New ScribbleLive feature: multiple language support

written by Dana | Announcements, Features, journalism, Live Journalism, live publishing, ScribbleLive | January 26th, 2012 | No Comments

As Scribble continues to grow, we’ve expanded our reach to nearly every continent. This week, we amped up our language offerings to help serve our diverse clientele. In addition to publishing liveblogs that appear in multiple languages to readers, now any reporter logging into Scribblelive.comwill be able to choose which language they’d like the backend interface to display in. We want our clients to get the most out of their Scribble experience, and don’t want anything to get lost in translation. Languages we currently support: English, Finnish, French, German, Arabic, Japanese, Danish, Spanish, Croatian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish. Yours not on the list? Contact us at info@scribblelive.com.


New ScribbleLive features: moderated writers, LiveArticle updates

written by Dana | Features, Live Journalism, live publishing, LiveArticle | January 25th, 2012 | No Comments

ScribbleLive’s developers have been hard at work over the holidays to bring you a slew of new features that we’ll introduce this week.

First up, we’ve added a new level of permission — you can now assign the role of moderated writer. This is ideal for cub reporters or anyone with a penchant for typos. This gives a reporter full access to log in, type updates and upload photos, video and audio files. The difference between a writer and a moderated writer: the latter is not allowed to publish directly to the blog. Instead, each post they produce is placed into a moderation queue. From there, anyone with moderator, editor, developer or administrator status can review and edit the posts (editing adds an “edited by X” line beside the writer’s byline). The moderator can then publish the post by clicking the check mark, just as they would with reader comments.

But wait — there’s more! We’ve added new features to LiveArticle as well. You can now add a subhead (by highlighting a bit of text and clicking the subhead button), which makes it easier to let your readers know exactly what your LiveArticle is about (it’s also easy to change as the story develops). We’ve also added the option to create ordered (numbered) and unordered (bullet point) lists. We treat them the same was a Word doc does: hitting enter automatically adds the next number/bullet. You can highlight a bit of text and apply the list to it, and switch from an ordered to an unordered list and vice versa. Stay tuned — tomorrow we’re releasing another exciting new feature!

Covering the iBooks announcement with ScribbleLive

written by Allendria | Announcements, Events, Features, ScribbleLive | January 19th, 2012 | No Comments

Livebloggers all over the web were in a flurry over Apple’s education announcement today.

The tech giant announced iBooks 2 and iBooks Author, two iPad tools the company released with hopes to “reinvent the textbook.”

Apple did not provide a live stream of today’s iBooks releases, so it was up to livebloggers to keep information flowing.

Using ScribbleLive, media such as CNET, The Verge, Reuters and Mashable updated their readers every few seconds during the event.

Reuters published a stream of quotes from the announcement and photos of the presentation. Their liveblog also featured posts pulled in from Twitter and readers’ comments.

The Verge filled eight pages with photos, links and text in their liveblog. They added more than a photo a minute during the event.

Mashable and CNET used embedded Scribble liveblogs to inform their readers about the announcement, keeping the conversation with readers lively and up-to-the-minute on their sites.

Inspired by SOPA protests, columnist becomes one-man Wikipedia

written by Dana | journalism, Live Journalism, live publishing | January 18th, 2012 | No Comments

On a day when online megalith Wikipedia voluntarily went dark to protest SOPA, the US’s government’s piracy act, one Canadian newspaper decided to step into the online encyclopedia’s role.

National Post illustrator/columnist Steve Murray launched a liveblog dubbed Postipedia, and offered his warped brian up to readers. He encouraged them to send him questions — any questions — that they’d normally turn to Wikipedia for. Queries poured in, ranging from “what is love” to the fiscal crisis to how to remove unwanted stains. Murray provided hilarious rapid-fire answers during more than two hours of questioning.

And, true to the Wiki way, the resulting liveblog was chockfull of truthiness.

Here’s a sampling:

Q: Why didn’t they use the Eagles in the Lord of the Rings and drop the ring into the volcano?

Murray: The Eagles did not form until 1970, 250 years before when LOTR took place.

Q: Why don’t people know how to do research without Wikipedia anymore?
Murray: “Teach a man to fish and he will eat forever. Show him “fish” on wikipedia and he’ll scrape by on his exam.”

Q: What is love?

Murray: “What is Love” is a European dance song by Haddaway, popularized in the movie “Night At The Roxbury”

Q: When was Wind in the Willows published?

Murray: Interesting fact: Wind in the Willows was never actually published. Word just got around about the story.

Liveblogging about presidents / “Liveblogging” sobre los presidentes

written by Allendria | América Latina, Announcements, Español, ScribbleLive, South America | January 17th, 2012 | No Comments

Allendria Brunjes is ScribbleLive’s South American correspondant, reporting from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

When big political names come to town, people like to know what they’re doing.

Using ScribbleLive, our partners in Latin America – a hot market for Scribble – have been giving readers this coverage.

Over the past two weeks, for instance, Noticias24 has posted liveblogs following Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s movements. Through photos, videos and text, journalists told readers about how Chávez presented the country’s reports and accounts, reinstated his talk show “Aló Presidente” and visited the Basilica in Guanare.

Chávez isn’t the only president Noticias24 has been following in their liveblogs.

The recent Venezuelan visit from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also covered by the news organization in a liveblog.

In addition, when Peruvian president Ollanta Humala came to Venezuela to meet with Chávez, the Noticias24 liveblog team wrote about his movements.

—–

Allendria Brunjes es la corresponsal de ScribbleLive en América del Sur. Ella escribe desde Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Cuando las grandes figuras políticas vienen a visitar, a la gente le interesa mucho saber lo que hacen.

Utilizando ScribbleLive, nuestras socios de América Latina – un mercado caliente para Scribble – han dado a sus lectores esta cobertura.

Por ejemplo, en el transcurso de las dos semanas pasadas, Noticias24 ha seguido en sus liveblogs al presidente de Venezuela Hugo Chávez Frías. A través de fotos, vídeos y texto, los periodistas hablaron de cómo el presidente presentó la Memoria y Cuenta, reanudó “Aló Presidente”, y visitó la Basílica Menor de Guanare.

Chávez no es el unico presidente al que Noticias24 ha seguido en sus liveblogs.

La visita de Venezuela reciente del presidente iraní Mahmud El Ahmadinejad fue cubierta también por esta organización de noticias en un liveblog.

Además, cuando el presidente peruano Ollanta Humala vino a Venezuela para reunirse con Chávez, el equipo de liveblog de Noticias24 escribió sobre sus movimientos.

Liveblogging bonanza at the Golden Globes

written by Dana | Announcements, app, Entertainment/Celebrity, ScribbleLive, Tweets | January 16th, 2012 | No Comments

By ALLENDRIA BRUNJES

The stars were out in droves at the Golden Globe Awards last night – and so were the livebloggers.

From dresses to dogs, reporters were busy posting photos, videos and quick one-liners about the awards show all night.

Take Variety, for example.

As actors rolled in, reporters posted from ScribbleLive’s mobile apps and through Twitter, giving people images from behind the scenes and a taste of the anticipation.

After host Ricky Gervais took the stage, LivePolls on reader’s favourite actors and films were sprinkled through Variety’s coverage, along with quips from the news team on site.

Reuters, on the other hand, used Instagram a lot on the red carpet. As with other image URLs, when Reuters posted Instagram URLs via Twitter, ScribbleLive included the actual photos in their liveblog, as well.

Even though they didn’t have a liveblogger on scene, the National Post filled 10 pages of running commentary during the show. They used their liveblog to chat with readers, noting things like teleprompter problems and windbag award-winners.

NY Daily News got in on the action, too, doing a Q&A with their film critic Joe Neumaier last Friday. They used questions from their audience to talk about the potential winners and losers, creating a conversation before the event even began.

J-prof uses ScribbleLive to teach participatory journalism

written by Dana | jschool, Live Journalism, live publishing | January 11th, 2012 | No Comments

Redefining Journalism is a research site dedicated to exploring participatory journalism. It’s run by Nicole Blanchett Neheli, a j-prof at Sheridan College and an editor for journalism news site J-Source.ca. Both Sheridan and J-Source are part of ScribbleLive’s donation program. Nicole discovered ScribbleLive while visiting the online journalism class at Ryerson University, our inaugural j-school client, and soon started using it as part of her lessons for her own j-students. In her blog, Nicole had nothing but nice things to say about Scribble:

“We put [ScribbleLive] to the test at Sheridan during a special production of our student newscast, live from the grand opening of a new campus in Mississauga. You can use ScribbleLive from your computer, or download an app on your smartphone that allows you to easily upload pictures, video, and text. Then it’s a simple step to pull in Twitter feeds, and allow the audience to comment and engage in the process.

“As you can see from the live blog of the event, we just scratched the surface of this blogging tool’s capability. The students loved using it and became engaged with the idea of engaging an audience. This semester we’ll be live blogging during each of our newscasts—asking for audience input on editorial decisions, posting commentary on stories/interviews we’re working on, and allowing a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into our production.”

Are you a j-prof or j-student that wants to use ScribbleLive? Join our j-school donation program by e-mailing Dana Lacey (dana at scribblelive dot com).

How to cover CES 2012 in real time

written by Dana | journalism, Live Journalism, live publishing | January 10th, 2012 | No Comments

Is there any event that lends itself more perfectly to liveblogging than the world’s largest consumer technology exhibition? CNET’s ambitious coverage of CES 2012 has brought the media company where no other has gone before: live-streaming nearly every presser while simultaneously publishing more than 20 liveblogs along with live running commentary to fill the gaps between events.

“Why bother setting up the intricate infrastructure it takes to live-stream everything?” writes Lindsey Turrentine, editor-in-chief of CNET Reviews, “Because it makes the experience of watching a CES live blog so much more complete.”

Reporters are filling the blogs with updates, photos and videos of presentations, tech specs and gossip about expected announcements — and they’re using our brand-spanking new Android app along with our iPhone and BlackBerry apps. Each CNET liveblog is accompanied with a live stream, so readers can watch live while reading the commentary. That gives you options, Turrentine notes. “If you have to step away from your computer or switch to a new tab, just turn up the volume; you can hear everything running in the background.”

Why is ScribbleLive the leading live-blogging player?

written by Dana | app, journalism, Live Journalism, live publishing, Press, ScribbleLive | January 9th, 2012 | No Comments

Did you know that 90% of ScribbleLive’s direct customers have switched from another live blogging platform? Most of these moved over from Cover it Live. Many people ask us: what sets ScribbleLive apart?

A key part of our differentiation is how our platform has evolved, expanded and improved based on the needs of our customers and our strategic vision of how the real-time content and live-blogging landscape is changing.

Some of the things we’re excited about include:

HTML Pages for SEO and monetization: A key advantage ScribbleLive has over competitors is our white label technology, which generates fully indexable web pages in real time, making it easier for search engines to discover your content. Embedded and widget-based platforms such as Cover it Live hide your content, making it difficult for search engines to index it or, even worse, they index it as part of another company’s brand.

Permalinks: Every ScribbleLive post has its own URL. This makes it easy for people to share that content on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites to drive traffic and advertising revenue. Many commenting systems can also be integrated into these pages to provide a threaded discussion of an individual post to complement your content.

Mobile: According to Pew Research, 47% of survey participants get their news from mobile devices. This includes live coverage. ScribbleLive optimizes its liveblogs so no matter the device, your readers can seamlessly interact with your multimedia coverage. ScribbleLive supports all mobile devices through cost-effective mobile skins, as well as API-based integration for mobile devices.

Flexibility: With ScribbleLive, your team can create multimedia content in a variety of ways — via the web, mobile, email, SMS and voice. We offer iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps to support journalists in the field. ScribbleLive’s API also lets clients build custom apps that push out news and updates to readers in real time.

Workflow: ScribbleLive’s industry-leading LiveArticle feature lets multiple reporters create complete articles that update in real time, making it an ideal tool to summarize the events to date in a breaking story. LiveArticle is just one example of how we’re constantly coming up with new ideas to meet and support the needs of newsrooms and digital reporters.

Syndication: ScribbleLive is the standard for major news agencies such as AP, Reuters, EFE, PA and RIA Novosti. No other content platform offers the ability to syndicate news in real time. ScribbleLive’s syndication capabilities let newsrooms lower the cost of producing content by sharing resources and coverage in real time.

For some companies, real-time is an afterthought or a nice-to-have.  ScribbleLive is built for journalists and news organizations that recognize real-time coverage is a core part of the future of journalism. If you share our vision, we’d love to share our capabilities with you. Sign up for a free trial or contact us for more information.

Two Canadian startups support mobile journalists

written by Dana | app, journalism, Live Journalism, live publishing, Mobile | January 5th, 2012 | No Comments

Nearly half of media consumers get their news from mobile devices, according to Pew Research’s latest State of the Media report. It’s only natural that journalists too are turning to mobile to report, curate and publish the news.

A story about the shift to real-time and mobile reporting published by the Calgary Herald notes that two Canadian companies are helping shape the way news is reported: ScribbleLive, which has mobile apps to curate and publish multimedia content directly to the web, and VeriCorder, which builds mobile journalism apps and tools for recording and editing multimedia in the field.

Both are founded by people from the journalism world – Scribble’s founders Michael De Monte and Jonathan Keebler are former CTV employees, VeriCorder was founded by former broadcast journalist Gary Symons – which gives them unique insight into what a reporter needs to get the job done on the fly.

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