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July 09, 2007

CT Teams enable collaborative journalism

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Sometimes it takes more than one person to tell a story -- and CityTools teams are a great way for people to collaborate on a story.

There are several different approaches to this, and we'll touch on them in this mini-howto

Also, please note that if you want to use a team of people to cover an event in real time and updated live, we've got a special howto about that as well. Bu even if real-time team coverage is your goal, follow the steps below to set things up.

1First create your team for group coverage

If you don't already own a team or belong to a team you should create one first.

Then, of course, have other people sign up for it (howtos on creating teams and joining them can be found elsewhere on the site.)

2If necessary, have the team talk over responsibilities

Depending on the kind of project your team is working on, you might want to have one team member focus on finding related web resources, another gathering up shared stories, another putting together lists.

Other members might write about different aspects of a project.

And of course, because of CityTools' collaborative spirit -- if team members set their stories to be editable by other members, you can all work together on the main stories.

All of this is up to you, of course -- but usually a little planning helps.

Oftentimes, putting together a list of stories (in newspapers it's called a "budget") in advance will help you to see what you might be missing or covering too much.

3Now, write!

Each team member may work on their individual stories or lists. Or they may work together on them.

When it's all done, you will likely want to create one overview story.

And for that story, create a "resource box" -- using the "add/edit resources" link on the story page.

(The add/edit resources link may be found in the listing of all original stories in the content manage -- linked from the item's title -- or on the actual story editing page.)

By using the add/edit resource tool, you are populating a resource box for readers that will appear next to the story.

Adding resources is easy: you just enter a headline and add a link for each piece of content in the collaborative package. Controls allow you to fine tune the order of entries.

If necessary, create different boxes for each story in the set.

Then, when readers read the overview, they'll find a nice box with links to all the other elements of the package your team has put together.

Using the "add/edit resources" tool you can add to, delete from or change the order of the resource box as new elements arrive.

This is particularly handy for stories that might develop over time.

4A tip: introduce your team in the final story

Readers who have explored a collaborative package of stories with you might well want to know a little bit about who created the package.

It's a good idea to create a short piece in the package that tells readers about the different members of the team.




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