The Register Citizen's "Ben Franklin Project," an experiment in using open-source technology to produce the newspaper and its Web site, and crowdsourcing concepts to report the news, is entering its final week.

The centerpiece of our "Ben Franklin" issue, this Sunday, July 4, will be a major citizen-based reporting project on downtown revitalization in Torrington.

The key to this project is that the community is framing each aspect of it, and you can still get involved this week by suggesting directions it take, adding your views, completing one of the surveys that our reporters have prepared, or suggesting people who should be interviewed.

Reporter Ron DeRosa is working on issues of crime and safety and how it has impacted growth in the downtown.

Reporter Dan Ivers is working on issues related to housing and low-income, subsidized housing in the downtown.

Reporter Kevin D. Roberts is using crowdsourcing to write about the first crowdsourced baseball franchise is located right here, the Torrington Titans, and is making an impact on downtown revitalization.

Reporter Kaitlyn Yeager is working on issues of parking and traffic in the downtown.

Reporter Jessie Sawyer is tackling the issue of chain stores and what place they have in downtown revitalization efforts.

Reporter Mike Agogliati is working on the place that local merchants have in downtown revitalization. Email him at magogliati@registercitizen.com.

Photographer Mic Nicosia is gathering citizen-taken photos and videos to show the best and worst of downtown Torrington, and a snapshot of its potential.

Reporter Jenny Golfin is putting together a collection of viewpoints on residents' vision of the downtown, past, present and future, in an effort to find some kind of "common vision."