Open-source citizen journalism takes off with launch of Assignment Zero

Wired News and NewAssignment.net today have launched Assignment Zero - a project for professional and citizen journalists to collaborate on reporting and 'develop a working model of an open newsroom'.

NYU professor Jay Rosen founded NewAssignment.net in July 2006 to develop innovative new ways to conduct open-source reporting.

Assignment Zero is the first of several planned experiments in collaborative reporting. Its first story is about the spread of crowdsourcing.

The piece will explore how the web makes it possible for the crowd to be the source of good ideas.

"An outstanding fact of the net era is that costs for people to find each other, share information, and work together are falling rapidly. This should have consequences for reporting big stories," said Jay Rosen, who is acting as executive editor of the project, in a press statement.

"Assignment Zero is pro am [professional amateur] journalism because it's reported by the many and edited by a few, who have to be constantly open to new contributions."

The site features a Newsroom section, where contributors can find an overview and a story update. Within this is the Assignment Desk area, where contributors can learn about what has been covered and pick up an assignment; the Exchange, where people can talk through the story and offer new ideas; and The Scoop, where editor Lauren Sandler will comment on developments.

"For Wired News this is an experiment in changing the face of journalism, specifically through bringing the power of citizens into the mix and encouraging a new era of transparency in story development," said Evan Hansen, editor-in-chief, Wired News.

"Essentially, we're building a software platform for journalism 2.0 - open source and extensible - which we believe will bring new dimensions of creativity to news gathering."

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