New Australian community project to map local news and issues

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A new community news project has been launched in Australia, aiming to map reports of local news and issues. EveryMap.com.au , which is built using the crowd-sourcing technology Ushahidi , will use Google Maps to plot local concerns. In a similar approach to US platform EveryBlock, now owned by MSNBC, EveryMap will show details of local building projects, crime data, traffic and accidents, as well as requests for local authorities to fix problems.

Reports can be submitted to the site via Twitter using the hashtag #everymap, using an online form or emailing the site. Information will also be posted to the site by local authorities, such as Waverley Council in New South Wales, which has already signed up to posting details of problems fixed to the site.

EveryMap is the latest launch from Australian hyperlocal news network StreetCorner.com.au, which recently received training and mentoring from industry experts at Google, Yahoo and the New York Times, as part of the XMediaLab event in June .

"The community holds 100 per cent of all the valuable information. But the information is dispersed among thousands of citizens. When we lived in small communities, this wasn't a problem. We regularly met and socialised together, at Church, in the market or town square. But as our town grew, we lost access to this decentralised "treasure trove" of history, events and opinion and we outsourced communication of community information to media organisations. The only problem is, much of what we still want to know isn't newsworthy and therefore isn't covered by local media," says Angela Clark, founder of StreetCorner, in a release.

"I want to know that my neighbour's house was robbed yesterday, that 100 locals have been waiting for nine months to have a dangerous pedestrian crossing signposted, and that there is a great garage sale four streets away. And for my relatives in the bush, a locust sighting two farms away is essential information. This stuff isn't news worthy but its matters to me and there is something locally that matters to everyone.