Journalists need end-to-end encrypted collaboration tools that are reliable for secure, offline-first use.
News teams need the ability to create clear & effective editorial workflows.
These two problems are compounded by data journalism, where some data may contain private information, and the editorial workflows for data graphics and news apps are often more ad-hoc than for typical news stories.
Fieldbook is a project in the design phase for creating cross-platform desktop and mobile apps that help news teams collaborate securely.
Project goals
- A focus on the editorial workflow at news organizations: the planning, creation, review, editing, and publication of news, particularly.
- Use a distributed network for storing data across the devices in a news organization's team rather than centralized on cloud services.
- End to end encryption & encryption at rest.
- The ability to lock the application to make it inaccessible if the device is confiscated.
- Safe deletion of all data stored on the device. Restoration of deleted data by syncing data from coworkers at the news organization.
- An API for integrating the output of workflows with existing content management systems.
Why this project?
- In the past two years journalist devices were confiscated across Europe, police conducted an illegal raid on a newsroom in America, and attacks on journalists produced a chilling effect for news workers in America and across the world.
- It is essential that the work of journalists is kept secure until it is published. Identifying details of anonymous sources and other sensitive information must be kept secure for an indeterminate emount of time.
- Journalists commonly store their work on Slack, Google Drive, and other services that do not have satisfactory privacy guarantees. These services are also less than ideal for knowing when a story should be published, whether it is being edited, or other potential statuses of a story.
- It is rare for news organizations to use content management systems that provide offline editing. Any journalist working in areas without internet access must work in 3rd-party applications that may or may not have encryption mechanisms or be able to easily integrate with the organization's CMS.
Project status
Fieldbook is in the early design phase! The current focus is on validating technology decisions, creating application wireframes, building small prototypes, and looking for funding to make further progress.
Who works on this?
Seth Vincent is a writer, designer, and developer focused on journalism and public-interest technology. Along with Fieldbook he's working on a not-for-profit local news publication focused on data graphics and interactive tools.