I thought I’d tell you a little more about a project that we just launched. It’s rather special and deserves a closer look. Also, I’m pretty sure that it is the first real mashup launched by a Swedish newspaper (or any major media company for that matter). You might have already read about it in our office blog.
The site is called Sommar på Näset (Summer at Näset) and is collaboration between our client Sydsvenskan and the school Sundsgymnasiet. It´s a hyperlocal initiative in the south-west part of Sweden and focuses on daily life in this buzzing tourist area (although it would be buzzing considerably more if it wasn’t raining so much).
Instead of trying to build everything ourselves, MSM-style, we’ve used the sites that we think are the best at what they do. These are the systems running together:
* Presence from Jaiku
* Photos from Flickr
* Maps from Google
* Blog from WordPress
* Content from Sydsvenskans CMS Escenic
* Calendar from Dygnet Runt
And it’s mainly updated with Nokia E65s! And that includes the water temperature in three places around Näset. SMHI could only deliver one figure for the whole region, so we built an updater through SMS instead.
On top of that it is also open for collaboration. Anyone in the area can take part by adding photos or Jaikus. And yes – it’s a beta. Our developer Hugo has been working miracles as it is just to get things up and running. There are a few rough edges here and there, but we’ll be working on them ahead.
I think the whole site is a good example of how we think media should be evolving. And it’s a good case of what of can be done with a limited budget and time frame, simply working and thinking slightly different. It’s a very brave move of Sydsvenskan to do a project like this, and I think many newspapers in Sweden will follow within the next few months.
On another note – I’ll be leaving for South East Asia tonight! That means I won’t be blogging here for a while. I will be checking email now and then so drop me a line if you want to get in touch, or follow my steps at Doppler and hook up!
tags technorati : hyperlocal sydsvenskan citizenjournalism jaiku googlemaps flickr mashup wordpress escenic nokiae65
tags bloggar.se: hyperlocal, medborgarjournalistik, mashup, sydsvenskan, wordpress, jaiku, google maps, flickr, nokia e65, escenic