It’s an exciting time here at NewAssignment.Net.

Although it appears quite on the main blog (that will start to change), there is a lot brewing under the surface. So here’s an update on a few fronts.

What’s Going On With Assignment Zero?

Assignment Zero has left the production phase and is entering the publishing cycle. Wired has a tight editorial calender, but they are going to publish the best content that the Assignment Zero team has produced as soon as they can.

I am one proud editor, especially when reading some of the feedback from the blogosphere. The odds were against us, and we didn’t achieve everything we wanted. But as an experiment, it was a success.

I recently was interviewed about my experience, whether it was worth putting all that time into a project where I will, more or less, see no byline.

My first and honest reaction. Of course! I am still getting emails from AZ contributors (and I’ll see more tomorrow) and I hope we continue to stay in touch — Consider me an editor for life. Getting to know the individual contributors was by far the most fulfilling part of this project.

So what is Off The Bus?

Our own Director of Participation, Amanda Michel, is going to be helping shape OffTheBuss.net, a project in network campaign journalism with the Huffington Post.

Read more about Off The Bus from Ariana Huffington herself.

This is an exciting project. Traditional campaign journalism has become an insider’s game. And that means there is a certain amount of power that a campaign reporter gets. We can’t say for certain how much that power has corrupted. But we can try to cover the campaign ourselves. As a network we can be everywhere and cover the election from all kinds of angles. I’m excited to watch this project build from the ground up.

If you are interested in joining — leave your email at the site.

What is our Director of Distributed Reporting up to?

Well, this is me, so I’ll be blunt.

1. Working with Wired on the final publishing part of AZ’s work. I’m also helping Jeff Howe from Wired research for his upcoming book on Crowdsourcing.

2. Helping Jeff Jarvis from BuzzMachine plan a conference on network journalism (more on that soon).

3. Shopping around ideas.

While I’ll be in contact with Amanda at OffTheBus.Net, I will not be involved in the day-to-day (I will miss working with her, truly one of the best working relationships I’ve ever had). I’m certainly interested in political reporting, but I’m not a fan of campaign politics — and so I leave it to much more interested and better minds (seriously though, watch out world. Having worked with Amanda closely since last October, I know how passionate/knowledgeable Amanda is about campaign politics, so I expect this project is going to become….awesome).

I have my own ideas for a networked journalism project. (I’m even talking with some AZ contributors to refine and share the ideas). It will be less techie and more culturally relevant. I’m currently looking for a news organization interested in collaborating with NewAssignment.Net on another project. If you know an organization that might be interested, contact me.

4. The NewAssignment.Net blog. I will continue to blog here about what is happening in the world of citizen journalism, collective intelligence, the changing newsroom et. al, as I find time.

Onward

So the word of the day is “onward.” Network journalism has been tested once. Now it’s time to refine the emerging art. Can network journalism tackle politics at its core? Will other news organizations take a chance by inviting their readers to help them?

Stay tuned.