S2 Ep5: Julia Hildebrand | beabee

Today, I am joined by Julia Hildebrand. As part of the
award-winning Correctiv team, Julia leads a project called
beabee. It is a tool that helps newsrooms turn audiences into
engaged communities. Before that, Julia had worked for the social
startup ChangeX in Dublin where she developed community-software
that allows people to start their own local projects. I met Julia
while we both worked for Germany's international broadcaster
Deutsche Welle. During that time, she was developing new social
media strategies, guidelines and workflows for more user
participation. 





Julia's expectations of community-journalism is high: “There is
so much more potential for civic participation.
Community-Journalism for me is a way, to unleash that potential
and empower people to improve their own environment.”





I am very happy that she agreed to do this interview. We
discussed civic participation and in how far journalism can or
should foster that.





Some key takeaways:


beabee is about allowing more people to start local
organizations that have journalistic practices and organizing
communities at their focus

it is all about supporting the smallest newsrooms

building a community means having to have patience.

building a community is hard and hands-on work: it goes
beyond just providing stories. It encompasses working together,
organizing workshops and being open to co-creation

journalism can help increase engagement in local communities
and tracking impact can be done by looking at voting turnouts

it is about creating safe public digital spaces and owning
the infrastructure, owning the data

we need more players that are not driven by profit

team-building and motivation techniques include

taking time - it is imperative that everyone knows what
the goals are - making sure that everyone know what's going
on

stand-ups in the morning - having that little connection
in the morning including a ritual "reasons to be cheerful" -
sharing sth more personal, sth positive

invest in bringing people together








More links:


Beabe


Correctiv


Bristol Cable 


Rheinhausen Community Project


Campfire Festival


Barcamp Bottropp





Welcome to the international edition of my podcast Rath Up. I am
your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire
and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND ....
What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much
more than just talent and skills to be successful in business.
So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to
us. 


If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel
free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda
Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next
episode.


This episode is brought to you by Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is
one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal
Ministry of Economics and Energy – and the only one with a focus
on MediaTech. it encompasses a working space, an accelerator and
an annual conference and i highly recommend you check it out if
you want to start a business and look for networking
opportunities. I am an entrepreneur myself and our startup
Vragments used to be located at the media tech lab in Potsdam.


Credits:





Produced by Linda Rath

Photo by Julia Hildebrand

Photo Linda Rath by Stefan Walter for Causalux Fotos 

Podcast Cover by Nicole Koppe

Episode Cover Art by Stephan Gensch

Music/Jingles by Mara Niese