BrooWaha Updates

Monday night we have updated BrooWaha to fix some bugs and add new features. Here's a quick rundown of the updates:

• Facebook application redesigned to show more articles and incite more users to read your work. Don't have the Facebook app yet? Click here to install it now.
  
• The navigation bar now shows if you have a draft in the works and date you last worked on it
• New "Most Popular Articles" page showing the top 25 articles ranked by a number of criteria
• Authors now have more power on the comment section of their articles: their votes affect the comment score by +2 or -2 rather than +1 and -1
• Redesign of the article pages to improve the overall look of your work
• Thumbnails now identify you in the comment section and in the article signature

That's it for now! As usual if you have any comments or suggestions on how to improve BrooWaha, please send us an email at info@broowaha.com

Our First Call for Contributions: Your Assignment, Should You Choose to Accept It

For the short version of your assignment go here.
For an explanation on why Broowaha is doing this - keep reading.

The Internet has dramatically changed two fundamental aspects of human culture.

• How we stay informed
  
• How we socialize
  

It's our hope at Broowaha to take the best from both these revolutions and combine them to create something totally different.

The cost of publishing has reached almost zero. Which means the power of the press now belongs to everybody. Hence, Broowaha - a place where citizen journalists can inform each other about what's going on in their communities. Sites like Broowaha empower people to take control of how they stay informed. The fourth estate, which was the news industry, is now in all our hands - so we all share that responsibility.

The other revolution, how we socialize, has made it possible for like-minded people to find each other despite geographic distance and share their collective wisdom. Everywhere you look online you see people sharing recipes, how-to tips, pictures and knowledge. Wikipedia is probably the best example - it is a collection of human knowledge.

Yes, the Internet has modernized how we stay informed and virtually invented collective wisdom, but there still isn't a practical application of collective action in journalism.

We believe the future of citizen journalism is when groups of concerned writers, dispersed around the world, tackle the same issues together. Imagine if we had 50 writers who all agreed to cover the effects of "No Child Left Behind" at their local school. We would have 50 stories that served local readers, but we would also have a national view of the issue. We would have context that no single journalist, professional or amateur, would be able to get alone.

Imagine if we had 100 writers all look into environmental justice in their city?
Or if we amassed 40 people to look at the conditions of homelessness in their area.

We live in a global village and there are issues that effect us all - and we can get to the bottom of them if we want.

This Sounds Intense. I'm a Little Intimidated By it All.

Short answer: Don't worry, we are going to start real slow (and extra fun).

Long answer: What has been described above is really just an idea - one that lots of theoreticians and journalism scholars think has potential, but nonetheless is untested. To our knowledge the closest working example was something called Assignment Zero, which Broowaha's editor-in-chief David Cohn played an integral role in. The biggest complaint I noticed from this experiment was that the topic was no fun. Everyone liked the idea of reporting on a story together - but nobody wanted to report on that particular story.

Fair enough. Broowaha is going to start very small and very simple. First and foremost we want this to be fun, a way to meet new people and get your stories in front of more eyes. If along the way we push the boundaries of citizen journalism - all the better.

Our first call for contributions will be "The Best and Worst: What You Love and Hate About Your City."

We invite everyone to write an article in two parts. The first part will be an editorial about all the things that make your city what it is. What gives New York it's attitude? What keeps Los Angeles sunny, San Francisco sailing and what gives Paris that je ne sais quoi?

The second half is for all the "glass is half empty" writers out there. Along with the good comes the bad and the second half of this call for contributions can be about all the aspects of your city you can't stand.

Some tips

• Be creative - have fun with this. Originality is the name of the game, since other people at Broowaha are probably writing about the same city.
• Ground the stories in something other people can relate to.
• Links: Check out local blogs - get a feel for what other people in your city think. With our new text editing tools, it's a snap to link back to their thoughts.
  

How you can participate

• Write the article and before you submit it to the editor scroll down to the fourth section of the submitting process "Call for Contributions" and include it on this list.
  
• Tell a friend, blog about it, spread the word.
  

What calls for contributions can we expect in the future?

This first call for contributions is about having fun and being creative. We want to do future calls for contributions that will ask you to review cafes, interview musicians, reports on new local businesses and more. The sky is the limit. We will be checking out the articles on this first call for contributions to get ideas - or you can comment below to let us know what you think would make a good topic.

And now - a phrase I hope to use more and more here at Broowaha: Onward!

Happy New Year!!

It's been just over a year since Broowaha opened its doors and next year will be just as exciting... so we wanted to send a note to wish you a happy new year and to let you know about the plans in store that will help Broowaha grow!


Please excuse the mess: Broowaha will be getting new features and designs. Most of these changes will be very obvious. We are constantly coming up with new ideas and design solutions to make your experience on the site richer and easier. If you have suggestions, don't hesitate to send them to info@broowaha.com.


Anyone can join....really: In the past, to contribute to Broowaha you had to join one of cities that belonged to our pre-existing network. Now, anyone can join and publish work, even if they aren't writing about one of the cities in our network. That work will still appear at Broowaha.com. If you belong to a network, your work will appear on the main page and a local edition as well. We will also continue to create new editions at the request of users, so don't be shy to suggest a new one at http://www.broowaha.com/network.php.

New editor, same style: We have a new editor! David Cohn (known as Digidave at Broowaha) comes to us with experience as a professional journalist, writing for Wired, Columbia Journalism Review and the New York Times - and he is also is a strong believer in citizen journalism! David recently organized the first Networked Journalism Summit where he became interested in and later joined the BrooWaha team. In the beginning, the team consisted of one member: a programmer (Ariel, Founder) who needed an editor for his growing citizen journalism network. David was a natural addition: a journalist who worked on building citizen journalism projects but lacked development skills. We hit it off and the rest is history. David won't be doing any heavy editing - this will still remain a project where you, the authors, write what you want; but he is around for any advice or general chatting. Feel free to contact him at david@broowaha.com.

New interface: You have been requesting it for months, and it's finally here: BrooWaha now has a spell-checker for your articles! In addition to that, we've also changed the writing interface to make it easier for you to use italic, create bullet points, and also add links to your articles. You now have no excuse not to link your article to your sources!! ;-)

New collaborative projects: Soon, Broowaha will unleash a new feature called "Call for Contributions". These will be networked stories. Our editor will make calls for stories on specific subjects. One month, the assignment might be to interview a local band, the next month it might be to take a picture of construction in your city. The goal is to find stories that we can all work on and, by combining our efforts, the sum of our work will be greater than the parts.


You continue to rock: Every month, starting in January, we will feature one of you as the writer. This site is nothing without you - and we know that. Therefore, you can look forward to continued recognition for a job well done!

Seriously, you rock!
We can't thank you enough for being part of BrooWaha. We hope that the changes we make in the coming weeks will make your experience on the site better and get your stories in front of more eyes.

Happy New Year from the staff here at BrooWaha; we look forward to a fantastic 2008 full of great writing, great pictures, and great community.

Until next time,

Ariel Vardi, Founder

PS- for more about David Cohn, your new editor, check out his freshly published interview here.

BrooWaha now on Facebook!

Sharing your BrooWaha articles with your Facebook friends is now a just a click away with the fully integrated BrooWaha application. Just click the link below to install:

http://www.facebook.com/add.php?api_key=b18f06e37eb32ba97c53f2a2fa46c5e5

With the BrooWaha application, your profile will automatically post your most recent articles for all your friends to see on your profile. Now you can show the world your stuff, and get your friends to be a part of YOUR Citizen Newspaper!

BrooWaha now tells you if your article has been linked by other websites!

What’s New?
In this newsletter: new cities joining BrooWaha, new formatting options (including YouTube videos), comment rating, and more!

BrooWaha New York & BrooWaha San Francisco
The BrooWaha network has recently launched two additional editions of the citizen newspaper in New York City and San Francisco. As a user of BrooWaha, you have the ability to comment and vote on articles of every BrooWaha edition. We strongly encourage you to visit the other cities in the BrooWaha network! The link to the New York edition is http://newyork.broowaha.com and the link to the San Francisco edition is http://sf.broowaha.com.


Search Feature
You can now use the new search feature in the status bar to help you look through the 1000+ articles published on BrooWaha.

Comment Rating
This brand new feature lets you vote on comments which other users post in response to articles. Comments that have been voted down by the majority of the BrooWaha community will become hidden. You can still access these hidden comments simply by clicking on the title of the comment. Your votes on the comments also have a slight impact on the comment author's popularity.

Contributor/Writer
Contributors with a popularity of over 500 now get the “Writer“ status. Writers benefit from extra formatting options for their articles and are ranked more highly in the organization of the newspaper.


New Formatting Options for Writers
BrooWaha just added new formatting options: italic, lists, citations, links, and even YouTube videos.
A new guide has been added to the writing interface to help you use them.

Dear Readers,

It is my great pleasure to announce that your very own
Broowaha is launching a New York edition and welcoming new
contributors from the New York area!

The new website for BrooWaha New York is:
http://newyork.broowaha.com

As a visitor from BrooWaha Los Angeles, you have access to
most features on BrooWaha New York. You can read articles,
leave comments, send messages, etc... The main restriction
on visitors is that they can only publish articles in their
city of origin. However, please feel free to browse the
New York edition and support your fellow contributors from
the east coast!

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all
of you here at BrooWaha Los Angeles for the amazing work
you have done during these last six months. I have
personally noticed a significant increase in the overall
quality of the writing on the website. For instance,
BrooWaha has published several local celebrity interviews
which have been picked up by other news media outlets.
Some of them have also been integrated into Wikipedia, the
largest citizen-contribution online encyclopedia. I
strongly encourage any of you who want to work on such
locally relevant articles to do so. Reading and writing for
Broowaha is a unique opportunity to meet amazing people
from all around the world, share stories, hone writing
skills, and perhaps gain recognition in the journalistic
and artistic communities.

If you have any friends living in or around the Big
Apple, please encourage them to join the new edition of
Broowaha New York. Also, please tell all your friends in
Los Angeles about both editions of the paper and encourage
them to join and contribute!

Cheers,
Ariel

BrooWaha in the LA Times!

Credit photo: Glenn Koenig for the LA Times

BrooWaha was featured in the LA Times yesterday! Read the article here.

You can now add your favorite authors to your Friends on BrooWaha. You will be notified by email each time they publish a new article. Other cool features are coming very soon!

New Kid On the Block: Is BrooWaha The Answer to LA's Newspaper Woes?

Circulation is down at the LAT. The OC Register and the San Diego Union-Tribune are both offering buyouts. The Weekly is in it deep (Jill Stewart is a big news, but has anyone caught on to the fact that they've laid off all the fact checkers?).

What's an LA Newsie to do? Take the news into you own hands, brother.

BrooWaha, an interactive online "citizen newspaper," was recently started up in LA by Israeli/Parisian Ariel Vardi who wanted to "create an unbiased, reliable source of local and global news written by a large community of amateur writers and journalists."

It's rough right now, but we think we see where it's going, and damnit if it doesn't have heart! Maybe there's hope for journalism in this town after all -- even if none of the journalists in town are part of it.

In true citizen newspaper form, Vardi gives FBLA the scoop himself:

Q: What is a "citizen newspaper"?
A: A citizen newspaper is an outlet where everyone can participate and share interesting news found on the web or write original news articles. Certain websites focus on the former (digg.com, newscloud.com, etc.) while BrooWaha focuses on the latter.

Q: Oh. Does that mean it's not good?
A: Not necessarily. I have a lot of respect for professional journalists and feel they do high-quality work. However, I do believe that journalism is flawed in the sense that its community is very closed. Who decides what's worth an article in a paper? An incredible number of great stories are never told or they're forgotten because some panel decided not to include them. But who should decide? BrooWaha's premise is that only the readers should. That is why one of BrooWaha's main goals is giving power back to the readers.

In addition to that, professional journalists are often sometimes disconnected from the local scene, and therefore miss many of the little stories that make our cities what they are. This flaw is inherent to professional journalism because there are simply not enough of them; they can't be everywhere at once.

But normal citizens are everywhere and they have the power to tell these important stories. This is yet another of BrooWaha's great strengths.

Q: Where did the idea come from?
A: I got the idea while I was living in Atlanta, finishing my Masters at Georgia Tech. My apartment was right next to some of the hippest clubs in town and several celebrities were frequently spotted hanging out in them. Despite being so close to the heart of the action, I felt very disconnected from what was going on in the city. It would have been interesting to know what went on in the clubs as well as other parts of Atlanta nightlife. And then I wondered where I could find this kind of information. That's how I came up with the idea of BrooWaha and how I started sleeping less and less to work on the project.

Q: You could have gone to the clubs -- the fact that you didn't proves you're a real journalist. Or, are you the next Arianna Huffington?

A: As I understand it, her blog is very politically oriented and she relies on big names and heavy-hitters. Firstly, BrooWaha is not a blog, it's a newspaper, meaning that we publish articles on a variety of different topics and, as stated above, by many different authors. Secondly, a distinction can be made between the people she recruits to write on her blog and the all-access platform that we have on BrooWaha. Lastly, unlike Ariana Huffington, I do not plan to run for governor :) However, if famous people want to write on BrooWaha, herself included, we will not turn them away!

Q: If people essentially "vote" for articles, is this really a social networking site for the blogger-set?

A: Social networking is not one of the main goals of BrooWaha and I took particular care when designing the website to keep it from becoming another vain attempt at reproducing what MySpace is today. If people want to use BrooWaha to meet bloggers, journalists, writers, etc, in addition to interacting with the site as a newspaper, more power to them. However, I don't think it will ever be primarily a social networking site. People will go to BrooWaha to read news articles and learn about Los Angeles and the world. BrooWaha is also a great tool for people to practice their writing and get feedback
on it from other authors and readers. Finally it is a great platform to share ideas, discuss news, and possibly also make friends, enemies, and rethink journalism for the better.

Published in Fishbowl LA on November 3rd 2006

Good morning Los Angeles!

The following is BrooWaha's first newsletter!
BrooWaha has been online for about 2 months now and we thought it would be a good idea to give you a little update of what's keeping us busy.


Latest news from BrooWaha:

Traffic to BrooWaha doubled since September:
The traffic to www.broowaha.com has more than doubled since last month and we are confident that it will keep growing very rapidly in the next couple of months as well. One of our main goals is to give our authors as much exposure as possible and we will continue to work hard in persuance of this goal.

Broowaha is now fully indexed by Google
BrooWaha is fully indexed by Google now. What does it mean for you? The articles you write may now be read by millions of Google users. Just try and type your author name or the title of one of your articles in Google and you'll see for yourself ;-)


BrooWaha cited on other websites
The article "Z for Danielewski" by Epileptic Guinea Pig has been cited in the official website of Only Revolutions, Mark Z. Danielewski's latest book. We hope to see a lot more of your articles cited by major websites in the future!


Print Feature
If you want to show your work to your friends or even potential recruiters, please use our new Print feature located at the bottom right of the articles; it will format the article in a printer-friendly version.


Watch an author
This feature has been available for a while but is overlooked by most users. If you want to be notified by email each time your favorite author writes a new article, all you need to do is go to his/her profile page and click on "Watch this author". It's that easy!


RSS
BrooWaha now has an RSS feed that you can find at the bottom of any page of BrooWaha. By subscribing to this feed, you'll be notified each time a new article is published. To use this feature we recommend you download Firefox 2.0.


Spell-Check for your articles
Firefox 2.0 (the recommended browser above) also has a built-in spell check that will help you catch your spelling mistakes before you submit an article to the editor. A great tool for your authoring needs!


Tshirts, hats, mugs, stickers
Go to http://www.cafepress.com/broowaha and support our effort by getting one of our new t-shirts or other merchandise!

Join our Flickr group!

Join our Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/broowaha-losangeles/ and have your artwork displayed on Broowaha!


Coming Soon to BrooWaha:


Bug fixes
Yes, we are not perfect. But at least we are working on it ;-)


Automatic login
No need to manually log in every time, you will be logged in automatically when you access the website!


Delete draft, cancel pending submission
Caught a spelling mistake in your article after you submitted it to the editor? You will soon be able to cancel your submission and work on your draft some more before it is published.


More statistics
Average article length, number of views and ratings, and how you stand compared to other authors.

Article Requests
Interested in writing something but don't know what to write about? We will soon have a solution for you...

And much more...
But we're keeping it to ourselves for the moment ;-)



How can you help us?


Talk about BrooWaha with everyone you know!
Tell all your friends about BrooWaha and make them sign up!

Post a link to BrooWaha on your blog/myspace
Link BrooWaha on your blog/myspace! Not only does it bring us traffic, but it also improves our rankings in Google which in turn means more exposure for you!

Buy and wear our t-shirts
Show us some love and wear our t-shirts and sweatshirts. They are available from CafePress at http://www.cafepress.com/broowaha

But above all, keep submitting articles!
Keep contributing regularly to BrooWaha Los Angeles, it's definitely the best way to help out!



That's it!


That's it for now! If you have any questions or comments about BrooWaha, please feel free to send us an email at feedback@broowaha.com. Your feedback is very valuable to us, so please don't hesitate to drop us a line!


Thanks for being part of the revolution,

- BrooWaha Staff
www.broowaha.com