WordCamp NYC – BuddyPress in Local/HyperLocal Journalism (NJ no less)

I wrote this as a draft when live blogging from WordCamp NYC,  but have not had a chance to publish since. This was one of the best sessions, demonstrating how BuddyPress was used to create a social networking to support citizen journalism.

Speakers:  Ted Mann, @turkeymonkey

What’s HyperLocal – neighborhood newspaper, localized to town, neighborhood “involves collaboration between veteran journalists and community members or citizen journalists”. Can be citizen driven, professional journalism, or a hybrid of the two – according to Ted all of these are “viable business models”. http://injersey.com/

The biggest challenge: User Generated content isn’t easy to manage and sustain as a structure.

Solution: BuddyPress and open registration integrated to INJERSEY.COM.

“This lowers to barrier to entry” for getting engagement, but it’s not enough – you need someone who manages a site 24/7, an editor [or community manager -AWL]. You can’t have content moderation – not sustainable for in-time news and info. He found his editors through twitter! Open the gates for content and participation, and make sure you have the right people who can channel, police, monitor and encourage contribution.

You register, create user profile, and once you register the editors reach out to you and work with you on what you are posting. When you sign up you automatically become an author. Ted says BuddyPress is very helpful with this process.

Like most wordpcamp CMS users, injersey.com is using plugins to enhance the wordpress experience (which is a clear theme across all sessions today).

1. Google Maps – at the end of every post you type address and it brings up the map
2. Adminize – restrict what different roles see
3. FeedWordPress – allows you to take an RSS fed from another site and syndicate to your blog. e.g. mirroring contributors blogs. someone mentions it has some issues and Ted agrees
4. BP Blog Author – creates a profile page for a user
5. welcome pack – when someone signs up you can automatically put them on a group, connect them with people and send a personalized welcome message
6. Events Calendar – got great feedback from Ted
7. TweetMeme – allows users to tweet story
8. Cosmic BP signup password – allows user to create their own password rather than a system generated plugin
9. Allows users to choose which blogs and groups they want to follow and participate in from initial steps
10. OutsideIn was mentioned as a cool service (not a plugin) that aggregates information in a great way

Tagged as: blog, Business model, Editing, googlemaps, Journalism, Media, Newspaper, Online Communities, TweetMeme, user generated content