More admin.

Okay, so the first part of my "focus statement" is up there now. Here's the next important boring piece of the analytical backdrop. Soon I'll be getting into posting the actual interesting stuff, where I flesh out all the specific organizations that I've been finding.

So here's the series of criteria by which I will be tentatively judging projects. Giddy up.

New vs. Legacy

(Is it novel, or adapted from prior models? If adapted, is the content simply repackaged, or does the new media version have its own style, staff, content, etc.?)

Documentary, Archival, News, Communicative

(There are a variety of functions of journalism, and in the digital milieu it is worth considering that these functions can be divorced from their original purveyors. For instance, a website compiling videos of speeches by prominent politicians, academics and businesspeople is not strictly journalistic in intent, but it does serve the Archival function of journalism.)

Legal/Copyright Status

(Creative Commons/copyright/copyleft, etc.)

Traditional indicators:

Type of organization

(Wire, blog, non-profit foundation, profit-making business, public interest group, trade magazine, aggregator)

Funding

(private, donation, profits, ad revenue, public funding, freemium, subscription)

Agenda

(Does the organization have a given political, social or cultural leaning? e.g. lefty/PIRG organizations vs. right wing talk style organizations, or pro-arts, pro-labour, etc.)

Staff

(Approximate staff/contributor numbers, basis upon which they work, and whether they are paid)

Location

(Geographical areas of focus)

Subject matter covered

(Topical areas of focus)

History

(How long has it existed, who started it, what was their interest and experience?)

Basis upon which it produces

(daily, infrequently, weekly, etc.)

Additional Projects Undertaken

(stuff launched, databases, forums, awards, foundations, fellowships, etc.)

Technologies:

Type of medium/media used (1.0)

(Video, audio, text, articles, documentaries)

Distribution (2.0)

(Interactivity, response mechanisms, is it exclusively online, RSS, also in print, print/broadcast syndication, iTunes, aggregators, leaking, streaming, torrent, twitter?)

Tagging structure (3.0)

(geotagging, keyword tagging, producer tagging, time stamping)

Usage Statistics and related technology

(Who's using the site, how is that tracked? Reposting, track backing, embedding, page views, page rank)

Platform technology

(Drupal, wiki, blogger, wordpress, flash, custom)

Access

(Is content available in multiple media formats? Multiple sizes? Mobile? Low-bandwidth? High definition?)

Tactics:

Leveraging

(Anderson's Free models, added value, freemium, zero-marginal + alternative revenue streams, Amazon's review system as added value)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

(reviews, linking, trackbacks, embeds, whatever)

User Engagements

(Quality of response sections, forums, social networks, twitter accounts, crosslinking)

Sources:

Distributive

(To what extent are they redistributing existing content, or producing new content?)

Bookmarking

(To what extent do they redirect users to other content and/or allow users to affect that process?)

Novel or Commentary

(To what extent is it actual journalism, in the sense that it attempts documentation, or is it commenting on existing stories?)