NEWSPAPER READERS SUGGEST WATERFRONT USES

By: Karim Mostafa Everett 'Herald' Builds Interactive Map


When the city of Everett, Wash., decided to redevelop its
waterfront along the Snohomish River and Port Gardner Bay, The
Herald set out to get the community's opinions on the matter.

Last fall, during the first planning meeting for a waterfront
redevelopment series, the staff dreamed up the idea for an
interactive map similar to the computer game SimCity that would
run on its Web site, HeraldNet. "The main thing was to find out
what the community wanted to do," said Mark Briggs, new media
editor at Heraldnet.com.

With a new media department too small to build an interactive map
and a budget even less adequate, the Herald team applied
for a grant from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism (PCCJ) in
Washington, D.C.

Jan Schaffer, executive director at the PCCJ, was particularly
impressed with the "Sim City" waterfront project, so the Center
gave them $15,000 to develop the interactive map. "Journalism has
to be much more interactive, a two-way conversation," said
Schaffer. The question to answer, she said, is how do you get
citizen's engaged?

HeraldNet's answer to engage its readers was to hire an outside
firm, Smashing Ideas Inc. of Seattle, to build a clickable,
interactive map of the waterfront areas. Next to the map were
icons that represented possible development alternatives -- such
as park, ball field, amphitheater, or sailing rental -- for the
waterfront areas. Users, once they registered, were able to
click-and-drag the icons to any of the four waterfront areas.

Smashing Ideas started working on the interactive map at the
beginning of the year, and unveiled it in April. Briggs said that
sending the work out-of-house, worked far better than expected
and described it as an overall great experience.

There were technical problems, such as the AOL browser not liking
the map's software, but Briggs said Smashing Ideas fixed it
quickly.

More than 1,200 people used the map to submit their ideas. For
readers who didn't have online access, the Herald
published a simulated version of the map in the paper. Three
hundred people sent their recommendations from this map that ran
in print for five weeks.

The print side was able to benefit from the online feature as
well. The Herald ran a Sunday package with the results,
filed several print stories, and a five-week series appeared.
Kate Reardon, a city beat reporter, headed up the editorial team
on the print side.

Almost 300 people in the community petitioned for natural
habitat, which wasn't one of the options on the map. As a result,
Briggs wishes they had been able to provide a "wild-card icon"
that would have let people click-and-drag and type in what they
wanted underneath it.

Altogether, 2,000 people provided feedback on the waterfront
project. Briggs believes that number is much higher than what
would have gathered for a town meeting.

Even the city officials in Everett have started to express their
appreciation in garnering community feedback. Before HeraldNet
ran the interactive map, three city representatives came by to
see the project, said Briggs. They were wary at first, according
to Briggs, but he says that the city is now considering adding
the map to its own site.



Karim Mostafa (kmostafa@editorandpublisher.com) is associate editor for E&P Online.



Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.