MashAP

General Description MashAP lets readers rearrange words from AP headlines, in the style of magnetic poetry, and share them on Facebook and Twitter, driving traffic. Readers can vote on their favorite mashed-up headlines. The most popular ones show up on AP Web pages, above the comment field.

Technical Aspects: In its Web incarnation, the front end is implemented in CSS, HTML, JavaScript. The sharing aspects tap into Facebook and Twitter APIs. Mashed-up headlines are stored in a database. The concept could be ported to the AP Mobile app as well.

Design: Readers on bigstory.ap.org see a MashAP box below each story, showing the most popular recent mashed-up headlines. They also see an invite to create their own mashups, on a separate page. From there, they can share their creations on Facebook or Twitter.

People clicking on links from Facebook or Twitter arrive at a separate page, showing their friend's headline and the stories those headlines originate from.

In the mobile app, MashAP could reside under its own tab.

Editorial Aspects: The system could run with little intervention from editors. The fact that only words from AP headlines are available provides a first line of defense against profanity, and the fact that submitters have to use their Facebook or Twitter handles provides a second line.

That said, some of the mashed-up headlines will still be suggestive, and potentially offensive. The system could include a third line of defense in the form of user-flagging of offensive posts and curation by an editor.

Planning: Full implementation of the Web version would take about 40 man-weeks, split between designers and developers.

Team Members: Sean McDade, Developer/Designer; Seth Rasmussen, Newsroom Developer; Peter Svensson, Technology Writer