Obtaining International Recognition -A bumper year for expanding new services

In 2010, the three-year-old PeoPo platform steadily expanded its scope and field of vision, repeatedly catching the international spotlight and winning much praise, establishing PeoPo as a major pipeline in disseminating citizen news.
 
In February 2010, Phil Harding, a veteran journalist and media consultant who has worked at the UK’s BBC for over 40 years made a special visit to PeoPo, where he was warmly surprised and indicated his complete approval of the platform. On his return to England he shared his findings in ‘The Guardian’, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the UK, if not the world, commenting on his hopes that PeoPo would become a model for citizen journalism platforms.

 In March, at the World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference, PeoPo won the admiration and appreciation of many prominent public figures as well as indigenous people from all over the country for its news reports and continued follow-up of the Typhoon Morakot disaster. In the hope of broadening the scope into the international field of view, PeoPo is now offering a weekly Podcast report that has been translated into English on Apple i-Tunes, sharing with international friends all the latest happenings in Taiwan.
  
The continued innovation of its service is PeoPo’s motivating force and at the beginning of March PeoPo Webcast began broadcasting a number of new programs including, ‘Introducing Citizen Journalists’, ‘Recommendations from Visiting Chief Editors’, and ‘PeoPo Talk’. On the anniversary of Typhoon Morakot, PeoPo raised ‘Typhoon Morakot Anniversary - PeoPo Citizen Journalist Observers’, which called on citizen journalists from far and wide to continue covering the post-Typhoon Morakot Disaster reconstruction process.

 In the area of training and education, PeoPo held video workshops in both Kaohsiung and Taipei, which were led by well-known directors who instructed citizen journalists in technical skills and concept sharing, helping CJ’s to improve the quality of their reports. Furthermore, in a drive to improve the service given to CJ’s, PeoPo produced the highly educational DVD ‘How to Shoot a News Report’, which answers just about every possible question and solves every possible problem associated with the process of making a news report. Additionally, at the end of 2010, PeoPo presented each and every CJ with a Website revision, improving the visual appearance, and also enlarging the limit for uploading films from the original 100mb to 200mb.
  
Whilst continuing to provide its usual services, PeoPo also worked hard to bring local citizen journalists and grassroots organizations together, and without pause for breath organized 12 such meetings over the course of the year. The meetings were held the length and breath of Taiwan covering all the hot local grassroots issues, helping to build bridges between citizen journalists and local groups, and facilitating mutual exchange and understanding.
There were also academic forums that invited specialists and CJ’s with first hand reporting experience to interact and share their ideas. Many scholars who are involved in researching the development of citizen journalism affirmed the effectiveness and importance of PeoPo, and also put forward many valuable suggestions for its further development.