Vancouver-based NowPublic.com is on a roll—first, a relaunch combined with news that Merrill Brown has joined the company as chairman of the board, and now the announcement of “an innovative initiative designed to bring citizen content into AP newsgathering, and to explore ways to involve NowPublic’s on-the-ground network of news contributors in AP’s breaking news coverage.” NowPublic bills itself as “the world’s largest participatory news network” with more than 60,000 contributors from 140 countries.
Details are a little sketchy beyond that. According to the release, the two will collaborate on ways for NowPublic to contribute and to give NowPublic’s contributors a chance for higher visibility. Release.
Lou Ferrara, AP deputy ME for multimedia, said the contributions could range from eyewitness accounts to originally produced reports. At first, AP bureaus with will work NowPublic in certain areas to enhance regional news coverage wile the national desks might call on contributors during breaking news. This part sort of veers over the hype-meter edge: NowPublic will help AP cover virtual communities but it doesn’t seem to mean setting up a Second Life bureau—more along the lines of covering social “networks and contributed content sites.” NowPublic also will help AP extend its coverage of virtual communities, such as social networks and contributed content sites. AP rival Reuters is already involved in peer journalism projects.