Tamara, Sandra and I have been working hard to get everything done in time and with every day, we´re getting more excited: Our baby is getting ready to open its eyes and start walking! We´re looking forward to launching Hostwriter on May 7th, 2014 at the re:publica-conference in Berlin! We think that trust plays a big role for Hostwriter. You want to be sure that the person you are getting in touch with for a collaborative research is “really” a journalist, a journalism student, blogger or filmmaker. Therefore, we had long discussions how we are going to handle the accreditation process. Well, this is what we agreed on for Hostwriter´s betaversion:
- all cooperation partners receive an invitation code
Hostwriter is cooperating with journalism associations like “Reporters Without Borders”, “journalists.network” or media fellows of journalism schools like “Duke Sandford/USA”. We will send an email with an invitation code to all our partners. Using this code, you can skip the accreditation process: When filling out your profile, you can start searching for fellow journalists on Hostwriter right away. We do not ask for work samples to verify your status as a journalist since your membership in one of the partner organizations already serves as proof.
- joining Hostwriter via accreditation
You are not a member of a partner organization and will not receive an invitation code? That´s not a problem. After the launch, you can fill out your profile and apply for accreditation. Once we checked your profile, you can get started! If you´d like to speed up the process, there is one more option:
- get in touch for your personal invitation code
You are not a member of a partner organization but would like to join Hostwriter right from the start? You can get in touch with us via Facebook, Twitter ore send an email to “news at hostwriter.org”. Please provide your email address and at least one work sample (either as pdf or link). Like that, we can verify your journalism status already before the launch and put you on our mailing list for the accreditation code!
Of course, we hope that a lot of colleagues from all over the world will join Hostwriter – the more journalists on the platform, the better matches on Hostwriter´s search engine. Therefore, please feel free to spread the word and invite colleagues that might be interested in joining Hostwriter!! That means you are more than welcome to send your invitation code to journalists, journalism students, bloggers and documentary filmmakers you personally know.
Please note: Sharing Hostwriter´s invitation code in a private chat on Facebook, a direct message on Twitter or by email is perfectly fine, but please do not post the code publicly! It is our shared responsibility that all members of Hostwriter are people we can trust:)