Creating Technology for Social Change

Zeega: an interactive documentary platform

I had the opportunity recently to speak with Jesse Shapins of MetaLAB at Harvard, co-founder of Zeega, a new platform for creating interactive documentaries and inventing new forms of storytelling. As the Zeega team have just been named a Knight News Challenge winner, I thought it would be nice to get a better sense of their innovative platform and what they’re planning for the fall.

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Here’s a summary of the project, from Zeega’s website:

Zeega will enable anyone to create participatory projects that combine original content with photos, videos, text, audio and maps via APIs from across the web. Our mission is not only to give voice to individuals, but to create a platform that empowers individuals to give voice to others. Zeega was founded in 2010 by journalist Kara Oehler, media artist Jesse Shapins, and creative technologist James Burns.

Listen to Jesse describe the project in more detail:

Interview with Zeega co-founder J. Shapins by pazonada