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.