The new live news

[video:youtube:nnffuBGNOfY] Josh Wolf has an interesting idea for a new live internet news network based – surprise surprise seeing as how it’s the internet we’re talking about – in San Francisco. He aims to harness live video broadcasting tools like Qik, Flixwagon and Ustream.tv – which Kyle MacRae has previously discussed around these parts – coupled with the microblogging tool Twitter and Skype call ins. Wolf experimented with the concept during the protests that greeted the arrival of the Olympic torch in the east coast American city last month. Here’s what they did,

“We did two remote live video feeds. We also produced an in studio news programme that relied on those live video feeds and also had pre-produced content and interactivity through Skype and basically it was a whole newscast. In much the same way as what the corporate media was doing for their own newscasts except we were able to do it for far less money and no resources whatsoever really and we ended up with at least 5,000 viewers at one point to the programme without any outreach. That demonstrated, at least when you have a huge event, there is a market for this, or an audience for this.” link

Wolf was previously imprisoned by the US government for refusing to hand over video footage he shot during clashes between police and anti-G8 protesters at a demonstration in San Francisco in 2006. he went on to serve more time in prison than any other American journalist. As he says in the video above, he needs to raise $1,500 to get the project going. It’s a fascinating idea using easily available, free or cheap technology, mobile networks and the internet to build a new news network. If he can prove the concept on a repeated basis, he could well be building the future for live broadcast journalism, at least on a local level.