A while ago I had a chance to interview Dave Cohn, the innovative mind behind Spot Us, about his plans for the project and where he thought it was all going.
Today Spot Us leaves “beta” mode and opens formally to the world. Many congratulations to Dave and his team on their accomplishments so far.
I think that what the newspaper industry needs is a good bit of innovation, and this is definitely on the right track. Today I once again got to ask Dave a few questions about the launch, the process, and the end results.
Jason: Spot Us is a Knight Foundation funded project and I understand you’ve been working with a virtual team. How has that experience been?
Dave: So far the project has been a dream. My development team Hashrocket is based in Florida, but they are fantastic. I love that I’ve had this opportunity to work on a project that I believe in with my whole heart.
Jason: Do you think that journalists working on Spot Us projects will find it harder to work on their stories than a journalist with the full resources of an established newspaper at their backs?
Dave: That is very possible, but ideally the reporter would ask for as much money as they need to do the story right. One thing that I think Spot.us reporters will have to deal with is the credibility factor when making a phone call or going out to be a reporter.
When you are a reporter for the New York Times doors are opened for you. If you say you are a reporter for Spot.Us – you may get doors shut in your face. But I think this is a problem of old and new media in general. Bloggers have a harder time than traditional news organizations on these things.
Jason: Spot Us has been in beta for some time. Were there any big surprises you ran into, or is the initial plan still intact?
Dave: The initial plan is still intact. Most of what we are finding is that there are usability issues here and there. Certain parts of the site don’t make 100% sense to somebody right away. I think these are natural for any website.
The million dollar question is still out there: Will people be willing to donate money towards a piece of civic journalism? Is journalism viewed as a public good worth people’s hard earned money?
I would argue that it is, and that it plays an important role in our local democracies. But, Spot.Us is a project to find out.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Really interesting concept. Please keep readers posted as this develops.
Interesting comment he makes about the issue of credibility. What if a source asks a reporter who funded the story? What if the source doesn’t like where those funds are coming from? What if a single donor funds a story all by him/her/itself? What happens to credibility then?
Allan – I will, although you can also follow Spot Us closely at their official blog.
Paul – Very good points – I think the Spot Us system places a lot of faith in the journalist and their ability to draw a line between the money and the writing.
As long as people believe in the independence of the reporters at work writing the articles, I think it will work.