Local football journalist Rick Waghorn submitted one of the first ideas to 4iP using our online submission form and within four weeks the prototype was reviewed, contracted and code running on Rick’s site, http://myfootballwriter.com/norwichcity.
Rick’s idea was simple. He already had a website and an active audience of tens of thousands of Norwich City fans. He saw an opportunity to change the way people engaged with his work. He recognises that the role of the journalist is changing. People no longer wait for the the post game analysis, they are already talking, texting, swapping pics and videos during the game with their mates. So where does this leave the journalist? Late to the game, if you pardon the pun! As Rick sees it his role needs to adapt to the times. He is the shepherd to his flock’s conversations. Read his blog post where he puts it so nicely.
So what’s interesting about this for 4iP? Maybe it would help if I share which criteria from our guidelines he met with this project .
- Supporting local talent- check! Rick set up his site two years ago and has carved out a space for his work as a trusted, independent voice for Norwich City football. He clearly has balls and talent and this is local - Rick’s mobile doesn’t work at his home.
- To champion alternative voices and fresh perspectives - check! The fans have a voice in the world of crowd sourced commentary.
- Making trouble and inspiring change - Journalism as a real-time conversation - that could change things.
- 100% native to digital networks, with its centre of gravity in participation or collaboration - check, check, check!
Also, from our point of view it was simple to commission and it allowed us to test the commissioning process (more on that in another post soon).
I know for you old Twitter hands out there this will not come as new news, but for the average football fan this is new and anyone can get involved using SMS.
There is a trial period of another four games and we’ll see what happens. There is still plenty to tweak and none of us know how well it will be received. That’s exciting. So, if there are any Norwich fans out there and you want to give it a go then check out the site and remember to tweet with #ncfc. It would be good to see any constructive comments.
Ivan Pope on Tue, December 09, 2008 at 11:27 said:
You say “Supporting local talent- check!”. But in the guidelines you link to there is no reference to local talent. I’m all for guidelines, and I’m happy to know how your projects relate to your guidelines. But I don’t think you should be referencing guidelines that are not in the guidelines ... where does that leave us?
tunnock c on Tue, December 09, 2008 at 11:33 said:
great you commissioned a website with a twit(sic) feed
hope the eco-downturn doesn’t effect your commissioning budget
t
Tom Loosemore on Tue, December 09, 2008 at 1:10 said:
Fair point Ivan. What 4iP is aiming to do, along with the whole of C4, is to seek talented people and companies in places others might not think to look.
Such as in rural Norfolk.
Documentally on Tue, December 09, 2008 at 1:44 said:
Hi Tom.. Look no further..
Along with many other projects I’m hoping to build a database of citizen journalists/bloggers who can assist people in bringing awareness to community issues in their locality.
Christian
Jo on Tue, December 09, 2008 at 1:47 said:
Am I being thick? What did you do? I see a conventional website?
Immediately noticed no forum or stuff from other people?
Maybe I need more coffee. Or less
PS If you need some one to sub-edit in Norfolk, I know someone who loves to do it.
Ewan McIntosh on Tue, December 09, 2008 at 5:38 said:
Tunnock and Jo, I think that Rick’s explanation of why this is *not* just another forum or Twitter feed might help begin to uncover why this, over time, could make football fans’ banter better:
http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=191
k mitnik on Sun, December 14, 2008 at 2:21 said:
This project is so basic I can’t believe that it has been awarded funding in five figures. All for an afternoon of coding. Not bad work if you can get it! Seriously though, it would of been nice for the first project to have had some innovation, or to of least serviced a community that didn’t have a voice already. After all there are plenty of discussions on twitter about football already.
Ewan, I would like to re-assure you football fans have no problem finding their banter and they are already using these tools.
Ewan McIntosh on Mon, December 15, 2008 at 5:43 said:
I think Rick’s post explains why this is more than just an afternoon’s worth of coding. It’s not just about Twitter, and while there are plenty of conversations about football on Twitter, a) where are they - most fans will follow their mates, not necessarily the larger conversation; b) there are only 100,000 or so Twitter users in the whole UK, so creating something that is platform agnostic is more important than I think folk are picking up on.
We’re also paying for some editorial nous here to make see what happens when/if something like this reaches scale.
The first project for 4iP was never going to be the most groundbreaking technologically. Those projects are currently being researched, prototyped, built. Ready in four weeks? I think not. I think you’ll like the innovation that comes out over the next couple of years, but there will be plenty of simple, obvious ones even, that no-one else has thought of bringing up and out of the blueprints.
k mitnik on Mon, December 15, 2008 at 9:04 said:
I think this project has highlighted an issue with 4ip - the knowledge gap between those commissioning the projects and the technologies and platforms the projects will use. The broadcast background of 4ip has advantages, and can often provide a vital ‘real world view’ that someone too involved in the technology can not see. However a failure to understand the value and cost of a development is a serious downfall.
This project was created using Yahoo Pipes which is specifically designed for aggregating feeds from various sources. Creating this 4ip project is simply a matter of drag and drop, see http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ and click on ‘Learn How to Build a Pipe in Just a Few Minutes’ as you can see I was being generous when I said it was an afternoon of coding.
Of course any project has additional costs over and above the coding - hardware/maintenance, management, editorial, pr, advertising will all inevitably cost, but I cannot hide my disappointment that this project is not more innovative or worthwhile.
I totally agree that a truly groundbreaking project cannot be delivered in four weeks, but if the project is not going to be innovative or different why fund it?
RickWaghorn on Wed, December 17, 2008 at 12:08 said:
OK, clearly I’m biased. I would be.
But how many other provincial football reporters now engage their passionate, niche audience in a conversation? 24/7.
On the Birmingham Evening Mail? The Liverpool Post? The Portsmouth News, etc, etc..?
Yes, the technology is simple. None of us have ever claimed that it is anything but; the innovation is its application as a journalistic concept; the way that I, the journalist, can now better engage with what used to be my old evening newspaper audience… to meet, mingle, mix and try and moderate and spark the conversations that they are now having without me…
Even if its of the ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, Rick…’ variety; I have to take that on the chin; but we’re now giving them the opportunity to chat-back to me… and, btw, backchat is also proving an excellent tool for me to publish instant snippets of news live from Press conferences, games, AGMs, etc, etc…
You shouldn’t look at it as a technology tool - it’s a journalistic device.
Those comfortable ivory towers that we all used to inhabit are collapsing - and that applies just as much to C4, ITV, BBC as it does to me and the Norwich Evening News; we’re all crashing to the ground and finding ourselves in a new digital news landscape we don’t yet really recognise… one where we’re actually going to have to talk to people, not tell them..
Robert Peston dominated agendas in the height of the credit crunch weeks not off the Nine O’Clock News or the Today programme but off his blog; someone in that period went out and bought http://www.robertpeston.com - right let’s empower Robert Peston to actually have a two-way conversation with those that were hanging on his every word; let’s do http://www.robertpeston.com/backchat - and if you run it as a streaming live feed across http://www.robertpeston.com and people are interested in watching how the conversation ebbs and flows, so they’ll revisit your site on a more frequent basis, drive up your traffic numbers and if you’re running an advertising model that’s based on CPM - as we do via http://www.addiply.com - it drives you greater revenue..
Which is the key to all our journalistic futures; getting this web-thing to pay.
It’s not about the technology. Never was.
I don’t do technology; leave that to the clever people that can. I just try and do journalism that, maybe, is more befitting to 2008.
IMHO.
All the best, etc.
Rick
Jamie on Wed, December 17, 2008 at 1:09 said:
Well said Rick. I say hallelujah the technology is easy. This project is about the people and getting an audience not about the technology.
This project required Rick to market a simple proposition at five Norwich City matches. We wanted to see whether there is any interest in a conversation from the crowd, by the crowd and shepherded by Rick during the match. Since I first wrote this post, Rick has been hard at work rallying people and encouraging them to join in. The feed on his website was only a very small part of his ongoing efforts.
And I hope you can see from the above, Rick is very passionate about championing new forms of journalism. This is interesting beyond the technology solution.
k mitnik on Thu, December 18, 2008 at 1:37 said:
Firstly I have to say that there is no doubt that Rick is very passionate about what he is doing and I certainly would never question his motivation or credentials.
However, Jamie’s quote says it for me “The project is about the people and getting an audience not about the technology”. In my view this audience already exists and has numerous ‘chatback’ opportunities, whether they be via radio shows, TV (SMS/phone), forums, blogs, twitter, etc, etc. is irrelevant. Many of these are incredibly popular and have large established audiences which journalists are members of and instrumental in creating. In short professional football journalist-audience interaction is already happening and has been for many years. If the project had been based around community building for under-18s football, womens football, etc, etc, I think it would of been much more worthwhile.
Re: new forms of journalism, I don’t want to get into the widespread condemnation of ‘twitter journalism’ following the Mumbai hostage situation - this really isn’t the place and I definitely do not want to infer that Rick would partake in this.
I think it’s fair to say this project has met greater criticism than usual because it is the first 4ip project, however I really hope that future projects do serve communities without a voice and are innovative both in terms of business models and technology usage.
Rick, thanks for your reply. I wish you the best of luck with your project.
Chelsea Tickets on Sun, August 30, 2009 at 8:48 said:
Very interesting link - I just did a quick check, looks like a pretty good tool! Thanks for the find!
Website Design Norwich on Tue, February 16, 2010 at 12:11 said:
As an avid Norwich City Supporter - this is a very good ... lets hope city can also keep up the good work this season :D promotion here we come !!!!
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