“If you build it, they will not necessarily come. We have, a number of times, assumed that if we built the Web architecture for citizen journalists to send in their reports, they just would.”

So here is Current’s reaction:

Having realized that obtaining viewer-created content is not that easy, Current is positioning the television network as an incentive for online participation. Current’s Web site, which previously existed to solicit viewer videos, was reorganized and put up two weeks ago with new social networking features. Viewers are now able to watch a pod on television, post a text or video response on Current.com, and potentially see their response appear on television shortly thereafter.

As long as three years ago, Xeni Jardin, one of the four co-editors of BoingBoing.net, was saying that citizen generated content, like blogs, should be seen as raw materials, which can be built into a more refined product. I thought long before now everyone had heard Rosen’s and Jardin’s messages, but maybe not.

This is a very easy-to-use application that takes account of the demands placed on journalists in the field,” said Nic Fulton, Chief Scientist of Reuters Media. “By running on handheld devices, rather than on bulkier laptop computers, the mobile journalism application enables us to create complete stories and file them for distribution, without leaving the scene. This saves us time and benefits our audience by ensuring that they receive high quality news that is absolutely up-to-date.”

You can see the whole toolkit here and example of the Reuters reporters work can be found at Reuters Mobile Journalism. As anyone who has been watching my videos over the last few days knows, I can, actually anyone can, make these amateur videos. However, for me, every time I make one, I keep thinking I have to learn to do this better.

At ConvergeSouth 2007 Brandon Gross and Saskia Wilson-Brown from CurrentTv, were carrying a little $100 Flip Video camera with an hour’s worth of low quality video capabilities. I said I was ready to trade up, and they were saying no, these hand-helds are the future, people are accustom to watching them. Maybe, but for me I have gone through that stage. I want to shoot better videos. However, whether I, and the other amateur videographers, want to go through the learning curve is another question that is yet to be answered.  

 Thanks to Josh Catone at Read/Write Web and Sam Harrelson for the pointers.

Earlier today I was in a session with Wilson-Brown and Brandon Gross of Current.tv. Current.com if you have not been there recently is doing interesting and fun stuff. One is Call Outs. You could do it at your own site. You give your subject topic and then ask people to send in clips or photos as part of your subject matter. Basically instead of just you talking, everyone gets to share prospectives and stories.