Currently, the most prominent example of a crowdsourced project is Wikipedia, the website that asks users to submit encyclopedia style entries, including sources, to an ever growing, infinitely searchable cache of information.  However, crowdsourcing debuted long before the Internet was even a twinkle in “Al Gore’s” eye (for those of you not in on that laugh, there is a widely circulated myth/joke that Al Gore invented the internet).  The Oxford English Dictionary, a compilation of over 300,000 lexicographical entries whose first edition was published in 1928, used a large group of volunteer readers to mine English language writings for undocumented usages, which were then included in the dictionary.

Nowadays, though, crowdsourcing is a whole different game.  The Internet provides the capability to reach millions of potential workers cheaply and quickly, and crowdsourcing is becoming the best way to do business, do research, turn a profit and the get media attention.

Here are some links to articles about successful attempts at crowdsourcing, and the effects that it has on how stuff gets done in the age of Web 2.0.

http://www.nyas.org/Publications/Detail.aspx?cid=5222b62e-4a1b-4fb2-bf6e-a38e263dee49

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1

In “The Growth of Citizen Science,” (first link above), the authors provide a handy example of how scientists are harnessing a huge population of interested amateurs to conduct large-scale data gathering and compilation.  By creating a simple interface that is easy for volunteers to use, it is possible to turn amateur science hobbyists into an integral part of the scientific process.

Another excellent example of crowdsourced citizen science is occurring right now in Indiana.  The Hoosier River Watch project is using lightly trained volunteers to gather water quality data from sites across the state.  The information is being compiled into a database that will hopefully be useful in caring for and predicting the quality of Indiana’s watersheds.  Check this article out to see how GC students are getting involved:

http://record.goshen.edu/2009/10/7697-ecology-students-present-water-quality-project-aims

In “The Answer Factory,” from Wired Magazine, the corporation Demand Media is profiled, and their strategy of content production and search engine optimization is about as close to crowdsourcing as you can get while still paying your workers.  Content producers; writers, filmmakers and copy editors can browse a huge database of “assignments” generated by an algorithm that uses search engine searches and clickthroughs to predict popular topics.  The content producers then create various articles, instructional videos or other media objects on the subject, and quickly upload them for between $15 and $25 a pop.  It isn’t high quality stuff, but it does the job, and that is what crowdsourcing is best at: providing low caliber material or feedback by the barrel.

One possible backlash of this explosion of crowdsourcing is that by placing more value and workload on unpaid or underpaid amateurs, market share is being taken away from skilled experts.  If one expert can harness hundreds of thousands of workers via the internet, who would pay more than one expert?

This blog began last year when The Record went back online thanks to the work of Paul Meyer Reimer and Adriel Santiago.  Reimer and Santiago designed the entire front-end of the Record using Wordpress, a free-source blogging interface that is making waves in the blog community (hereby referred to as blogosphere) for the past couple of years.  Sheldon Good, the Editor of The Record at the time, decided to create a blog, hosted on The Record’s website, with the delightfully punny name “The Maple Log.”

The Maple Log is primarily a tool for the extending the scope of The Record’s online coverage.  As a weekly paper, The Record often doesn’t have a chance to print news until it is already pretty old.  Sometimes there are stories that need to be told now, and the web is a great place to do that, as when Sheldon Good wrote about the canoe accident involving two GC alumni last year.  That story needed to get out, and it wasn’t going to wait until Thursday, and The Maple Log was there.

Additionally though, this blog is a place for more fluid discourse than can be shared in the print medium.  The Maple Log is a place to share links to other informative news outlets or relevant web sites, and it is a place for users to leave feedback, adding a more communal element to the idea of newsgathering and distribution.

In that vein, I’d like to share a couple of links to sites that have helped me process news in different and meaningful ways.

Link one: www.twitter.com

This website is a huge part of the current overturn in how value of content is judged on the web, in what Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor and communications pundit, calls the link economy.  In the link economy, content has no value if it can’t draw an audience, and the way you draw an audience is through links, according to Jarvis’ post on his blog,

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/06/18/the-link-economy-v-the-content-economy/

Twitter is an excellent venue for link distribution, and an incredible tool for drawing audience to content in the new online information economy.

Link two: http://slatest.slate.com/features/news_dots/default.htm

This is an incredible tool for visualizing the intertextuality of news sources.  Trend tracking is an excellent way to discern what media consumers and publishers are thinking about and talking about, and thereby have an index of what news is important, how all the news interrelates. NewsDots is a map of news memes that does a great job tracking trends and presenting its findings in a visually interesting way.

As technology improves, the scale at which we process information online is constantly shifting.  When individuals can use online tools to track national and international trends, a whole new world of options for editorial style commentary and crowdsourced opinion becomes available, and blogging is a huge part of that.

In the coming months, this blog will be a place to explore the new information economy from a Goshen College perspective.

Here are some links about it.

www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/president-obama-to-deliver-statement-on-nobel-win_100258408.htm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113650218&ft=1&f=1003″

I have to say that I’m a little surprised by this decision.

Granted, Obama has done good work, and has massively changed the American mindset since the Bush administration.  However, for all his work against nuclear proliferation, for all the good he’s done for how people feel, there are still massive changes that need to be made.

The international reaction seems mixed:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/world-reaction-to-a-nobel-surprise

Supposedly, President Obama was going to make a statement about his Nobel Prize win at 10:30 this morning.  I couldn’t find video of it on CNN or NBC, but I’ll keep looking, and post a link as it becomes available.

April 17: Advocates awareness event at 10:30 a.m. in Shrock Plaza (rain location is Union lobby)
–Advocates is a Goshen College club promoting education and awareness about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues. This event is to honor the silencing of L.G.B.T.Q. folks, to show solidarity with them and to remember ways to end such silence. Rainbow ribbons will be passed out for people to wear as a reminder of the day of silence.

April 20: “Peace by Peace” Goshen branding celebration from 3:30-5 p.m. at Schrock Plaza (rain location is Music Center)

April 21: Paul Boers will share his essay about his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Arnold, on 88.1 FM at 7:35 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m.
April 28: Hannah Groff will share her essay about her fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Miller, on 88.1 FM at 7:35 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m.
–The public radio station in Elkhart, Ind., WVPE-88.1 FM, has these selected essays by Goshen College students to air about “A Teacher’s Moment.”

May 9: Spring Service Day
There will be two options:
–LaCasa’s Help a House: 8 a.m.-4 p.m. to help with home renovations and repairs in our community; day begins with pancake breakfast at 7 a.m. at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church
–United Way Food Drive: 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. to help unload food donations at the Post Office in downtown Elkhart
For more info, contact Tamara Shantz (tamaras) or Meghan Hoover (meghaneh)

Congratulations to the students who will lead co-curriculars next year: Rachel Halder, student station manager for 91.1 the Globe; Doug Hallman, operations manager of GC Journal; Chase Snyder, editor of The Record in the fall semester; Taylor Stansberry, managing editor of GC Journal; Marlys Weaver, editor of The Record in the spring; Anita Opel, editor of the Maple Leaf — Rachel Lapp will replace Gwen Penner (in her final semester with the college, now leading Study-Service Term in Nicaragua) as the yearbook adviser. Plans are underway for a major redesign of the yearbook.

Visit the Goshen College Music Center for the complete list.

Visit Third Way Cafe for a short article on the topic. How does this notion blend with the Third Way of Jesus?

I suggest that too often these sites are used in place of communication via other media (face-to-face, telephone, etc.) rather than in addition to.

http://contexts.org/socimages/

The blog often features uniquely descriptive images and articles on current events care of a variety of media.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29883955

Who needs Google Street View?  Visit this interactive map of downtown Elkhart:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29900812

Additionally, meet the eight journalists who have been assigned to the area:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30075986/

The Truth, Elkhart newspaper, is benefiting from some reproductions of original reporting.  Most notably, Marlys Weaver, a junior, had her contributions noted in a byline at the end of this article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29617742/

The celebration was part of an overall Health Awareness Week for Goshen Community Schools. All schools invited students to walk somewhere in Goshen this week to promote healthy lifestyles.

Goshen College students, faculty and staff welcomed the Parkside Elementary students to campus with claps and cheers as they arrived, led by the Goshen High School drum line.

Two videos from the celebration are embedded below.

The elementary students enter campus and walk past the administration building. At video time 0:33, Bill Born, vice president of student life, greets his daughter:

The students are given refreshments care of Goshen College admission staff at the Schrock Fountain:

One of the first preferences Schumacher was able to communicate during his recovery was in regard to music being played. There was some slow, soothing music playing and Schumacher squeezed his sister Hannah’s hand. She asked Schumacher if he wanted something else played, and he squeezed her hand again.

They put on some more upbeat electronic music and Schumacher started to move to the music. The small hospital speaker has been a staple at his bedside ever since.

Some of Schumacher’s favorite music will be played tonight on the Globe. His father has purchased some speakers for his laptop, and they will be streaming the show in Schumacher’s hospital room. The music has been carefully selected. The time slot, 7-9 p.m., is when Schumacher and Nick Loewen, who was also involved in the canoeing accident, have been doing a show for a good part of this year.

Anyone may suggest a song via e-mail at ben.herendeen@gmail.com. Memories or experiences you’d like communicated on air may be sent as well.

In the Michiana area, dial in to 91.1 FM. Listeners may also stream the broadcast live at http://www.globeradio.org/. The Globe studio number is 574-535-7488.

Thanks to Ben Herendeen for the majority of this article.

Huckabee is a former governor and presidential candidate. The show taping was done at the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart.

The opening segment of the show is posted below. Links to all segments are available here.

Huckabee is a former governor and presidential candidate.

The show taping will be done at the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart. Taping begins at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and is open to the public. The parking lot will open at 12:30 p.m.

For more information, read the Goshen News article.

Or read the blog entry at The Huckabee Reporter Web site.

Both of them were rushed to the Goshen General Hosptial. For more information:

http://www.goshennews.com/local/local_story_077120447.html

Visit the Goshen News Web site for updates.

On the March 6 edition of “The Newshour” with Jim Lehrer, the unemployment rate in Elkhart was once again the topic of conversation and consternation.

View the video below:

Visit BuzzChurn.com, a map that shows where discrete events (i.e., a riot, a rebellion, a bombing, etc.) are happening around the world. The map shows, in real time, changing patterns of news coming out of certain regions of the world.

The site was created by Jonathon Moyer, a friend from my home church in Pennsylvania.

According to Moyer, “It’s a helpful tool for understanding what is happening in the world. As opposed to the standard front page news source, which tends to be dominated with the current zeitgiest (be it entertainment, sport or war), BuzzChurn helps uncover international events at a country level that may have been overwhelmed by the kind of news coverage that is hegemonic.”

Visit the FAQs page for more description on how BuzzChurn works. Note that the site is in its “beta” stage.