[Foundation-l] Geonotice improvements that could make Wikinews great (among other benefits)

[Sage Ross]

The Strategic Planning wiki is a good place to discuss this idea and
how it changed and/or implemented:
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals/Geonotice_improvements
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Proposals/Geonotice_improvements

-Sage

On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Sage Ross<ragesoss+wikipedia at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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)
>