Neil Arun didn’t want to miss a rare but risky opportunity to embed with an Iraqi police unit, hunting members of al Qaeda. But his employers -- responsible for Neil’s security -- weren’t happy. This film by Richard Pendry nvestigates how a frontline journalist balances risk and reward.
Josh Halliday of The Guardian tells the brilliant story of the crowd sourcing phenomenon Ushahidi today.
In an interview with creator Ory Okolloh, Halliday tells the story of how the tool went from cataloguing instances of Kenyan violence during a media blackout, to being used to co-ordinate humanitarian efforts after disasters worldwide, like the earthquake in Haiti.
Ushahidi, Swahili for "testimony", showcases the strengths of crowd sourcing. It utilises the vast hoards of citizen journalists, in an efficiency that just cannot be found with comments under a blog. It also has a simplicity that aids user take-up, doing what Halliday likens to what Blogger did for blogging.
What's most interesting is that the creators see Google and Facebook to be successful, because they are now practically verbs.
I like Halliday's piece too, James. It makes a pretty decent Media Guardian lead for the August silly season; a lot less predictable than the anticipated 2000 words on Richard Desmond's takeover of Channel 5.