The Open Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/oct/09/the-guardian-newslists-opening-up?CMP=twt_fd
So, The Guardian, is (for a trial period) opening up (part) of its news list so the public can help it develop (some) of its stories.
The parentheses say it all.
Radical transparency it isn’t, but, as Dan Roberts explains, there are several good reasons why they can’t and shouldn’t publish everything.
So what’s this about? Increased interactivity.
Why? As the headline says: “so you can help us make news”.
So it’s about crowdsourcing some of the research for some of their stories, so they can be better by making sure they include the best and most relevant background. Which is good in terms of engaging readers and making them feel involved. And helping the inexorably-declining staff on newspapers keep the quality up and produce more per head.
But I can straight away think of some potential pitfalls to avoid:

• Allowing the self-selecting group that are people who contact the mainstream media to skew things to whatever their agenda is.
• Being swamped by so many leads and tips that you spend more time on research and checking out leads than before.
• Being swamped by PRs keen to promote related client messages.

I have a strong feeling they’ve thought this all through. But there are bound to be some unforeseen issues – there always are.
Whatever, it’s good to see such a forward-thinking paper leading in innovation again. I’ll be interested to see how it works out.