mapjd@lcc

Some good overview of value of attending photo portfolio reviews. Also number of upcoming US events.

Recounts "Kyle", one of the innovators of Scoopt, who left the company in early 2008. One year before it was bought by Getty Images.

Quotes from McRae about Scoopt and it's being the first to monetise citizen photojournalism.

Kyle McRae, founder of Scoopt, talks about the creation of a business based on UGC, its sale to Getty and it's eventual demise two years later.

Pro-Ams - people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards - are an increasingly important part of our society and economy. For Pro-Ams, leisure is not passive consumerism but active and participatory, it involves the deployment of publicly accredited knowledge and skills, often built up over a long career, which has involved sacrifices and frustrations. The 20th century witnessed the rise of professionals in medicine, science, education, and politics. In one field after another, amateurs and their ramshackle organisations were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it. The Pro-Am Revolution argues this historic shift is reversing. We're witnessing the flowering of Pro-Am, bottom-up self-organisation and the crude, all or nothing, categories of professional or amateur will need to be rethought. Based on in-depth interviews with a diverse range of Pro-Ams and containing new data about the extent of Pro-Am activity in the UK, this report proposes new policies to support and encourage valuable Pro-Am activity.

Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives

Newsletter profiling Scoopt's open letter to Flickr members so that they can link tagged photos to Scoopt accounts that they sign up for. The tagging allows Scoopt to "acquire" the photographs and use them for their distribution.

Now the traditional definition of Citizen Journalism is that it should be 'amateur' and , well, that's about it really. The rest is up to you. The survey found incredible diversity but it also found that Citizen Journalism can be even less accessible to the public than mainstream media. Now Citizen Journalism tends to see itself as a force for democracy, which I think it is. But it is not a particularly interactive form

Web 2.0 and citizen media have taken root as significant elements in the news of the future. And they have become a true competitor to traditional media. In 2006, citizens made it clear that they wanted a voice. In 2007, more ways of doing that began to emerge and that voice became stronger. Now, 2008 looks to be the year the mainstream press tries to lure citizens toward creating the content within their own outlets. As with much of the Web, though, the growth in citizen-based content brings with it questions about the future. And, as with much of the Web, the answer to one fundamental question - financial viability - remains uncertain.

Award-winning Demotix - true to its name - blurs the boundaries between publication, agency and political actor

Particularly striking were all those images from inside the Tube trains or tunnels when one imagines people had other things on their mind than "getting one for the album". What impels people to do this when surely their only thought would be about getting out? Is it a desire to prove they were there? Even more puzzling are those pictures of the bus blast, seemingly taken within seconds of the explosion. Apparently, somewhere between the compulsion to go and help and the less noble but equally understandable compulsion to flee is the compulsion to stop and take photos.

bloggers

citizen photoj vs professionals