now commercial form allows the user to browse it’s data in an interactive way. This process of discovery by the user is missing from newspaper sites. Everyblock could provide newspapers with an alternative to the traditional list of headlines interface.
How would you like to see everyblock used in a newspaper environment?
Continue reading about Everyblock – how would your newspaper use it?
The code behind Everyblock.com (as of June 09) was released under an open source license, but as of today I’m not aware of a single website using the technology. Newspaper in particular I would expect to have a keen interest in this software, but so far not a single paper has tried it.
What’s the hold up?
The code has been downloaded 859 times as of this writing.
For those who care enough to download, one read through the documentation is probably enough to scare you off. If you actually try installing the system, all but seasoned LINUX geeks will likely balk or fail completely. (out of date dependancies, etc.)
It’s like baking bread from scratch vs using a boxed recipe. The materials required to cook from scratch cost more, you need to be or employ an experienced cook and it takes far longer. Unless newspaper have a budget for this project of even a fraction of Everyblock’s original 1.1 million they can forget about implementing software like this.
… unless … we we simplify the installation procedures and provide tutorials on best practices and example use cases for under funded newspapers.
Have you installed the Everyblock software? Where did you get stuck? Do you have ideas on what we as the open source community can do to make it more useful to the majority of newspapers out there?
Continue reading about Can newspapers benefit from Everyblock?
