Mark Mayhew, who used microblogging service Twitter to update from New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav hit, is using a range of multimedia tools to document efforts to rebuild towns and cities affected by Gustav and Hurricane Ike.
Starting with Twitter again, Mayhew has set up the @RebuildHouston channel to update on the recovery efforts in the Galveston and Houston area. He’ll also be posting longer reports, videos and photos to CNN’s iReport site.
“I’m leaving New Orleans as part of a two person crew who has a van that is “locked and loaded” (my associate’s term) and should be arriving in Houston on Monday morning. We have stockpiled food, tools and we have an EVDO-enabled laptop with a digital camera (that can shoot vid as well,” writes Mayhew on iReport.
Mayhew hopes local journalists will get involved with his coverage, creating a ‘collaborative journalism’ project.
He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty either - posting the following ad for ‘”pay what you want” clean up/home repair/property management’ on Craigslist:
Howard Owens, director of digital publishing at US company Gatehouse Media, has laid down a personal gauntlet to ‘non-wired journalists’ to encourage them to be more active online.
Listing the full details on his personal blog, Owens is offering a $100 Amazon voucher (around £50) to the first journalist to complete his internet assault course. The currently unofficiated hack must, amongst other things satisfy the following criteria:
Financial incentives aside, Owen’s ten-step plan is straightforward and low-cost - a simple way to nudge even the most reluctant editorial staff into action.
Tags: digital camera, GateHouse Media, GBP, Howard Owens, internet assault course, social networking site, United States, USD
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