PeoPo’s New Operating System Wins User Acclaim

After operating for over five years, in December 2012, the PeoPo citizen journalism platform underwent its first comprehensive upgrade. The new version went on-line on December 10, and is the result of over eight months of diligent effort by PeoPo staff and engineers. In addition to improving the operating system, a number of problems highlighted by citizen journalists, including erotic and commercial messages as well issues with complex verification codes, have all been addressed in the new upgrade.

The new PeoPo web page is refreshingly simple, with a special emphasis on user-friendliness. Immediately upon entering into the new interface, at a glance one sees the lead story on the left, together with nine other video reports on the right.

In order to fully understand the needs of citizen journalists, PeoPo not only invited frequent users of the platform to come and test the new upgraded version, it also made a special effort of ensuring that everyone was informed of the new version’s special characteristics. On top of a visually more comfortable browser interface that clearly distinguishes the top ten lead stories, to facilitate a simpler more convenient user experience, this new version also classifies reports into ‘Northern’, ‘Central, ‘Southern, and ‘Eastern’ districts, and provides a further three ‘special zones’: ‘Indigenous Tribes’, ‘Campus News Centres’ and ‘Natural Disasters’.

The new version’s requirement for users to first sign into a personal account - for example Facebook, Yahoo, MSN or citizen reporter's account - in order to leave a message, has also solved the spam-mail problem that plagued many citizen journalists.

CJ Xie Ming-hai believes that as user numbers continue to grow, PeoPo will undoubtedly face a proportionate level of complexity in developing the platform, but for now it seems, the new interface is hitting the spot! CJ Jady feels that the new browser, with its wide-open layout and clear classification of regions, Northern, Central etc., helps the user quickly navigate the site, and makes for a tremendously user-friendly experience. CJ Sister Lotus said she is already acquainted with the new layout, and CJ Y feels the new function allowing users to drag multiple photos for uploading is a great improvement from the earlier version. CJ Tina showed particular delight at the new function allowing users to first stockpile articles for subsequent posting.

A great deal of thanks goes not only to the PeoPo team, who in the couple of months prior to the new version going online were extremely busy with continual testing, but also to numerous citizen journalists for their invaluable first-hand suggestions. Manager of the PeoPo platform, Yu Zhi-li said that this upgrade includes four key points; the implementation of a news classification system; a richer user interface; enhanced interactive features; and simplified operating procedures, providing an effective classification system for over 70,000 CJ stories, and making it easier for users to find just what they want at a glance.

PeoPo 公民新聞 by PeoPo Webcast

PeoPo’s New Operating System Wins User Acclaim
http://www.peopo.org/news/103939

(以下為中文對照)

PeoPo平台轉換新系統 使用者稱讚

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PeoPo公民新聞平台成立了5年多，在2012年12月進行第一次的前台後台全面改版升級，新版本在12月10號上線，這是PeoPo的工作人員與工程師努力8個多月的成果，除了改善操作系統之外，針對公民記者所反應的情色以及商業留言還有驗證碼過於複雜等問題，都能藉著這次改版一併改善。

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PeoPo新改版的頁面清爽簡潔，特別強調與使用者的人性化互動，點入新界面之後最先看到的是一則頭條的報導，與九則一目瞭然的影音呈現。

而為了瞭解公民記者使用上的第一手意見，PeoPo也邀請經常使用的公民記者來作測試，並跟大家分享新版的特色。除了視覺上更舒服的瀏覽界面，以及原本的十大新聞分類之外，此次改版還增加了「北」、「中」、「南」、「東」的地域性分類，與「原住民族」、「校園採訪中心」、與「天然災害」等三個專區，讓新聞搜尋更簡便。

而許多公民記者反應的垃圾留言問題，改版後也將獲得改善，因為使用者若想留言，都必須要登入某個個人的帳號後，例如臉書、yahoo、msn或是公民記者的帳號，才可以留言。

公民記者謝明海表示，使用程度越高就會越關切PeoPo平台的發展，目前看起來新版界面很好；而公民記者jady則表示，新版的界面很人性化，版面很寬、分類也很清楚，加上北中南東的選項，在大架構下可以清楚點選。公民記者大姐Lotus表示，多用幾次應該就會很熟練；而公民記者ㄚ英也覺得新版比舊版好用，比如在上傳照片的功能，就可以一次拖曳多張照片上傳。公民記者Tina則最喜歡「排程後發表」的新功能，可以先儲存好要發表的文章，再來制定上傳時間。

新版即將上線前的一兩個月，PeoPo團隊不斷作測試，也感謝公民記者第一手意見，PeoPo平台召集人余至理也表示，這次改版有四個重點，包括「落實新聞分類」、「豐富使用界面」、「提升互動功能」、「簡化操作程序」等，把平台上七萬多則公民新聞作有效分類，讓讀者可以容易找到。