I'm on the Foxxy Teevee

FOX 9 News interviewed me about The UpTake's involvement in "I Approve This Message." What a fookin' Dork.

Video people - that's all of you - help out this project by making a short video of what you'd want to ask the RNC or DNC. End it with, "I Approve This Message." C'mon it's fun!

UpTake Chuck on NPR blog

Chuck Olsen (hey, that's fucking me!!) talks about The UpTake and citizen journalism on National Public Radio's "Sunday Soapbox". Thanks so much to producer Davar Ardalan and my homie Andy Carvin.

Best of the Twin Cities: The UpTake

Seriously, this is a dream come true. I've always loved the City Pages Artists of the Year and Best of the Twin Cities issues. A few years back I got to writeup my Artist of the Year (Jehane Noujaim). And now, The UpTake is named  Best Citizen-based Media Outlet. I know we didn't exactly face much stiff competition (or any?) but it's cool they came up for a way to include us. And it really, truly is an "us" thing, as Mike McIntee said in the UpTake email: "Everyone who has contributed video, text, time, comments or just moral support helped us win this. So this is an award, not for an organization as much as it is for a community and a movement."

Mad, Angry Props to my favorite local blog (heck, one of my favorite blogs period), Mediation.

Mostly unrelated: Minnesota Stories, which tragically never earned a Best of TC mention, is now back online. Thanks to everyone who let me know. I guess MNspeak isn't the only site that doesn't pay it's hosting on time.
 

The UpTake in Texas

While Lorika and I have been sunning and eco-touring Puerto Rico (did you see our big news?), The UpTake's Noah Kunin has been on the ground in Texas. We've got a liveblog tonight and a bunch of video gauging opinions leading up to today's primary/caucus, but this one should make some waves:

Journalism Braindump, and Other Oddities

Tonight, there was a gathering of great journalistic minds at an event called New Media, New Standards? Ethics in Online Journalism. There were old white guys, young white guys, in-between white guys, young women holding microphones, super old crazy white guys, and my friend Erica from Metroblogging.

Okay, that's not really fair. White guys often dominate discussion at these sorts of events. Indeed, The UpTake is full of white guys and we're trying to change that. The real issue is perhaps this: If you let the chattering classes in the door, the bastards will chat about you!

That's the vibe I get from the moderator of this event, Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Collins. And he's right, in a way - bloggers of all stripes will get catty in the backchannel when they sure could speak up at the event. But honestly, a lot of the air was sucked out of the room in the first 30 minutes, and the format heavily favored the two gentlemen on stage. A representative from the Society of Professional Journalists admitted (on camera) that this was the first time they'd ever attempted an event like this. So, hats off to them for trying. There was some good discussion. Get these growing pains out of the way now, and get some thick skin for those stinging blogger barbs.

The consensus is that this event should've been more of a roundtable. We honestly don't need Dan Gillmor to have these conversations. I tell you who we do need: Jason DeRusha and Mary Lahammer. Did you know? I helped TPT's Mary Lahammer start her blog way back in 2003. Almanac and Lahammer are pillars of local journalism and exemplify what a fair, ethical news operation should be. Meanwhile DeRusha has quickly become our generation's Dave Moore. He effortlessly blends his traditional news background with a personable delivery. He's in touch with what's going on and what people are saying because he uses every new media tool imaginable. DeRusha is fresh, authentic and accessible like few on-air talents.

MPR's Bob Collins is absolutely the right guy to moderate some of these discussions. Bob rightly laments the lack of passion in professional journalism. He's passionate and puts his personality into his news coverage, both on his blog and chatting with Mary Lucia on 89.3 The Current. I think Bob was unfairly maligned in the "thanks, no. bob" incident. Perhaps we need to make a "Is Bob Collins a prick?" wiki. JUST KIDDING! The guy beat me in arm wrestling, I'm nursing a sore arm/ego over here.

ANYWAY, BACK TO ME. The Rake (RIP) has an informal, i.e. inaccurate, survey of where people get their news locally. For some reason, this here blog is on the list, and in fact ranks higher than WCCO. Clearly, these people are retarded. I just bought some journalism books, so maybe there will be awesome news-making here someday. We actually do kinda make news over at The UpTake, so please go there instead and for fuck's sake turn on your television on watch WCCO once in awhile. They're getting paid!

RANDOM NAME-DROPPING: I talked to Steve Perry about his new gig running the Minnesota Monitor. What was the word he used... oh yes, clusterfuck. But I get the feeling he relishes the challenge of sheparding MinMon's operation into it's next evolution. There were many other familiar favorite faces: Melody Gilbert, Nikki Tundel, Bob Moffit, Garrick Van Buren, the Metroblogging kids. Finally, due to a St. Paul parking ramp closing at 8pm and related calamities, Noah Kunin and I got a ride home from David Brauer. I can't say enough nice things about this guy. He's definitely one reason I'll stay hooked into MinnPost, along with some interesting arts coverage over there lately.

ONE LAST PLUG: Julio Ojeda-Zapata, a Puerto Rico-native and all-around Journalist 2.0, wrote a great article about The UpTake's use of new technology. Technology A to Z: With easy, affordable tools, anyone can be a video journalist. I'm especially grateful Julio appreciates not just the tools, but the tone. I'd say the issue I most struggle with in creating citizen journalism videos is the tone.

Olsen's brand of reporting doesn't hew to traditional journalistic standards (network correspondents would never speed up a national politician's speech, for instance). You'll see him pretend to disrobe in one video, swear in another segment, and flit aside a Red Bull can strewn alongside a seemingly unconscious fellow UpTake member. Don't hold your breath waiting for Diane Sawyer to do anything like that.

God in Our Governments: RAW & UNCUT

The UpTake's "We Need God in Our Governments" video of fundamentalists in Lynchburg, Tennessee has generated a firestorm of interest and heated discussion. Here's almost all of the raw footage, where I ask them about the fabled separation of Church & State, and the fact that our country was founded upon religious freedom.

As I've stated elsewhere: These are good people - some of the nicest folks I've ever met in my life.

Their views are often misguided or worse, and they seem almost impervious to information outside their close-knit religious community, which is frightening. However, piling hatred on them, or dismissing them as ignorant hicks, does no good.

These folks believe they're doing what's right for them in the context of their moral framework. Of course that's miles away from the progressive moral framework. Perhaps someone should give the young girl a laptop with an EVDO card so she might have access to other ideas outside the bubble of Lynchburg, TN.

This is the smartest comment I've seen about the people in this video.

New Media, Journalism, Bob Collins, Oh My!

Professional journalists build credibility through accurate, timely re- porting and adherence to clear ethical standards. But how much do the traditional journalistic touchstones of vetting sources and fair and transparent reporting matter at a time when anyone with a cell phone can publish images instantly for the entire world to see?

The Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists and Minnesota Public Radio’s UBS Forum offer an examination of where online journalism is and where it’s going.  Host Bob Collins, the creator of MPR’s News Cut blog will be joined by Dan Gillmor, director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School for Journalism and Mass Communications.  The forum also includes a stable of ethics ex- perts, bloggers, editors and reporters to help guide the audience to a better understanding of what’s possible and what’s at stake.

This event is FREE and OPEN to the PUBLIC, but REGISTRATION is required.   
Register TODAY at: www.MNSPJ.ORG

I will be there with THE UPTAKE as a "contributing expert."

That's right, I said I will publicly arm wrestle MPR's Bob Collins.

The UpTake featured in Pioneer Press

NEWEST ANCHORS REPORT BY CELL PHONE
High-tech citizen journalists innovate political reporting
BY JULIO OJEDA-ZAPATA / Pioneer Press

During this week's Super Tuesday, Minneapolis video reporter Chuck Olsen co-anchored a live broadcast that fed online viewers a steady stream of primary and caucus dispatches from around the country. But unlike Diane Sawyer and other network big shots, Olsen had no swanky TV news set or high-tech entourage. [He was] in a New Orleans bar near Bourbon Street, sitting by a couple dressed as Adam and Eve for Mardi Gras, speaking into his laptop's videocam as a part of a webcast seen on the UpTake home page (theuptake.org).

Thanks Julio for writing about our envelope-pushing citizen coverage of this election. Julio posted links to a number of recent stories related to the article, from our Iowa caucus coverage, to Steve Garfield in New Hampshire and my recent Southern Fried Road Trip. Of all these videos - and there are many, produced by people coast-to-coast - the video that has impacted me the most and generated the most discussion is "We need God in our governments":

It's videos like this that make me absolutely LOVE what I'm doing with The UpTake. These folks are about as far away from horse race coverage as you can get, and yet they are very much a part of America and this election. They, and others I interviewed, made it worth the 3500 mile drive alone, shooting and editing on the road with my MacBook Pro and EVDO card, running out of gas in Iowa, and spraining my ankle in St. Louis.

Here are more videos I shot and edited on the road leading up to Super Duper Fat Tuesday:

Iowa resident blames the media

St. Louis: What Does America Need?

Alabama Politics 101

Executive Search: Bloomberg, Gingrich, Gore?

And... I'm off!

OK dudes, I'm hitting the road. Hopefully all my gear is together. I've got a bigass Toyota Highlander which purely frightens me. I'm going to try some live videocasting action from the road. Tune in here or on this very blog around 11am-ish CST and see what's going on. RARRRRRR! Zzzzzzz

Heading to The Farm

In Nashville, I'm going to interview my client friend and her dad, both down home conservatives participating in the Republican primary on Feb 5. From what I hear, the dad wishes Newt would run. That evening, I'm heading 60 miles south of Nashville – but many more philosophical miles – to a legendary hippie commune called The Farm.

Get a taste of The Farm's fascinating history in this Vanity Fair article: Sex, Drugs, and Soybeans. Just soybeans for me, I think. If I'm lucky, I'll get an interview with the founder Stephen Gaskin, the founder and one-time spiritual leader of the place, and hopefully webcast it live.

I can't tell you how excited I am for this crazy journey to begin.

Footnote: Strangely enough, my first not-quite-girlfriend was born on this commune. She went to college in Santa Cruz, was known to drop acid, and loved Cat Stevens. I know, hippie alert, right? Our relationship existed almost entirely in IRC chats and email. This was pre-WWW days. Strange days indeed.

Footnote 2: My activist friend Alex and her daughter Ella stayed at The Farm en route to protesting at Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas. Some of that is documented on their blog Ella Goes.

Announcing: The UpTake Southern Fried Tour

In case you've been living under a wet blanket – or are lucky enough to be apathetic – you know February 5, 2008 is "Super Duper Tuesday," or "Tsunami Tuesday" and let's don't forget "Clusterfuck Tuesday." Twenty-four states are scheduled to hold caucus or primary elections for one or both parties on this date.

The UpTake is going to try to cover at least half of them, entirely powered by volunteer citizen journalists (can you help?). One of those will be me, reporting live and filing stories on the road. I've got the van, the camera, the EVDO card and a metal-fueled urge to unearth good stories.

It's The UpTake Southern Fried Tour. IT'S GOING TO RAWK YOUR PANTS OFF.

I'll be live quite a lot of the time. If you know anybody down south that would make a good story, drop me a line. This is about getting away from the horse race, getting away from the headlines, and finding out what real people are thinking. This is the real state of the union - a little slice of it, anyway.

Stay tuned for more details.
Please help pay for this unprecedented citizen journalism effort by making a donation to The UpTake today.

And check out the t-shirt below the jump!

The UpTake LIVE: Vegas Snippets

For the 99.999999% of the video grokking population who missed The UpTake's occasionally entertaining and incisive live coverage of the Nevada caucus, here are a few moments I hold near and dear. The whole team did a bangup job. Definitely check out The UpTake's YouTube channel for on-the-ground coverage from our citizen journalists in Nevada, like Corrine McDermid's Politics and the Strip video.

THE UPTAKE, DERAILING THE NARRATIVE: Chuck Tomlinson and Stacker Manfield comment on the exchange between Mitt Romney and Associated Press reporter Glen Johnson - and how it relates to our brand of citizen journalism.

THE MORMON QUEEN: Well, you just have to watch this one... College favorite!

BARACK OBAMA CAUCUS CAROL: Just a real lovely gem of a song, this guy and his ukulele. One of many YouTube clips I dug up relating to Nevada politics.

THE UPTAKE VEGAS PROMO: Check out my 0:30 spot, with the bigtime newsy musics and a little 3D action courtesy of After Effects.

If at first you fail...

Oh baby, lordy lord. The UpTake's live show covering the Michigan show was pretty disasterous. We had a lot of stuff, so naturally lots of stuff went wrong. I think the highlight was the legendary missing-in-action videoblogger Chris Weagel of Human Dog.  He couldn't hear me, but he just riffed and it was brilliant. Something about Ron Paul and Kucinich - my mind is mush.

Our New Hampshire live coverage was awesome. I was worried about all the tech for this Michigan show but thought it would go better. Of course tonight I chose to email a lot of peeps (including my old bosses and colleagues at Twin Cities Public Television, where they actually know how to pull off live fucking television.) Don't worry, I won't be asking for my TV job back any time soon. I'll be over here reinventing the wheel. Eventually it'll be shinier and faster.

So yes - clusterfuck to the whitehouse! We learned a lot. Come back Saturday night for live coverage of the Nevada caucus. Guaranteed to be occasionally informative and entertaining, with master CJ Corrine
on the ground in VEGAS, baby. I should have dirty gin martinis at the ready instead of our usual Bushmill's.

Pimp Daddy

For the last week, The UpTake team has been kicking ass creating original, video-based citizen journalism. We think it's unprecedented to cover political events like the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries by sending citizen reporters out to film stories, publish them within a few hours, and even do live reports like we did last night. As much work as it was (A FUCKING LOT) it's also a lot of fun.

Still, when the dust settles I wonder - is it making a difference? And, is anyone watching or noticing or caring? People might get sick of my pounding the virtual pavement about what we're doing, but I have to to rise above the fray, and because I think what we're doing deserves some attention. That's why it's so gratifying to get supportive tweets and emails. They're little beacons that say, "Keep going." They shine just a little brighter than all those other beacons that say, "Shut up." Or, "Jerk face assjerk."

Today the floodgates really opened. (Too much information?) My favorite story from Iowa was featured on Rocketboom and a few people left very very kind comments. Now, Jackson West writes a fan-fucking-tastic article, Online Political Video a Winner in 2008. So yes, I am a "pimp daddy for The UpTake" as Joanne Colan says, and rightly proud of it. Yessir, I will have another sarsparilla and friendly slapping-about!

Along with all this publicity comes, well, some uncomfortable fan attention. Behold - whatever this is:

In closing, I apologize for this blog being almost entirely self-promotional which is not very interesting. the pendulum swings slowly between art and politics, and these days it's politics rising. Art will have its day.

Full interview transcript with Jackson West below the hop.

...

> The UpTake has managed to have great reach in terms of correspondents in the
> field in the last two primaries.  Who's on the team, how are you parsing out
> "assignments?"

Thanks, Jackson. It's great to be here. Mind if I smoke? I don't smoke, just wanted to ask.

The UpTake has been really fortunate to find people passionate about what we're
doing, and willing to invest their time and energy into citizen journalism. We started
in Minnesota where our core team includes Jason Barnett, Mike McIntee, Chris Dysktra,
Noah Kunin and me. Noah and I drove to Iowa with two other UpTake recruits
where we were joined by our Colorado director, Corrine McDermid. We rounded out the
team with video from Rodger Routh, an native Iowan who took us inside the caucus process.

The day after the Iowa caucuses, we decided to send Corrine and Noah onward to
New Hampshire to build on our success covering Iowa. We were lucky to have Mary
and Anthony from Debate Porridge on the ground there filing stories for us, with a little
help from Steve Garfield as well.

As we look ahead to the upcoming primaries in Nevada, South Carolina, and beyond
we're hoping to find more locals with video cameras to cover those events. We might even
hop in the van and try to get our team ton the ground in a few of those states.

> You've been using Mogulus to great effect, both with live commentary from
> your St. Paul "studio" and field correspondents, also by mixing in
> pre-recorded reports.  What do you like about Mogulus in particular and live
> broadcasting in general?  Do you think the live format is helping to drive
> better coverage online than previous elections?

Live broadcasting has been a really exciting, mind-boggling experiment. When
we first looked at the Mogulus Studio and saw the power of a television station
in front of us, our heads were spinning with possibilities. We're really pushing
it to the limit by switching to live reports in different states, mixed with standalone
videos, promos, lower-thirds, etc. - it's essentially a citizen journalism-based news
network online.

It's really challenging doing live video, very different from the edited story world
I'm used to. Mogulus is really good but I'm looking forward to improvements, such
as widescreen video, testing live feeds and more robust chat capability. I
had a blast reporting live in our studio during the New Hampshire primary. We brought
in some knowledgeable folks to chat with, I put my phone number out there and got
a few callers, all while a team researched interesting angles on the results. We
have a lot to learn but this will be a powerful venue. We can inform people
without limits or any taboo subjects, while making it a conversation and having fun.

> Traditional news organizations setup up what could only be describe as
> redundant apparatus (multiple news trucks, camera teams, etc. for each
> network/publication) and trade on proprietary "scoops."  The UpTake,
> Veracifier and independent vloggers and bloggers are instead cooperating and
> sharing their stories across sites.  Do you think this new, lighter and more
> open news model has legs?

I honestly think we're giving traditional news organizations a run for the money.
Which we have very little of, by the way. If we had more funding we'd really be
competitive for this type of coverage. At the same time we're not really
setting out to compete or replace what they do - it's complimentary. We have more
coverage of outsider candidates like Kucinich and Paul, we seek out real people
on the ground. It's an opportunity to find stories that fall through the cracks of
traditional broadcast media. Back to your question, this "networked journalism"
model absolutely has legs and we're working hard to refine it.

> New Hampshire station WMUR dispatched a 22-year old college student with
> some interview experience to post YouTube reports and appeal to a younger
> generation.  You've had broadcast and online news reporter experience.  What
> do you think is optimal in terms of background for a "citizen journalist" to
> effectively gather news, or is enthusiasm enough?

Enthusiasm is almost enough, because we can't train people to be enthusiastic.
We can train them to use a camera and edit, necessary skills for a citizen
journalist, which is why training is part of The UpTake's mission.

> Speaking of enthusiasm, I know that the revenue potential for all this is
> minimal, if one exists at all.  I'm curious about what kind of overhead The
> UpTake has (like, say, bottled water for Fox News staffers)?  Is it mostly
> just sunk cost in terms of time that you could be working on other projects,
> along with gas, food and lodging?  Is the fun of participating in the
> process and the knowledge that you're serving the public interest make it
> worthwhile?

Every donation to The UpTake helps us pay for gas money
and tapes to get these stories published: http://theuptake.org/?page_id=271

For Iowa and New Hampshire, we stayed
in friends' basements and helped cover gas and food. Time is the major investment.
We'd love to raise enough money to buy some decent cameras, microphones,
tripods, etc. for our citizen journalists. Working with Veracifier has been a big help
for us in terms of exposure, which will help us raise money to keep doing this.

We absolutely love what we're doing, and there's a growing audience for it.
This is where media and news coverage is headed. It's a smart investment
and we plan to be around awhile.

> Finally, what can we expect in terms of future primary coverage leading up
> to the February 5th "super-primary" and beyond?

Once we get a little sleep, we're jumping back into the fray. First, we're looking
for volunteers to get out their video cameras and shoot some video in these
primary states. Second, we'll probably hop in the van again and send some of our
crew to cover a few key states. Finally, we'll be doing more live reports from our studio
and checking in (via video, phone, Fax machine...) with people on the ground. Of
course, the more people donate to the cause, the more coverage we can offer.
Support citizen journalism. :-)

Steve Garfield, Mobile Video Journalist

My friend Steve Garfield is always on the cutting edge of posting video online. I first discovered Steve when I was making Blogumentary and saw him post video of a Howard Dean blogger breakfast. He declared 2004 "Year of the Videoblog" because he's always ahead of the curve like that. Now, he just beat CNN to a scoop about Duncan Hunter in New Hampshire. That's just one of many stories Steve is finding while streaming live video from his Nokia phone using a service called Qik. The UpTake's Noah Kunin caught up with him in New Hampshire, uploaded the footage to me last night, and now here it is for you, dear viewer.

Watch more of Steve's live mobile videos on Qik.

NH Action In Effect

A little iChat with Noah Kunin in New Hampshire:

The UpTake will be going LIVE tonight around 5:30-6pm with Air America radio and on our live videocast. Our live player will also be on Veracifier, and we'll be doing lots of live stuff Tuesday with reports coming in from our team in New Hampshire. It's MADNESS, I tell you!

YouTube Politics and Google Elves

Here's an interview Noah Kunin and I did with YouTube's News and Politics Editor (and Carleton College grad) Steve Grove. Some interesting questions got edited out. I asked him if a YouTube television channel is in the works, whether they'll offer HD video like Vimeo, and whether political campaigns lobby him to get featured. His answer to the last question is mostly in the video - it sounds like yes, campaigns do lobby him but he just gives them tips on getting their video out there. As for YouTubeTV and YouTube in HD? They're just focusing on making sure the massive amount of video they have now works well, and sees YouTube as more of a compliment to television than a replacement. However, I don't imagine he'd spill any product development beans.

Oh yeah, and he totally admits there's such a thing as Google Elves. They're like gay gremlins.

Why Obama Won - People Like Beth

I've got a lot more footage of Beth and Adam, but this was what I was able to whip together quickly after returning to Des Moines. In Fort Dodge, people in the street really do talk to their neighbors, and the word on the street was OBAMA. I talked to a clerk at the gas station who wasn't going to caucus, but pretty much decided Obama was the one and optimistically planned to vote for him in the general election.

We've had a crazy, intoxicating journey here in Iowa. Off to bed now while my compatriots edit, dreaming of an Obama-Edwards ticket. :-)

Live, dead, and rocking Iowa

The UpTake team is kicking ass here in Iowa. We're getting lots of stories and little sleep, even doing some live stuff throughout the day and this evening. We're also talking to, and posting stories from, real Iowans. MPR's Bob Collins has some valid criticism of our coverage, a little premature perhaps. Keep watching Bob - we're working hard down here and loving every minute of it, and more good stories are in the pipeline.

Our national partners Veracifier will be featuring our videos, too.

I really believe this is an unprecedented video-based citizen journalism effort, at least for the Iowa caucuses. We're learning a lot and I hope we'll be good at this by the time the RNC and DNC roll around.

Next stop: Iowa

In a few hours, a few stouthearted (and/or foolhardy) citizen journalists will pack their gear into my bald-tired 1998 Plymouth Voyager. Minnesota Public Radio will be on the scene. It will be fucking cold. We are going to Iowa.

The Iowa caucuses will be the most formidable challenge yet for The UpTake. We're covering a national political event, with 7+ citizen journalists on the ground in multiple locations, with virtually no budget. We're credentialed, we've cobbled together all the video gear we can get our hands on, and we're going to crank out timely stories from the campaign headquarters of Edwards, Obama, Clinton, and perhaps even Romney and Huckabee. We hope to veer away from the campaign trail, too, and talk to insiders and outsiders alike, including media professionals and folks we find on the street.

We're even doing live reports - LIVE I tell you, this beast is ALIVE!

Twitter out - see you on the other side.

My Iowa Roadtrip on Veracifier

I'm so excited to see this video up on Veracifier, home of Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo TV.

This is certainly more entertaining than your usual citizen journalism video (I think), in part out of necessity. I drove to Iowa after a commercial shoot in Minneapolis, arrived just in time to get parked and setup, tape the Dem candidates until my tape was gone halfway through Obama's speech after midnight. In other words, I was missing one of the things that makes a citizen journalist video good: Context, such as interviews with regular folks, or even footage of myself.

I knew it would be weak unless I did a voiceover and somehow recreated my roadtrip down there. So I shot myself against a blue screen, did a screen capture of Google Map's Street View down 35W, and made a fun story out of it. Of course the hockey fans trampling Hillary signs was a nice surprise too, even though I didn't really get footage of it.

A whole team of UpTake CJs will be on the ground in Des Moines and surrounding areas for the January 3 caucus. We might even check in with folks LIVE using Mogulus. "Stay tooned!"

Vloggers: Come to Iowa

The UpTake is heading to the Iowa caucuses with a team of citizen journalists to cover it from any interesting angle we can find. A video or two will likely make it on Veracifier. This will be our biggest citizen journalism project to date, and we want to make an impact.

Our team is small though, so here's me asking you to JOIN US. You there, with your own camera and laptop, you know what you're doing. No really, you do - I've seen your stuff (if not, show me). We need you. We can't offer much, perhaps some lodging and the excitement of being right in the thick of our political process, making our own media with an askew critical hat.

So come to Iowa: Fields of Opportunity.

The UpTake partners with Veracifier

Big news!  The UpTake now has a new outlet for the video it produces.  We just launched a strategic partnership with Veracifier.com to recruit, train, and showcase independent video journalists from around the country during the 2008 election year. That means our citizen journalists have the opportunity to have their work featured alongside video from Talking Points Memo. Needless to say, we're very excited by this partnership.

Mike McIntee posted the Press Release. Mike, by the way, is executive producer for The UpTake who used to run television news rooms. He's really been running the citizen journalism operation - everything from organizing citizen journalists to training, editorial, and helping setup our new UpTake Headquarters right across the street from the Xcel Center. We'll have a front row seat to the Republican National Convention in 2008, and we hope citizen journalists from around the country and beyond will join us.

Blogger Nerds at YearlyKos Convention

Thanks to the Nerdcore Rising cats for including me in this fine blogger nerd video. Socks-n-sandals, yo. "w00p!"

I Got Interviewed by Veracifier

The UpTake is partnering with one of the top political video sites on the planet, Veracifier. They're looking for political videos by citizen journalists, we're training and distributing stories by citizen journalists -- it's a match made in heaven. (Actually, it's a match made in Minnesota and NYC.)

We're just getting started but I think this will be a great partnership, with more potential in the weeks and months ahead.

Get in on the hot video action

If you're interested in citizen journalism and/or political video, join The Uptake Google Group so we can have a place to chat and share our CJ brains + links + experiences. I started things off posting about my experiences shooting Al Franken and Bill Clinton. (Yes, it was an exciting day.)

How about a walk down memory lane?

Chuck Olsen | Jan 7, 2004 6:06 PM

We really are living in a world where "networked citizens get smarter faster than the insititutions that that govern them." We'll decide who to elect, we'll decide what to think about them, thankyouverymuch. Each of us bloggers is part of the media. Hell, I can walk into Dean HQ and get a "press" pass. Who am I? I'm just a blogger, and a filmmaker yes, but they're both independent media. Me with a computer, me with a camera, I use them together and I am the frigging media. We are the frigging media.

The genie is out of the bottle.

Nick Denton | July 2, 2002 11:56 AM

"Weblogs have been massively hyped by the media. And they aren't going to change the face of journalism any time soon."

LASTLY: An early attempt at citizen journalism political video on New Patriot, March 2005.

Citizen Journalism: It's time to kick ass

iPod/Quicktime file

The deets are over here!

ALSO: Come on down to Solutions Twin Cities on Friday night. It promises to be a night of mind-expanding possibilities. I'll be making a very strange 7-minute presentation about citizen journalism, with some audience interaction. Yeah, umm... it's going to be weird. I'm a little nervous.

Networking in NYC

I'm heading to New York for the Networked Journalism Conference, a day of intense citizen journalism best-practices discovery and collaboration from Jeff Jarvis, Dave Cohn, and the CUNY School of Journalism. I'll be there with Mike Mcintee, my expert CJ cohort in The Uptake. (Whew, enough links for ya?)

I'm sure looking forward to seeing old friends (Steve Garfield, Andy Carvin, Brian Conley, Bill Cammack, Blipsters, Action Girl? Grace? Anyone else coming out for a Burp Castle brew) and new.

Mark your calendars

We're having a fundraiser for The Uptake at the 331 Club on Saturday, Oct. 20. Please come out and help us support citizen journalism in Minnesota. Why? We're gearing up for the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul and the Democratic National Convention in Colorado. We need cameras and equipment, and we'd like to be able to pay citizen journalists a little something for their important work. Also it's good for the health of our democracy, apple pie and freedom and The Bible, etc.

They are the (old skool) Media

Jason DeRusha and Don Shelby, with their big time fancy Emmys. You guys rock.
"How do you know a professional journalist versus a citizen journalist? Neckwear."

Please note: I didn't start the fire

The Uptake is hot hot hot this week, folks. So hot, I finally created a blog category - I know, right?

The latest press is a complete surprise - a nice mention from Mpls.St.Paul magazine.
Thanks to Reveille Mag for the tip. (Can someone tell me how to pronounce that, btw?)

Please note, I did not start The Upake. I know, I plaster my name and face all over it to drill the association into your pretty heads. But it was conceived by one Jason Barnett. You can read all about him and the rest of our team over here.

If you're really looking for a spunky time, join in the MNspeak thread about The Uptake and citizen journalism.
MNspeak, where "much of the posting is insider snark and unreflective." Heh.

The Uptake on the TV

Look ma, I'm on the teevee again! It all started, strangely enough, with a whiny Twitter message: I have to say, The Uptake is at the cutting edge of networked citizen journalism. Not many doing this. Hello Big Media - do a story on us!

Big Media, in the form of beloved-by-bloggers reporter Jason DeRusha, heard my pathetic call.
The Uptake team suddenly found ourselves on WCCO bringing citizen journalism to the masses.
Watch it here. I love it. (Here's a silly behind-the-scenes video, too.)

MORE THOUGHTS ON CITIZEN JOURNALISM:

One big advantage of a team of citizen journalists, we hope, is that we'll be covering things not covered by traditional media. We've already published several exclusive stories. Or, in the case of critical mass and other political events, we'll cover certain stories with more breadth and depth.

The Uptake is both networked citizen journalism, and part of a growing movement of "am-pro" journalism, meaning a mix of amateir and professional. We're hoping to fill the gap between random clips of raw video and professionally produced network news.

Original citizen journalism is already huge in the blogging world -- I'm sure you're all familiar with that one guy... Dan Rather. We're bringing it to video. Of course reputation is important. The blogosphere is, to some extent, a reputation economy and an attention economy. I think we have to work harder to earn a reputation than legacy media -- not that they can coast, given declining audience.

You tend to hear about citizen journalism when there's a disaster. Myanmar, tsunamis, school shootings... that's when a regular joe or jane is likely to commit and act of journalism. We're trying to elevate that and find people that want to be proactive - tell us what you think should be covered, and we'll help show you how to go out and cover it, and distribute it.

It's pretty cool. :-)

Critical Mass, Kicking Ass

Quicktime

The Uptake was on the scene of Friday's Critical Mass bike ride in Minneapolis. The ride was a huge success – both in number (The Strib says 600) and the lack of arrests or confrontation. The only confrontation we know of is documented here: "The Mercedes Incident."

This video represents a proud accomplishment for The Uptake.

The Uptake is producing original, increasingly networked citizen journalism video. It's not aggregating other random videos, or one person capturing a random moment. We're working as a team and producing original content. Hardly anyone else is doing this.

We used footage from four cameras here, and we have at least two other folks with their own video. Eventually we'll learn how to be networked for real, whether it's through Twitter, wireless headsets, or other methods we haven't thought of. It's an exciting time to be a citizen journalist, and to be creating original stories like this one.

BONUS VIDEO: Chuck talking about critical mass on Channel 5 news

Citizen video of Norm Coleman catches fire

I knew this video on The Uptake would be a hot tamale. So far we've been linked by Wonkette ("MN Senator Norm Coleman was caught on tape inadvertently saying something about Iraq informed by reality."), Daily Kos, The Atlantic's Matthew Yglesias, the Americans Against Escalation in Iraq newsletter, and more. Woohoo!

Citizen video, even when relatively poor quality, can really strike a chord when it's exclusive content like this.