As the election season enters its final weeks, your friendly iReport.com producers are hitting the highways and byways (well, some of them) of the great United States of America to reach out to iReporters across the country.

We're hanging out with CNN's Election Express Yourself tour, which has been traveling for months already. At each stop, the tour organizers have set up a couple kiosks outside the Airstream trailer where you can step inside and record your video commentary on the election. The videos people are recording are posted on iReport.com for the world to see.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to pack up ungodly amounts of audiovisual equipment and document the tour experience outside the third presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Getting to meet people face-to-face really brought home iReporters' enthusiasm. The line of people leading up to the trailer was huge and you could have cut the excitement in the crowd with a knife. Students wore campaign shirts and carried signs to show their support for their candidate of choice. Some people even dressed up as polar bears, bananas and chipmunks to draw attention to their cause.

Security was tight and officers weren't allowing too many folks into the area, but iReporter James Brierton (Username: jbjimbo) managed to meet up with us outside the campus and got some footage of a small protest that formed on a street near the debate venue. (You should have seen him sending iReports and then transmitting a live radio broadcast to a local station with his cell phone and his laptop, which he plugged into a random electrical outlet he found.) There's still more stops on the tour and you'll be able to visit us much more easily given the absence of the requisite security that accompanies the leader of the free world. We can't wait to talk to you and find out how you iReport. Check out our upcoming stops. The bus just left the Newseum in Washington and here are a couple of the upcoming stops:

• October 21: Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio
• October 24 and 25: CMJ Music Festival in New York

Posted by nsaidi // 2 months ago
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Posted in: politics, ireport_kit

Hopefully you've noticed the great videos on iReport.com from the "iReport kit" -- a mobile kiosk for recording and uploading unedited and unfiltered stories from you. It's like the upload page on iReport.com, but right in the middle of a news event while it's happening.

People walk up to the kit and record themselves on camera or upload their own photos and videos directly to iReport.com.

We've already seen examples of the iReport kit in action -- collecting amazing footage during Hurricane Dolly and opinions at events like the Personal Democracy Forum.

Right now the iReport kit is in Denver, collecting eyewitness accounts and commentary from the Democratic National Convention. We've seen a few familiar faces using the kit -- including Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and director Spike Lee -- and a host of new faces to iReport.com. Welcome to the community.

Remember, the kit is on the move. You can keep track of it by following our Twitter feed. And look for the kit next week in St. Paul during the Republican National Convention.

Posted by tyson // 4 months ago
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Posted in: ireport_kit