Here is one of those sites/ideas that are painful to blog about! Why? Because.. I had thought of a similar idea before.. it was my final thesis project for my Masters Program at Domus Academy in 2005

However, in time I have realized that it can only be called your idea when you manage to take this idea & evolve it into a product or service and place it in the hands of users. That is when the idea is truly tested, appreciated or criticized! That’s when you know if your idea is a truly innovative or sticky! (whichever one you want it to be)

So here goes… I introduce you to Knewsroom!

What is it?
Knewsroom is basically a site that delivers ‘daily news edition’ with various topics (Politics / Business / Technology / Entertainment / Sports / Design). ‘Knews’ is powered by Kluster, a crowdsourcing platform that allows users to start projects and get the wisdom of the crowds to shape & execute it. With ‘Knews’, Kluster has basically created a project and customized some of the UI to suit its features. However, the essence remains the same – ‘Crowdsourcing‘

So.. whats unique about it?
What’s unique is the news is compiled by users who have recommended the news bits and invested time in voting on the stories that should be in the the next issue (tomorrow’s issue). And for this they get paid for it.A user can submit a few stories he thinks should be on the next days edition. After he has submitted a few stories, the user can invest some of his earned digital currency (called ‘watts’ on Knews) on a certain stories he thinks should make it to the next days edition. If even one of the stories he has invested in (does not have to be one that he has submitted) makes it to the next days edition, he gets a percentage of the advertising revenue!

Here’s how Cnet describes the service.

“Knewsroom, the inaugural Kluster Labs project, is sort of like what would happen if Digg users got paid when their stories hit the front page–and had a limited number of “diggs” available.

—————————-OH! OH! OH!——————————

June 20th 2008
Update: Knews room has now entered the deadpool ! 

Here is the announcement

At 6am today, beloved community-directed news publication, knewsroom, was pronounced dead at the age of 37 days. The coroner’s report rules out early suspicions of foul play, citing starvation as the cause of death.
Knewsroom is survived by younger sibling, namethis, and parent, kluster-currently expecting an addition to the family in early July. Meanwhile, knewsies continue their digital vigil, mourning the loss of a promising idea. No formal service will be held. 

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This post is tagged collaboration, crowdsourcing, News, social