More On Gabe Rivera's Memeorandum

Britt Blaser wonders "Could someone ask them to light up katrina.memeorandum?" I approached Gabe about doing just that nearly two weeks ago. We went back and forth about the idea; his chief concern was  whether a hurried effort would add enough to the conversation about Katrina. (via Scripting News) It took Gabe months to get tech.meme to beta and then live; it may all be automated but getting it that way required an intense amount of work on his part. Ideally -- from my perspective -- he'd be able to set up something in response to breaking news but it might require a different approach to sourcing. Now that tech.mem is live maybe the idea of a dedicated Katrina page can be revisited.

One other point: As good as tech.meme and its predecessor are, they aren't exhaustive. In order to be included in the conversation, the site either must be part of the primary list or, I believe,  linked to by someone in that universe. 

Gabe, if I'm off target, I feel confidant that you will set me straight.

Related: Automated Tech News Site Goes Live

Comments

[Gabe]

About who's included: that's fairly accurate.

On the point about Katrina, I can elaborate. In the hours and days after Katrina, I found a lot of the discussion on the Political site to focus on blame. (Bush! No -- the mayor! No, FEMA!) My feeling was that the ideal Katrina-focused site should deal with recovery, rescue, vital information, etc., and so a simple offshoot of my political site wouldn't live up to this.

Perhaps with some fresh training data a worthwhile Katrina site is possible. Does anyone have a good list of blogs that explore the Katrina relief and recovery effort?

[Staci Kramer]

Thanks, Gabe. One place to start is the OJR wiki: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/wiki/katrina. I'll look for more sources and ask others to send in links as well.