Washington Post to use Socialcam app for Olympics coverage

Washington Post reporters in London will use Socialcam, a video-sharing iPhone and Android app, to report from the Olympics.

The title is also inviting the community of Socialcam users in London "to capture and share their own Olympic sights and sounds". A selection of these user-generated videos will be geolocated and featured on an interactive map called "London eyes".

In a Socialcam video, Washington Post reporter Eliza Mackintosh asks the community of users of the app to tag "Washington Post" in videos from London.

In a post introducing the app, suggested topics are "a tour of an Olympic venue, an interview with a Londoner, fan footage of an amazing victory, cultural events in London".
 
"We are always looking for new ways to engage our readers, especially on mobile devices. As Socialcam's first official news partner, the Washington Post will have an opportunity to create a truly social video experience around a dynamic event," Cory Haik, executive producer for news innovation and strategic projects at the Washington Post said in a release.
 
Socialcam, which launched in March 2011, has had more than 16 million mobile downloads, according to the release.

Socialcam also has an API that was built to give "partners the ability to build custom video experiences with millions of public videos taken with the Socialcam app".
 
Michael Seibel, chief executive of Socialcam said the "2012 summer Olympics is the perfect showcase for this new partnership", explaining that the Washington Post is the "first official API partner".

Cory Haik (quoted above) will be delivering the keynote speach at Journalism.co.uk's news:rewired digital journalism conference on Friday (13 July).

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