Congrats to office mates and Drupal users Now Public on closing their A round!

From GigaOM For NowPublic Citizen Journalism Seems to Work «:

QUOTE

NowPublic, a Vancouver-based citizen journalism site has raised $10.6 million in Series A funding from Rho Ventures/Rho Canada, Brightspark, and the Working Opportunity Fund.

END QUOTE

I had a nice conversation with Mark Schneider of Now Public yesterday about how to encourage their users to put more mobile content on their "worldwide citizen journalism newsagency" site. I wrote up a summary on the Bryght public wiki that is specific to Drupal sites like Now Public but generally applies to any website.

Here's an excerpt from: my wiki page (it's a wiki page, so feel free to update my typos and add other cool Drupal suggestions and modules!), How to Support Mobile Content Creation in Drupal:

QUOTE

The general rule should be to provide as many roads to Drupal as possible! The base technology (i.e. protocols like email, MetaWeblogAPI and Atom Publishing Protocol) are relatively "easy", getting something usable and useful on the mobile device is the hard part.

END QUOTE

[Cross posted from rolandtanglao.com. I may be biased, but there's definitely a trend of Citizen Journalism sites using Drupal: cf. H2otown, PhillyFuture, UrbanVancouver, BlufftonToday, and even the original version of Bayosphere. I think it's not only due to the incredible marketing power of the Drupal community but also a testament to Drupal's awesome community features and out of the box "Web 2.0 ready" technology (real group blogs, clean URLs, tagging, RSS, etc.) ]

Here's my (very biased :-) !) notes, tips and links from Monday May 15th's HTCE What "What Citizen Journalism Means to Corporate Communications" panel with Darren, Tod and Kris:

Roland and I will be presenting with Darren Barefoot and Tod Maffin at an upcoming event here in Vancouver called "What Citizen Journalism Means to Corporate Communications" put on by the Canadian PR Society. Details are below... please come out and join us if you can. :)
What Citizen Journalism Means to Corporate Communications
A joint event presented by the HTCE and the Canadian PR Society.
Sponsored by Fido

What is citizen journalism? How is it changing the mainstream media and the average consumer? Where will we get our news in twenty years? And what does all this mean to corporate communications?

Darren Barefoot, one of Canada’s most popular and most prolific bloggers, moderates a panel with CBC journalist and podcasting advocate Tod Maffin, technology advocate Roland Tanglao and online marketer, Kris Krug. (Bios are below)

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain some insight into the new tools that are changing the way we communicate. As this session is meant to be interactive, please come prepared with questions.

Here’s a bit of background on our subject-matter experts:

Tod Maffin hosts a national technology column on CBC Radio, a technology series on CBC Television's Canada Now, and is a producer for several radio programs including the country's guide to modern culture, Definitely Not the Opera. He has been a host of several national CBC Radio programs including Real Life Chronicles and todradio.com. Tod Maffin is "one of Canada's most influential futurists" according to The Globe and Mail.

Roland Tanglao is a passionate advocate of blogs, RSS and social software as a means for online expression for people, organizations and businesses. He truly believes in 'creating compelling content constantly' as his over 15000 photos on flickr and the many blogs he updates regularly attest. Roland is one of the founders of Bryght and as Bryght's Chief Blogging Officer, he reads hundreds of blogs daily through his RSS reader and participates in many online communities. He is an expert community manager, with UrbanVancouver.com and his personal restaurant review site, VanEats.com, being the two best examples.

Kris Krug has been publishing online since 1998 and has spent his professional career working in marketing and creative departments for technology companies. He recently moved back to Vancouver after spending the past several years in San Francisco, California where he helped lead marketing departments for 2 large companies that went on to be acquired. Kris is an online expert, having built and operated dozens of websites. He has the unique ability to balance communication objectives and aesthetic delight. The only time you won't find him plugged into the interweb is when he is out roaming with his camera. Kris is an aspiring photographer and has carved out a niche doing event blogging at conferences and special events. Other places to find Kris online are KrisKrug.com, Daily Vancouver 2010, Urban Vancouver and PhotographyHack.com.

Darren Barefoot is one of Canada's most popular and prolific bloggers. His personal blog (www.darrenbarefoot.com) is read daily by thousands of visitors. While Darren's undergraduate degree is in Writing and Theatre, he has always had a deep love of computers. Ever since his parents brought home their first dual disc drive IBM PC, he was smitten. Darren's life-long passion for technology provides rich material for writing about the affects of technology on modern-day society. Darren has spent the last decade working for software companies in Canada and Europe. Darren is co-founder of Capulet Communications, a PR and marketing company based in Vancouver, BC that specializes in marketing high-tech companies. He has written articles for a variety of publications including Intercom Magazine, the Vancouver View and Professional Marketing Magazine.

May 15, 2006

Roland and I will be presenting with Darren Barefoot and Tod Maffin at an upcoming event here in Vancouver called "What Citizen Journalism Means to Corporate Communications" put on by the Canadian PR Society. Details are below... please come out and join us if you can. :)
What Citizen Journalism Means to Corporate Communications
A joint event presented by the HTCE and the Canadian PR Society.
Sponsored by Fido

What is citizen journalism? How is it changing the mainstream media and the average consumer? Where will we get our news in twenty years? And what does all this mean to corporate communications?

Darren Barefoot, one of Canada’s most popular and most prolific bloggers, moderates a panel with CBC journalist and podcasting advocate Tod Maffin, technology advocate Roland Tanglao and online marketer, Kris Krug. (Bios are below)

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain some insight into the new tools that are changing the way we communicate. As this session is meant to be interactive, please come prepared with questions.

Here’s a bit of background on our subject-matter experts:

Tod Maffin hosts a national technology column on CBC Radio, a technology series on CBC Television's Canada Now, and is a producer for several radio programs including the country's guide to modern culture, Definitely Not the Opera. He has been a host of several national CBC Radio programs including Real Life Chronicles and todradio.com. Tod Maffin is "one of Canada's most influential futurists" according to The Globe and Mail.

Roland Tanglao is a passionate advocate of blogs, RSS and social software as a means for online expression for people, organizations and businesses. He truly believes in 'creating compelling content constantly' as his over 15000 photos on flickr and the many blogs he updates regularly attest. Roland is one of the founders of Bryght and as Bryght's Chief Blogging Officer, he reads hundreds of blogs daily through his RSS reader and participates in many online communities. He is an expert community manager, with UrbanVancouver.com and his personal restaurant review site, VanEats.com, being the two best examples.

Kris Krug has been publishing online since 1998 and has spent his professional career working in marketing and creative departments for technology companies. He recently moved back to Vancouver after spending the past several years in San Francisco, California where he helped lead marketing departments for 2 large companies that went on to be acquired. Kris is an online expert, having built and operated dozens of websites. He has the unique ability to balance communication objectives and aesthetic delight. The only time you won't find him plugged into the interweb is when he is out roaming with his camera. Kris is an aspiring photographer and has carved out a niche doing event blogging at conferences and special events. Other places to find Kris online are KrisKrug.com, Daily Vancouver 2010, Urban Vancouver and PhotographyHack.com.

Darren Barefoot is one of Canada's most popular and prolific bloggers. His personal blog (www.darrenbarefoot.com) is read daily by thousands of visitors. While Darren's undergraduate degree is in Writing and Theatre, he has always had a deep love of computers. Ever since his parents brought home their first dual disc drive IBM PC, he was smitten. Darren's life-long passion for technology provides rich material for writing about the affects of technology on modern-day society. Darren has spent the last decade working for software companies in Canada and Europe. Darren is co-founder of Capulet Communications, a PR and marketing company based in Vancouver, BC that specializes in marketing high-tech companies. He has written articles for a variety of publications including Intercom Magazine, the Vancouver View and Professional Marketing Magazine.

May 15, 2006