Mayomo: A global mission for user-generated news

Not only does the founder and CEO of Mayomo want to create a new 'virtual continent' but he hopes his user-generated news site can help answer the question 'what is news'.

"What we've tried to make is a platform for user-generated news. The only questionable point here is what is news now?" Hristo Alexiev tells Journalism.co.uk.

"We know what user-generated means now and we're a platform because we don't want to take sides in any debate. But what is news is something that many organisations, not just us, are thinking about. Most user-generated content at the moment is generated around personal problems and we wanted to avoid that," he says.

Instead MaYoMo, short for 'Map Your Moments', is intended as a site for people to share their views and videos on news around the world.

Not a replacement for 'professional' journalism - trained journalists still provide the what, when and where - the site shows what news stories matter to readers, says Alexiev.

The site's most striking feature, a map plotting all contributions to the site which now cover almost 120 countries, is at the heart of this and shows a commitment to publishing views on both global news and local stories from all countries.

Situated in the pacific ocean between Europe and North America in MaYoMo's world is a new virtual continent, he says.

"We've invented a new continent which consists of countries relating to different virtual worlds. What is new here is that while many websites recognise that people are going to virtual worlds, we are the first site to recognise that this isn't a category of news - it's a geographic area," explains Alexiev.

"The population of virtual worlds is getting bigger - it's close to the size of Europe. We have to recognise that they have not only use these worlds for the gaming experience, but also share social and political views."

The site, which is still in beta, was originally set live at the end of last year and could be viewed as the latest in a long-line of user-generated news projects and sites.

Yet beyond the virtual continent, Alexiev hopes the site's feature for requesting news and its opportunities for student journalists will set it apart from the trend.

Under the 'Ask for news' tab, users of the site can request information or views about a past, present or future news event - a more active way of engaging with the news and personalising it, says Alexiev

This feature could also be of use to news organisations looking for eye-witness coverage.

"We've no illusion that we will replace journalism, but citizen journalists can provide support for events and reports. There is usually no depth [in citizen journalism reporting], but rather 'I saw this and this is my picture of it'. This is not be the only role of citizen journalism but it will be a big part," he says.

"I think it's strange that many people see this as a concern - it's just an obvious choice that there are more mobile phones in the world than there are journalists."

Content on the site is lightly moderated - especially for spam and scenes of violence in reports from conflict zones - but the team behind it try to be as liberal as possible with discussions, says Alexiev.

More than 1,000 users have signed up so far, but the main goal is to have every nation covered by reports.

Signing up students to the site, in particular would-be journalists, will help with this and earlier this year targeted US universities: "We see them as potentially very active users with an opportunity to publish their own reports and also to create their own international network of contacts."

"Our main goal from the users' point of view is to get active, social people, who have a view about the world they live in - but these people don't like to pay for much. In order to get close to users, we have to be as free as possible," says Alexiev.

But ideas don't pay for themselves and Alexiev admits that while advertising will be the main source of revenue for the site, the team is looking at syndication possibilities.

A loyal community will be the basis of the site's cost structure and can help it be profitable, he adds.

The structure is there, the technology developed and while the 'quality' of submissions varies in comparison to more traditional news outlets, this is the idea behind the site, says Alexiev: "What is news now?"

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