Kigali back wire

Some notes on setting up kigaliwire.com. Will add to these as the project evolves, this is just a...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:49:47 +0100

Some notes on setting up kigaliwire.com. Will add to these as the project evolves, this is just a wee peek at the mo’.

the rwanda daily newspaper

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:46:00 +0100

Paper.li does one thing simply. It creates a “daily paper” by aggregating tweets around a topic tag or from the people you follow or from a Twitter list.

The Rwanda Daily is created from #rwanda links shared on Twitter. It’s not vetted, verified or edited in any way. It’s major faults are it relies solely on a) people sharing good, timely, newsworthy stuff and b) people not tagging any old shit for the (admittedly huge…) opportunity to appear in the Rwanda Daily.

I’ve stopped exploring papers created from followers and lists - they lack focus. As far as papers created from tags are concerned, they’re better but are still too easy to “game”. Six improvements are needed as far as I see it,

Allow paper.li publishers to add a human editorial layer before publication

Allow publishers to use stylised themes/logos for papers

Incorporate custom urls i.e. kigaliwire.com/thedaily

Alternative delivery formats, full paper as email, rss, pdf, mobile friendly

Ability to editorialise the tweet alert that is generated

Some statistics on how many subscribers and clickers the paper has.

Paper.li is a fabulous proposition, especially for people who have no interest in social networks like Twitter, but who need information.

I’ve already had very positive feedback from those who’ve looked over the Rwanda Daily.

Thank you for all you efforts to create Kigali wire news and now this new initiative. For me it’s an easy way to keep up without having to Google all day. Iris in Holland

However, without the changes mentioned above, especially the editorial layer, it’s going to remain little more than a gimmick.

Building community, finding new tools

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:02:00 +0100

The likelihood is that that the most interesting online discussions about Rwanda will take place away from kigaliwire.com. Hence, this outreach to try and find where these people are, if they are there.

While one of the biggest jobs after building the site is listening to what’s going on on these 50+ social media sites I’m distributing material to, there’s another equally important job that needs doing.

Tools like twitter come and go at a rapid rate of knots. I need to listen to what is happening in the online publishing world and developments within journalism and blogs to find out about new tools and new ways of doing things.

Most of this I do through my personal accounts on twitter and on del.icio.us and through a couple of custom Yahoo Pipes that filter chatter on these topics.

Photo taken from the Kigali Wire Photobucket account

@kigaliwire pre-launch of website

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:44:45 +0100

@kigaliwire pre-launch of website

Most of the initial library I brought over to Kigali.

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:22:31 +0100

Most of the initial library I brought over to Kigali.

Equipment used

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:15:00 +0100

Physical stuff that needs a carry and a plug:

Physical stuff that needs a brain and hands, but no plug:

Lots of pens and papers

Online stuff requiring little or no brain, nor hands, a stick will suffice:

Photo taken from the Kigali Wire Snap My Life account

Distribution process

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:07:00 +0100

I use ~~publish2~~, (Stopped using in June, 2010 - see note below) ~~delicious~~, diigo, pixelpipe and hellotxt to publish across 50+ sites. The real work comes in later when I try to cultivate communities of interested people across all these sites - seeing which ones work and which ones are maybe best ditched. This is slowly coming together on twitter with ~~226~~ ~~297~~ ~~367 484 768 996 1018~~ ~~1575~~ over 4,000 followers as of May, 2012, most of whom are highly interested in African issues.

Publishing links

I use publish2 to post links to publish2, del.icio.us and twitter. The RSS feed from ~~del.icio.us.com/kigaliwire~~ diigo.com/user/kigaliwire automatically feeds into the “Breaking News” section of kigaliwire.com

I then go back to the original news item and shorten the link using bit.ly and use pixelpipe to publish the link as a “tweet” across the following sites:

evernote
jaiku
plurk
tumblr
friendfeed
youare
identi.ca
koornk
plerb
brightkite
facebook
pixelpipe
kwippy
numpa
meemi
myspace
skyrock
irl connect
my opera
dipity - news items posted to delicious mirror here

I could probably ditch the Publish2 part of this process and use ping.fm or hellotxt to pick up the del.icio.us and twitter posting duties. However, I’m quite fond of publish2 and like the people behind it, so I’ll stick with them for the time being.

UPDATE June 18, 2010: Publish2 has changed the way it works. It no longer incorporates delicious and editorialising tweets is more cumbersome. I have bypassed publish2 entirely now and use the post to twitter function on the delicious bookmarklet. here are some other possible workarounds.

UPDATE March 19, 2011: There is speculation about the future of Delicious. I have moved to Diigo, which allowed me to import all old bookmarks. I now use the Diigolet to publish to Diigo, the RSS feed from Diigo goes to kigaliwire and I can tweet simultaneously as I bookmark if appropriate. Diigo also sends the bookmark to Delicious which is still mirrored as a tag roll in the News Archive.

UPDATE May 08, 2012: I’ve been using dlvr.it for a few months now - more on that over here - and it has some useful little tools up its sleeve, like an embeddable widget which shows most clicked links from your Twitter account in real time. I recommend.

Publishing blog posts

I generally publish to kigaliwire.com first and then post a bit.ly link to the post on the services above. I then use pixelpipe to post a “snippet post” to the blogging services below - making sure to link back to kigaliwire.com and adding the specific link to the individual post where necessary:

posterous
vox
windows live spaces - struggling to get this one working. Horrible site.
livejournal
xanga

Publishing photos

I generally post the best photos to kigaliwire.com with a link to one of the sites where the original is hosted. I use pixelpipe to send photos, with a text link back to kigaliwire.com and the specific post if possible, to the following accounts (click the links to see the kigaliwire account on ~~each~~ most of these sites:

Photos tagged with kigaliwirewidget in flickr also feed into (the fledgling) Ning network (UPDATE: June 17 - ning went to a pay model and I never had time/found a decent use for it. There are active Rwanda discussion groups already out there on facebook and YahooGroups) And I try to add the photos to relevant Africa-focussed groups when and where I can.

Publishing video

I haven’t started posting video yet, but when I do I will be using tubemogul and pixelpipe to post to the following accounts:

Publishing audio

Same with audio: II haven’t started posting audio yet, but I hope to especially once the networks speed up in Kigali, and I’ll be using an iPhone and pixelpipe to post to these outlets

Online forums and communities

I intend to get involved with a number of Africa focussed online forums, at least those discussing Rwanda. I’ll be using a Kigali Wire signature so that anybody who reads any comments I end making know where I’m coming from and what I do.

I’ll probably talk about this process of distribution a bit on the Wired Journalists network and maybe on other journalism forums and on Twitter.

I’m thinking of adding bits of the blog to the Guardian Weekly forum.

And I’ll possibly filter content into the Frontline Club social network.

Early days though. I’ll update this as and when I figure out where best to add content and get involved in discussions.

Editorial process

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:06:00 +0100

Don’t be in too much of a rush, check things and check them again. Don’t link to crap.

Photo taken from Kigali Wire Photobucket account

Publishing process

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:06:00 +0100

Each piece of news or morsel of interesting information has to meet the “Hmmm… that’s interesting” standard. Then it’s a case of choosing where the information should be published.

Is it worth a tweet, but not adding to the Breaking News sidebar? Perhaps it needs expanding on with an original blog post with added context. Or maybe a phone call or an email needs to be made and the piece developed as an all original post.

These decisions are made very quickly. The content will cut the more flippant world with the harder news world in a way I hope I can make work - how do you mix the two and not piss too many folk off?

Underlying this publishing process is a deep understanding of what happens when you press send or save. Where does the information go?

Where will the tweet end up? What happens when you bookmark a story? Where will that appear? Or when you write a blog post, where is it being mirror published and when? I’ve set the basics of this process out in the distribution process post, but I think it’ll need more explanation for anyone to emulate.

Photo taken from the Kigali Wire Snap My Life account

Set up cost

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:04:00 +0100

I’m using wordpress.org together with hosting by justhost and the wpnewspaper premium wordpress theme. Costs listed below:

Justhost hosting & domain name costs me $142 for three years
WPNewspaper theme $59
UPDATE May 2010: Started using $49 Graph Paper press F8 Child theme

Total: $201

Internet access is not cheap in Rwanda, although there is constant chatter that prices will come down once the fibre optic is connected to the East Africa cable which should be happening basically about RIGHT NOW. But as things stand I pay the following:

Rwandatel Internet home installation fee 100,000 Rwf or $176
Monthly fee 75,000Rwf or $132

Not cheap at all…

Photo taken from the Kigali Wire Snap My Life account

Newsgathering and leads using online tools

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:43:00 +0100

Most of the core newsgathering will initially be done using a bunch of custom RSS feeds.

I set up a bunch of keyword RSS feeds mostly coming out of Google News using keywords such as Kigali, Rwanda, “Paul Kagame” etc.
I set up more keyword RSS feeds drawing in information from photosharing sites like Flickr, video search engine Blinkx, a variety of blog search engines including Technorati, from Twitter and a discussion forum search engine. I put all of these into a Yahoo Pipe, filtered them, sorted them for duplicates and subscribed to resulting single RSS feed - I’ll document this process in more detail at some point.
In addition, I monitor those websites focussed on Rwanda that do not have native RSS feeds or do not have RSS feeds that work well.
Lastly, I’m beginning to cultivate contacts on the ground within the NGO world and among journalists, researchers, consultants and analysts as well as, of course, Rwandans.

One idea I have for kigaliwire.com is that it might become a very niche focussed site. Not just Kigali or Rwanda as a niche, but something far more narrow, perhaps a single issue.

Photo taken from the Kigali Wire Photobucket account

The idea

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:29:00 +0100

To build a blog focused on news from Rwanda, using readily available, predominantly free, tools to draw in information from a wide range of sources in addition to original reporting and opinion pieces distributed across the web using 50 or more social media services.

If it’s acronymns you’re after to explain the editorial, publishing and distribution process, the closest I can come up with is HECK

Hyperdistributed, Editorialised Content from Kigali

…bit lame I know… and yes, I borrowed the Hyperdistribution line from here.

I’ll go into the specifics of what tools I use and how I use them in later posts, but for now this is the basic idea - gathering news, verifying news, publishing news, distributing news - very old school…

Lastly, what with the Internet hopefully playing a big role in transforming Rwanda in the near future, I have a less than well-developed plan for kigaliwire.com to become a blueprint for online journalists working in Kigali and beyond.

If it works technically, I will probably look at finding a local news hungry hack with an aptitude for bloggy stuff to take the show over when I eventually up sticks and leave for pastures new.

As it stands, I’m on my tod, learning how to do things by muddling along.

UPDATE: I changed the look of Kigaliwire around March, 2010. I wanted a WordPress Template that changed the focus to two simple elements: the photography and the newswire.

Screenshots taken from the Kigali Wire Snap My Life account and Photobucket

Foreign Correspondent... hmmm?

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:28:00 +0100

This article, by Michaela Wrong via Chris Blattman, deffo rings bells with how I feel about the possibility of reporting from Rwanda. How can you just dive in, 1 week in the country, a white Africa-newbie and expect to really know anything, to know what to report, what context to put it in? Forget the female angle in the piece, just focus on the logic (which I agree with),

My ambivalence peaked last month when a youngster with the accent and confidence of the public-school-educated British male rang. In the wake of Congo’s first democratic elections, he said, he was planning to travel across the country and thought it would make a good book. Any advice? Did he have much journalistic experience, I asked? Not really: a couple of years wandering East Africa, the odd bit of freelance. Had he spent much time in Congo? Nope. Had he thought of learning the trade as a journalist first? He waved the idea away: too banal.

When I put the phone down, I was seething. Since then, I’ve been trying to identify the source of my fury. There is a graceless human tendency to wish upon others the ills visited upon oneself. Instead of pointing successors towards short cuts, you relish seeing them clambering through identical hoops. I’m as prone to this as anyone, but I don’t believe it explains my bile. No, it was the sheer bumptiousness that did it. A book must be the biggest act of presumption it is possible to commit.

If you’re a white westerner writing about Africa, that arrogance reaches dizzying levels. What gives a spoilt bourgeois, who didn’t even grow up there, the right to interpret the continent for the world?

The only answer can be: I have devoted years on the continent to listening and learning; I have done my homework as conscientiously as I know how; and it’s just possible, because I have spent so much time learning to write accessibly about foreign cultures, that I may be able to serve as a bridge between two cultural viewpoints.

My caller saw no need for any of this. With the chutzpah of the privileged young male, he believed he could bypass it all and still produce something for which the public would be duly grateful. In fact, there’s only one way of writing a book in these circumstances: you deliver a manuscript that is all about you, with Africa as a picturesque backdrop to your macho derring-do. I realised that my conversations with aspirant writers, and there have been dozens, had one thing in common: they all involved the male of the species.

Africa is full of female reporters who tramp through Darfur’s refugee camps and grit their teeth during Mogadishu firefights. Yet not one of these indomitable females has ever called me for the Quick Guide to Successful African Book Writing. I think I know the reason. It’s the same one that ensured I tried my hand at being an author only after 16 years of journalism. Women probably see an Africa book as featuring Africa first, their own exploits second. They fear they know too little, have nothing original to say. Even in this neo-feminist era, they have a sneaking suspicion they are not worthy. link

Photo taken from the Kigali Wire Snap My Life account