Starting a community news hub

“Collaborative journalism is a mode of journalism where multiple reporters or news organizations, without affiliation to a common parent organization, report on and contribute news items to a news story together. It is practiced by both professional and amateur reporters.

Well that’s how wikipedia describes it and it was this definition I mentioned yesterday at the launch of the Leeds Community News Hub.

The event at Leeds Trinity University College marked the start of new initiative I’m involved in as part of The Guardian Local project.

The idea of the hub is a simple one – to provide a physical space where people can do journalism together.

Those people could be local community activists, they could be bloggers, they could be students, cleaners, entrepreneurs or business owners and they could also be reporters, journalism students, photographers or broadcasters from local media organisations or freelancers.

This is a hub for anyone interested in local news for Leeds – not a space owned or operated by The Guardian, instead a hosted space for the benefit of the local community where knowledge, expertise and skills can be accessed.

As one of the participants, I’ve invited some Guardian colleagues to give talks or hold workshops in the space and the special launch event was a talk by GNM’s head of digital engagement Meg Pickard – a leading thinker when it comes to online communities.

(The hashtag for the day was #LeedsCNH and there was plenty of Twitter commentary of the talk if you want to recap on what was said.)

It was an inspiring talk and followed by some equally interesting conversations during the tea break……and that’s a great starting point for any journalist, seeing people face-to-face and hearing about their stories and the issues of concern locally.

Working out how to engage with local communities in a meaningful way is something I’m learning about it all the time and, while I’m sure there’s no single solution, an approach which encompasses both on, and off, line is intended to increase accessibility.

While creating online spaces for that activity, developing tools, apps and widgets to help people reveal their stories or unearth facts will undoubtedly continue to have an important role, I’m hopeful that enabling people to connect face-to-face and work on stories together will also lead to exciting, innovative collaborations going forward.

The Leeds Community News Hub is based at Leeds Trinity University College, map location here. There are signs to mark its location being installed and reception staff are able to help. A blog to share some of the activities being undertaken at the hub is on its way and I’d be interested to hear any other ideas of the best way to keep people in the loop. A variety of different people will be on hand to help those looking to take part in projects or simply pass on information on a one-off basis – a visit to the hub doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment.

Guardian Leeds beatblogger John Baron will be based there at regular intervals and we’ll post those dates on the blog.

I shall be working at the hub next Wednesday so feel free to drop by to talk with me in person – or leave a comment online below.