This document discusses algorithm-generated news and the role of humans in the news process. It begins by defining news as answering the question "what happened" and says news has the same essential purpose as ever, though the processes of gathering and delivering it have changed. It then discusses how algorithms can automatically update features and pages on sites like EveryBlock, but that humans are still heavily involved through activities like drawing roads, writing police reports, and developing the software. The document argues that while algorithms may generate some news, traditional reporters still have an important role to play in skills like military and corporate intelligence. It also discusses how users are increasingly shaping the news agenda through participation. Finally, it says the focus should be on doing quality work,

1. What Is News in theInteractive Era? Algorithm-Generated NewsDaniel X. O’NeilCo-Founder and People Person EveryBlock

2. Outline Where I’m coming from Definition of news EveryBlock Algorithm-generated news Role of traditional reporters is huge (war is over if you want to) User contributions, more broadly defined

3. My background Co-founder of EveryBlock Responsible for content acquisition Data from governments (crime, inspections, 311, permits, etc.) Partnerships (reviews, coupons, etc.) Poet (English and Anthropology in college, no journalism degree) Working exclusively on the Web since 1998 I am a journalist

4. What is news? Same as it ever was The answer to the question, “what happened”? Never more valuable than it is now It is gathered and delivered through some different processes (though they’re not as new as we’d like to think) Expansiveness in distribution

6. Lots of Automatic Stuff Featured neighborhood City map All data scraped without anyone thinking about it The totals are updated, pages are created, charts are rendered Etc.

8. Humans “An increasing amount of news and information will be produced not by traditional reporters and news organizations but rather enabled by new technologies that enable information to be generated, organized and located via technologies that require little, if any, human intervention”

11. Humans are everywhere The idea of pure machine-generation just isn’t true Decades of GPS– drawing roads by hand Millions of hours of enterprise-style software development in government departments Cops answering 911 calls People caring to call Handwritten police reports

14. An example Demolition Hold List Lots of human gymnastics in the “algorithm” Tools TextWrangler– formatting text from the source OpenOffice-- any spreadsheet software like Excel will do Hostmonsterw/ Fantastico-- a cheap Web host with super-easy-to-install open source tools included WordPress-- powerful, flexible publishing platform that is sophisticated for smart people and forgiving of the rest of us Transmit-- need some way to transfer files onto your server "Importing Posts from CSV file into Wordpress" thingy-- invaluable Google Docs-- for sharing spreadsheets and syndicating RSS updates to the sheet Versionista-- a good way to monitor Web pages that don't have an RSS feed Yahoo! Pipes-- the inevitable hoop-jumping hoo-ha

15. Traditional reporters are essential Think in skills rather than methods Very stuck, and not in a good way It used to just be going to the PR dark side But there are a *ton* of jobs real journalists can fill better than anyone else

17. Journalists are better than other people Military intelligence– why not? Corporate intelligence– spiked stories Data gathering redux– hotel meetings This is already done in the magazine article/ books world Julie/ Julia – Salon Blogs David Axelrod Loosen

18. Users “User participation and response increasingly is shaping the news agenda, how stories are covered and the way ‘audience participation’”

19. We are all users We’re not in the audience We’re participating in our lives It’s the most natural thing I can think of Start thinking more about the 4th estate Election coverage is a boon What if we always cared? What if everyone were always engaged in their government processes? Tim O’Reilly – Gov 2.0 movement News organizations have a role here

20. Quality “Are we are getting the same quality of journalism that was produced by conventional means? Is it worse? Or is it better?”

21. Not relevant Not to be iconoclastic, but it’s time to move on Do good work and stop gazing at navels Invest Experiment Do And do it at the journalist level, if it’s not possible to do it on the enterprise level