Drumbeat/MoJo/hackfest/berlin/projects/BigPicture

What is it for

The Big Picture is made up of three interconnected applications. The Big Bucket submission application is made for crowd-sourcing the aggregation and curation of UGC. The Big Discussion is the live debate where the newsmakers connect the sources of UGC and the experts to decide what elements in the news stream are part of the bigger picture. The recorded replay of the Big Discussion is the Big Picture application which is available to the wider audience of the web (the Big Discussion will take only 1,000 live viewers).

Thus, there is a feedback loop where the generators and consumers of the world wide information stream are incentivised to work with news organisations to curate, aggregate and moderate the seemingly endless stream. In return they receive access to 'experts', are given the same status and voice in the conversation and an overlay of this information on top of their content (they get the views, not a hyperlink).

It is also aimed at foremost delivering insight, analysis and curation, with the content as optional. The content of the discussion becomes a democratic selection by the viewers and the analysis builds the navigation of the content.

The Big Picture is a platform not a product. It is built using human consumption rather than content management as the template for story telling. It is to enlighten rather than inform. It is to source rather than supply. It is to finish rather than continue. It is to build on what is open rather than compartmentalise what is closed. It is to cross platforms rather than cater for them. It is to find the voices that add authority rather than echo the voices in authority. It is the studio discussion for online news and it’s sole purpose is to provide everyone with the Big Picture.

Big Goal for MoJo Hackfest

Have a live video discussion for the newsweek to produce a playback for a week-in-review

Key steps toward goal

• 1. Use OpenTok to build recording and webpage/info functionality
• 2. Design user interface and fix in CSS
• 3. Have playback video linked to browser using JSON produced by step 1

Project Status

• Web conference set up for Big Discussion including
• 1. Guest and admin interface
• 2. Admin video control
• 3. URL submission and approval
• 4. Page call up into iframe for viewers
• 5. Session record

(Max video guests = 8; max viewers = 1,000)

Pending needs

• Build plugin for recording that produces a file that can be imported into ButterApp
• User testing
• Big Bucket submission app

Links for more info

• My idea outline here
• Github repository
• Demo here

Next steps

- From here I would like to:

• Complete stage 1 and 3, a URL submission page that has algorithmic support (using metameta project) for the moderator to get the most relevant crowd-sourced content into the Big Discussion and a playback tour of the links across the web using Popcorn.js and ButterApp

Places where this project might be tested include:

• Test the Big Discussion and Big Picture playback using only invited guests and news partner articles to make sense of the churn of daily news, producing a week-in-review to inform users of the relevant stories that will carry into the next week
• Start adding user-generated-content into the Big Discussion as found and chosen by the newsroom journalists, inviting the sources into the Big Discussion
• Test the Big Bucket by opening up URL submission to the public