Sourcefabric

Sourcefabric is a Czech not-for-profit organization focused on technology, training, and consulting for independent news media. Its principal work has been the development and maintenance of open-source and open-access tools for newsrooms, broadcasters, publishers, and citizen-media projects. The organization is based in Prague and has also operated through branches in Berlin and Toronto, giving it a cross-border structure consistent with its international media-development mission. Sourcefabric was established in April 2010 as a spin-off from Campware, a software project associated with the Media Development Investment Fund. The separation created an organization dedicated to turning tools developed for media-development projects into reusable platforms for journalism organizations. Sourcefabric subsequently became an affiliate member of the Open Source Initiative, reflecting its emphasis on open development and software freedom. Its best-known products have included newsroom, publishing, radio, and citizen-media systems. Superdesk is a headless content-management system designed for news organizations, while Superdesk Publisher distributes material from Superdesk and other sources to multiple publishing outputs, including websites. Live Blog provides software-as-a-service tools for live coverage. Airtime, originally called Campcaster and renamed in 2011, was developed as radio-station automation and management software. Sourcefabric later shifted emphasis from the open-source Airtime edition toward Airtime Pro, a hosted service, and no longer develops the open-source version in the same way. The organization has also maintained or contributed to products serving other publishing needs. Newscoop, formerly known as Campsite and renamed in 2011, was a content-management system for news websites. Booktype, developed in collaboration with the FLOSS Manuals Foundation, supports collaborative book production and publishing. Citizen Desk was designed to help news organizations manage material submitted by citizen journalists. These projects illustrate Sourcefabric's broad interpretation of newsroom infrastructure: rather than concentrating only on websites, it has addressed editorial workflows, radio operations, live coverage, publishing, and community-generated content. Alongside software, Sourcefabric has provided training and consulting for journalism students and professional journalists. Its documented activities have included work in Mali, Senegal, Zimbabwe, European Union countries, and the Southern Caucasus, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Implementations have included a 2011 project with West Africa Democracy Radio that combined Airtime, Newscoop, and SoundCloud integration to create a digital news platform. The same period saw TagesWoche, a Swiss online and print newspaper, launch on a newer Newscoop platform incorporating features such as Print Desk and Feed Ingest. Sourcefabric's work has received recognition in journalism innovation, open-source software, citizen media, and digital publishing awards. Projects connected with the organization were recognized or nominated by the Knight-Batten Awards, Packt, Ashoka and Google, The Guardian, the African News Innovation Award, the Lovie Awards, and the Leipzig Book Fair. The available reference material does not provide a complete account of the organization's current product portfolio, leadership, finances, or legal structure, but it identifies Sourcefabric as an active international nonprofit-oriented media-technology organization.

Sourcefabric emerged from Campware, a software project associated with the Media Development Investment Fund and intended to support independent media. It became an independent Czech not-for-profit organization in April 2010. The new organization retained the project's media-development orientation while broadening the software portfolio and presenting the tools as reusable infrastructure for newsrooms, broadcasters, publishers, and civic-media groups. During its early period, Sourcefabric concentrated on products covering several parts of the media workflow. Campcaster was renamed Airtime in 2011 and served as radio-station automation and management software. Campsite was renamed Newscoop and functioned as a content-management system for news websites. Sourcefabric also developed or supported Citizen Desk for handling submissions from citizen journalists and collaborated with the FLOSS Manuals Foundation on Booktype, a tool for collaborative book publishing. These products positioned the organization at the intersection of journalism support, open-source development, and media capacity building. Sourcefabric's implementation work demonstrated how its software was intended to be used in practice. In April 2011, the organization worked with West Africa Democracy Radio to build a news platform using Airtime, Newscoop, and SoundCloud integration. Later in 2011, TagesWoche, a Swiss online and print newspaper, launched on a new Newscoop-based platform with features including Print Desk and Feed Ingest. The West Africa Democracy Radio project subsequently received a special-distinction recognition in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. The organization also invested in training and consulting. Its documented activities included instruction for journalism students and working journalists in Africa, Europe, and the Southern Caucasus. This work complemented the software itself: Sourcefabric's model involved not only releasing tools, but also helping media organizations adopt new digital workflows and operate technology in settings with varying levels of infrastructure and technical capacity. Recognition followed across several categories. Airtime was nominated for the 2011 Packt Open Source Multimedia Software Awards and won The Guardian's 2012 Digital Innovation Award for social-change technology. Superdesk was nominated for the 2011 Ashoka Google Citizen Media Global Innovation Competition. Citizen Desk was associated with a 2012 African News Innovation Award in Mozambique, Booktype received a 2012 Lovie Awards silver distinction, and Booktype later won the Neuland 2.0 jury award at the 2017 Leipzig Book Fair. Over time, Sourcefabric's product strategy included hosted services as well as open-source software. Airtime evolved toward Airtime Pro, a software-as-a-service offering, while Sourcefabric stopped developing the open-source Airtime version. The organization also developed Superdesk, a headless content-management system for news organizations, and Superdesk Publisher, which distributes content from Superdesk and other sources to web and other output formats. Live Blog added hosted live-coverage functionality. The available reference material does not establish detailed dates for each later product release or provide verified information about current executives, funding, revenue, or ownership. It does, however, portray Sourcefabric as a Prague-based organization with international branches and a continuing focus on independent media technology.

• 2017

  Booktype receives a Neuland 2.0 award

  [1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Booktype won the Neuland 2.0 jury award for innovation in media and book publishing at the Leipzig Book Fair.

• 2012

  Airtime wins a Guardian digital innovation award

  [1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Airtime won The Guardian's award for Best Use of Technology for Social Change.

• 2011

  Campcaster is renamed Airtime

  [1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  The radio automation and management project formerly known as Campcaster adopted the Airtime name.

• 2011

  Campsite is renamed Newscoop

  [1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  The news-website content-management system formerly called Campsite was renamed Newscoop.

• 2011

  West Africa Democracy Radio platform implementation

  [1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Sourcefabric worked with West Africa Democracy Radio on a platform integrating Airtime, Newscoop, and SoundCloud.

• 2011

  TagesWoche adopts Newscoop

  [1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  TagesWoche launched on a new Newscoop platform with Print Desk and Feed Ingest capabilities.

• 2010

  Sourcefabric becomes an independent organization

  [1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Sourcefabric was spun off from the Media Development Investment Fund's Campware project in April 2010.

Open and mission-oriented media technology for independent news organizations, broadcasters, publishers, and civic-media initiatives.

• Newsroom content-management system

  Superdesk

  Superdesk is a headless content-management system aimed at news organizations. Its role is to support editorial content management while allowing publishers to connect the newsroom to different presentation and distribution layers. The product represents Sourcefabric's move toward modular newsroom infrastructure rather than a single website-only publishing system.

• Digital publishing platform

  Superdesk Publisher

  Superdesk Publisher is a digital publishing platform that exports content from Superdesk and other sources into multiple output formats, including the web. It is designed to bridge editorial production and audience-facing distribution, helping media organizations reuse content across publishing channels.

• Live-coverage software-as-a-service

  Live Blog

  Live Blog is a hosted platform for live coverage by news organizations. It supports the rapid publication of continuously updated reports and is part of Sourcefabric's software-as-a-service-oriented product portfolio for digital journalism.

• Radio automation and management software · 2011

  Airtime

  Airtime, formerly known as Campcaster, was developed for radio-station automation and management. It supported scheduling and operational workflows for broadcasters. Sourcefabric later pivoted toward Airtime Pro, a hosted software-as-a-service product, and no longer develops the open-source version as its primary offering.

• Radio software-as-a-service

  Airtime Pro

  Airtime Pro is the hosted successor direction for Sourcefabric's radio-management work. It provides radio automation and station-management capabilities as a software-as-a-service platform rather than as the organization's earlier open-source Airtime distribution.

• News-website content-management system · 2011

  Newscoop

  Newscoop, formerly known as Campsite, is a content-management system for news websites. It was used in Sourcefabric implementations including the TagesWoche launch in Switzerland, where the platform included features such as Print Desk and Feed Ingest to support print and digital publishing workflows.

• Collaborative book-publishing tool

  Booktype

  Booktype is a collaborative book-publishing tool developed with the FLOSS Manuals Foundation. It supports the creation and production of books through shared digital workflows. The project received recognition through a 2012 Lovie Awards silver distinction and a 2017 Neuland 2.0 jury award.

• Citizen-journalism workflow tool

  Citizen Desk

  Citizen Desk is a tool for managing content created or submitted by citizen journalists. It was associated with Sourcefabric's media-innovation work in Mozambique and was recognized as a winner of the African News Innovation Award in 2012.

• 2011West Africa Democracy Radio digital news platform

  West Africa

  Sourcefabric worked alongside West Africa Democracy Radio to build a news platform combining Airtime for radio workflows, Newscoop for publishing, and SoundCloud integration.

  Outcome. The project was named a special-distinction winner in the 2011 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

  Source
• 2011TagesWoche Newscoop implementation

  Switzerland

  TagesWoche launched as an online and print newspaper on a new version of Sourcefabric's Newscoop platform.

  Outcome. The implementation included Print Desk and Feed Ingest features for combined digital and print workflows.

  Source

• 2011

  Rename Campcaster as AirtimeOther

  Background

  Sourcefabric inherited and continued work on the radio automation project previously known as Campcaster.

  Action taken

  The project was renamed Airtime as part of Sourcefabric's product development and identity.

  Aftermath

  Airtime became one of Sourcefabric's recognized broadcasting products and later formed the basis for a shift toward the hosted Airtime Pro service.

  Source

• 2011

  Rename Campsite as NewscoopOther

  Background

  Sourcefabric maintained the news-website content-management project formerly known as Campsite.

  Action taken

  The project was renamed Newscoop.

  Aftermath

  Newscoop was used in media implementations including the TagesWoche platform in Switzerland.

  Source

• Shift Airtime development toward Airtime ProStrategy

  Background

  Sourcefabric's radio-software work evolved from an open-source distribution toward a hosted service model.

  Action taken

  The organization pivoted to Airtime Pro as a software-as-a-service platform and stopped developing the open-source Airtime version.

  Aftermath

  Airtime Pro became the principal documented direction of the radio product, although the supplied references do not specify the date or detailed commercial terms of the transition.

  Source

• 2017

  Booktype wins a Neuland 2.0 jury award[1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  Booktype received the Neuland 2.0 jury award for innovation in media and book publishing at the Leipzig Book Fair.

• 2012

  Airtime receives The Guardian Digital Innovation Award[1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  Airtime won The Guardian's Digital Innovation Award in the Best Use of Technology for Social Change category.

• 2012

  Citizen Desk recognized by the African News Innovation Award[1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  Sourcefabric was among the winners of the African News Innovation Award for its Citizen Desk project in Mozambique.

• 2012

  Booktype receives a Lovie Awards silver distinction[1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  Booktype won a Silver distinction in the Web Services & Applications category of the Lovie Awards.

• 2011

  Sourcefabric develops a digital platform for West Africa Democracy Radio[1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Product launch · Other

  Sourcefabric worked with West Africa Democracy Radio on a news platform combining Airtime, Newscoop, and SoundCloud integration.

• 2011

  TagesWoche launches on a new Newscoop-based platform[1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Product launch · Other

  Swiss online and print newspaper TagesWoche launched on a newer Newscoop platform that included Print Desk and Feed Ingest features.

• 2010

  Sourcefabric spun off from the Campware project[1]Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  Sourcefabric was established as a separate Czech not-for-profit organization after being spun off from the Media Development Investment Fund's Campware project.

1. 1Sourcefabricen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Sourcefabric official websitesourcefabric.org