New Project Makes News Gathering in the Arab World Take a New Turn

A lot of news organizations already know what “crowdsourcing” is. Some have already started using it. However, a new real-time crowdsourcing project is making news gathering take a new turn. “Alive.in” knows how!

“Alive.in” is a project launched by international news startup Small World News. The startup’s team is using a group of Arabic translators to crowdsource the translation of the real-time messages left on @speak2tweet, a service launched by Google and Twitter during the Jan. 25 revolution in Egypt, allowing callers to tweet by calling one of three numbers and leaving a voicemail.  

Founded by American journalist and media specialist Brian Conley, the project first started with crowdsourcing the Egyptian revolution news. When Conley learned about Google’s collaboration with Twitter, he thought it’s time to put this service at a stronger use through Small World News, which he co-founded in 2005. The goal, according to the project’s website, is “to reach a wider audience.”

He then contacted Steve Wyshywaniuk, co-founder of the startup, and told him about Google’s new technology. “It hit him instantly that with the number of translators we’re connected to, he could assemble a team to help translate the calls,” Wyshywaniuk told ReadWriteWeb.

Conley then started reaching out to Arabic translators via Twitter, reported RWW. He then created a Google Docs spreadsheet from which they could collaborate on transcribing the messages and then translating them from Arabic to English, Spanish and German.

And that’s how “Alive in Egypt” started.

Today, “Alive.in” has expanded and is now covering Iraq, Libya and Bahrain.  Citizens of those countries are contributing with real-time photos, calls, videos and tweets, reaching out to the worldwide audience.

The new project has taken news gathering into an even more advanced path, thanks to the technology and the creativity of journalists and media enthusiasts like Conley, Wyshywaniuk and their hard-working team. Today, mainstream media outlets needs to rethink their strategy and apply new technologies at best use so that they survive and provide their audience with more up-to-date news.
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Note: The team of “Alive.in” encourage those interested in helping translate the messages they crowdsource by emailing translate@alive.in. Those interested in being involved with the project can contact @BaghdadBrian or @SmallWorldNews on Twitter.

(بالعربية)

Newsweek iPad App: Creative and Smart

I was lying in my bed, getting ready to sleep while holding my iPad which I bought two days ago. I responded to emails, tweeted, and checked my Facebook homepage after I brushed my teeth, a ritual I have been doing before going to bed since my life became completely digitalized when I bought my iPhone nine months ago. One last thing I remembered to do: check if there are any interesting apps to download.

As a journalist/editor/writer, the first thing I look for is news! I found some really interesting news apps such as the AP, abc News, the New York Times and Mashable. Nothing too fancy or different than those of the iPhone until I found the Newsweek magazine app!

Wonderful, smart, creative, innovative and addictive is all I can say to describe this app. It actually intrigued me to open my sleepy eyes and write this post on my iPad for the very first time since I bought it.

Like many news outlets struggling to keep up with the falling revenues of print editions, Newsweek is no exception. It actually charges for its content, even though their app can be installed for free.

I was a little bit disappointed in the beginning when I saw that, but when my eyes caught the free iPad issue of the magaine, with the headline “Politics in The Age of Obama,” I was kind of intrigued to click- or touch to be specific. I downloaded it and I’m happy I did.

My index fingers navigated through the issue and found the magazine to be look fancier and nicer than its print editions. My first thought as I saw it was, “This is so creative and smart!”

I kept digitally flipping through the pages and reached the page where Newsweek’s editor and Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Mencham’s remarks on the this new innovation: (for larger view, please click on the image)

The iPad is such a great invention. Now I don’t really need to buy any print edition, sadly speaking, but it’s the digital age and we have to cope with it. This device helps me gather everything I like in one place, and easily navigate through them with the tips of my fingers. I can read my favorite book, read the news, check my emails, post photos, tweet, facebook in a new revolutionary way. Yes, the computer does that too but it’s more convenient to carry a light tablet rather than a heavy lap top around! Besides, it just feels better and nicer!

There are still a lot of people who are resisting the digital way our life is heading to, and it’s fine. Let things take their course in life like they did when clay tablets, paper and Web browsing were introduced.

I was among those who strongly resisted paying for news, claiming that I could easily get it for free online, until I remembered that nothing was for free and that as a journalist I should support that because that’s how journalism will survive like it did when people paid for the newspapers and magazines before content became available for free. 

So let’s embrace it instead of resisting it, and let’s have quality digital journalism material rather than free bad-quality information that could negatively affect our lives.

And here is to more blogging via the iPad and to finally going to bed!

Digital Manipulation Blunder and Defiance

A serious journalism ethical question was recently raised in the Middle East after Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published a doctored photograph, falsely depicting President Hosni Mubarak leading the Middle East peace talks.

The photograph was first spotted by Egyptian blogger Wael Khalil who posted the doctored photo, showing Mubarak in the front and the original one that shows he was in fact walking behind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II, as American president Barack Obama led the men to a media event at the White House.

In a front-page Op-Ed, Al-Ahram’s editor-in-chief Osama Saraya was shamelessly defending the fabrication, explaining the doctored photo was an “expressional” picture showing Egypt’s historic role in the peace process.

“The expressional photo is a brief, live and true expression of the prominent stance of President Hosni Mubarak on the Palestinian issue, his unique role in leading it before Washington or any other,” he wrote.

It is really shameful that such statement comes from the editor-in-chief of the newspaper himself. Mr. Saraya appears to be worried about satisfying the totalitarian regime, rather than reporting the truth.

Even if Mubarak, as Saraya claimed, is leading the efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East, wasn’t it better for the paper to portray that in words and facts, rather than a fabricated photograph spotted by bloggers?

I must say I am very disappointed with how some professional journalists present the information to their people, and I’m very much impressed with the role the Egyptian bloggers are playing in working as fact-checkers and monitors to the Egyptian press!

2010 Resolution: Reblogging

There are no more excuses, I told myself. It’s been too long since I last wrote a blog post. So here it is, my new year’s resolution is blogging or to be more specific reblogging.

Nearly five years ago I learned about this beautiful way of expressing one’s self. I know it is no longer something popular and definitely not as popular as it was when I blogged about Iraq from inside the hot zone. However, I remind myself that partly because of blogging, I got into the journalism and writing field.

My previous blog, Treasure of Baghdad, is my real treasure. It is the place where I posted the happy times, the good times and the times when I mourned my country and fellow Iraqis. Now that I’m in a different country and much more exposed to what’s happening in the world, I have created this blog and decided to choose it as a platform to share with the world what I consider making sense of the current affairs across the globe.

I will be sharing information, post my two cents, criticize certain issues and even mock some! So fasten your seat belts and read what I want to say with no reservations!

Oh, and please comment if you would like to discuss anything related to my posts.