Yesterday, I received an e-mail about a multimedia youth news club, the 4-H Network News that is based in Jefferson County, WA, and produced in partnership with Washington State University, its extension office, and 4-H. (Though first glance leads me to believe it’s more 4-H involvement than anything else.)
I haven’t been able to spend as much time on this site as I would like, but my first glance definitely had me more than a little impressed.
It’s hard to tell how much of the work on this project is from the kids and how much of it is great input and help from the project’s advisors, but I’m not sure that matters. The bottom line is that it seems like a really interesting and well-done project.
It’s set up like a blog, but has video, photos and more — using lots of services that are available for free on the Internet, and all produced by the kids. People sometimes ask me to define Web. 2.0, which I don’t have a canned response for, but this project seems about as Web 2.0 as anything I’ve ever seen.
There are a few links in the right-hand rail to media coverage of the site, which to me had me scratching my head a little.
Do I think it’s a local news story to write about this project? Absolutely.
But if these folks were in Washington, D.C., instead of Washington state, I guarantee you we’d be partnering with them at washingtonpost.com in one way, shape or form — not just doing a story about them. Maybe that’s already happening with the local media in their area.
Like I said, I haven’t spent as much time on this site as I would like to, but I will.
Rob Curley 