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Member Since: 5/2007Last Seen: 11/24/2009

Newspapers could learn from Psystar brouhaha

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