Page 170 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

Cultural business models on the Internet170“Editorially, it is generally better to try and harness multiple views. So then, if you accept that, there are only two questions. One is how do you sort interesting people from uninteresting people, and how do you sort people of particular interests from other interests? That’s something which is not unique to newspapers. Many, many people are trying to crack that nut in an age of overabundance of information.”Another useful definition of open journalism again comes from Rusbridger. Asked about the concept in an online Q&A session8 with Guard- ian readers also in 2012, he responded that the newspaper team drew up a list of 10 principles for open journalism. He added: “You can stick a ‘not’ in any of these sentences to see what closed journalism looks like.”• It encourages participation. It invites and/or allows a response• It is not an inert “us” or “them” form of publishing• It encourages others to initiate debate, publish material or make suggestions. We can follow, as well as lead. We can involve others in the prepublication processes• It helps form communities of joint interest around subjects, issues or individuals• It is open to the web and is part of it. It links to, and collaborates with, other material (including services) on the web• It aggregates and/or curates the work of others• It recognises that journalists are not the only voices of authority, expertise and interest• It aspires to achieve, and reflect, diversity as well as promoting shared values• It recognises that publishing can be the beginning of the journalistic process rather than the end• It is transparent and open to challenge, including correction, clarification and additionMuch like Rusbridger’s “not” caveat, you could replace “it” with “CPN” at the beginning of each of the above 10 bullet points to really get a feeling of what the network is, how it operates and the way in which it fits into the wider outputs and operations of the newspaper as a whole. But that’s the network now. What did it look like at its inception?The early networkIn its first year, CPN looked very different to how it appears and operates now. Currently, the site exists as a living, breathing online commu- nity and resource for arts professionals across a range of verticals: museums, music, performance arts, visual art, design, film, books, music and more. It covers these through a wide variety of content types and styles, from indepth comment articles and longform features to community- focused webchats, polls and quizes.However, the site was originally intended to be a support site for the Guardian Jobs,9 theThe Guardian Culture Professionals Network: a case study in professional community publishing