EIGHT hours to the dissolution of the Negri Sembilan state assembly, my colleagues and I travelled from Petaling Jaya to Seremban to record the historical #N9dissolve.

At around 5pm on Wednesday, we – Tashny Sukumaran, T. Avi­neshwaran and I – arrived at the capital of Negri Sembilan and our first impression was that life was normal despite the fact that the state assembly would be dissolved within hours.

It looked like it was business as usual for the people as we walked in quaint Seremban. It felt like the only people here excited that the Negri Sembilan YBs would no longer be YBs at midnight were us.

But we were pretty sure that there would be readers of The Star who would be interested to follow our “live” coverage of #N9dissolve on Storify.

Storify (storify.com) is a social network service with the tagline: “Don’t get lost in the noise. Discover the voices worth sharing.”

It was launched in September 2010 and media organisations have used Storify to cover ongoing news stories.

For example, The Star Online has used it in its William Yau and Ops Daulat coverage. It also plans to use Storify to cover #GE13.

“Storify helps make sense of what people post on social media. Our users curate the most important voices and turn them into stories,” according to Storify.

Here’s how it works.

At Menara Star in Petaling Jaya, our colleague Johan Hulaimi was the curator. His job was to “drag and drop status updates, photos or videos to bring together the social media elements that would best illustrate the #N9dissolve story”.

Johan looked through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Instagram to gather material.

Tashny, Avineshwaran and I had to provide content via YouTube, Twitter and Instagram to populate the Storify timeline.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Seremban was to pay The Star’s Negri Sembilan correspondent Sarban Singh a visit. He had the personal contacts to make our coverage successful.

“What do you need from me?” Sarban asked.

“Get me the Negri Sembilan MB (Mentri Besar),” I said.

In 30 minutes, Sarban told us that we had an appointment with Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan in the Mentri Besar’s residence in Serem­ban at 6.30pm.

While waiting for the Mentri Besar, I took a photograph of the gate leading to his house. And I tweeted a black and white photograph with the caption: “Waiting for Negri Sembilan MB Mohamad Hasan to return to his official residence for an interview. #N9dissolve.”

Johan dragged and dropped my tweet into the Storify timeline.

Mohamad told us that the automatic dissolution of the Negri Sem­bilan assembly was a non-event. But still he consented to us interviewing him “live” via social media.

While Tashny interviewed the Mentri Besar, Avineshwaran used his smartphone to videotape the interview and I took photographs of the interview.

During the interview, I managed to Instagram and tweet a photograph of the charming Mentri Besar with the caption: “Mohamad Hasan says today I’m MB, tomorrow I will still be MB but in charge of a caretaker govt.”

Almost immediately, Johan uploaded a response to my posting, @saroki19 tweeted: “caretaker govt is nothing new since we had 12 GE (general elections) but assembly expiring is something new.”

Among Tashny’s tweets the cura­­tor uploaded was: “Datuk Seri Moha­­-mad Hasan likens a caretaker govt to a back-up generator. ‘The power only lasts for 60 days.’ #N9dissolve.”

Johan also uploaded @mpkotabelud’s (Kota Belud MP Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan) tweet: “@khairykj I wonder if ADUNs (assemblymen) in N9 can officially use the title YBs after midnight?”

@khairykj (Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin) tweeted: “Can. Yang Bersara (sementara).”

In the meantime, Avineshwaran could not e-mail the video clip of the interview. The Internet connection in Seremban – especially when you are about 5km from the city centre – is of Jurassic age.

Next on our schedule was the Negri Sembilan MCA chief Datuk Dr Yeow Tiam. I tweeted a photograph of Dr Yeow speaking to residents of Taman Bidara in Seremban hours before #N9dissolve.

An hour later, we met Negri Sembilan DAP chief Anthony Loke.

By then, Avineshwaran had managed to upload his video clip and The Star Online readers had an exclusive video interview of the Negri Mentri Besar hours before the state assembly expired.        

Avineshwaran also videotaped an interview with Loke.

At around 10pm, Johan uploaded a tweet by @MasidiM (Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun). Masidi tweeted: “At midnight, history will be made when Negri Sembilan state assembly dissolves automatically; MB & Exco remain to run day-to-day operations.”

Around 10.30pm, we had an appointment with PAS Negri Sem­bilan chief and Paroi assemblyman Mohamad Taufek Abdul Ghani. Tashny tweeted: “Power just went out at YB Taufek’s service centre!!! Guess we need that generator. #N9dissolve.”

At midnight I tweeted: “It’s official. Negri Sembilan assembly has automatically expired. #N9dissolve.”

The last posting in our Storify timeline is a photograph of the state assembly building in Seremban 10 minutes after #N9dissolve.

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