TeenGo Web Site and On the Verge, Portland, ME 1999
Partners:
After the shootings at Columbine High School, the newspaper invited teenagers from around Maine to write about what high school life is like today. In April of 1999, 20 essays were published in the newspaper and more than 150 were posted on the “teengo” page of the Press Herald’s Web site. The page also launched an interactive forum so teens from all over Maine could chat online and created 20below.com, a Web site for teens. The site attracted visits from about half the teenagers in the state.
In September, the paper distributed 60 disposable cameras to teenagers who came to a pizza night and asked them to chronicle their own lives so it could use the pictures to illustrate teenage life, as part of a series of newspaper stories, and on the Web site.
The essays and photos helped the paper select four communities where teenagers worked together to create their own Web site, using KOZ software, which eliminated the need to learn HTML.
Contact:
Jessica Tomlinson
Online Community Organizer
MaineToday.com
50 Monument Square
Portland, ME 04101
Phone: (207) 822-4072
Email: Jessica@mainetoday.com