Enriching community-contributed content

The San Diego Union-Tribune has embarked on an initiative to enrich community content on its Web site, SignOnSanDiego.

MindTouch Nexus will be used to develop wiki communities throughout the site as part of the publishing company's ongoing efforts to make its content compelling to readers. Nexus will enable SignOnSanDiego visitors to contribute content on topics of interest to them and to collaborate with other readers and editors, via an intuitive WYSIWYG editing tool, according to MindTouch. Readers can post text, images, video and MP3 clips. The solution also provides tools that SignOnSanDiego editors can use to manage how user-generated content can be blended with editorial and syndicated content on the site. Pages can be set to edit, comment or read-only mode, and are indexed and linkable, searchable and taggable, MindTouch notes in a recent press release.

"We believe the solution will generate large volumes of fresh content, which will in turn build traffic, increase the ability to post more targeted advertising and deepen our connection with the dynamic San Diego community," says Chris Jennewein, VP of Internet operations at Union–Tribune Publishing Company. "The need to harness user-generated content is the new reality for all online media, and MindTouch Nexus provides us with a powerful tool to fulfill that need in a controlled way."

The rollout of sites and topics at SignOnSanDiego starts with AmplifySD, which focuses on the San Diego music scene. Visitors can post articles, images, video and MP3 clips of their favorite bands, and include their history, music reviews, tours, etc.