inside-ireport

Making a difference in Haiti

hhanks — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:14:39 GMT

Soon after the earthquake hit in Haiti, ChrisMorrow wanted to do whatever she could to help, starting with pitching in on CNN iReport’s Haiti database. She began following the progress of the local San Diego Rescue Task Force who were determined to deliver as much aid as possible to the Haitian people. This led to her getting the opportunity to fly to Haiti and iReport from there for a week.

While staying in Sean Penn’s camp, ChrisMorrow toured remote hospitals, tent cities and scenes of complete devastation, two weeks out from the quake.

All of this moved her in a big way: In a live interview, she told HLN’s Richelle Carey, “I find myself in tears most of the time.”

CNN’s Errol Barnett spoke with ChrisMorrow while she was in Haiti as well. Check out the interview here, and if you have a story from the aftermath of the quake, share your iReport.

iReport roundtable: Thursday 3 p.m. ET

davidw — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:44:25 GMT

Please join us at 3 p.m. ET for our weekly roundtable discussion. We're looking forward to talking with you.

This is a great opportunity to meet other members of the CNN iReport community and to share any questions, comments or concerns you may have.

Comments will open at 3 p.m. ET. See you then.

Site maintenance Tuesday morning

tyson — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:44:10 GMT

Hey iReporters,

Just a quick note to let you know that our developers will be making some upgrades to our database tomorrow morning.

There will be a brief site service outage - about 15 minutes - starting around 7 a.m. ET.

If during that outage you need to send an iReport that just can't wait - please do so by sending it to iReport@cnn.com.

Update: We're all better now :)

The Millionaire's Club: Welcome brixton and dpkronmiller

davidw — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:41:48 GMT

Please join us in congratulating brixton and dpkronmiller, the latest CNN iReporters to pass the 1 million page views mark.

brixton has been a part of the iReport community since the beginning and his funny, and often scathing, political cartoons are guaranteed to spark a lively conversation. He's also a really talented artist, so his takes on Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, the economic crisis and even steroids in baseball are as interesting to look at as they are to talk about.

His review of CNN iReport's redesign last year is still one of our favorites.

dpkronmiller joined the CNN iReport community in June 2008, when partisan bickering over the presidential campaign was nearing its peak, and he could always be counted on for a well thought out and good-natured discussion.

He quickly developed as a storyteller, with iReports on a Los Angeles theater that turned to burlesque to survive and a touching interview with filmmaker Kurt Kuenne, who directed a documentary about his his best friend's murder.

When he lost his job last year, dpkronmiller shared his insider's insider's view of the recession. He also showed us low-budget movie making techniques and documented the production of "and Boris," a spy-comedy Web series he created with a few friends, some basic equipment and almost no money. You can watch seasons 1 and 2 at the and Boris Web site.

We're really happy that brixton and dpkronmiller are members of the CNN iReport community and are thrilled that so many people have gotten to see their work. Congratulations.

Let's re-read 'The Catcher in the Rye'

lila — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:48:36 GMT

It's been a while since we first read "The Catcher in the Rye," but since we heard the news yesterday that author J.D. Salinger had died, it feels like a good time to revisit the novel.

Here on Team iReport, a few of us are going to start re-reading the book this weekend. If you’re thinking of doing the same, join us here in the comments as we rekindle the spirit of literature class discussions gone by. Or something like that.

Here’s a start: If you want to join us, post a comment now with your name, your age today, your age the first time you read the book, and what you remember thinking about it then. And if you've never read this classic, feel free to dive into the novel and comment along with us.

iReport roundtable: Thursday at 3 p.m. ET

davidw — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:47:01 GMT

Please join us here in the blog at 3 p.m. ET for our weekly roundtable discussion.

We'll have a sneak peek at some fun new assignments we're getting ready to roll out, and another surprise you might enjoy. As always, we look forward to answering your questions, comments and concerns.

Comments will open at 3 p.m. ET. See you there!

'Obamas' pitching products

hhanks — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:19:09 GMT

As President Obama takes the podium for his first State of the Union address tonight, it's worth taking a look at how this President, with his much-admired speaking style, has been impersonated and used in advertisements worldwide.

For example, take this ad for a car dealership, and this one from Indonesia featuring a local lookalike. Impersonators have also been big hits online since the 2008 election. (And there was the recent controversy over a photo of the real Obama in an advertising billboard in Times Square.)

Television viewers in Israel can see the latest entry in this proud tradition, and iReporter/Obama fan mrmannyc is right in the middle of it. During the election, he shared many iReports about his desire to see the then-candidate speak, and after being told of a resemblance, started posting up videos of himself as Obama. Flash-forward to today, where he is the star of a musical Israeli TV commercial as the President, singing and dancing in the “White House,” saying “Yes, we can” to the “Yes” satellite television service.

mrmannyc reports that he has been asked to make a promotional trip to Israel. In the meantime, check out Jeanne Moos’ interview with him.

It takes an army

lila — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:29:59 GMT

Note: This entry is cross-posted from CNN.com's Behind The Scenes blog.

In the last two weeks, amid all the chaos and heartbreak of the story in Haiti, something extraordinary happened on iReport.

Almost as soon as the quake struck, worried family and friends posted pleas for help to find the missing to CNN iReport. They came in by the thousands -- so quickly that our systems were inundated with people paging and searching through the faces, looking for news.

But we knew it was important that people were able to find all the names. So we sent out our own pleas for help to friends and family and the generous iReport community to help organize it all -- all the iReports, all the phonecalls to CNN, all the e-mail.

In no time at all a small army of volunteers and iReporters began poring over a mass of spreadsheets saved as Google Docs, collecting and giving structure to all the info CNN has about the missing and the found. (That's iReporter Chris Morrow in the photo, pitching in from her home office in San Diego, California.)

Thanks to their efforts, CNN's searchable list of the missing launched January 18 and now includes more than 10,000 names and faces, with more added every day. And the list is also part of Google's Person Finder, where it's integrated with lists from other organizations like the Red Cross and the U.S. State Department.

Now, as search and rescue efforts turn to relief and rebuilding, we are sorting through the iReport stories and using the power of CNN to shine a light on all that was lost, and all that still needs doing. If you know a story that needs to be heard, post it on iReport. We’re all ears.

iReport roundtable: Today at 3 p.m. ET

davidw — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:23:31 GMT

Please join us at 3 p.m. ET for our weekly roundtable discussion.

It's been an incredibly busy week here at CNN iReport and we want to thank everyone for their patience. We also want to thank everyone for jumping and helping out following last week's earthquake in Haiti.

I got so many calls, emails and private messages from iReporters who wanted to help and saw that many more people just started reaching out to people looking for their loved ones.

We'll have more on your remarkable contributions soon, but I speak for the entire team when I say that I've never been prouder to be a part of CNN or the CNN iReport community.

We'll open comments at 3 p.m.

Where are my page views? And what’s up with those staff badges?

tyson — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:12:48 GMT

Hey iReporters, just a quick note to address a couple issues on the site.

It appears that our page view reader is acting up this morning. Our developers are addressing this and working on a fix.

New: Update from iReport developer Kyle Rogers: View count problem has been fixed. Thanks Kyle!

Also, you may have noticed that several of your fellow iReporters now have iReport staff badges next to their profiles. We've temporarily enlisted their help, along with an army of volunteers inside and out of CNN, to help us with our massive Haiti missing persons list. Much more on their incredible efforts soon.

Thank you.