Comments on: Ben Franklin Day at The Saratogian: A ‘Declaration of Independence’ from newsroom software (with video)

By: Watch Supernatural

Watch Supernatural — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:05:06 +0000

Great job.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:58:35 +0000

Very interesting experiment but I agree wholeheartedly with b0 and others who say that you should try it for longer. Doing it in any system other than you are used to is an impressive challenge, but doesn’t really tell us much about the shortcomings of the free software (that could then be addressed.)

By: steve moore

steve moore — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:22:00 +0000

I commend the newsroom staff of The Saratogian for using free software to publish the Fourth of July issue. As many others have commented, free does not equal FOSS, and I think that the next go-around for this experiment(if there is a next time…) might require that the software be Open Source Software(including operating system).

Being an IT person with 15 years in prepress and advertising, I always wanted to try moving towards FOSS, but the limiting factor has always been the need to interface into proprietary production systems and backend systems that FOSS could never fulfill. I’m sure that we’re not hearing/reading/seeing the entire story, and would like to get more details regarding how this project was hatched and the approval process to move forward with it. Perhaps the experiment was limited to the newsroom, since anything beyond the newsroom would require vertically engineered systems(plate making systems, colorimetry/spectroanalyzer software, rasterizing software, pdf normalization, ad insertion systems, etc).

By: Frans van Berckel

Frans van Berckel — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:06:45 +0000

Did any body take a look at Campsite? It’s open source software written specifically for newspapers and magazines, and that means our users are journalists and editors. The interfaces are easy to understand even if the journalists have no computer experience and users are only shown those actions which they have the right to use. Tasks are made to use as few clicks as possible, and common tasks are made to be quick and simple. It’s made for journalists … on deadline.

http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/home/web/69/overview.htm?tpl=18

Now a day News websites and papers, but also TV and Radio stations … around the world are using Campsite.

http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/home/web/32/whos-using.htm?tpl=323

Admin & Webmasters … Campsite is a multilingual content management system based on PHP and other website needs. If you want to it’s … free available for download here.

http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/home/web/35/download–install.htm?tpl=18

By: Pansy Metting

Pansy Metting — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:48:35 +0000

Hey, thanks for the blog article.Thanks Again. Will read on…

By: Dave Armstrong

Dave Armstrong — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:53:29 +0000

As one poster notes, it took probably years to become efficient in the proprietary tools that the Newspaper uses. I think it’s pretty amazing that they were able to do what they did for one day using completely new software, proprietary or open source.

Congratulations and I commend the openness to try open source.

By: Henry Yen

Henry Yen — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:51:45 +0000

@Steve_Shoemaker:
“… with baited breath” —> “… with bated breath”?

By: Elmo Jessop

Elmo Jessop — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:37:56 +0000

Fantastic blogpost, I favorited your site, All the Best

By: baany

baany — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:25:43 +0000

A SUPPORTED BY THE DEVELOPER TOOLS? It was interesting. You seem very knowledgeable in ypour field.

By: Salvaci Beniamino « Macworld Online

Salvaci Beniamino « Macworld Online — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:37:01 +0000

[...] Quest’anno è toccato al quotidiano The Saratogian. [...]