'The Norgs Manifesto'

So what's a Norg, anyway? During the [Unconference], the participants said it's a newsgathering operation that is:

• Continuous; 24/7.
• Credible.
• Risky. Composed of risk-takers. Stretching the limits of technology, content and money.
• Willing to embrace and seek failure.
• Willing to see the union as a partner.
• Interactive. Gives voice to the readers.
• Realizes that journalism is not always a story. It might be a database.
• Multiplatform, including a free print edition. Multimedia; offering different platorms for different audiences.
• Not a one-way street. Not print into multimedia—both ways.
• Ethical.
• Transparent.
• Allows reporters to express what they think and feel.
• A watchdog of the eternal spin machine. Please, of state government.
• Committed to freedom of information, financially and legally. Builds it, buys it and lobbies for it.
• Investigative.
• Financially viable And generous with the money it makes. Supports the acts of journalism.
• PERSONAL. Facilitates actual human interaction.
• Distributed widely – transit.
• Devoted to Media literacy – not how to use the media, how to BE the media.
• Should empower its users to be citizens.
• Has a voice. Have a personality.
• Enables the community to inform each other.
• May offer layers of journalism: Old-school, trained journalism; community journalism.
• Owned by the community.
• Uses a new metric for measuring success. Clicks are not the only way.
• Should enjoy first-amendment protection.