Australian news agency AAP is to build a new open-source publishing system with award-winning European partner Sourcefabric.
Apart from improving the ability of its own editorial operations to produce, manage and deliver content, AAP's contribution to a wider Superdesk project could benefit the industry as a whole, editor-in-chief Tony Gillies says.
But NFP Sourcefabric is headquartered in the Czech Republic, and chief technology officer Brook Thomas (right) says AAP is aware of the implications of working with such a dispersed development team: "The distance factor is a challenge, sure, but we have strategies and people in place to make it work, he said.
The project is "ambitious but entirely right for AAP" and Thomas says other news organisations would be well served to look beyond typical commercial software solutions: "We need a solution that really hits the spot for AAP," he said.
Part-owned by News Corp Australia and Fairfax Media, AAP is "not in a position to throw enormous sums of cash into an off-the-shelf system that vaguely speaks to our workflow and production needs," he says.
Gillies says that AAP's existing editorial platform has proven "increasingly inflexible" over the past ten years: "The time is right for some true innovation in this area and we believe Sourcefabric will set us on the right path.
"With Superdesk, we will no longer be forced to compromise on how we produce and deliver content, because the system will be able to readily bend and flex to the immediate needs of our operation," he said.
Following a "rigorous requirement-gathering process", core development for the native editorial system will be done in Europe by Sourcefabric staff in the Czech Republic and Romania, starting next month. A small contingent of Sourcefabric staff will work in Sydney alongside AAP's developers for the duration of the project.
Thomas says it will be built "virtually from the ground up" and bear much of the DNA of AAP's newsroom.
"The distance factor is a challenge but we have strategies and people in place to make it work. The current technology climate - especially in terms of open-source options - tells us that an alternative approach is highly viable."
Established 80 years ago, AAP employs 600 and has a newsroom staff of about 200, making a user licence for a traditional system, a "significant cost". With Superdesk, AAP will have access to software modifications developed by others and will invest "ongoing resources' into the project: "The code doesn't write itself," Thomas says.
Sourcefabric managing director Sava Tatic says open-source software generally sparks innovation and ultimately, leads to more options for end-users: "Hopefully, one day Superdesk will swing to the rescue of newsrooms everywhere, no matter their size."
Sourcefabric received a Knight-Batten award for innovations in journalism in 2011, a Guardian Mega Award for digital innovation in 2012, and an African News Innovation Challenge Award in 2012.
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