Newspapers could learn from Psystar brouhaha

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:27 PM EDT

Article Source: CNET News.com

technology, media, computers, citizen-journalism, miami, msm, reporting, online-news, geeks, psystar

The big little frenzy over a little company in Miami that makes or claims to make an Apple-like computer -- and whether we can harness that level of intense participation by ordinary people into reporting on the story, into covering the local news scene to fulfill the potential of citizen journalism.

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This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

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Of course, the citizen journalism model is far from perfect. Earlier this week, Gizmodo sent its Miami readers after Psystar. They came back with photos showing (aha!) that Psystar wasn't at the address it claimed. There was only one problem: they went to the wrong address.

Now in fairness to the Gizmodo readers, Psystar has changed the address it lists at least four times by my colleague Tom Krazit's count. And if it weren't for those readers at Gizmodo and other sites CNET like News.com (many of whom also dug up interesting business records), along with some good reporting at outlets like The Guardian, the many red flags about Psystar wouldn't have been raised so quickly.

So there is lotsa potential in our citizen journalism crowd, altho most of us (having never worked in the field or been trained) have no idea of the potential legal landmines waiting out there. But let the fun begin, and be careful out there.

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#1 - Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:29 PM EDT

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Psystar violated terms of merchant services agreement	CNET News.com	Thu Apr 17	0
Psystar's credit card processor terminates their account; 'misled' them on what they sell	Macworld	Fri Apr 18	6
Psystar the Martyr: Deconstructing ITWorld's call for Apple to license OS X	Kyle Baxter	Mon Apr 21	35
Meet The Psystar Mac-Clone Mystery Man - Forbes.com	Forbes	Sun Apr 20	11
Apple may not have a case against Psystar	techreport.com	Thu Apr 17	0

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Newspapers could learn from Psystar brouhaha

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