#citizen reporting

It looks like a kitchen table with a laptop and a pot of coffee.It looks like a teenager filming a two-minute video that hits harder than any cable news broadcast.It looks like an elder speaking truth into a crackling microphone, heard in ten thousand ears across the country. Independent media is not a product. It’s a lifeline.It’s what happens when people stop waiting to be told what matters…

Syria Coverage on YouTube

  There’s been much talk about how mass media has been covering up, or at the very least…

With Changify Shoreditch coming up this Friday 14th - Sunday 16th December in Rockwell House Studio (Fri) and Method's London offices in the Tea Building on Shoreditch High St (Sat and Sun); we're delighted to announce our panel of judges who will give their expert feedback on the projects and pitch videos created by attendees over the weekend. Indy Johar - Co-founder 00:/

Indy is a qualified architect and regeneration consultant with particular experience in socially driven sustainability. He has delivered significant large scale multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder projects from Future Planners [with DEMOS, RICS, English Partnerships, CPRE] to Sustainable Suburbia joint funded by RICS, CABE, BURA and NESTA. He has worked on a series of research projects focusing on sustainable futures; from affordable neighbourhoods, future planners, sustainable suburbia to High Utilization workspaces. Indy previously worked at Penoyre & Prasad Architects, leading, wining and delivering several Local Investment Finance Trust health workspace projects within Public Private Partnership frameworks. A Demos Associate, he has taught at TU Berlin, University of Bath, Architectural Association and University College London. Recently, Indy lectured at Art and Ecology Conference [London], Commission for Architecture and Built Environment, LSE and the Royal Academy.  Indy on Twitter @indy_johar Jim Boulton - Deputy Managing Director, London, Story Worldwide

Jim is Story's Deputy MD in the UK and a Course Director for The Chartered Institute of Marketing, where he runs the Digital Marketing Masterclass. He also curates “Digital Archaeology”, an event that celebrates the golden age of the website and raises the profile of digital archiving. The show has featured as a key part of Internet Week Europe and New York, attracting over 12,000 visitors, gaining international media coverage and support from The British Library, The Library of Congress and Google. In 1996, Jim embarked on a Masters Degree at the Hypermedia Research Centre. Led by the eminent social theorist Doctor Richard Barbrook and the cutting edge interactive design agency Antirom, the course was dubbed the British answer to Negroponte’s Media Lab by The Guardian. In 1998, Jim established Large, an Internet consultancy that delivered benchmark websites for the world’s top brands including the groundbreaking Bang & Olufsen site, referred to as “the most beautiful website in the world” by the Financial Times, and Agent Provocateur, deemed the “sexiest website in the world” by Vogue. In 2007, Large merged with Story Worldwide to create the world’s first post-advertising agency. Jim on Twitter @jim_boulton Chris Downs - Principal, Method

1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]

Develop an Android Mobile Application for journalists and citizen reporters to create and share news around them 

2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]

Similar application is SMS based, where Citizen Reporters submit short Messages with the news and location. GReporter will include taking photos, videos, text and audio reports submitting to Web Server  

3. Describe the real world challenge that you are trying to solve for African media [50 words] 

To enable Mobile Phone users (which is inexpensive) and Journalists to submit captured to any configured server, Provide Real Time News Reporting, display web page of submitted reports with location coordinates where news occurred, Eliminate travelling long distances to report news, Journalist not aware of all news in all surroundings 

4. How and why will your solution work? [100 words]

GReporter is a mobile application built on Android platform that allows Citizen Reporters and Journalists to upload news content with GPS information attached, and submit it to web Server using HTTP. This content can be accessible anywhere so long as one can access the web Server where content is submitted.

Key Features:    -     Taking photos, videos, text reports and Audio Reports and uploading them with GPS coordinates to a server - Display page of submitted reports or other information with GPS coordinates where the news happened

Anybody who has access to the web page can view submitted news real time 

5. Who is working on it? [100 words]

We are a team of 3 young talented Kenyans.

Ray Ochieng – Developer Lead

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology graduate and currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Mobile Technologies. He has over 2 years in Mobile development and has worked for Inmobia Company and Safaricom Limited (A leading telecommunication company in Kenya)

Vincent Maraba – Business Lead  

Bachelor of Commerce graduate and currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Mobile Technologies at Strathmore University. He is responsible for marketing, defining revenue models, budgeting, carrying out Market Research, accounting and pitching

Collins Odiwour – Graphic Designer

Responsible for graphic design and testing the application 

6. What part of the project have you already built? [100 words]

Application is 40% done we have completed photo and text Reporting. We have installed it in 10 Mobile devices and currently being tested by 8 Citizen Reporters and 2 Journalists, Upon installing the application on their mobile device they can capture photo or text Reports submits them to a media house or a web server where anyone who has access to the server can view the reports, report location and time when report was submitted  

We are working on video and audio reporting Modules 

7. How would you sustain the project after the funding expires? [50 words]

Our Revenue Model

Selling the App to Media Houses and Journalists

We target 500 Journalists by First Year

Revenue Share with Citizen Reporters

80-20 (Citizen Reporter- GReporter)

Advertising

On the web server where news will be aggregated, we will include advertisements to generate more revenue

Requested amount from ANIC: $14,000 Expected amount of time required to complete project: 8 Months Total Project Cost:$16,500