"An outstanding fact of the Net era is that costs for people to find each other, share information, and work together are falling rapidly. This should have consequences for reporting big stories,” said Jay Rosen, executive editor of the project. “Assignment Zero is pro am journalism because it's reported by the many and edited by a few, who have to be constantly open to new contributions."
    
The site features a virtual assignment desk where contributors can learn about stories being covered and pick up assignments, an exchange where contributors can discuss stories, and daily commentary from editor Lauren Sandler.

“Assignment Zero is the first national journalism project that truly takes place in the open, instead of behind newsroom walls,” said Sandler. “As a journalist myself, I’m exhilarated by the implications of what we’re building here on Assignment Zero. The point here isn’t to develop a wholesale replacement for how journalism is made. It’s to improve it in radical new ways that were never before possible.”

The first story will cover the spread of “crowdsourcing”, the process by which, over the Internet, the public can think up, exchange, and build on good ideas.

NewAssignment.net has also partnered with Newsvine, a preexisting citizen journalist platform to which NewAssignment will send packages of stories to be covered.

Source: Assignment Zero