By using off-the-shelf drones and sensors for gathering data, we’ll show that drone sensor journalism is accessible, opening new aerial data journalism opportunities that push beyond photo and video storytelling. Drones democratise the skies, removing obstacles that prevent storytellers from accessing aerial perspectives that reveal new stories while providing a new view on familiar ones. By giving storytellers access to sensor drones, we’ll make new drone technology accessible to storytellers in ways commercial drone manufacturers have yet to do.
Who’s in the Project?
- Civic Drone Centre, University of Central Lancashire: Will develop open source technology platforms (software and hardware). Offers academic expertise around engineering and journalism.
- African skyCAM: Will deploy drone platforms and network with local media partners and collaborators to develop and publish drone-driven data content.
- Ben Kreimer – journalism technologist: Will contribute to the design and build of the platforms, fly the drones, and create some of the visualisations the UAVs generate.
- Drone Journalism Lab, University of Nebraska-Lincoln: provides academic expertise around drone and data journalism.
innovateAFRICA Fund
innovateAFRICA is a $1,000,000 fund set up to fund projects up to $100,000 with the intent:
To support digital innovation and experimentation that seeks to empower citizens by improving the quality and impact of African civic journalism by using new digital tools and techniques for ‘making’ news, along with new ways for audiences to engage with news, and new models for civic media organisations to sustain themselves.
The short list for the fund will be announced on the 20th December 2016 and the winners announced in January 2017. You can see what is happening with all the projects in the running by following #innovateAFRICA on social media.