One of the great frustrations of Wikinews for me is that it doesn't
have a system for identifying and pointing users toward opportunities
to get out into the offline world and do original reporting. A
fine-grained cross-project opt-in geonotice system could be a
solution.
Here's how I imagine it working: there is a new opt-in geonotice (in
addition to the current one that reaches everyone in the specified
geography). For the opt-in geonotice (which would hopefully be able
to reach across projects, since many causal Wikinewsies visit that
site only rarely) any trusted user could add new items to let nearby
people know about reporting or photography opportunities. For these
opt-in notices, we would not need to lock down the ability to add
items like we do for the current geonotice system (it's a fully
protected page), since people who opt-in will expect a bit a noise.
So, for example, I would set a notice that Senator Chris Dodd is
holding a public discussion about health care reform on such-and-such
date in Hartford, Connecticut. I mark this as a photo opportunity and
a reporting opportunity. The system sets a default radius (or better
yet, users specify the radius they want to be notified within) and
everyone within x kilometers of Hartford who has opted in to the
notice gets a watchlist message pointing to more details. I can
imagine a wide range of tips and events that could be spread to the
right people with such a system.
This would do a couple things: it would draw in new users to Wikinews,
and given enough participation it could provide a resource that is
useful for professional journalists. Journalists are eager to figure
out useful ways to tap the knowledge of amateurs, and a widely used
geography-based tip-line is something that Wikimedia still has a
chance to be the first organization to do well. I think finding a way
to play a major part in the ongoing changes in the journalism world
ought to be a high priority for the Foundation.
-Sage Ross (User:Ragesoss)