Current

1.) What is techpresident.com and what is its reason for living, what’s it there for?
The purpose of current.com is to give ordinary citizens the chance to decide what is news. Unlike
other blogging communities, however, current is connected to its own television channel called
Current TV and the best videos are featured on television. Current.com users’ votes determine
what is aired on TV.
2.) Who was it founded by and what was the idea at the start?
The founders are Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt in the year 2000. The pair wanted to start a
controversial cable network after the 2000 presidential election. They were also disappointed
with coverage from mainstream networks. Their idea was to create a viewer-generated channel
targeted at ages 18-34.
3.) Who owns it now and how is it organized, business-wise?
It is financed by private investors and individuals, making it an independent media company.
4.)What’s the business model, as far as you can determine?
I have not found much about the business model for current, only that it is a private company.
5.)Who is the target audience, in the old fashioned sense: the likely consumer of the site’s
content?
I’d say it’s aimed at an audience of ages 18-40, because a lot of the site has to do with video and
the style is a little more made for the intellectual modern adult. This is a news site that the site
says
6.)What can users do at techpresident.com? what are their powers, so to speak?
Users at current.com have a lot of power in terms of making the headlines and deciding what
makes the headlines. For instance, a user can do the following on current:
- Users can post links to news stories and blog posts and photos found all over the internet. Users
can then vote on whether or not the story is TV-worthy. The highest voted stories are featured
on the TV channel.
- Users can comment on these stories.
- Users can create three to seven minute video “pods” that highlight any particular subject
matter: music, entertainment, politics, travel, a highlight of an unknown issue, sports, etc. Once
posted on current.com, users can vote the pod “up” or “down” which ultimately determines
whether or not the pod will be featured on Current TV. Viewer-created-content (such as pods) is
dubbed VC2 and such content that is featured on TV will result in pay.
Samantha Gonzalez and Christina Mrukowicz
- Users can make an ad {VCAM= Viewer Created Ads}. The way this works is there is a list of
different ads that need to be created and the best ad is featured on Current TV as an actual ad.
This is clearly a way of displaying talent, not news. Also, those users whose ads are chosen to
be broadcasted receive pay.
- 7.) Who are the ideal users of the site, the ones techpresident.com is truly made for?
- Current is made for those people with talent and a sense or thirst for news. Current gives users
the chance to display their creativity and talent by allowing users to post videos. However,
these videos must have some kind of value of news, whether it has value in the fashion news
world or culinary news world. Only the “good” and news-worthy stories and pods will be
broadcasted on the channel.
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8.)What do the most active users–the power users, the super-contributors- tend to do at the
site?
- Active users are those who have contributed to all the areas of the badge: commentating,
contributing and most of all: producing. A more active user will be someone who will conquer
producing, which means making an ad or a pod or some kind of VC2 (viewer created content).
Creating content takes much more work and effort then simply leaving a comment or linking
other users’ to different news stories.
9.)How does that differ from what more casual users would do?
A casual user may be someone who simply reads the site- uses the site for information. Or. a
casual user can be someone who is basically a commentator, commenting on what other people
have posted. Also, a casual user may occasionally post a link (to what they believe to be an
important news story.) The difference is casual users don’t go the extra step in producing
viewer-created-content.
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10.)Anything especially nifty or extremely effective about the technology available at the site?
I think the whole idea of the site being connected to a TV channel is nifty itself. That is a pretty
hard feature to top.
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11.)How about any features of the site that work really really well?
- I am a fan of the “People Are Talking” feature at the bottom of the page. It displays different
comments that people have recently posted and links you to that story if you are interested.
This is another way for a person to filter through the hundreds of stories available on the site.
Current also offers a Topics section where a user can sift through stories according to topics.
The home page features the top rated stories that will probably we on TV later that day.
Samantha Gonzalez and Christina Mrukowicz
12.)What do the techpresident.com community standards say?
- If viewers see any of the following:
- * Racism or bigotry
* Hate speech
* Physical threats of any kind
* Harassment
* Libel or defamation
* Copyright infringement
* Gratuitous profanity/nudity/sexualized content – the key here is gratuitous.
* Obscenity
* Solicitation
* Spam
* then they can flag the content and staff will delete the content and the person’s badge level will
go down.
- Also, important to note is that anything that is excessively promotional or off-topic may (or
may not) be removed from the site.
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13.)How active would you say the users are in communally enforcing those standards?
The honors system works at current.com. People enforce these standards, because they don’t
want to see offensive comments. I also think that all of the community members at current care
about being
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14.)Division of labor: What work does the techpresident professional staff do to make the site
“go?”
The staff is composed of an in-house journalism department that make many contributions to
the television channel in terms of having regular programs which air such as InfoMania
(similar to The Daily Show). The staff also acts just as community members, meaning they too
can comment, contribute and produce. A lot of content that the staff produces does end up on
the television site. This is because, according to the site’s FAQ, if the staff sees a story that they
think really deserves to be on Current TV, they will give it an “extra push.” (and the converse is
also true)
Samantha Gonzalez and Christina Mrukowicz
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15.)As distinct from… What work does the user community do that makes the site go?
- If it were not for the user community, then the whole idea behind current.com, of people
deciding what is “news” and people reporting news, would not exist. The site and channel
would just be a bunch of experts, like on CNN. The users have everything to do with making
the site “go”
16.)What kind of reputation system is there for contributors to the site?
- Users have “badges”. As a user levels up in a category, the bars on their badge will light up
with the color that corresponds with that activity. For example, if you are a level two
contributor, you’ll have two orange bars in the contributor section of your level badge. The
level badge corresponds to how much a person has contributed in an area. There are three
different areas on the badge: contributor, commentator, and producer. Each of these has 4
possible bars that can be lit up. However, if one abuses the community standards they can lose
a whole level bar and that content is removed from the site.
17.)What other mechanisms are there for creating trust at the site and how do they work?
Users also have profiles which displays all of which that user has said or posted in the past. So,
one can look at someone’s profile and make a judgement based on other comments or stories
that user has made. If someone is constantly making discriminating or condescending
comments, then one can make the judgement of whether this person can be trusted or not.
Otherwise, “flagging abuse” (essentially the honors system) and the badge is the sole
mechanism for creating trust.
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18.)What do you think binds the user community together?
I think what binds this community together is the whole idea behind it. The whole idea behind
current is to create a television channel that is real and actually for the people, informing the
people of stories that don’t just “sell” but of controversies and issues around the world in
different areas of news. People at current share the same belief of streaming away from the
mainstream media. They are binded by this common belief and want to create this whole new
way of news and journalism.
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19.)Why do you think people come back to techpresident.com? What are they getting by
returning?
I think this has to do with what binds them. They return for the same reason: they are fixed
upon the idea of deciding what is news and creating the news. They also want to create a
channel that reports news for the people and not just for ratings.
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20.)Finally, is the community at techpresident.com capable of doing actual journalism?
Samantha Gonzalez and Christina Mrukowicz
Yes, there are several pods and stories which fit with the definition of journalism, because they
tell news. This is not a blog that just makes up stories like something one would find in “The
Onion.” This site has news stories about issues and real people. There are stories and videos on
every topic from politics to technology to entertainment.
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21.)Is it capable of doing great journalism?
- This site is definitely capable of doing great journalism in two different respects. For one,
Current has a team of about 390 employees. Vanguard, the journalism department at Current,
produces lengthier pieces (not the standard 3 to 7 minute pods community users create) and
reports on global issues. Second, current is a way for talented journalists and filmmakers to get
started. So, because Current has its own team of journalism experts and is a forum for fresh or
informal citizen journalists, the two teaming up can ideally create some amazing work. I have
seen some amazing pieces from them that highlight issues that are not normally covered.

Newsvine

What is newsvine.com and what is its reason for living, what’s it there for?

Newsvine is a combination of both a blogging community as well as a news website that works to publish articles from both citizen journalists and from mainstream sources such as The Associated Press. By doing this Newsvine is able to give an accurate and up to date reflection of what the world is talking about at any given moment.

Who was it founded by and what was the idea at the start?

Founders Mike Davidson, Calvin Tang, Lance Anderson and Mark Budos, and Josh Yockey, Tom Laramee came together in spring of 2005. On March 1, 2006, the site was launched to the public. The initial goal of the blog was “to build a perfectly different, perfectly efficient way to read, write, and interact with the news” (newsvine.com).

Who owns it now and how is it organized, business-wise?

On October 5, 2007 Newsvine.com became a wholly-owned subsidiary of MSNBC Interactive News. The company was bought for an “undisclosed sum” and was the first acquisition that MSNBC.com has made in 11 years.

What’s the business model, as far as you can determine?

The business runs simply as an open source news service; there are no editors to filter content. Newsvine makes it’s money through advertising in and around AP and other wire content, as well as the content of its users.

Who is the target audience, in the old fashioned sense: the likely consumer of the site’s content?

The sites demographic consists of 88% male, 78% 18 – 39 year olds, 30% household income above 75k, and 54% of whom publish their own blog.  But regardless of their actual audience their target audience is anyone who wants to write, read, discuss and learn about current events and the news.

What can users do at newsvine.com? What are their powers, so to speak?

In terms of power over other stories, users have the power to vote on stories, which helps determine the placement of story around Newsvine as well as influences the author’s reputation level on Newsvine. You can also comment on people’s stories and engage in discussion with others.

In terms of power over ones own activity, users of Newsvine can register to their own column where they have to the ability to write their own stories. Also you can “seed” to other outside sources which essentially means posting links for others to view.

Who are the ideal users of the site, the ones newsvine.com is truly made for?

Founder Mike Davidson has repeatedly emphasized that Newsvine is not a personal blog and it should not be treated as such. It was made as a platform to talk, share and learn about the news for people who want to have an intelligent and meaningful discussions.

What do the most active users–the power users, the super-contributors- tend to do at the site?

The “super contributors” of this site are easy to find because they are the users with the most “vineacity” which means that have higher reputation levels and ratings (for more information on “vineacity” see below). These users have a certain number of votes and comments on each of their articles and they may also be on other users “watch lists” which will inform users on the activity of that certain person on newsvine (i.e alerts when they right articles etc.)

How does that differ from what more casual users would do?

As previously mentioned newsvine is not a personal blog. More casual users would be more apt to miss the goal of the blog and submit more trivial articles. As said by Mike Davidson at the Media Management Center’s Digital Strategies seminar “Anyone who has ever taken a casual stroll through the blogosphere knows how many ‘I just walked my dog!’ stories there are out there. There’s a place for that—and its your personal blog. Its not for Newsvine.”

Anything especially nifty or extremely effective about the technology available at the site?

One of the most technologically innovative aspects of Newsvine is a feature called “Newsvis”. Newsvis is a visual representation of the activity of the most recent content on Newsvine. It appears as a spectrum bar ranging from green to blue to red. Articles are represented by a column within this bar. The more votes an article receives the thicker the column becomes. The color of the columns refers to how recently the article was posted (green being the newest and red being the oldest). Newsvis is helpful because it a quick and easy way to find out which articles are getting to most attention on the site.

How about any features of the site that work really really well?

One thing that is interesting about the commenting feature of Newsvine is that they it’s ordered chronologically, older posts appearing in front of the newer posts. This is important because it fosters discussion based on what others said (since you have to scroll through everyone’s comments to be able to make your own) instead of simply reactionary comments, which ignores comment history and inhibit discussion.

What do the Newsvine community standards say?

Newsvine has a code of honor which focuses on five main community standards.  These include respecting other users, prohibiting self promotion, relating story headlines to the story content, writing stories responsibly, and following the code of honor and user agreement. For further information regarding the Code of Conduct you can visit:

http://www.newsvine.com/_cms/help/faq_honor

How active would you say the users are in communally enforcing those standards?

Generally users are strict in enforcing theses previously mentioned community standards.  Inappropriate comments and articles are reported and deleted from the site accordingly. There is also community incentive to follow the rules in order to increase ones “vinacity” (see below for more details regarding “vinacity”).

Divison of labor:  What work does the Newsvine professional staff do to make the site “go?”

Newsvine staff tries to have as little involvement as possible in controlling the site. There is no editorial voice of Newsvine, so the staff’s contributions are limited to making sure the site is running properly and evolving accordingly in order to keep Newsvine a good platform for its users to discuss the news.

As distinct from… What work does the user community do that makes the site go?

In order to keep Newvine running efficiently users must uphold the Code of Honor, as well as be active in the site by voting, commenting, writing stories and seeding links. Without the participation of the users the site would lose much of its content as well as its ranking and filtering system.

What kind of reputation system is there for contributors to the site?

Newsvine prides itself on having a particularly thorough reputation system known as “Vineacity”. Vineacity is a measure of one’s overall level of contribution to Newsvine. It is used to display the relative productivity and credibility of Newsvine users. By using Newsvine regularly and responsibly, your Vineacity should will over time naturally. For more information clink on the “vineacity” link on http://www.newsvine.com/_cms/help/faq_yourcolumn

What other mechanisms are there for creating trust at the site and how do they work?

As another method of community building, Newsvine allows user to join certain “groups”. These groups are meant for users to collect in a smaller, more specific setting and engage with others who share commen interests. These groupa can be either open for all to join or they can be private and only open to those who are invited.

What do you think binds the user community together?

The main unifier among the users of Newsvine is that they all share the common goal of distributing and receiving the news. Because of this shared purpose there is a sense of comradery that exists amount users who are all interested in spread and sharing intelligent information and discussion.

Why do you think people come back to newsvine.com? What are they getting by returning?

What keeps users of Newsvine coming back is it’s ability to produce legitimate journalism in an online medium. Newsvine is free from frivolous blog posts that other sights, especially more casual blog sites, may contain. It is this high quality of citizen journalism, this legitimate news source blended with online blogging community, that keeps newsvine so popular.

Finally, is the community at newsvine.com capable of doing actual journalism?

Journalism is simply the process of collecting, writing, editing, and publishing news. In this sense Newsvine is certainly able to produce actual journalism. In a more “traditional” sense of the word, Newsvine contributors consistently meet standards of reporting that you find at any major newspaper.

Is it capable of doing great journalism?

Great journalism can be defined as the process of collecting, writing, editing, and publishing news that is factual, original, pertinent and informative. Is Newsvine capable of this? That is up to its users. As long as the users of Newsvine keep using the site responsibly, following the code of honor and the purpose of the site, then there is no reason that great journalism could not be produced.

Daily Kos

What is Daily Kos and what is its reason for living, what’s it there for?

Dailykos is the brainchild of Markos Moulitsas, who goes by the screen name of Kos. According to a blog post by him in 2004, “[Dailykos is] a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory.” Dailykos functions as a news source and meeting-place for people supportive of this goal. It is a gathering spot for liberal-minded people who value and participate in the political process, and is particularly useful to those interested in taking a more active role in government by supporting the Democratic party’s candidates and policies.

Who was it founded by and what was the idea at the start?

Kos began his website in 2002 as an outlet for his distress with the Bush administration. As a veteran, he was offended that American freedoms were being encroached upon by government institutions like the Patriot Act, and his conscience demanded dissent and action. As Kos puts it, “[Dailykos was created] in those dark days when an oppressive and war-crazed administration suppressed all dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous.” His original goals—chronicling Republican harm, speaking out against what he saw as a troubled government, instigating and fostering change—attracted innumerable supporters. In just five years, Dailykos has evolved into a behemoth community that campaigns for change and represents one of the largest online political presences in the country.

Who owns it now and how is it organized, business-wise?

In terms of ownership, Dailykos is a bit of a monarchy. Kos, the founder of the site, owns Kos Media, LLC, which owns Dailykos. This monopoly of executive power gives Kos the final say on all business decisions. Unlike some other sites, which are owned by large media conglomerates, have had outside investors from their inception, or have been sold by their original creators, Dailykos is wholly controlled by its founder financially and creatively. This means that Kos is a king of sorts; he commands his domain entirely, and has from its beginning.

What’s the business model, as far as you can determine?
Dailykos was originally funded with Kos’ own money and donations from readers; that changed quickly, and the website became ad-based soon after its inception. Currently, revenue comes almost exclusively from advertisements, mostly done by Adsense and Blogads. Extremely heavy traffic, averaging 3-5 million weekly visits, allows ad prices to range upwards of $12500 a week.

Who is the target audience, in the old fashioned sense: the likely consumer of the site’s content?
Dailykos is an actively partisan website which aims to further the Democratic party and its ideals. While opinions definitely differ here, and even the casual observer will note that users often engage in spirited debate about relevant issues, virtually all visitors boast a relatively left-leaning worldview. This site is most useful—and most enjoyable—to politically active liberals in strong support of the DNC. Those who consider their political ties only on voting day are not likely to find many friends here, as Dailykos is almost perpetually raising money and awareness for their party, and consider their work both never-ending and hugely important for the country’s progress. Netizens seeking tepid political opinions or a ‘balanced’ news source, beware: Dailykos is, by and large, the habitat of some very yellow dog Democrats.

What can users do at Daily Kos? what are their powers, so to speak?

Users are heard mostly through their diaries. Diaries are more or less blog posts—as their name at this site implies, only one entry per day is allowed. Technically, diary entries can cover any subject, but they most often deal with topics pertinent to the community—political happenings, Democratic victories, defeats, and goings-on, political races, and the like. Visibility of a particular blog post is determined by other users; readers with Dailykos accounts can ‘recommend’ a diary entry, and a diary with enough recommendations will be displayed on the front page. In addition to writing and rating diaries, users can comment on an entry, which often leads to lively discourse amongst users about a controversial topic (though, it could be noted, just as often leads to copious head-nodding and variants on the phrase “right on, brother.”) Particularly valued users have other abilities discussed later in this FAQ.

Who are the ideal users of the site, the ones Daily Kos is truly made for?

Dailykos is more focused than many other blogging communities. While many sites have an underlying theme and a well-defined target audience, most are principally forums for exchanging ideas. Kos created his website with a different goal in mind: while information exchange is certainly a vital part of the community, its main purpose is to advance the Democratic party. As such, the ideal user of Dailykos does not merely contribute to diaries and comments, but actually helps further this cause. Those who donate to political candidates, canvass, write positive reviews of Democratic policy on other websites, and otherwise actively participate in the political process are model Dailykos users.

What do the most active users–the power users, the super-contributors- tend to do at the site?

A few elite, high-powered users have been invited to become Contributing Editors. These writers have unlimited posting abilities, and often post several items a day. Most significantly, their entries get posted straight to the front page—not as a link, as recommended diaries do. The contributions of the Contributing Editors (along with Kos’ numerous daily posts) make up the bulk of the Front Page. The second, lesser tier of ‘power-users’ are elected by having both an active account and a certain number of recommended comments on the website. These trusted users are given special responsibilities that include hiding inappropriate or inconsequential comments from view and removing inappropriate tags from diaries. This policing of the website by its own contributors, instead of by some establishment or outside authority, lends an air of legitimacy to the website; at Dailykos, users tend to engage in genuine discourse, rather than blindly state opinions or have senseless arguments and ‘flame wars,’ as is often the case at other websites.

How does that differ from what more casual users would do?

The casual user is the backbone of Dailykos—the everyday community members who write dairies, though they may never be rated highly, and participate in discussion and feedback through comments, though they may not get much recognition for it. Dailykos is rather meritocratic; its ‘power users’ are simply casual users who add material to the website more often. Thus, the main differences between those deemed trusted users by Kos and the average citizen is more or less a matter of hours logged. There is one caveat, however: in order to work up the number of recommended comments necessary to become a trusted user, quality is just as important as quantity. As such, these tend to be people who write intelligible, thoughtful responses and are well-respected by their online peers because of it.

Anything especially nifty or extremely effective about the technology available at the site?

While Dailykos is generally an impressively designed website, one particularly interesting piece of technology is the ability to expand and collapse comments. Comment threads on popular diaries can soar into the hundreds, but Dailykos eschews the standard method of displaying them. Instead of hundreds of bulky boxes one after another that lengthen the page indeterminately, comments are presented only by their titles, with buttons to expand or collapse entries worth reading. Furthermore, they are visibly organized into subthreads, allowing several conversations to go on at once with a minimum of confusion. This clean and organized commenting design is easy to overlook, but vital to mass participation, as it’s very easy to get exactly where you’d like in a discussion.

How about any features of the site that work really really well?

Dailykos thrives on ratings; strongly-rated diaries get more views, and users with strongly-rated comments are promoted to trusted status. As such, it makes sense that the rating system is devilishly simple to use. In the sidebar of every diary is a large ‘recommend’ button; beside every comment is a checkbox with ‘recommend’ next to it. One click is all it takes; there is no redirecting through pages, no distractions from the story, no extra information needed. This straightforward interface allows recommendations to function as they should, without human laziness getting in the way. Dailykos is in general a master of simple one-click actions. Every user is given a place to compile their favorite stories—the Hotlist—and their favorite diaries—their Subscriptions. Sure enough, next to every diary entry title are unobtrusive ‘hotlist’ and ‘subscribe’ buttons, both of which add stories and authors to their respective lists without interrupting the user. The ability to both rate the community and compile a working list of favorite entries from it with only a modicum of effort ensures many more people will participate in these features.

What do the Dailykos community standards say?
The closest thing to a list of community standards for Dailykos can be found in this diary post by Dailykos user pastordan. Essentially, when interacting with other users, members are urged to “be polite, don’t make assumptions, [and] listen carefully to what they have to say.” The community works to remove “trolls” and all comments that are considered to be “troll-rated”, that is, comments that are “basically devoid of content, add nothing to the conversation, and/or are offensive”, can be hidden from its thread. Users can give these “troll” comments a rating of 1 and trusted users can give a rating of 0. When a comment’s average ranking falls below 1, the comment is made invisible. Users who receive too many “troll-rated” comments can be banned from Dailykos. Users are expected to use discretion when rating comments. Comments should only be “troll-rated” when they are offensive or irrelevant, not when the user disagrees with another user’s opinion.

How active would you say the users are in communally enforcing those standards?

From what we have seen, users are very active in enforcing these standards. It is evident when browsing Dailykos that there is a very strong sense of community. The typical user of Dailykos cares enough about the well-being of the community they have worked so hard to establish that they do not it to be tarnished by useless or offensive posts.

Divison of labor:  What work does the Dailykos professional staff do to make the site “go?”

Dailykos’s six paid staffers and seventeen contributing editors have the ability to post to the front page of the site. They post major developments in the news that they think could spark the interest of their users. A few times per day, Kos posts an open thread with links to what other people are talking about throughout the web and Blogosphere. This helps set the tone for the rest of the site and gives Dailykos users news to consider when they are publishing their own individual diary entries.

As distinct from… What work does the user community do that makes the site go?

The users play an important role in sorting through diary entries and selecting which are the best. There is a seemingly endless flow of diary entries being posted to Dailykos around the clock. But not everything that is posted to Dailykos is good. Some diaries are decent, some are really great, but then there are others that are downright awful and irrelevant. It would be impossible for Markos and his staff to sort through all these posts themselves. That is why having such a large community of passionate users is essential to Dailykos. The users read through the diaries and they have the ability to recommend those they like best. If enough users think a particular diary entry is important, it will find its way onto the most recommended diaries list that is posted on the front page of Dailykos. The staff does not have to do anything but sit back and watch.

What kind of reputation system is there for contributors to the site?

Over time, members of the Dailykos community can become “trusted users.” Users gain the title ‘trusted’ or ‘power’ according to the amount of activity they have on the site and the number of recommendations their comments and diaries receive. Trusted users have the responsibility of helping to curtail trolls and police the community. They have the ability to give comments they deem inappropriate a rating of 0, as opposed to regular users who can only rank on a scale of 1 to 4. They also review hidden comments to determine whether the comment should remain hidden or if it perhaps should return to its thread because it advances the conversation in some way. The trusted status is not permanent, however, and can be taken away if the user posts too many 1 or 0 rated comments.

What other mechanisms are there for creating trust at the site and how do they work?

The precise workings of the Dailykos’ “mojo system” is kept secret to prevent users from deliberately going about trying to gain trust on the site. Users know when they have reached trusted user status when they discover they have the ability to review hidden comments and give 0 ratings. But there are other incentives for being an exemplary user of Dailykos. In a typical year, Kos will also select two or three outstanding contributing members of the community to become contributing editors to the site. It is a very selective process and few Dailykos users are picked. Contributing editors can post directly to the front page of Dailykos, giving their diaries the greatest visibility and attention. This is a very sought after position considering the popularity of the Dailykos community.

What do you think binds the user community together?

The community is truly bound together in their desire to achieve Democratic electoral victory. This desire is even greater than at other liberal blogging communities. The average Democrat would not concern themselves with Senate races in Georgia or Minnesota, or House races in places they have never heard of. But these are things the users at Dailykos care about because they want to see Democrats elected at all levels of government.

Why do you think people come back to Dailykos? What are they getting by returning?

The kind of information that is gathered at Dailykos is very specific. Dailykos is distrinct from other left-leaning blogs in that Democratic-electoral victory is an obsession for Dailykos users. There is a lot of talk about money and fundraising at Dailykos, where as other liberal blogs usually focus more on the issues. During the past election cycle, Dailykos was an invaluable resource for anyone who wanted the latest poll data on any number of elections. Dailykos sorted through the information and told its users which Congressional races were tightening and which candidates were in the greatest need of money and resources. After reading Dailykos, users knew exactly who needed their support.

Finally, is the community at Dailykos capable of doing actual journalism?

The community is certainly capable of doing actual journalism. But as far as we can tell, Dailykos users do not typically go about doing so. Rather, users usually provide their commentary on the news as opposed to their own reporting. Dailykos did feature a diary entry in August that gained a lot of attention because it alleged that Governor Sarah Palin faked her most recent pregnancy in an attempt to cover for her teenage daughter. But these allegations turned out to be untrue, the diary was uncited and the identity of the individual who posted the diary is unknown. While it was information that was nowhere in the press, and therby original, one could not call this sort of writing journalism.

Is it capable of doing great journalism?

Dailykos could certainly be an outlet for great journalism in the future, but up to this point, there is no evidence of great journalism to be found on the site.

BlogHer

What is blogher.com and what is its reason for living, what’s it there for?

Blogher.com is a community of users interested in sharing their opinions, advice, ideas, and personal experiences with others in order to participate in a supportive and active environment. Blogher.com lives for women who have the objective of uplifting other women, while at the same time gaining inspiration and success for themselves.

Who was it founded by and what was the idea at the start?

Elisa Camahort, Lisa Stone, and Jory des Jardins started Blogher as a way to expose women to a supportive community of contacts that will encourage and help their economic, educational, and social empowerment.

Who owns it now and how is it organized, business-wise?

Blogher is currently owned by original founders Elisa Camahort, Lisa Stone, and Jory Des Jardins. Blogher currently receives investments from capital firm Venrock. BlogHer has recently partnered with NBC and iVillage in an effort to reach out to more women. BlogHer also works with sponsors on their website and for their annual conferences.

What’s the business model, as far as you can determine?

While providing platforms to connect women with each other, Blogher also connects consumers with marketers. The site and its events are powered mainly through advertisements. Sponsors provide special deals for Blogher users.

Who is the target audience, in the old fashioned sense: the likely consumer of the site’s content?

Blogher is mainly aimed at women of 35+ years, who are technologically literate and extremely active in political and social spheres. However, this site is also open to both males and females of various ages who want to become apart of this community.

What can users do at blogher.com? What are their powers, so to speak?

Users can write articles on any topic, comment, list their own blogs, participate in contests and book festivals, sign up to participate in or speak at conferences, and make money by using Blogher advertising on their personal blogs. Users can also donate money to improve maternal health of women and save lives from all over the world.

Who are the ideal users of the site, the ones blogher.com is truly made for?

Blogher is perfect for those who are highly active both on the internet and in real life, hoping to make connections. Also, for people who are searching for opinions on very specific topics.

What do the most active users–the power users, the super-contributors- tend to do at the site?

They write thought provoking articles and regularly interact with their readers and other users through comments.

How does that differ from what more casual users would do?

Most users only read and never interact or generate content of their own. They do not use the site as frequently as the power users.

Anything especially nifty or extremely effective about the technology available at the site?

No, the site could actually use a lot of improvement. The Search function works terribly as the results it returns are rarely relevant, making it very hard to find new content. Additionally, the UI is poorly designed which makes it difficult to find information.

What do the blogher.com community standards say?

BlogHer promotes differences of ideas but does reserve the right to monitor comments or posts that are blatantly disrespectful or not well thought out.

How active would you say the users are in communally enforcing those standards?

The users all abide by the community standards and create a very positive atmosphere. I would imagine that any distasteful content would be immediately flagged because the community is so proactive and does pride itself on its standards.

Division of labor: What work does the blogher professional staff do to make the site “go?”

There are editors for each section who regularly post feature articles and reply to comments. The staff monitors and updates the website, contacts sponsors and partners, organizes conferences, and solicits new ideas from its users.

As distinct from… What work does the user community do that makes the site go?

The community supplies the content that makes visitors want to revisit on the site and refer the site to others. They create an encouraging and knowledgeable community that connects the various users.

What kind of reputation system is there for contributors to the site?

There is no ranking system. However, personal profiles show the user’s recent activity including posts and comments.

What other mechanisms are there for creating trust at the site and how do they work?

Users are encouraged to link back to their personal blogs and provide a thorough profile. This allows users to get to know each other better and know the context in which they write posts or comments.

What do you think binds the user community together?

People are so knowledgeable on so many different subjects and they are fully open to share and be supportive of each other. It is incredibly supportive and rational in addressing niche topics.

Why do you think people come back to blogher.com? What are they getting by returning?

People go to BlogHer to find unique opinions presented in an unapologetic, yet, open manner.

Finally, is the community at blogher.com capable of doing actual journalism?

Yes. Mainstream Journalism focuses only on so many things because it has an obligation to satisfy the whole. BlogHer has no obligation and chooses what it, not a corporation, thinks is important. Something that could be overlooked by MSM in significance would certainly be picked up by BlogHer users who have a much more intimate knowledge and obsession of that topic.

Is it capable of doing great journalism?

Yes. BlogHer users are very professional in writing their posts and most of them are professionals in their fields, giving them an expertise and education well suited to writing. As an individual, it may be difficult and rare, but especially with everyone working together and contributing, BlogHer could be called upon to produce great journalism.