Tool of the week: Geofeedia

What is it? A tool that allows you to search for a location and find geolocated tweets, photos and videos.

How is it of use to journalists? This tool offers potential for journalists faced with verifying a breaking news story. Search for a postcode, country, school or sporting stadium and you can see geolocated social media content posted on Twitter, Instagram, Picasa, Flickr and YouTube.

Imagine hearing reports of a fire. With Geofeedia you could enter the address and see what images, videos and tweets are being shared on social media.

Hat tip: Poynter, which has reported that Geofeedia came out of private beta earlier this week.

Find out more about verification by reading this Journalism.co.uk guide.

• Tool of the week for journalists – Rippla, for tracking the social ‘ripples’ of news stories
• Tool of the week for journalists – Trendsmap, for tracking conversations in your area
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – use Topsy to search the social web
• App of the week for journalists: Greplin
• Tool of the week for journalists – Topsy, real-time search for the social web

Trinity Mirror’s head of multimedia David Higgerson has produced a useful list of five ways newsrooms can more effectively use Flickr. These include demonstrating to those submitting pictures that they are “valued”, sharing front pages as well as individual images and understand how groups work on the platform to help you find new contacts for future images.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – using Twitter to find work experience opportunities
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – search by image service on Google
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – getting to grips with programming
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – using LinkedIn as a journalist
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – getting student work in the nationals

10,000 Words has a great guide for journalists to explain how to create a real-time geotagged Flickr map to show photos and the locations they were taken on a Google Map.

You can follow the same principle to allow you to add geolocated tweets.

A Flickr map has numerous applications from creating a report on a marathon, to covering demonstrations and protests, to showing parades and carnivals.

One beauty of this method is it allows reporters or readers to post photos by email rather than via apps.

This guide explains how it works: by checking your settings to allow email submissions, tagging photos and taking a geoFeed from your Flickr photostream page or your Flickr group page.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – tagging advice for newsrooms
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – How to check the score of your Facebook page
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – using Geocommons to map data
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – 10 Mac apps for journalists
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – embed slideshows using Vuvox

Anyone can now join multimedia storytelling platform Storify.

The site, which allows users to drag and drop elements such as tweets, audioboo recordings, photographs from Flickr and YouTube videos to tell a dynamic story, which can then be embedded on a news website or blog, was previously in private beta and an invitation was required. As of this week Storify is now in public beta.

Since its launch in September, private beta users have created more than 21,000 stories, according to this post.

Storify stories have been viewed more than 13 million times, 4.2 million views were in March. The stories generated have been embedded on more than 5,000 sites, including news sites from the New York Times, to the Guardian and BBC.

Here are five stories to inspire you to have a go:

1. The Stream, the daily television show powered by social media and citizen journalism on Al Jazeera English, has created this Storify story on Blogging from “Between the Bars”.

[View the story Blogging from "Between the Bars" on Storify]

2. The Wall Street Journal embedded this Storify story which asks where should New York place QR codes?
[View the story QR codes in New York City on Storify]

3. Storify received record views after March’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
[View the story Latest on Japan earthquake and tsunami on Storify]

4. BBC London curated the London marathon with Storify.
[View the story Your Story of Marathon 2011 on Storify]

5. And whether you love of hate the hype, the Royal Wedding will no doubt inspire more Storify stories, such as this one from ABC News.
[View the story UK gears up for royal wedding on Storify]

Do you have any useful tips for people using Storify? Please share them with Journalism.co.uk readers.

• Breaking News becomes a Storify source
• Storify adds slideshow view for blog posts, presentations and broadcasts
• You can now add SoundCloud recordings to Storify
• Nieman: Lessons of the Like Log
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data journalism inspiration

The photo-sharing website Flickr has introduced a new option which allows photographers to publicly nominate their images for licensing by Getty.

When another user sees an image they would like to licence, they will be put in touch with Getty to arrange the sale.

In short, the new Flickr/Getty feature, called Request to License, lets photographers nominate their photos directly to users searching for photos to license – without first going through Getty.

Cnet News has a report with a bit of context here:

In Flickr’s initial partnership with photo licensing powerhouse Getty Images, Getty representatives cherry-picked Flickr photos and photographers they liked. Later, Flickr members could offer their own candidates for evaluation by Getty for licensing.

More detail from the Flickr blog:

When a prospective licensee sees an image marked for license, they can click on the link and be put in touch with a representative from Getty Images who will help handle details like permissions, releases and pricing. Once reviewed, the Getty Images editors will send you a FlickrMail to request to license your work, either for commercial or editorial usage. The decision to license is always yours.

Flickr recently added the 100,000th photo to the Flickr Collection on Getty Images.

• Getty teams up with Yahoo to tap into Flickr users
• Tool of the week for (photo)journalists: ZangZing
• Commenters accuse Mail of image misuse – a bigger missed opportunity for publishers?
• CnetNews: Flickr users invited by Getty to join collection
• paidContent:UK: Getty Images VP on finding business models for cit-j photos

The Independent newspaper has apologised, “after it was accused of breach of copyright for publishing a Flickr stream of images which included at least one ‘All Rights Reserved’ photo of the snow,” reports the British Journal of Photography.

Full story at this link…

(The photographer, Peter Zabulis, who challenged the Independent has more detail at this link)

• BJP: Photographer drops copyright claim over iconic Obama image
• Photography Is Not-A-Crime.com: images from the fourth plinth
• BJP: Photographers sue Met Police for treatment at Greek embassy protests
• EPUK: Photographer wins copyright infringement case against Mirror Group Newspapers
• HTFP: Wales on Sunday pays BNP for copyright breach

Mail Online is coming under renewed criticism for its use of online images, following a story on ‘moneyfacing’ (people using banknotes to create self-portraits).

A tweet from @alisongow alerted us to the Mail’s article ‘Creasing up: Banking on a funny photo with the ‘moneyfacing’ craze sweeping the web’ on which commenters have alleged the paper has used the images central to the story without permission.

Comments include:

“As the photographs are a pretty intrinsic part of this so called feature, I’d say that asking permission to use them is the very least this so-called newspaper should’ve done.”

The creator of the images, Thom Shannon, has now reposted them to Flickr with a watermark protecting them, adding he has never felt the need to use watermarks before, but that requests to the Daily Mail to remove the photos have not been answered.

The Mail isn’t the only site making use of the images: the Sun has a 12-image slideshow and Telegraph.co.uk features just one image, though it does give accreditation for this to a website (something Shannon has disputed).

This is not the first time the Mail’s use of online images has been challenged, but issues of copyright aside, Kevin Anderson suggests that there is a bigger opportunity being missed by newspapers at large (scroll down to the comments):

“[T]his is another example of the news industry missing an opportunity to build community around what they do. When I use Creative Commons photos from sites like Flickr, firstly, I honour the terms of the licence. Secondly, I drop the Flickr user a note letting them know that I’ve used a photo on our site. It’s not only a way to use nice photos, but it’s also a way to build goodwill to what we’re doing and do a little soft touch promotion of our coverage. It takes a minutes out of my day to create that email, but instead of a backlash, I often get a thank you. They let their friends know that the Guardian has used their picture. It’s brilliant for everyone. There are benefits to being good neighbours online, rather than viewing the internet as a vast repository of free content.”

• Andy Piper: Chasing the Daily Mail for Flickr attribution
• Flickr/Getty deal brings new revenue opportunity for photographers
• Flickr and geotagging: Part of the newsgathering model?
• Lost Remote: Obama photos bypass media straight to Flickr
• Beatblogging.org: Globe and Mail/Reuters using Twitter photos of China riots

(Via Cybersoc) National Public Radio is calling on its Flickr followers to identify individuals in a series of photos from a US senate meeting.

The idea reminded Journalism.co.uk of regional newspaper-style calls for information about old photos of sports teams etc in print. A clever way to get your community to help you out using a free tool too.

• Getty teams up with Yahoo to tap into Flickr users
• Media Decoder: US Corporation for Public Broadcasting to fund local journalism
• #bbcsms: Storify summary of the BBC Social Media Summit
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to create a live Flickr and tweet map
• Sportsbeat agency puts content online

Maybe not an unlikely crime, but its one that could be increasingly common as more newspapers turn to Flickr for content.

Andy Piper writes on his blog:

“The Daily Mail posted a story on their website about my friend Andy Stanford-Clark, and used a crop from one of my photos to illustrate it. As it happens, I would have been perfectly happy for them to use it (and even to crop it) if they’d asked for permission. At the time I post this, they are not following the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence…”

“….it’s a national newspaper displaying what would appear to be significant ignorance about the morality of using user-created content.”

Full post at this link…

• TechCrunch: YouTube launches creative commons licence option
• Wired offers creative commons images in exchange for link
• Telegraph blogs: Should sites pay citizen journalists?
• Commenters accuse Mail of image misuse – a bigger missed opportunity for publishers?
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Creative Commons on YouTube

They don’t make ‘em like Kyle Macrae, the founder of citizen journalism photography site Scoopt, any more – but maybe they should?

Speaking at Friday’s journalism and enterprise ‘unconference’, JEEcamp, Macrae posited that the only option for journalists at the moment is to be entreprenuerial.

Macrae sold Scoopt to Getty Images in March 2007, before the photography giant shuttered the site in February this year.

Macrae outlined some of the issues with the idea behind Scoopt:

• every mainstream media organisation that bought into the idea of user-generated content e.g. send us your pictures of snow – took away from Scoopt’s business
• Scoopt needed a default route to market for all valuable content e.g. a partnership with Flickr was discussed, where users posting potentially valuable images could click to sell
• there isn’t an unlimited market for editorial photography
• Scoopt wasn’t sticky enough – “People would register on site and then wait the rest of their lives for something to happen”

It was impossible to scale the business on a regional level

But, says, Macrae, selling the site was always his ‘exit strategy’ – something all entrepreneurs should have from the start and there were some very valuable nuggets of advice for budding independents in his presentation:

• try to step outside of the journalism sector before starting a journalism business – you’ll spot more opportunities this way
• similarly, get someone to sanity check your business – preferably someone outside the industry
• pay less attention to what the ‘usual commentators’ are saying when considering if you’re idea is good
• in an ideal world, you’d have the funding in place first, but start as you mean to go on – think about where the money is going to come from from the very beginnning

• Stock-photo blog: Getty closes cit-j photo site Scoopt
• MediaShift: What’s the future of cit-j photo agencies?
• JEEcamp: pitch from Kyle McRae, ex-Scoopt
• paidContent:UK: Getty Images VP on finding business models for cit-j photos
• First peek at traffic stats for Times’ new site

A Flickr image of Birmingham’s city skyline was mistakenly used as a backdrop for a BBC news bulletin, the corporation has said, offering £75 usage fee to the photographer.

Full post at this link…

• Flickr/Getty deal brings new revenue opportunity for photographers
• BJP: Photographer drops copyright claim over iconic Obama image
• Regret the Error: Free CNN ads compensate for broadcast error
• Flickr: Inspirational infographics from Good.is
• RobertBenson.com: Professional photographers who are sticking to film

After speaking with Matthieu Stefani from cit-j platform Citizenside about how the site mobilises its users to cover local news events, a Flickr development came to mind as a useful tool for tracking/aggregating content around breaking news.

Using Flickr’s map function, you can search by keyword and location. A quick search for bushfire and Australia, for example, brings up a host of images from Flickr users:

A great resource for news organisations looking for new images and on-the-ground witnesses and contributors (just remember to respect Creative Commons licencing and attribution principles).

Flickr announced last week that it has passed the 100 million mark for geotagged images and the site has also introduced a feature, as part of the geotagging process, called ‘nearby’, which allows users to search for other geotagged images located with a 1km radius of their photo.

• TechCrunch: YouTube launches creative commons licence option
• Getty teams up with Yahoo to tap into Flickr users
• Wired offers creative commons images in exchange for link
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Creative Commons on YouTube
• Wired: Flickr groups reject new video feature

Roland Legrand suggests seven ways “to keep costs low, content fresh using social media”. He also adds: “Never give up on training”.

Full blog post at this link…

• MediaShift: Journalists should customise social networks
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – interactive video content
• Ed Walker: Legal challenges in the online newsroom
• Social media fellowship offers week-long course for journalists
• #followjourn: @alexblyth – freelance

Asher Moses of The Age looks at the role of social media such as Twitter, Flickr and Facebook have played during the fatal bushfires that have raged through Victoria in Australia

Full story at this link…

• Beehive City: Facebook and Twitter offer clearer picture of Japanese earthquake
• Facebook appoints Mashable community manager in new journalism role
• Currybet.net: Will social media’s influence on political engagement continue post-election?
• #bbcsms: Storify summary of the BBC Social Media Summit
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – get comments with social media tools

This week certain Flickr users began receiving invitations from the photo agency Getty, as part of a new partnership between the agency and Yahoo. A special Flickr-branded Getty collection will be launcing in March. Full story…

• Getty teams up with Yahoo to tap into Flickr users
• Flickr/Getty deal brings new revenue opportunity for photographers
• Flickr and geotagging: Part of the newsgathering model?
• paidContent:UK: Getty Images VP on finding business models for cit-j photos
• Wired: Flickr groups reject new video feature