The Reporter’s Newsletter
Starting today, Spot.Us will be sending out newsletters, targeted directly to reporters, community members and news organizations to better serve our communities. Below is our first letter to reporters. Let us know what you think and if you have a wish list for things you’d like to see in a newsletter to you.
Dear Spot.Us reporter,
You are reading the first Spot.Us newsletter just for you, our community of reporters! This letter, and letters to come, will initiate a regular correspondence between Spot.us and our talented group of freelancers to inform you about Spot.Us updates, journalism news, job opportunities and upcoming events related to journalism.
This newsletter includes:
1) Spot.Us news, including a survey so we can better serve you.
2) Job opportunities
3) Upcoming events
4) Journalism news
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What’s new with Spot.Us?
- Participate in a Spot.Us query! Please share your experiences working with Spot.Us by filling out this survey. It takes only 5 minutes, and responding is anonymous. http://bit.ly/4O7lH
- New Spot.Us Designs coming: Please provide us with feedback. Comments and ideas are MOST welcome! http://bit.ly/4qBQZh
- Spot.Us hired a freelancer for a pitch in LA with money raised from the BloggersUnite.org community. Kinda cool! http://bit.ly/1bsywG
- Spot.Us has two matching grants: including one from McSweeney’s. Every dollar donated will be matched to investigate the Bay Bridge! http://bit.ly/xiNFA
Job Picks
- Newsdesk.org is looking for a news editor based in San Francisco. The deadline for applications is October 19th, or until the position is filled. http://bit.ly/PaZWL
- Change.org is hiring full time bloggers to write about a range of topics from human rights to environmental causes to social entrepreneurship
- Demand Studios is hiring freelance writers to produce articles for $15-25 per hour and filmmakers who could earn $300-600 per project.
- Write full time for The Collector’s Weekly a fast-growing web publication focused on the world of antiques and all things collectible, located in downtown San Francisco.
- MAPLight.org is looking for a money and politics blogger/ political researcher-writer to research and write stories about money and politics in California government and in the U.S. Congress. The position is full-time and located in Berkeley, California.
- PHOTON Magazine is seeking a solar energy reporter/renewable energy buff for their San Francisco office.
- The USC Annenberg School for Communication is hiring a full-time editor-in-chief for the new California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting as well as a managing editor and senior writers. Positions offer competitive pay!
- Southern California Public Radio 89.3 KPCC is hiring a full-time producer for the Patt Morrison Show. The position is located in Pasadena, California.
- Village Voice Media is looking for a passionate foodie to hire as a freelance restaurant critic for the LA Weekly
Upcoming Events
- East Bay Blogger Camp on October 24. Want to start blogging? Want to learn how to do investigative reporting? Want to create connections to other East Bay bloggers? Event details here: http://eastbaybloggers2.eventbrite.com/
- Social Media for Social Action in Oakland on October 23rd, organized by Public Media Collaborative. Interested in blogging or using Twitter, Facebook & other social media tools for your organization, but not sure how to measure results, plan a campaign, or whether you have the time? Event details here: http://socialmedia4socialaction.eventbrite.com/
- California Data Camp in San Francisco: Exploring State Data and DataSF, app contest. More here http://spot.us/pitches/272
- The UC Berkeley School of Journalism is sponsoring a free lecture series with events scheduled through October and November. Topics range from finding “success in the digital age” to “media and public policy.” Check out the full schedule and event descriptions here.
- A film about plastic pollution at UCLA’s film school October 23rd. You can also meet Spot.Us Bay Area community advisor Manuel Maqueda who will be in attendance. http://bit.ly/3wHdgF
Journalism News
In case you haven’t heard, the results are in for the Online News Association’s Online Journalism Awards and the Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Competition. Meet the media industry’s rising stars and up-and-coming journalism organizations. Congratulations to all the 2009 winners!
Have you heard about Reptile Media? It is another new way to get your stories funded and published!
The Obama Administration has proposed changes to the federal shield law, which protects journalists and their anonymous sources. Read an op-ed by SPJ President Kevin Z. Smith, criticizing the possible revisions.
If you have an open-source idea for distributing news in the public interest, you may be in luck! The Knight News Challenge has extended its deadline to December 15 to allow for more outreach to entrepreneurs and software developers.
If you have news or information you’d like to share with other Spot.Us reporters, news publishers or community members please let us know and we’ll add the information to our next newsletter. And as always, please send us your pitches, just log into Spot.Us and click “start a story” for Bay Area and LA investigations!
Sincerely,
The Spot.Us Team
Bringing Data to the People – California Data Camp and DataSF Web App Contest
As many know: I believe that journalism is a community process. An ideal newsroom for me is an open newsroom where people come together. While it isn’t a “newsroom” Citizen Space will be turned into a journalism/data meeting ground.
Inspired by the type of information produced by EveryBlock – Spot.Us and CIR are hosting a one-day “California Data Camp.” What’s the local angle? Spot.Us is particularly getting involved in the DataSF Web App contest. DataSF is liberating public data. We want to encourage people to take that information and put it to good use. And thus we bring you the following – also covered by TechCrunch.
CALIFORNIA WATCH, SPOT.US, MAPLIGHT, SUNLIGHT, GOV 2.0 & CRAIGSLIST TO HOST CALIFORNIA DATA CAMP & DATASF APP CONTEST
Berkeley, CA – The Center for Investigative Reporting’s California Watch project, Spot.Us, MAPLight.org, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, and the Sunlight Foundation have teamed up to sponsor the first California Data Camp & DataSF App Contest on November 7, 2009.
The one day gathering is open to developers, journalists, community organizers, policy wonks, students and others interested in working with government data to provide insights and information into California and its communities. A variety of issues will be tackled including computer-assisted reporting, data visualization, data access, data transparency, and data management.
“This will be a great opportunity to share ideas and brainstorm about ways to use data and technology to bring more transparency and accountability to local, regional and statewide reporting,” said Mark Katches, Editorial Director of California Watch, a new reporting team within CIR that is devoted to statewide watchdog reporting.
There will also be a day-long app-building contest using DataSF.org., the clearinghouse of data sets created by the city and county of San Francisco. The winning team will be awarded a prize.
“Who knows what could be created out of the Data SF App contest? It could bring us a great new tool to improve civic life by shining a light on public data,” said Spot.Us founder David Cohn.
“When government makes data available online for anybody to build over, you can see how government works and where the money goes. That’s really good for democracy and for San Francisco,” said Craigslist’s Newmark.
“Maps bring to life complex data that’s otherwise hidden in excel spreadsheets, making the abstract meaningful and identifiable. Simply, maps make the intangible, tangible,” said MAPLight.org’s executive director Daniel Newman. “In the spirit of true participatory democracy MAPLight.org is proud to support this project and development of the next killer transparency app.”
The event will be held at Citizen Space, 425 Second Street, San Francisco and runs from 9:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner. To register, visit http://datacamp.eventbrite.com/. The cost is $10.
About The Sponsors
California Watch was launched in 2009 by the Center for Investigative Reporting to fill a serious gap in in-depth, solutions-based reporting in the state, to make government more transparent, and to engage the public in new ways on the critically important issues of the day. California Watch is supported by The James Irvine Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Visit www.californiawatch.org for more information.
Spot.Us is a nonprofit project that is pioneering community-funded reporting. Through Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do investigations on important and overlooked stories. The content is then made available to all through a Creative Commons license. It’s a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate. Visit www.spot.us for more information.
MAPLight.org is a non-partisan nonprofit that offers users a powerful database that illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways. Visit www.maplight.org for more information.
The Sunlight Foundation is committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency. Visit www.sunlightfoundation.com for more information.
Gov 2.0 Expo gathers thought leaders from the information industry, not-for-profits, citizen creators of applications, and decision-makers from all levels of government to improve the ways that we carry out the business of the country.
Give, drink and talk it up with our City Budget Watchdog team tonight!
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Tonight’s the night to give, drink and talk it up with our City Budget Watchdog team — local journalists who need your support to continue a reporting project on municipal cutbacks, jointly sponsored by The Public Press and Spot.us.
When: Monday, July 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. Where: San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, 490 2nd St., San Francisco, CA
We’ll have plenty of snacks and beverages. Beer provided by Speakeasy Ales and Lagers, and wine provided by Sarah Twitchell of Foster’s Wine Estates Americas.
Raffle items provided by William Cross Wine Merchants and Green Zebra.
Suggested donation: $15 in advance through here or $20 at the door.
If you have already donated to City Budget Watchdog through Spot.us, please come to this event as one of our honored guests.
You’ll have a chance talk to our journalists about the stories they’ve covered so far and hear about the reporting they plan to do in July and August. Read more here.
What is City Budget Watchdog? The Public Press is covering City Hall and San Francisco’s budget crisis – because someone has to do it. Spot.us is leading the campaign to raise money to pay a team of professional journalists to do this important work. We need to raise $5,000 to support this project. The good news is that we’re more than halfway there! We’ve raised $2,725 so far, including a $1,000 matching grant from Ruth Ann Harnisch, president of the Harnisch Foundation in New York. Your contribution will help us reach our goal and support noncommercial, public-interest journalism in San Francisco.
Thanks for your support and see you there!
Spot.us and Public Press
Spot.Us Advisory Board Meeting
Spot.Us gets a lot of kudos on our transparency. We want to continue in that vein and are thinking about how we can expand and bring more folks in.
We’ve had a few other community advisory board meetings. Now we are going to open these up (since the community can be everyone and advice comes from all directions). Its an open event, but space is limited – so please rsvp: info at spot.us
When: Tuesday, June 9 at 6 PM
Where: TechLiminal at 268 14th Street in Oakland; http://techliminal.com/
Snacks and drinks will be available
In preparation for Tuesday¹s meeting we wanted to get your help in coming up with an agenda. Here’s what we have so far:
(1) Introductions
(2) The State of the Spot
(3) Expanding out to other regions
(4) Outreach needed: community org and blogger network
(5) Other items…
Pre-Release-Party Interview on BlogTalkRadio
San Francisco’s Rich and Poor:
Wednesday, May 27, 4-4:30pm
Call-in number: (347) 945-5577
Spot.us will do a pre-release-party interview with investigative reporter Chris Cook the day before his article “A Tale of Two Zip Codes” debuts in the next issue of Race, Poverty & the Environment Magazine. The article, funded by Race, Poverty & the Environment magazine and Spot.us, examines the deep divide between San Francisco’s rich and poor and the worsening effect of the recession on the people scraping by.
Bike To Work Day on May 14
Grab your bike and join me on Bike To Work Day, Thursday May 14, 2009, in celebrating the bicycle commute by riding to Downtown Oakland with City Councilmember Pat Kernighan. Meet at:
Grand Lake Theatre
3200 Grand Avenue
When: Thursday, May 14, 7:40AM
They are launching the casual ride when pedal pools from Councilmembers Jean Quan and Desley Brooks’ districts converge at the theater at 7:55am. The ride will continue to Downtown City Hall (Broadway/14th) where the party continues with free pancakes, coffee and chock-full-of raffled goodies.
For more info contact:
Chris Hwang