Lew Friedland | Madison, WI | (608) 263-7852 | E-mail | Twitter | Website
This website, created by a U-Wisconsin-Madison professor, started out creating “boot camps” to train citizen reporters and university students in micro-reporting for minority neighborhoods and to establish a model “community information commons.” The site now uses students to cover city life, the environment, food and education. The Capital Times newspaper initially featured news reports produced by the project. MadisonCommons.org now partners with WISC-TV.
Project Updates
- Madison Commons Reports Neighborhood News, Seeks More Contributors (October, 2007) - Two years into its mission, the Madison Commons citizen journalism project continues to provide residents a vibrant place to find neighborhood news and an open forum to discuss community issues. As of May 2007, Madison Commons has trained about 70 people throughout the Wisconsin city and nearby communities to be citizen reporters. But while the […]
- Madison Commons Trains 50 Citizen Journalists, Expands Partners (May, 2006) - By the end of its first year, the Madison Commons Project had launched a community website, trained 50 citizen journalists, established several partnerships with community organizations and the media but, its founder says, it needs more funding and content to be a viable model. The project launched with $12,000 from J-Lab and $10,000 in university […]
- Madison Commons Launches Website, Reporting Toolkit (February, 2006) - The Madison Commons Project has launched its website, www.madisoncommons.org, where neighborhood news stories written by the program’s students are being aggregated on the main page and can also be viewed in pages specific to each neighborhood. The success of the launch can also be seen in both local Madison newspapers, The Capital Times and Wisconsin […]
- Twenty-two Complete Reporter Boot Camps (November, 2005) - Twenty-two people from two diverse Madison neighborhoods have completed reporter “boot camp” training, a three-session curriculum devised as part of the Madison Commons project to teach them how to identify, report and write the news. Plans are now underway to launch by mid-December a website where they can turn their training into community reports. They […]
- Recruiting Partners, Designing Workshops (August, 2005) - Where some citizen media projects invite people to contribute content without any training, the Madison Commons project has opted to develop a series of community journalism workshops to help neighborhood residents develop basic news skills. The curriculum consists of three 3 1/2-hour workshops over dinner that will begin in October and cover: The Basics: The […]
