The Victoria Advocate's Local Information Network

Hats off to the Victoria Advocate for making the list of finalists in this year's Digital Edge Awards in the most innovative visitor participation category.

This little-known independent newspaper in southeastern Texas relaunched its Web site in October to focus on conversation around news, using the Bakomatic social media platform that they purchased from Participata LLC and The Bakersfield Californian, as well as some of their own PHP applications.

If you've ever used Bakotopia.com, the site we launched nearly three years ago (and which Bakomatic grew out of), you'll see some familiar elements -- such as recent blog posts and comments, "Seen on the Scene" photo galleries and user profile interests. I'm of course proud to see our ideas and technology extended to other markets in this way, but Victoria didn't stop there. They also integrated discussion into news stories, and they dynamically bubble up the most talked-about stories right to their home page.

What I love about the Advocate is how it harnesses interest in news to engage people in other ways. Thanks to the user profiles that show up next to each comment, conversations around news inevitably bleed into other types of community interaction around user profiles and blogs. For example, you may see a comment from someone about a school story, click on his profile picture and find out that he has the same hobbies as you do. This is a perfect example of how newspapers can position themselves as not just providers of local news and information, but also as the glue of their community. You may go to a newspaper site to read a story someone e-mails you, then find yourself engaged in conversation and social networking quite by accident.

Many people were involved in the success of the Advocate's relaunch, but in my opinion the real champion from the beginning is Dan Easton, the newspaper's Vice President of Interactive.

I will never forget the e-mail I received from Dan one year ago, when I was tired and jet-lagged after traveling to London to speak at the World Association of Newspapers conference. He'd heard me speak at an Inland Press Association conference and wanted to know if we'd thought about collaborating with other independent newspapers like them. I think the phrase "in the spirit of open-source" came up at least three times in that conversation, and he was clearly on fire about community and open source (which makes sense -- at a high level, open source development is one type of user contributed content that just happens to be code). After agreeing to wait a day to let me get over jet-lag, we continued e-mailing ideas back and forth at a rapid pace, and they eventually purchased Bakomatic last spring.

As we all build upon successes and our work becomes more established within our companies, perhaps we independents will be able to work more collaboratively in the future. This is already happening to an extent with fully open-source platforms like Drupal, but almost never for proprietary newspaper-specific stuff. And it's not exactly easy to do that, as it would require a commitment by multiple independent news organizations to work in that way and staff around it.

I'm personally too busy to manage that myself, and I don't know when we would be able to do it, if ever. We still intentionally operate in scrappy "Rebel Alliance" mode, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. But I always enjoy talking to people who see that same future possibility, because it is something that should and hopefully will happen one day if independent newspapers are going to survive. Dan Easton is one of those people.

By the way, in case you've never heard of Victoria, it's a city of about 100,000 that is just south of Austin and southeast of San Antonio. Here it is on a map:



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Technorati Tags: victoria advocate, bakomatic, participata

Georgia AP seminar presentations

I spoke last week at a Georgia Associated Press seminar, on the invitation of Augusta Chronicle managing editor Elizabeth Adams (a belated thanks to Elizabeth for helping organize a great lineup, and for all of her hospitality!)

Some of the attendees expressed an interest in reading my presentations in more detail, so I've uploaded them to this site. You can read them via the following two links:

• Social Media: Letting the audience speak for itself.

• Street Cred: Using print and "terrestrial marketing" to drive audience and revenue.
  

The first is the same old stuff I've been talking about for three years, but updated with more recent info. It's all good, but nothing new if you read my blog regularly or have heard me or other Californian employees speak.

The second is all new. It addresses a lot of questions that people are increasingly asking us. Namely:

• How to grow local audience online, and how local "street level" marketing fits in.
  
• How we marketed Bakotopia.com at launch and how that's changed over time. (There's a more personal back-story to that -- if you want to know just ask me sometime!)
  
• The Bakotopia print edition.
• How print circulation is increasing with niche products even as it decreases with general interest products.
• The importance of branding and brand identity.
• How niche brands can span delivery mechanisms (print, online, CDs, mobile, etc.)
  

Speaking of print, our licensing arm Participata.com is now providing some sample print editions for two of the Bakomatic-powered brands here:
http://participata.com/printeditions.html

That includes some sample editions Bakotopia magazine. I encourage anyone with an interest in Bakotopia to check out the magazine, because it really shows how social networking drives print pickups and vice-versa. If MySpace had local magazines all over the country, they would look like this.

bakersfield, bakomatic, bakotopia, georgia associated press, participata

Wanted: Amazing PHP Web 2.0 developer who likes to hike and ski

It's been a long, hot summer. And busy! As usual, I'm in trouble of having the worst update record of any blog. Or maybe I'm just falling into the overwhelming statistic of deadbeat bloggers.

Well, now I have a pretty good post. We're hiring! If you know of anyone who would be good for the following position, please send them my way. It's the perfect position for a smart PHP developer with some leadership skills who also likes to hike and ski (as it's based in Colorado).
___________________

Development Manager, Social Networking / Web 2.0 platform

We're a small, creative team on the Front Range of sunny Colorado that creates social media applications for The Bakersfield Californian, an internationally-recognized, independently-owned newspaper in California. Our award-winning "Bakomatic" platform powers the Web sites of several newspapers, including The Bakersfield Californian and The Arizona Republic, as well as several niche community sites (see case studies here: http://participata.com/casestudies.html)

As our responsibilities grow, we’re looking for someone who can lead the technology vision for this platform and everything that it enables in the future. We need a flexible, fun-loving PHP developer who has a passion for and understanding of “Web 2.0” applications. The position will involve overseeing core development – currently managed through an outside development firm – and recruiting and managing one or more junior developers. For this reason, some experience managing or overseeing the work of other developers is very important.

Job requirements:

• Proficiency in XML, CSS, and comfort with standard web development tools (SSH, FTP, CVS, etc.)
• Proficiency with PHP and MySQL
• Able to learn from documentation, and Googling for answers
• Excellent communication skills, and ability to work in a “virtual” setting using primarily e-mail and telephone
• Ability to travel regularly
• Ability to be on call for after-hours and weekend support in emergency situations
  

Please send a resume and links to interactive database-driven Web sites you have worked on to dpacheco@bakersfield.com, and include "PHP Developer" in your subject line.

You must be in the greater Denver, Colorado area or able to relocate, and be able to comfortably work out your home using provided equipment (laptop, internet, phone, etc). Regular in-person office meetings in the Boulder/Denver area, and travel to Bakersfield every two months, will be required.

This is a full-time position with health benefits, vacation and 401(k).

Technorati Tags: Bakomatic, Participata, job

The Arizona Republic Licenses Bakomatic Platform

This week, The Bakersfield Californian made a major announcement about a new relationship with The Arizona Republic, one of the most innovative newspapers in the digital realm. They'll be using the Bakomatic Platform to provide social networking, blogging and more on AZCentral.com and other sites. We're very excited about it and look forward to seeing how they use the software to drive their goals.

Following is the press release that went out this morning:

The Arizona Republic Licenses “Bakomatic” Platform

(Bakersfield, Calif. Jan. 10, 2007) – The Bakersfield Californian and The Arizona Republic today announced that the Republic will license the Californian’s social media software, Bakomatic (bake-oh-matic), through an arrangement with Californian subsidiary Participata LLC (www.participata.com).

Bakomatic is the homegrown software that runs the award-wining Bakotopia.com and the blogs, user profiles and registration system on Bakersfield.com. It also powers all of the user-contributed content features of citizen media pioneer Northwestvoice.com, and seven other niche audience-focused Web sites.

The platform is an end-to-end solution that makes it easy for any newspaper to provide My Space-like social networking, blogging, user publishing and “citizen journalism.” Bakomatic is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Knight Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism in 2006 and the NAA’s Digital Edge Award (the Edgies) in 2006. Bakotopia and Bakersfield.com are Edgie finalists for 2007.

The Republic, a daily newspaper owned by Gannett, plans to use Bakomatic to enhance the community offerings of its local portal, AZCentral.com. Already one of the most popular local news Web sites on the Internet, AZCentral.com will leverage Bakomatic to be even more participatory in nature. The Republic also hopes to use Bakomatic to drive other audience-focused initiatives.

“AZCentral.com has a long reputation of producing unique, cutting edge technology thanks to our talented team of software developers,” said Adam Hooker, Digital Innovations Manager for AZCentral.com. “We are all looking forward to the opportunity to bootstrap our social networking projects using the Participata software,” he said.

The Californian was equally positive about the development. “Our organizations share a lot of the same intellectual DNA,” said Dan Pacheco, Senior Manager of Digital Products for the Californian and project lead for Participata LLC. “We both have a passion for audience participation, and we both see the need to reach well beyond traditional newspaper boundaries when it comes to the digital realm. And of course, we’re thrilled to see our software and philosophies applied at a large, prestigious newspaper like the Republic.”

The Bakersfield Californian decided to license Bakomatic in July of 2006 after receiving numerous inquiries about the technology over the past two years. The Republic is the second licensee, after Shaw Newspapers. “We will always remain focused on our local market, and that’s why we created this platform and will continue to invest in it,” said Mary Lou Fulton, Vice President of Audience Development. “But as more newspapers look to The Californian as a leader, we see that our work also has value to the entire industry. We’re very happy to let other newspapers share our success and also help us make it better.”

That dedication to ongoing innovation can be seen with the recent launch of Bakomatic 2.0 – which among other things lets users embed their favorite videos from YouTube along with their own content. “We spend a lot of time watching how people use our tools and responding to their feedback. Supporting YouTube was a natural progression of that,” Pacheco said. The next version of Bakomatic will seek to add businesses into the mix, giving users the ability to rate and review local establishments, and for businesses to be able to create lists of favorite customers to whom they can provide special deals in the future.

Currently, only newspaper companies may license Bakomatic, with pricing on a sliding scale based on daily circulation and the number of sites they plan to create. This allows newspapers of all sizes to duplicate The Bakersfield Californian’s success in growing audience reach through user participation. In the future, licensing may extend to other industries based on market demand.

Bakomatic is available as an enterprise solution, meaning that customers need a knowledgeable technical staff able to install and maintain the software. More requirements and software specifications can be found at http://participata.com.

The Bakersfield Californian is an independently owned newspaper providing local, national and worldwide news to more than 230,000 readers in Kern County. Headquartered in Bakersfield, Calif., The Bakersfield Californian has been family owned for more than one hundred years, with the founder’s great-granddaughter, Ginger Moorhouse presiding as publisher and chairman of the board. In July of 2006, Editor and Publisher magazine listed The Californian as one of “Ten That Do It Right,” an annual listing of the most progressive and innovative newspaper companies in America.

Technorati Tags: Bakomatic, Participata, AZCentral