HealthCommons

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We're creating HealthCommons, an ad-supported social/news/information network for people in Boone County, MO, who want to improve their personal and community's health. This is a Reynolds Journalism Institute/Missouri School of Journalism project.

Website: http://www.rjionline.org
Location: Columbia, MO
Members: 24
Latest Activity: Jun. 29, 2009

HealthCommons

HealthCommons provides a way for members of the community—health care recipients and providers, advocates, businesses, community organizers and journalists—to interact with each other through groups, blogs and forums. The network provides useful information such as health care providers, support groups, pending legislation, and event calendars, in addition to solution-oriented news about local health issues.

Project participants: three strategic communications students (Michele Boeche, Sara Holzman, Karen Laurinaria), two from convergence (Brendan Marks and Dan Oshinsky), three from broadcast (Mallory Perryman, Jessica Miller and Samantha Running), one from print (Ayla Kremen), three grad students (Paula Hunt, Jeesun Kim and Mark Poepsel), , three journalism profs (Glen Cameron, Katherine Reed, Jen Reeves), one Web designer (Valerie Krist), the online editorial projects manager for Mediaphormedia and LJWorld.com (David Ryan), the president of the World Company's interactive and software division Mediaphormedia (Dan Cox), the World Company's special projects manager (Ralph Gage) and me (Jane Stevens, Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow).

This is an experiment. We are agile developers -- we plan to make mistakes often and fast on our way to figuring out if a topic-based news organization can make it here, what it will look like, how it will function, how many people it can support, and what skills those people must have. We want to know if this can be sustained after the end of this semester. We want to know if we can develop a series of templates that health jurnos in other communities can use to start other health networks.

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Comment by Jane Stevens on April 12, 2009 at 5:34pm: Sat/Sun, April 11/12: Val Krist is finishing the CSS/HTML for the HealthCommons sections so that Ben Turner at MediaphorMedia can add the Ellington code.
Friday, April 10: We finalized the rest of the section names. They are: Wise (senior health literacy), HomeGrown (local nutrition), Mind over Matter (mental health), Nosurance (affordable health), Chomp (dental health), and Project Artemis (young women's health).
Tuesday, April 8: We decide to invite selected members of our April 14. The reporting students have been doing their first blog posts, and figuring out their feature stories. The stratcom students have been finishing surveys, and doing research on potential advertisers and sponsors.
Friday, April 3: Showed the students Val Krist's new mockup of the section front. Everyone loves it. She's brilliant.
Tuesday, March 31: Students back from spring break. Now it's pedal to the metal 'til May 5, when we do the first of two formal presentations. We went over the schedule and assignments. We also talked about how to make the network sustainable. This project is beginning to feel as if it's coming together.
Friday, March 27: This week is spring break, so the only people thinking about HealthCommons are Val Krist, who's working on the mockup, two people at MediaphorMedia -- Dan Cox and David Ryan -- and me. In a conference call, Dan, David and I strategize about the schedule. Our goal is to have a partly functioning prototype by May 5.
Tuesday, March 17: We review designer Val Krist's first mockup, which is based on a storyboard I drew after reviewing and incorporating the storyboards and wish-lists of the students. First reaction: it's too busy. But all the necessary elements are there. Paula Hunt, who's doing senior health literacy, asked if she could customize her section. Seniors like things simpler, fewer choices, the option to increase type size, and more explanations of how the site works. It's a good idea -- we can present both mockups to the seniors who Paula is working with and get their input.

Comment by Jane Stevens on March 9, 2009 at 5:47am: Chronology:
Friday, March 6:Information architecture.Reporter made a field trip to Lawrence, KS, to learn about Ellington content management system. It's so easy even a reporter can use it.... ;-)
Tuesday, March 3: Standing content. Reporters at various stages of gathering data and mapping their communities. StratCom students moving apace on identifying competition, potential advertisers, testing names for site sections. For individual updates, check below.
Tuesday, Feb. 24: Information architecture. Reporters began presenting storyboards for pages. Jane met with each individually.
Friday, Feb. 20:Information architecture. Jane provided summary of conversation with David Ryan at LJWorld, and a rough storyboard of optional parts to choose from.
Feb. 11, 2009: Mapping communities.Each reporter began mapping out her or his community -- people, organizations, issues, goals. The topics so far: localvores, affordable mental health, health literacy for seniors, fitness, dental services, young women's health, and affordable health.