NewAssignment has launched its first project, „Assignment Zero“, this morning. It will be the first time that crowdsourcing will be tested for Journalism in a co-work between smart mob-intelligence and professional journalists. I will also be involved, though as a very small sideshow, so you should take this into account judging my enthusiasm.
Joel Achenbach already wrote something about Assignment Zero today on his Washington Post- Achenblog, but there will be more to come as soon as Wired.com will promote it – they will be running one of the final articles.
I think NewAssignment is very different from the citizen journalism-projects we have seen up to now. A few months from now we will be smarter and see whether open source-journalism works, but I have a feeling this project could very well change journalism. I do say this as a journalist myself and as somebody who believes in the possibilties of a new era of communication.