Okay, the AP iPhone app is legit, it will take citizen journalism to a whole new level. Exciting!

Dude AP on-the-go citizen journalism? Kickass.

AP's new iPhone app will win citizen journalism

The CitizenNews channel is where we'll be highlighting some of the best news content on YouTube. If you see examples of great journalism and reporting being done by your fellow YouTubers, let me know!

Then we went out to try and raise money for it. It was not easy. We were late. After Youtube and just as newspapers were starting to migrate into video. We talked to everyone in Silicon Valley. (If you’d only been here six months ago, we would have funded it).

...Ken never gave up on the idea of a new kind of video online journalism. He begged, borrowed, cajoled for content. He worked selflessly for free. He continues to do so to this day. It’s more than a labor of love. It’s driven by a deep belief on his part that television journalism can be much much better than it is; that there is enormous potential here that we are just beginning to tap into. It’s more than a business decision. It comes from someplace deep inside and an intense dedication to making the world a better, more interesting and better informed place.

Our mission is to aggregate the work of talented video journalists of great diversity and distinction whose work is characterized by a powerful individual vision.

CitizeNews is building a community of credentialed video journalists whose work is memorable for the quality of storytelling. We realize there are dozens and dozens of video web sites competing for your work. We are striving to differentiate ourselves from this mass of miscellaneous video by offering unique craftsmanship, the result of your sincere and sustained journalism efforts.

I have an odd personality trait: I am both enchanted by and repulsed by whomever I happen to be talking with at any particular moment. I suspect this is not uncommon among journalists. It allows us to be simultaneously receptive AND skeptical, to be open to a source or a story while also protecting us from getting bitten in the ass. Nowhere have I experienced these feelings more strongly than while pondering so-called citizen journalism. When I talk to a mainstream journalist who rails that citizen journalism is killing our business and who proposes a Canute-like opposition to user-generated content, I feel as if the mainstream press should go the way of the whale-oil lamp. But then when I hear a techno-evangelising blogger proclaim that the press is an aloof, venal dinosaur deserving of destruction and that the wisdom of the crowds will solve the world's problems, I reach for my claymore. Perhaps I need medication. I am not a futurist able to confidently make bold predictions about what's going to happen, or even should happen, next. I'm just a hack who would like to have a job for the next 20 years, who is proud of the work that journalists do and the service we provide, but who has always suspected that we've often thought of our readers/viewers/listeners as superfluous, if not downright irritating. We can no longer afford that attitude. Here are a few things--many of them obvious--that I've decided after pondering citizen journalism and new media: New media--digital cameras, easy-to-use camcorders, blogging software, broadband connections--has made it possible for amateurs to put their journalism or pseudo-journalism in front of millions of people. That genie is not going back in the bottle. We may rail against dishonest, sensationalistic or just plain bad citizen journalists, but proper journalists have screwed up plenty in the last few years. Some of us made stuff up (step forward, Jayson Blair). Most of us blew the Iraq story. The vast majority of citizens don't want to be journalists. Citizen journalism isn't killing journalism. Bloggers need the mainstream media more than anyone. We should see readers as more than merely customers. What citizens want, I think, is a journalism that is less opaque, that's delivered in a variety of ways, and that allows them some level of involvement and interactivity. What precisely that level of involvement is will be different for each reader, and for each news outfit. It makes sense for the BBC to have a huge UGC hub--two dozen people when I visited. They can afford it (for now anyway). It sends the message that a large, seemingly faceless news organization is interested in its users' views. It occasionally turns up useful material--a memorable video, a compelling photo. And it allows the BBC to compile the world's greatest list of sources. Every incoming "Have Your Say" e-mail is categorised and filed so that a BBC journalist looking for, say, a West African single mother affected by food shortages can find one. To me, that underscores how we should be approaching this: What makes sense journalistically? If we have a story that can be "crowdsourced"--a complex, confusing topic that can be broken down and understood with the help of dozens of voluntary eyeballs--why wouldn't we explore that? If a hyperlocal web site covers a neighbourhood much better than our overworked reporter can, why wouldn't we send readers to it, or welcome it under our wing? If we think readers would appreciate posting comments after our stories, why wouldn't we swallow our dismay at the occasionally (okay, frequently) nasty tone? I have a hunch that we'll look back in a few years and chuckle at the "UGC wars." We'll wonder how any of us could have believed that there should have been an impenetrable wall between journalists and readers. We'll label our content clearly so readers can understand who produced what--and how. We will specify ways readers can help us do our job--while remaining in the driver's seat. We'll accept that reading blogs and the earnest if unpolished websites of amateurs are just part of a journalist's regular reporting. I think we should do these things so that our product is more appealing and more useful. If that's good for democracy (one of the claims that citizen journalism's boosters make), great. But I'm less interested in empowering citizens than in informing them. And my desire to inform them is only tangentially related to my hope that they will be civically active. I just want them to buy my paper or frequent its online advertisers or do whatever in future will guarantee some flow of funds into my checking account. I don't think any of this will be easy. Business is bad for reasons entirely unrelated to UGC. But journalists have to approach new media and citizen journalism as we would any story: with an open mind and a cocked eyebrow. We shouldn't be afraid of rolling up our sleeves and seeing what works.

Digital Journal offers a Citizen Journalism site in a similar fashion to Instablogs, OhMyNews, Newsvine, Norg Media and others. Members contribute news items for the site, and in theory the wisdom of the crowd combines to create a Google friendly news resource. Where Digital Journal perhaps is a little different in this space is that it revenue shares with contributors, and has paid out $38,000 to CitJ’s already...

Newsvine is of course the big kahoona but we also try to differentiate ourselves because we are a source of content rather than solely a link site. Newsvine has its columnists but it’s mainly powered by an AP feed and seeded links. I’m not knocking the site (there is a lot of value in these features) but we do look to try and stand out from a quality standpoint and provide actual information rather than simple click throughs to other stories.

A source who is close to the singer said that Cyrus was clothed in the photos but she was in positions that made her appear to be topless. The photos that surfaced on the Internet show Cyrus draped over the lap of her then-boyfriend and in another photo she is seen showing part of her green bra. Bill O'Reilly, conservative TV commentator, voiced his criticism over the photos and the Jonas Brothers had some words of support... Vanity Fair did not respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment on Sunday but a spokes woman for Vanity Fair said that Miley's parents were there all day and the photos were taken digitally and they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley.

A source close to the singer tells PEOPLE that Cyrus is clothed but shown by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz in such a way that that the teen appears to be topless. In the photos that circulated on the Internet, Cyrus, her midriff exposed, is shown draped over the lap of her then-boyfriend, her producer's son. In another image, a hint of a green bra is evident. (Those photos alone prompted criticism from conservative TV commentator Bill O'Reilly, as well as words of support from the Jonas Brothers and a fellow Disney star.)... PEOPLE's requests to Vanity Fair for comment were not answered on Sunday. In a statement to The New York Times, Beth Kseniak, a spokeswoman for both Vanity Fair and Leibovitz, said: "Miley's parents and/or minders were on the set all day. Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley."

How Do I Find a Great News Story? Journalism is born out of curiosity. Good reporters are always asking questions, always looking to find stories that the mainstream media misses. The best way to find a great story is by reading your favourite reputable newspapers or websites.

When you upload Your Upload Information via the Web Sites, you irrevocably grant to Company [...] a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license containing, without limitation, all right, title and interest in Your Upload Information [...] You further agree that Company [...] will have the unfettered right throughout the universe, in perpetuity, without any credit or compensation to you, to use, reuse, modify, alter, display, archive, publish, sub-license, perform, reproduce, disclose, transmit, broadcast, post, sell, translate, create derivative works of, distribute and use for advertising, marketing, publicity and promotional purposes [...] You hereby waive any moral rights you may have in and to any of Your Upload Information

We're going to own anything you send us and if humanly possible we'll broadcast it and sell it on around the world for $$$ without every paying you a cent.

On CJReport, anyone can edit (even anonymously) and start contributing to stories in the usual categories (business, technology, entertainment, …). Users can write their own stories and upload their own photos, or simply submit a story from somewhere else on the web. Think of it as a Wikipedia for news. Co-founder Laurent Van Winckel said the money will be used to open new offices in Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu and San Francisco along with other cities to reach a broader range of citizen journalists in the local areas.

Python bursts after swallowing alligator

An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps. The Burmese python tried to swallow its fearsome rival whole but then exploded. The remains of the two giant reptiles were found by astonished rangers in the Everglades National Park. The rangers say the find suggests that non-native Burmese pythons might even challenge alligators' leading position in the food chain in the swamps.

A very unusual clash between a 13-foot (3.9 meters) python and a 6-foot (1.8 meters) alligator has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps. The Burmese python tried to gobble up its fearsome rival whole but then exploded. The remains of the two prodigious reptiles were discovered by surprised rangers in the Everglades National Park. The rangers say the find implies that non-native Burmese pythons might even challenge alligators' leading position in the food chain in the swamps.

Olympics flame arrives in Beijing amid protests Updated 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago

US newspaper The Sacramento Bee has been using mobile phone technology to relay video of protests against the Olympic torch procession, in San Francisco, in real time. By using Qik, a technology that allows live streaming from videophones to a flash player embedded on a website or blog, reporters were able broadcast moving images as events unfolded - effectively replicating a live TV news service at a fraction of the cost and with the flexibility to move freely and quickly.

iConflict brings you the latest news on international conflicts and crises. We’ll leave gossip and meaningless news to other sites. That’s what makes iConflict different.

By posting content on the Service, a user is giving ICONFLICT the right to display such content on the Service and its affiliated publications and to distribute such content and use such content for promotional and marketing purposes.

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even larger portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said. Global warning is being blamed for the dramatic occurrence.

Soft launches, waiting until the content is ripe, viral marketing, letting the content promote itself, cross fertilisation of and integration with other CJ sites, true mashups (there is not a shred of evidence on iConflict of mashups of any kind) are all marketing strategies, amongst many others, that are far more sustainable and effective than the exceedingly vulgar hype that iConflict expects us to believe that is a far cry from reality.

We have it covered because you have it covered. With so many people living and working in conflict zones, the ability of citizen journalists to contribute news has never been greater.

Hey, mainstream media companies: Jump on this now. Don’t wait for yet another big Internet trend to go huge before deciding then to experiment (as has happened SO many times before with other things). Let’s move a bit faster this time, eh?