Friday, July 4, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Monday, September 3, 2007
News coverage of Yoosk
It’s early days but we are starting to pick up some interest from the media and the blogosphere on both sides of the Atlantic. If you are still not completely sure what Yoosk is all about, then here it is in the words of professional commentators…..
Yoosk picked up some TV coverage in the States recently: Fox 16’s review offers an excellent starting point for any users who want to know what the site is all about.
A recent article by James Knight in the UK national broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph puts Yoosk’s mission into the context of the citizen journalism revolution.
Dutch journalist Angelique Van Engelen’s in depth survey of the citizen media landscape in Global Politician also looks at Yoosk’s unique contribution to the field. In a subsequent post on Report Twitters, Angelique talks about how Yoosk’s crowd-sourcing of interview questions can help editors ‘incorporate the masses into their work’.
From the PR industry perspective, Sarah Wurrey’s article on CustomScoop offers excellent insights into how Yoosk helps PR agencies and their clients connect with the public. Stephen Davies also posted a short piece on PRblogger.com that attracted some very favourable comment from industry professionals.
When the site was first being tested, Dan Gillmor, one of the most respected commentators on citizen media, was the first to pick up on Yoosk’s unique contribution to crowd-sourced interviews.
Yoosk picked up some TV coverage in the States recently: Fox 16’s review offers an excellent starting point for any users who want to know what the site is all about.
A recent article by James Knight in the UK national broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph puts Yoosk’s mission into the context of the citizen journalism revolution.
Dutch journalist Angelique Van Engelen’s in depth survey of the citizen media landscape in Global Politician also looks at Yoosk’s unique contribution to the field. In a subsequent post on Report Twitters, Angelique talks about how Yoosk’s crowd-sourcing of interview questions can help editors ‘incorporate the masses into their work’.
From the PR industry perspective, Sarah Wurrey’s article on CustomScoop offers excellent insights into how Yoosk helps PR agencies and their clients connect with the public. Stephen Davies also posted a short piece on PRblogger.com that attracted some very favourable comment from industry professionals.
When the site was first being tested, Dan Gillmor, one of the most respected commentators on citizen media, was the first to pick up on Yoosk’s unique contribution to crowd-sourced interviews.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The blogger: private citizen or public figure?
There are a number of debates raging at the moment that variously pit bloggers against PR workers (see the comments by Tom Coates) and bloggers against journalists (see the debate between Steve Rubel and Michael Skube).
Both these debates are relevant to what Keith and I are trying to do at Yoosk because we are working at the interface of blogging, PR, journalism and social networking
It seems to me that one obstacle to useful debate is the vocabulary we are hampered with. Starting with the blogger v. PR conflict first, I think we first need to ask the question: who or what is a blogger? This needs to be answered because if all bloggers are essentially private individuals, then the PR industry has no business seeing them as a resource. But are bloggers a homogonous group, all to be treated the same way?
As with so many nouns used these days (e.g. terrorist, insurgent, Muslim, Christian) it describes such a broad group as to be at best meaningless and at worst woefully misleading. The word ‘blogger’ covers such a disparate set of sub-groups with such diverse motivations, beliefs and actions, as to render it a real barrier to understanding. I wish the world would get to grips with its nouns, I really do.
Blog comes from web-log. Traditionally, a log was a daily, first-hand recording of events, perhaps containing some subjective reflections. I think when the term blog was coined that was probably a reasonably fitting description of what they were.
Now the term encompasses the following: online diarists who share the minute detail of their daily lives; creative writers; people who report on events they or their friends have witnessed (dramatic examples include the Charleston University shootings); self-appointed pundits who analyse events and take up a position on them; people who report on what the pundits say and make counter arguments; academics and intellectuals who publish extracts and summaries of research and theories; consultants, PR and marketing staff who write about a subject as a means to indirectly promote their company; new product and website reviewers; authors seeking to promote their books; other artists and entertainers wishing to do the same; politicians wishing to ´connect´ with voters…. I guess there are far more….
The answer to my question is that bloggers are in fact many different things, whose roles often bear absolutely no relation to one another. Clearly we need more terms to describe people who write online than the current one in common use-blogger.
Why does it matter?
Recently, Tom Coates, one of the UK’s outstanding ‘bloggers’ (I’m going to start putting the term in inverted commas now that I have dismissed it as unhelpful) wrote a strongly worded piece about his disgust at being sent press releases by PR people who wanted to promote their clients. Tom’s view, as I understand it, is that real ‘bloggers’ (that is, people like him and other blogging pioneers from the old days) should never be viewed as being a publishing commodity to be exploited for financial gain . The implication is that blogs are no places to disseminate product information, even innovative new products of interest to the blog readers, unless the online writer concerned stumbles across it or is told about it by someone from within their network.
Well, it seems many online writers do want to receive that information-clearly they are not authentic bloggers (ok, I've got fed up of putting it in inverted commas) in Tom’s book. And I think perhaps he has a point- they are a type of online writer, but not close enough to the original term of blogger to be described as such.
Tom also wrote that he considers his blog a personal space, despite the fact that it is clearly in the public domain. Here I think he is on shakier ground and this brings me to the second of the three main questions I have on this subject (the third, asking whether ‘bloggers’ can really be compared to journalists, will appear in the next post).
Which online writers can be considered as public figures ? When is it ok to freely comment on, criticise and hold up for scrutiny the work of an online writer and which of them can be legitimately questioned on their views by any member of the public?
Once people start analysing and commenting in public on events that are external to them, and do this consistently, then I believe they put themselves in the category of public figures. So online diarists who write about themselves and their family are not ‘public bloggers’ but pundits who routinely make judgements on events do fall into the category of ‘public figures’. And by ‘public’ I mean that because what they say is in the public domain and not directly related to their own lives, that the public deserve a right of reply, a right to question their motives and to be given a platform that allows them to do that.
For example, two of the most famous online political commentators (who perhaps more closely resemble owners of a media platform: Adriana Huffington of the Huffington Post and Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos) are definitely public figures.
Which brings me back to Tom’s very strong objections to being sent PR releases…
Tom, I admire your ideals but isn't it time to accept that the kind of blog you write, which contains an element of punditry, is a public statement made in a public place?
The logical conclusion is that like it or not, you are entering the public arena by attracting a large readership and so people will want to use your publishing space to get their message across. You can always put up a 'no hawkers sign', as in fact you have done.
Additionally, since you are a public figure, making pronouncements for public consumption, surely you have to accept being treated like one- and this includes by the press as well as by the PR and advertising industry. I'm not saying you are fair game for gratuitous public gossip and stalking, just that you can't apply the values of old world privacy to the present-where private individuals freely express views that reach thousands. Times have changed and you are part of a group of people responsible for that. So be prepared to be asked questions in public about your publicly expressed views (but never your personal life, naturally).
With this in mind, I am therefore asking your permission to enter you as a public figure on Yoosk!
Both these debates are relevant to what Keith and I are trying to do at Yoosk because we are working at the interface of blogging, PR, journalism and social networking
It seems to me that one obstacle to useful debate is the vocabulary we are hampered with. Starting with the blogger v. PR conflict first, I think we first need to ask the question: who or what is a blogger? This needs to be answered because if all bloggers are essentially private individuals, then the PR industry has no business seeing them as a resource. But are bloggers a homogonous group, all to be treated the same way?
As with so many nouns used these days (e.g. terrorist, insurgent, Muslim, Christian) it describes such a broad group as to be at best meaningless and at worst woefully misleading. The word ‘blogger’ covers such a disparate set of sub-groups with such diverse motivations, beliefs and actions, as to render it a real barrier to understanding. I wish the world would get to grips with its nouns, I really do.
Blog comes from web-log. Traditionally, a log was a daily, first-hand recording of events, perhaps containing some subjective reflections. I think when the term blog was coined that was probably a reasonably fitting description of what they were.
Now the term encompasses the following: online diarists who share the minute detail of their daily lives; creative writers; people who report on events they or their friends have witnessed (dramatic examples include the Charleston University shootings); self-appointed pundits who analyse events and take up a position on them; people who report on what the pundits say and make counter arguments; academics and intellectuals who publish extracts and summaries of research and theories; consultants, PR and marketing staff who write about a subject as a means to indirectly promote their company; new product and website reviewers; authors seeking to promote their books; other artists and entertainers wishing to do the same; politicians wishing to ´connect´ with voters…. I guess there are far more….
The answer to my question is that bloggers are in fact many different things, whose roles often bear absolutely no relation to one another. Clearly we need more terms to describe people who write online than the current one in common use-blogger.
Why does it matter?
Recently, Tom Coates, one of the UK’s outstanding ‘bloggers’ (I’m going to start putting the term in inverted commas now that I have dismissed it as unhelpful) wrote a strongly worded piece about his disgust at being sent press releases by PR people who wanted to promote their clients. Tom’s view, as I understand it, is that real ‘bloggers’ (that is, people like him and other blogging pioneers from the old days) should never be viewed as being a publishing commodity to be exploited for financial gain . The implication is that blogs are no places to disseminate product information, even innovative new products of interest to the blog readers, unless the online writer concerned stumbles across it or is told about it by someone from within their network.
Well, it seems many online writers do want to receive that information-clearly they are not authentic bloggers (ok, I've got fed up of putting it in inverted commas) in Tom’s book. And I think perhaps he has a point- they are a type of online writer, but not close enough to the original term of blogger to be described as such.
Tom also wrote that he considers his blog a personal space, despite the fact that it is clearly in the public domain. Here I think he is on shakier ground and this brings me to the second of the three main questions I have on this subject (the third, asking whether ‘bloggers’ can really be compared to journalists, will appear in the next post).
Which online writers can be considered as public figures ? When is it ok to freely comment on, criticise and hold up for scrutiny the work of an online writer and which of them can be legitimately questioned on their views by any member of the public?
Once people start analysing and commenting in public on events that are external to them, and do this consistently, then I believe they put themselves in the category of public figures. So online diarists who write about themselves and their family are not ‘public bloggers’ but pundits who routinely make judgements on events do fall into the category of ‘public figures’. And by ‘public’ I mean that because what they say is in the public domain and not directly related to their own lives, that the public deserve a right of reply, a right to question their motives and to be given a platform that allows them to do that.
For example, two of the most famous online political commentators (who perhaps more closely resemble owners of a media platform: Adriana Huffington of the Huffington Post and Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos) are definitely public figures.
Which brings me back to Tom’s very strong objections to being sent PR releases…
Tom, I admire your ideals but isn't it time to accept that the kind of blog you write, which contains an element of punditry, is a public statement made in a public place?
The logical conclusion is that like it or not, you are entering the public arena by attracting a large readership and so people will want to use your publishing space to get their message across. You can always put up a 'no hawkers sign', as in fact you have done.
Additionally, since you are a public figure, making pronouncements for public consumption, surely you have to accept being treated like one- and this includes by the press as well as by the PR and advertising industry. I'm not saying you are fair game for gratuitous public gossip and stalking, just that you can't apply the values of old world privacy to the present-where private individuals freely express views that reach thousands. Times have changed and you are part of a group of people responsible for that. So be prepared to be asked questions in public about your publicly expressed views (but never your personal life, naturally).
With this in mind, I am therefore asking your permission to enter you as a public figure on Yoosk!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Can Yoosk’s crowd-sourced interview features help bridge the cultural divide?
Today on Yoosk we have started a new feature by Anglo-Irish journalist Nick Ryan which looks at UK Muslims and the issues surrounding their integration into British Society. We are inviting Yoosk users to ask four leading politicians and commentators, Muslim and non- Muslim, hard questions on topics like terrorism, racism and prejudice -the most popular of which will be answered in two weeks time.
A part of our vision at Yoosk is to break down the obstacles to sensible and open intercultural dialogue that traditional politics and media have created. We expect some of the questions to be raw and provocative but we sincerely believe that Yoosk users will make sure the best ones rise to the top.
Nick writes eloquently of the issues and invites questions from all sides. White secularists can put questions to the Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organisation which wants to establish a new Caliphate and which many politicians have called to be banned. Muslims worried about the stereotypes that sometimes appear in the right wing press and their portrayal in the media in general, can put their questions to Peter Hitchens, a leading columnist.
We hope the answers will also offer some surprises and open a few minds.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
An open letter to bloggers and citizen media enthusiasts
Dear friends
Imagine a blogosphere where bloggers conduct thousands of interviews every week with public figures- politicians, business leaders, sportspeople and celebrities. The interviews cover all the major issues- international, national and local. The questions come directly from the public and the answers directly from the people being interviewed- with no involvement of mainstream media.
We believe this would represent a step change in the way the Internet is used to engage people in the news and the issues it covers. True, bloggers and their readers already comment and report on the news very effectively. But what is needed is for bloggers to more effectively set the news agenda by mobilising their readers to ask questions of the public figures in the news and- with the help of crowd sourcing techniques- to deliver the answers.
A lone approach for an interview to a public figure has very little chance of success for all but the most high profile blogger. Yoosk is a portal that will allow any blogger to start a campaign or set up a panel interview with key public figures around any issue.
As you will have guessed, this is an appeal for your help to get our particular contribution to citizen media, namely the fusion of campaigning citizen journalism and crowd sourced interviews, up and running.
But we also passionately believe that what we are offering will bring real value to your own blog and help to take citizen media in a new direction.
As bloggers, many of you are campaigners at heart, or at the very least have a strong position on a number of key issues. Your readers almost certainly share this. What we are suggesting you do is to use Yoosk as a platform for your readers to ask questions of public figures on these issues- with you taking the lead. If you really like the concept, you could use it to start a campaign.
Here’s how we see it working:
Yoosk has a features page that allows bloggers and citizen journalists to create an interview feature on a particular issue, with questions from the public being directed to key people (politicians, business leaders, celebrities) linked to that issue. In some, we secure the commitment of the public figures beforehand in partnership with freelance journalists, in others, we hope that enough questions and votes for those questions by our users will lead to us securing answers.
We are asking bloggers to start their own features on Yoosk (I’ve written here how to go about this), to write some short background and then to ask their readers to submit questions. We’ll do everything we can to get the answers directly from the people concerned (although we welcome any help you can give).
The time involved in creating the feature should be no more than the time it takes to write an average blog post- and if nothing else, it’s an interesting exercise!
What do we offer in return?
Well, of course we’ll link to your site. We are small at the moment, but the more commentators and bloggers submit features, the more traffic we’ll get.
When we get answers, we will post them on Yoosk and the interviews will also be yours to post on your own site.
We hope you’ll go for it. Imagine being able to get four or so leaders in a room being quizzed on a specific issue of your choice by members of the public. We are offering the chance to do this-we are familiar with the objection that the public figures concerned might not condescend to answer, but we really believe that with your help, they will.
Please use our contact form or better, email us directly at timhood at Yoosk dot co dot uk or keithhalstead at Yoosk dot co dot uk.
Thanks
Tim Hood and Keith Halstead
Co founders of Yoosk
Imagine a blogosphere where bloggers conduct thousands of interviews every week with public figures- politicians, business leaders, sportspeople and celebrities. The interviews cover all the major issues- international, national and local. The questions come directly from the public and the answers directly from the people being interviewed- with no involvement of mainstream media.
We believe this would represent a step change in the way the Internet is used to engage people in the news and the issues it covers. True, bloggers and their readers already comment and report on the news very effectively. But what is needed is for bloggers to more effectively set the news agenda by mobilising their readers to ask questions of the public figures in the news and- with the help of crowd sourcing techniques- to deliver the answers.
A lone approach for an interview to a public figure has very little chance of success for all but the most high profile blogger. Yoosk is a portal that will allow any blogger to start a campaign or set up a panel interview with key public figures around any issue.
As you will have guessed, this is an appeal for your help to get our particular contribution to citizen media, namely the fusion of campaigning citizen journalism and crowd sourced interviews, up and running.
But we also passionately believe that what we are offering will bring real value to your own blog and help to take citizen media in a new direction.
As bloggers, many of you are campaigners at heart, or at the very least have a strong position on a number of key issues. Your readers almost certainly share this. What we are suggesting you do is to use Yoosk as a platform for your readers to ask questions of public figures on these issues- with you taking the lead. If you really like the concept, you could use it to start a campaign.
Here’s how we see it working:
Yoosk has a features page that allows bloggers and citizen journalists to create an interview feature on a particular issue, with questions from the public being directed to key people (politicians, business leaders, celebrities) linked to that issue. In some, we secure the commitment of the public figures beforehand in partnership with freelance journalists, in others, we hope that enough questions and votes for those questions by our users will lead to us securing answers.
We are asking bloggers to start their own features on Yoosk (I’ve written here how to go about this), to write some short background and then to ask their readers to submit questions. We’ll do everything we can to get the answers directly from the people concerned (although we welcome any help you can give).
The time involved in creating the feature should be no more than the time it takes to write an average blog post- and if nothing else, it’s an interesting exercise!
What do we offer in return?
Well, of course we’ll link to your site. We are small at the moment, but the more commentators and bloggers submit features, the more traffic we’ll get.
When we get answers, we will post them on Yoosk and the interviews will also be yours to post on your own site.
We hope you’ll go for it. Imagine being able to get four or so leaders in a room being quizzed on a specific issue of your choice by members of the public. We are offering the chance to do this-we are familiar with the objection that the public figures concerned might not condescend to answer, but we really believe that with your help, they will.
Please use our contact form or better, email us directly at timhood at Yoosk dot co dot uk or keithhalstead at Yoosk dot co dot uk.
Thanks
Tim Hood and Keith Halstead
Co founders of Yoosk
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
New on Yoosk: create your own issue panel and start your own in-depth interview feature
As a Yoosk user you can now submit a proposal for a feature on an issue you care deeply about and see it through from conception to completion- an article based on a series of interviews with public figures, answering Yoosk users’ questions on that issue.
We are adding this feature because we are finding that users often want to ask a collection of people questions about the same issue (a minister and the opposition shadow minister, for example, or the US Presidential or London Mayoral candidates).
If there is an issue you care about or find especially interesting and would like to see what key figures have to say on the matter, then here’s how it works:
Step 1
Think of a title or headline for the issue: his could be one of the following:
-a simple title, like ‘The 2008 Elections for the Mayor of London’
-a broad question, such as ‘Are our teenagers getting more violent?’
-a specific issue relating to a particular time or place, like ‘The Floods in England: were the authorities prepared?’
-a campaign-orientated title: ‘Let’s stop subsidies for EU farmers and ensure fair trade for African producers’
Step 2
Do some research on who the influential and outspoken people on the subject are. Choose up to eight of them for your panel, although four is an optimum number. Try to get a good mix of positions and views.
Step 3
Write a short introductory piece explaining the issue (be as impartial as possible) and a short biography of the people on your panel. Put any hyperlinks in that you think will be helpful to Yoosk readers. We will edit this as necessary, but very possibly many of you will write better than us! Anyway, this is just to reassure that if you don’t have time to worry about style or syntax, then send it to us anyway and we’ll do the rest. The bare bones will do.
Step 4
Send the text to us. For the next few weeks, please use the form on the contact us page. After two weeks, we will have a special form for submitting your proposal for a Yoosk feature.
Step 5
Go to the ask a question facility on Yoosk and start with an opening question to each of the panel members whose details you have sent us. You will probably need to add a few of the public figures who don’t yet exist on our public figures page- please do this if you can, as it will help speed things up for us our end.
Step 6
Wait a day and we’ll contact you to tell you that it has been posted in the upcoming features on Yoosk or to ask for more information.
Step 7
We will contact the people on your panel and ask them if they are willing to be interviewed. Some will, some won’t, but we’ll make sure the questions go to them anyway.
Step 8
We will promote your feature on Yoosk and ask members to submit questions by a certain deadline then we’ll send the questions on to the public figures concerned.
Step 9
When we get answers, we’ll write them up into an article and post it on Yoosk, giving you credit for your part in the article.
We are adding this feature because we are finding that users often want to ask a collection of people questions about the same issue (a minister and the opposition shadow minister, for example, or the US Presidential or London Mayoral candidates).
If there is an issue you care about or find especially interesting and would like to see what key figures have to say on the matter, then here’s how it works:
Step 1
Think of a title or headline for the issue: his could be one of the following:
-a simple title, like ‘The 2008 Elections for the Mayor of London’
-a broad question, such as ‘Are our teenagers getting more violent?’
-a specific issue relating to a particular time or place, like ‘The Floods in England: were the authorities prepared?’
-a campaign-orientated title: ‘Let’s stop subsidies for EU farmers and ensure fair trade for African producers’
Step 2
Do some research on who the influential and outspoken people on the subject are. Choose up to eight of them for your panel, although four is an optimum number. Try to get a good mix of positions and views.
Step 3
Write a short introductory piece explaining the issue (be as impartial as possible) and a short biography of the people on your panel. Put any hyperlinks in that you think will be helpful to Yoosk readers. We will edit this as necessary, but very possibly many of you will write better than us! Anyway, this is just to reassure that if you don’t have time to worry about style or syntax, then send it to us anyway and we’ll do the rest. The bare bones will do.
Step 4
Send the text to us. For the next few weeks, please use the form on the contact us page. After two weeks, we will have a special form for submitting your proposal for a Yoosk feature.
Step 5
Go to the ask a question facility on Yoosk and start with an opening question to each of the panel members whose details you have sent us. You will probably need to add a few of the public figures who don’t yet exist on our public figures page- please do this if you can, as it will help speed things up for us our end.
Step 6
Wait a day and we’ll contact you to tell you that it has been posted in the upcoming features on Yoosk or to ask for more information.
Step 7
We will contact the people on your panel and ask them if they are willing to be interviewed. Some will, some won’t, but we’ll make sure the questions go to them anyway.
Step 8
We will promote your feature on Yoosk and ask members to submit questions by a certain deadline then we’ll send the questions on to the public figures concerned.
Step 9
When we get answers, we’ll write them up into an article and post it on Yoosk, giving you credit for your part in the article.
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