I like Helium, I’ve had the pleasure to converse with some of the editors, who attended the Networked Journalism Conference that I organized in New York. But two things trouble me about this press release:
1. Helium is not strict citizen journalism. They do creative writing and fiction too. Which is great – I’m all for it, as long as we recognize it’s not citizen journalism.
The second point is a result of this being a press release (not Heliums fault). They describe it as "the leader in online citizen journalism." Who is the leader? Orato? NowPublic, OhMyNews? Associated Content? (which is also more like Helium in my eyes – not strict citizen journalism), who?
It’s a question we should think more about. If this is indeed a "business" then there is a market leader somewhere. I don’t know who it is right now. But would love to find out. If you know or have an idea – please comment.
 clipped from www.helium.com
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Glad you pointed this out– Helium is hardly a true citizen journalism platform. Much more akin to Associated Content.
Hiya, Dave. I always meant to catch up with you again. Yes, the gods of the press release outruled me with the “leader in citizen journalism” line. But this is very much a direction we want some of our writers to move in. We’re planning tutorials and resources for them along these lines. The Pulitzer thing was such a wonderful impetus — but kind of got out there before the rest of us caught up!
As to who the leader is right now, it’s a pretty open question as we are all trying to figure out how this works best for the writers who contribute and the publishers who use it.
Janice
@Janice
Thanks for commenting. Yea — I figured it was a press release thing – not a Helium trying to claim their territory statement.
Again: I’m a fan of what you guys are doing. I hope we get to catch up soon.
I know I’m responding several months too late, but for StumbleUpon’s sake…
There is a new up n’comer in Cit Journalism and it’s You Scoop It (youscoopit.com). They allow you to upload your news reports and they present them in a very professional format.
They also allow you to out-source your reports if it’s something that wasn’t completely your idea…just your words.
I like them a lot and think they have a shot at becoming the flagship for citizen journalism online.
http://www.youscoopit.com