Marian explained

The Knight-Mozilla Learning Lab was an incredible program that encouraged both openness and community, so in the spirit of what we’ve learned, I am introducing an application that promotes those two values.

 “Opinionator”

Reporters have a tendency to talk TO their readers, rather than talk WITH them - this causes a break in communication, turning readers away from newspapers.

“Opinionator” strives to include everyone. It’s a cell phone application/website add-on that creates a conversation, rather than a lecture. Basically, it links readers to readers, and reporters to readers - creating a community of thought.

The “show and sell” - a video

Part 2: Design prototype

Here is a sketch of what a reader sees - the story and its usual comment list. The “opinionator” app/add-on enables the reader to create a word cloud and a bank of favorited comments.

Here is what the reporter (or media organization) sees. Outside of the story, they will see a list of favorited comments, which is then split into categories - like geography, race and gender. These commentators are legitimized when they check in through social media (required to comment and a process no different than any other Facebook app).

Part 3: A business brief

Essentially, “opinionator” solves two problems:

1. Finding the comments you actually want to read (because people want to read comments just as much, if not more than stories)
2. Legitimizing commentators to become sources or community reporters

So, “opinionator” satisfies both the reader and the reporter.

For the reader:

• filtering out the angry crazy reader to find the ones you WANT to read
• creating a feed that can go into an RSS, word cloud, etc.

2. For the reporter:

• legitimizing the commentator to become a source or content producer
• through the reader voting system and the check-ins on social networks

There is no need to “teach” the reader anything new, so there is no new learning curve. Just like a Yelp voting system or basic newspaper articles online, a reader can vote thumbs up or down. The comments that readers vote on will be culled into a bank of favorited comments or a word cloud.

“Opinionator” can be applied to any media or social media site. Here’s an example of how it can be used on Facebook - where a user can find out which friend loves them the most (most thumb ups) or hates them the most (most thumbs down).

And here’s an example of how a reporter could use “opinionator.” Through the reader vote, the reporter can find the readers that may care the most about the stories - and through their check-in’s through social media (required to comment), they can legitimize these users to become sources or citizen reporters.

Finally, here’s what the cell phone app might look like. Pushing the “opinionator” app would allow you to cull together the comments of any media site and analyze them.

Most importantly, with two markets - readers and reporters (media organizations), there are two sources of revenue. Readers can buy the app to analyze comments on their phone, or buy it as an add-on to analyze web comments online. And, reporters (media organizations) can buy the “opinionator” as a service for their readers, and a way to analyze comments to not only improve their reporting, but include readers into their stories as potential sources or community reporters. This is all in the spirit of openness and community.