What To Expect From Beatblogging.Org

By now you’ve read the welcome to BeatBlogging.org post and the next natural question on your mind is — “why should I come back to this blog”?

This experiment is taking place in 13 news rooms across the country. Each will be tackling the project from a different angle and as a result, the will come across unique obstacles.

This blog will collect lessons and mistakes they learn along the way. That will include methods they use to redefine their relationship with sources and new tools they implement to construct new forms of communication. The hope is that by the end of this project, other reporters can learn from what we’ve done and begin beat blogging themselves.

While the 13 reporters who are highlighted directly to the right of this post are at center stage of this blog, we will also find and interview leading thinkers and journalists who are already out there doing this type of reporting on their own and tool makers who can offer us insight into how their web applications can benefit journalism by creating new online communities.

This blog isn’t about evangelizing. That time has passed. This is about getting our hands dirty to find out what networked journalism looks and feels like.

This blog will be an insiders view and analysis into the 13 brave reporters, our coalition of the daring, who will dive in head first to find out for themselves.

Above all, this is a space for all journalists to learn and discuss these issues together.

So What Now?

Right now I’m having one-on-one phone calls with all our beat bloggers. At this point nobody has a network. I don’t even know if the reporters have an idea for how to create one. But slowly we get a sense of common problems and goals and then together we will push forward. Once all these conversations have taken place, I will be sure to report back here.

It’s going to be a wild ride.

Onward!!!!!