Media Release
Contact:
Douglas Arellanes
Center for Advanced Media Prague (CAMP)
+420 2 3333 5356
[email protected] * http://www.campware.org
11 January 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Independent Media Find Online Solution:
Open Source Software Helps News Websites Tell Their Stories
(Prague, Czech Republic) - Newly released open source software from Media
Development Loan Fund is helping more than 50 international media
companies - many operating in difficult environments - to reach a larger
audience. In countries like Guatemala, Peru, Jordan, Serbia and
Montenegro, Russia, South Africa and Lebanon, independent media companies
are providing an online alternative to government and "big-media" news
outlets with the help of the Campsite content management system.
A new release of Campsite, the only multilingual content management system
(CMS) written specifically for journalists, is now available with features
that will make it even easier for media companies to publish their news
online. The user interface was built with the journalist and editor in
mind and can be configured to suit different skill levels. It also can be
easily localized into any language.
As Campsite developer Paul Baranowski says, "Even in countries where
little news is getting out other than the official government line,
independent news publishers can use Campsite to provide an alternative,
independent news source."
Created in 2000 for the award-winning news site Transitions Online
(www.tol.org), Campsite has since caught the interest of online media
internationally. Journalists from media companies in 13 countries now
utilize Campsite in 12 localized versions, including Arabic, Chinese,
Spanish, Serbian and Russian. Additional languages are scheduled,
including Kurdish and Farsi. In addition to matchless language flexibility
- including the ability to publish sites in multiple languages - Campsite
also is unusual in that it is made specifically for news publishers, who
have found that alternatives are either too expensive or too technical to
use.
Campsite users include media companies like Jordan's Ammannet, the first
independent radio station in the Arab world (www.ammannet.net), and
elPeriodico, Guatemala's award-winning newspaper, which has faced
harassment for its coverage of corruption and drug trafficking
(www.elperiodico.com.gt).
Claudia Cruz, online editor of elPeriodico, describes Campsite as a
flexible, robust and suitable application for media businesses. "We are
looking to increase and improve our online informative offering," she
says, "and Campsite 2.4 has shown to be up to the task as well as any
other major application in the software industry."
Out of the box, Campsite includes a number of features especially relevant
to journalists and media organizations, including:
- Designing the site however they prefer;
- Article translation features and support for multiple-language sites;
- Support for subscriptions;
- Editing articles in an advanced WYSIWYG interface;
- Support for RSS feeds and podcasting;
- Required copy-flow process to ensure quality of content;
- Schedule articles for future release;
- Easy-to-understand publishing model based around
Publication->Issue->Section->Article paradigm
A key new feature of Campsite 2.4 allows editorial staff to attach files
to articles (multimedia, PDF, etc.). "By introducing seamless attachment
of multimedia files, version 2.4 opens up Campsite to radio and TV
stations seeking a professional and easily sustainable online presence,"
says Sava Tatic, CAMP Managing Director.
In addition, the software now includes a completely redesigned article
input (Article Edit) screen. Images, topics, attachments and publishing
events can be easily added or removed from the screen. It also includes an
application programming interface (API) for third party plug-ins.
About MDLF and CAMP
Media Development Loan Fund, a New York City-based non-profit investment
fund, launched the Campware initiative in March 2001 as a platform for
open source solutions for independent news media organizations in emerging
democracies. The Campware initiative now includes three other software
development projects in addition to Campsite. The initiative is
coordinated by MDLF's new-media arm, the Center for Advanced Media-Prague
(CAMP) and an international group of developers.
Campsite is free and open source software that can redistributed and/or
modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation. Campware encourages further development, and
those interested in getting involved should visit www.campware.org or
email contact-3aZGCTV/[email protected]
Original funding was provided by Open Society Institute's Internet
Program. The bulk of the current development is financed by the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and Media Development
Loan Fund (MDLF).
MDLF: http://www.mdlf.org
Campware: http://www.campware.org
Download Campsite 2.4:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=66936
Contact:
Douglas Arellanes, Center for Advanced Media Prague
+420 2 3333 5356 * [email protected]
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