Open It Up, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle!

This week's article for my column was derived from my experience and thoughts while I was in Seoul for the OhMyNews conference a few weeks back. Anyway, check it out:

Open It Up, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle!
Taking a lesson from South Korea's OhMyNews, a horde of bloggers-turned-citizen journalists is about to storm the gates of traditional media.

It had been over a year since I'd left Seoul, South Korea, when I returned a couple of weeks ago to attend OhMyNews' Citizen Reporters' Forum. Upon arriving, I was immediately struck by just how ubiquitous technology is in that country—a fact that had faded from my memory in the interim. Wireless phones are everywhere, and PCs with broadband connections can be found in each mom-and-pop shop. At a conference to discuss, share, and learn about the global progress of online citizen journalism, I was reminded at every turn of the long tentacles of technology.

The most powerful reminder came in the form of OhMyNews itself. OhMyNews was born in the "Land of the Morning Calm," a land that also happens to be the broadband capital of the world. Begun in February 2000, by Yeon Ho Oh, the service—which grew out of Oh's vision of every citizen as a reporter—has grown to more than 38,000 citizen reporters, including approximately 600 international reporters and 54 full-time staff reporters. Since its inception, OhMyNews has also inspired countless other citizen journalism projects such as Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere. (full post)


UPDATE: Since the old AlwaysOn site was taken down and posts were not properly transferred, just read the copy at OhmyNews here.

[tags: citizenjournalism, journalism, blogging, micropayments]