The YouMake.news network — some initial thoughts, and further detail

I’ve been working for the past ten months or so, trying to conceptually crack a different way of doing hyperlocal journalism in the city where I live, Chester UK. I haven’t been all that successful either.

I’ve struggled with ideas relating to the sharing economy; tried to convince local people that national media link-ups could be a way forwards; even looked to customised search to make us all as constructively local as possible — to engineer, if engineer is the right word, an outward-looking and plural localism and citizenship.

With all that kinda behind me, though not easily so at a personal level, here’s another quixotic step into a future of uncertain results: YouMake.news.

First, a short presentation to give a feel for some of what I’m trying to develop, with the aim of shortly presenting a project to the Innovation Fund of Google’s Digital News Initiative. There are €50,000 up for grabs in the tranche I’d be looking to apply for, so it’s not an insignificant project by any means.

Click on the embed below to see the presentation:

I’ve already mentioned in other places, and on previous occasions, that I’d like to develop a mutual/cooperative business structure to power the idea; in particular, to ensure that its philosophy remains wedded to local communities.

Re this latter issue, I was at a Food & Poverty event yesterday, held in Manchester.

I sensed there were similar challenges in the idea of creating a national food & poverty campaign on the foundations of the coming-together of local activist groups — groups with otherwise very clear identities and radii of action — as I have come up against in my unsatisfactory attempts to make hyperlocal a reality in Chester via national-media inputs, and synergies with everything progressively and openly local.

It’s difficult when you’re proud of your locality to want to consider mixing the simplicity of concept of such an approach with the choosing of corporate partners who may always be tempted to drop everything at the last minute, and take their stalls elsewhere.

Corporates are driven by targets more than the needs of people; by budgets more than the feelings — and histories — of communities.

I understand this all too well, even as I strive to convince people — without much success — that the way forward in a world of sometimes nasty globalisation isn’t to say: “All big is bad; all small is good.”

It can’t be true, and saying it won’t make it true.

Anyhow. If you’re interested in contemplating the idea of working with me on this, do get in touch in the usual ways:

• @chestertweet / @zebrared on Twitter
• via mil@pobox.com if using email

It’d be nice to get it done for the Google deadline of the 4th December, but it doesn’t mean if the deadline’s not achieved that nothing can then be done afterwards.