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Smart Communications Inc. recently introduced an online platform that will make it easier for schools to augment their traditional printed campus paper with a faster and more interactive version on the Web.
Through journ.ph, teachers and students will be able to upload features, news articles and comment on and react to stories online.
Smart recently unveiled its efforts to revolutionize online campus journalism in collaboration with media, academe and journalism institutions during the student forum, ?Reaching out to Future Journalists: Challenges of New Media.?
The event was one of the highlights of the celebration of the 15th Annual Cebu Press Freedom Week, which tackles among others, the popularity of social networking and its vast potential as an information and communications tool.
?Journ.ph is a continuation of our efforts to get more people to make the transition from being consumers to creators of online content. Through this project, we hope to empower teachers and students to join the rest of the Internet-savvy Filipinos who are learning how to maximize the Internet for news gathering, dissemination and feedback, starting with their campus publications,? said lawyer Maria Jane Paredes, Smart senior manager for Public Affairs VisMin, who spoke during the forum.
Participants were given a preview of the beta version of journ.ph during a presentation of its features by Sandra Lovenia, program manager of the Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center which developed the online platform in tandem with Blue Blade Technologies.
Paredes invited interested participants to sign up for journ.ph.
?The online platform is just one part of journ.ph. We are also looking at trainings and mentorship to give you the skills you need to do online publication,? she added.
She also said that under phase 2, users of journ.ph will be able to post stories on the site using their mobile phones.
?These days, everybody is a publisher. Anybody can blog. Smart is simply using its technology and partnering with the right institutions to channel the Filipinos' love for blogging and to create an online community of student journalists who have one goal: to revive, reform, and recreate campus journalism,? Paredes said.
Smart is piloting Journ.ph in Cebu. Future plans include bringing journ.ph to the cities of Baguio and Davao in partnership with community journalists.
