Starting this week, you might notice a new face popping up on the iReport site: Our Spring intern, Supraja Seshadri, is officially part of the family now!

You'll get to know her over the next few weeks, but by way of hellos and handshakes, we asked her to pen a short bio to introduce herself to the iReport community:

Supraja is currently a senior at Emory University and will be graduating this May with a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology along with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism.

Supraja had a great experience interning with the CNN Medical Unit in New York last summer, where she worked on Sanjay Gupta’s “Terror in the Dust” documentary. She has a solid foundation in multimedia and print journalism. She was able to hone these skills in her two previous internships, ShareWIK.com, where she was responsible for a lot of the video content on the website and DNA (Daily News & Analysis) Newspaper in India, where she wrote and published 15 stories on various topics.

Supraja is president of an all-female fusion dance team at Emory and is Publicity Chair of Emory’s Indian Cultural Exchange. She’s artistically inclined and loves to read, write and draw in her free time.

Supraja plans to pursue journalism, particularly on the production side, after college.

So please, join all of us in welcoming Supraja to Team iReport!

Yesterday we released an assignment in conjunction with technology and social media blog Mashable inviting iReporters to share their technology-inspired holiday displays.

We’re always excited when we have the opportunity to launch an assignment with one of our awesome partners, but this one was extra special. Why’s that, you ask? Because Mashable visitors can upload directly to iReport without leaving their site thanks to a fancy widget we call a portable uploader.

Here’s what it looks like on Mashable. Sleek, huh?

As we continue to work with partners like Mashable, Vimeo, GOOD, Team Coco and others, we want the uploading experience to be as easy as it is for community members visiting our site.So this is an important step towards that goal.

If you are the proud owner of a holiday display that's powered or inspired by technology or know of one in your area, share your videos and photos with iReport by Friday, December 16. The best submissions will be featured on CNN and Mashable!

We wanted to let you know that our developers have fixed a couple of video issues and added some new features that we're pretty excited about. Monday's software update solved a problem that was causing videos bigger than 200 MB to fail, as well as an issue with videos getting cut off at the end.

The team also added filter buttons to the profile pages so you can sort individual iReporters' stories to see which ones were approved for use on CNN, shared most often, or garnered the most page views or comments.

Finally, we rolled out a joint assignment feature for projects with our partners around the Internet. We couldn't wait to try that one out, so we launched an assignment with our friends at Mashable to find people who are incorporating technology in their holiday decorations. If you go all out with your holiday decorations, or know someone who does, please share your photos and videos.

As always, if you see something that looks strange on the site, please email contact@ireport.com and we'll take a look at it.

The hard-working iReport development team rolled out a new site update  on Thursday that fixed some of the issues that you've reported since the  relaunch. We appreciate everyone's patience and your help chasing down  bugs. A lot of the improvements were behind the scenes, but there are two big changes that we think you'll be excited about.

1) You can now see all of an iReporters' stories from their profile page. That was probably one of the biggest complaints that we had, so we're glad to have that fixed.

2) We added a bunch of new groups! Think of groups as a  personalized assignment desk that keeps you up-to-date on the topics you  care about. When you join the travel group, for example, you’ll get an  update in your activity feed every time we post a new travel assignment.  If you’re not in the group, you can still participate in an assignment  by going to the assignment desk.

Here’s a list of all of the groups:

Top stories

• News
• Election 2012
• International
• Weather
• Tech and science
• Health
• Travel
• Food
• Entertainment
• Military (Coming soon)
  

Express yourself

• Creative
• Sound off
• My life (Coming soon)
  
• iReport interview
• Freedom Project
• Cultural Census

TV shows and partners

• Outfront
• HLNtv
• Morning Express
• CNNGo
• CNN Espanol
• CNN Mexico
  

We’ll be adding new groups regularly, so let us know if you think of something we missed.

The developers are already working away at our next batch of updates, so we’ll keep you updated on their progress.

We've heard from several iReporters, who are having trouble using the site in Internet Explorer 9. Our developers have chased down the problem and expect to fix it with a software update on Thursday. That's just one of the bugs they're planning to correct. We'll let you know when we have more details.

If you see anything that looks weird or isn't working right, please let us know and we'll check it out.

Thanks for your help and your patience.

2011 has been a big year for iReport. It's been a centerpiece of CNN's coverage of so many hugely important news stories, like the revolution in Egypt and Arab Spring, the earthquake in Japan, and more recently, the aftermath of Hurricane Irene and Occupy Wall Street. In the course of all those stories, we've also made iReport a more powerful tool for participating in the news by launching things like the Open Story and a new iReport app. And of course we celebrated a big milestone - five fantastic years - with a party all the way around the world.

Today we're releasing an entirely re-imagined version of iReport for web, one that starts and ends with the most important thing about iReport: its people. People who care deeply about stories they're part of, or issues that affect them. People who share their experience and expertise to help the rest of us understand the heart of a story.

The new iReport invites you to surround yourself with sources and topics that matter to you. Tell us what you care about and we'll alert you when there's a story that needs your voice. CNN will continue to pay close attention to the stories and conversations here on iReport, and vet the best ones to include in CNN's coverage. Together, iReport and CNN can tell the whole story.

Ok, so. This new site? There's a lot here. A few things we hope you'll notice right away:

A personalized homepage. Once you log in, you'll see a new iReport homepage that's designed to highlight stories and assignments we think you'll be interested in. You might not see a whole lot at first, but as you join new groups and follow iReporters you admire, their work will be what you see on your homepage. To start off, everyone is following Team iReport, the group at CNN charged with finding and highlighting the best of iReport every day.

Groups. There are nearly a million people in the iReport community. That's a lot of people. The new "groups" on iReport are like mini-communities of people who share a common interest, like politics or travel photography or Robin Meade's Morning Express show on HLN. Join groups to meet other people with interests like yours, and to get new assignments on stories that need your voice.

Favorites. Every iReport sports a new "favorite" button, which lets you mark the stories you think deserve attention. Your favorites will display on your profile page, and also help tell CNN which stories need looking into.

A beautiful new media player. We've rebuilt our media player so that every video and photo iReport can now be seen in beautiful high definition format. It's the same size and quality of the new video player on CNN.com, which means that iReporters and Anderson Cooper get equal treatment for their best work. Awesome.

Check out this demo of the new site!

That's just the beginning. Take a look around, try out the new features and let us know what you think. You can drop us a line at contact@ireport.com, or stop by one of several community roundtable chats we'll host on the iReport blog over the next few days.

Hope to see you soon,

Lila & Team iReport

You may have noticed a few things here on iReport look a little, well, odd. That's because we're in the middle of launching a brand new version of iReport with loads of new features. Please bear with us for a bit while we roll everything out.

Meantime, if you have a story that just can't wait, e-mail it to ireport@cnn.com (single file attachments only, max 20MB).  And drop us a line on Twitter @cnnireport or at contact@ireport.com to let us know what you think of the new site.

Our development team will be doing some work on the CNN iReport site on Monday morning and we'll have to take the site off-line while they're doing their thing under the hood. They're planning to start work at about 7 a.m. ET and the project is expected to take a couple of hours.

There will be two iReport roundtables on Monday - at 12 p.m. ET and at 6 p.m. ET if you have any questions for us.

If there is breaking news, you can email your iReport to ireport@cnn.com and we will contact you as soon as we're back online. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we think you'll like the end result.

So you say you have a story to tell? One the rest of the world needs to hear? You've come to the right place. Post it here on iReport and it may well get picked up for CNN. Here's a look at the many ways to post your iReport:

Upload on the web

Use the upload form on the iReport site. Just click "upload" from the top right corner of any page of iReport, fill out the form, and post up to 10 files in any combination of video, photos and audio.

• Format: Up to 10 files, in any combination of video, photos and audio
• Max file size: 600 MB total for all file

E-mail

Visit your profile page to create a custom e-mail address for posting iReports by e-mail. To e-mail in a story, send a photo or video as an attachment. Your subject line will be the headline of your story, and the body of your e-mail will provide the description. Be careful to strip out any auto-signatures since any content of your e-mail will post publicly to iReport (and you probably don't want to publish your mobile number, for example).

• Format: One photo, video or audio file
• Max file size: 20MB

E-mail anonymously

You can also e-mail a story to ireport@cnn.com, which will post it to iReport under an anonymous user account. Later, you can visit the story on iReport and claim it as your own to move it under your iReport account.

To e-mail in a story, send a photo or video as an attachment. Your subject line will be the headline of your story, and the body of your e-mail will provide the description. Again, be careful to strip out any auto-signatures since any content of your e-mail will post publicly to iReport.

• Format: One photo, video or audio file
• Max file size: 20MB

CNN apps for mobile

You can post iReports and get the latest assignments from most of CNN's apps for mobile, including iPhone and iPod Touch, Android, Nokia Symbian phones, Nokia S-40, and Android Tablet. Visit CNN Mobile to download the latest versions.

iReport app for Android

You can post iReports (and lots more) from the iReport App for Android.

iMovie for Mac and iOS

Publish iReports directly from iMovie for Mac and iOS. With the iMovie app for iOS, you can even create a video with a custom iReport theme, complete with TV-ready graphics and a very newsy soundtrack.

Final Cut Pro

Publish videos directly to iReport from Final Cut Pro X with the software's built-in sharing feature.

Gowalla

Add a CNN iReport highlight to your checkin on Gowalla, and the news you share from where you're standing will post into iReport as well.

Facebook

Tag "CNN iReport" in a photo or video, and it will post to the CNN iReport page wall on Facebook, where CNN iReport producers may see it and reach out to you for more information.

Instagram

Tag #cnnireport on your most newsworthy Instagram photos. CNN iReport producers keep an eye on that tag and may reach out to you for more information.

Phew. That's it! Now that you know all the many ways to post iReports, head over to the Assignment Desk to pick up some story ideas. Happy iReporting

It's that time again! We're looking for a fall intern to join our team at the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

The full-time, paid internship lasts about 12 weeks and is open to college students currently enrolled in school. Course credit is available, and preference is given to candidates who have previously contributed to CNN iReport.

One lucky intern will work with iReport's editorial team helping lead CNN's user-generated news content, participatory media, and community efforts. In addition to vetting iReports, producing content, and helping with brainstorming and editorial planning, interns will also have the opportunity to learn from a host of CNN professionals across platforms.

Interested? Go here for more details and to formally apply.

Mark your calendars and save some room for birthday cake: On August 2, iReport will turn five!

Yep, it’s a big milestone and you can bet we’ll celebrate in a big way. We’ll provide more details as the date nears. For now, you can plan to participate in some fun projects. We have some surprises up our sleeve, too.

Here at iReport headquarters, we’ve got a countdown going until the big day – we’re currently 31 days away. We hope you’re looking forward to it as much as we are!

Our development team has been hard at work on some awesome new features for CNN iReport, and we’re excited to announce the rollout of some brand-spanking-new integration for iReport and Facebook. iReporters can now link their accounts to their Facebook profile, so that their iReports will publish directly to their Facebook pages.

When you click on your iReport profile page, you’ll see a new “Connect with Facebook” button under the “Connect Accounts” section. Click the button, enter your login information, and make sure that you hit "Allow" on all the permissions pop-up box. Voila, your iReport and Facebook accounts are connected!

The Facebook integration system works a little differently than the usual “Share on Facebook” buttons you might have seen around the iReport site. Once your accounts are linked, every time you successfully complete the upload process for an iReport, it will automatically generate a link to your report and post it directly to your Facebook wall.

Now, your friends and family can all see your awesome iReports as soon as you post them. iReport and Facebook: Together at last!

Hi there - if you uploaded a video to iReport this weekend, you may have noticed that it took longer than usual to publish. That's because of a technical issue we ran into (and thankfully fixed) this afternoon. By now all the videos that were caught up in the system should have posted. If for some reason you still don't see yours, please leave a comment here or send a note to contact@ireport.com. Thank you!

Fans of Android phones are no doubt used to a little bragging from their iPhone-toting friends, who always seem to get first crack at the hottest new apps. Worry no more, Android users, because CNN has just unveiled an app designed for the Android mobile platform.

The CNN Android app features all of the usual good stuff: Breaking news alerts, live streaming video, stories and more. And for our Android-using iReporters, this means you’ve now got the world of iReport on hand at all times! You can browse the latest assignments and view the day’s featured iReports, right on the dashboard. Even more exciting, we’ve added full functionality for uploading iReports on Android phones. If you’ve captured videos or pictures of a particularly news-worthy moment on your phone, you can submit your iReport directly from the app.

So, there’s nothing left to do except… get cracking! Download the CNN Android app and start uploading your iReports on the go!

Moments after a massive earthquake struck Japan on March 11, Chris Postnikoff posted a photo on iReport of a crack in the earth in Chiba, Japan. In his iReport he described the photo as evidence "it was no mere tremor."

Of course now it's very clear to everyone it was no mere tremor -- the quake left thousands dead and more missing, triggered tsunamis and damaged nuclear reactors -- but at the very moment of the shaking, none of that was apparent. iReporter Postnikoff and hundreds of others snapped photos and videos of their singular, dramatic experience and posted them to CNN iReport.

In the minutes and hours following, photos and videos from all over Japan streamed in to iReport and all over the web, and the world began to get a clearer picture of what had happened from the many angles and perspectives of the event.

A story like this one is the kind of event that's impossible to view through just one lens -- it affects millions of people, and has as many angles as people involved. That's why at CNN iReport we've recently launched a new kind of approach for telling these kinds of massive stories: the Open Story. It combines iReports with reports from CNNers, and places them all on a map and along a timeline. And, of course, it invites contributions and comments.

We tried it out for the first time at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, as a way to cover that giant, sprawling event from a zillion angles. And now we're taking it out on a much more serious topic: the Japan earthquake and its continuing effects. Below you'll find some notes on how to navigate and use it.

But first, you should know it's a pilot, a beta, a first step toward something really grand. The idea of the Open Story is a new one, and something we're committed to building and improving over time. What we're working toward here is a true collaboration among a news organization and the many people who experience an event first-hand. Hope you'll let us know what you think -- and how we could improve -- in the comments.

The parts of an Open Story

Shared byline
The person who posts the first element of an Open Story shared a byline with all the other contributors.

'Add now' button
An invitation to add your own perspective to the story. You may add a photo, video, audio or text contribution.

Timeline
The timeline displays avatars of each of the contributors, and runs chronologically from left to right (newest posts are on the right). Hover over the avatar to see the timestamp and name of each contributor.

Gallery
The gallery in the center of the piece displays the photos and videos posted to an Open Story. For now, it shows the most recent iReport first. You can use the left and right arrows on the sides of the gallery to navigate backwards and forwards through the content.

Map
The map displays each of the stories according to the place the iReporter located them. Click the "Expand Map" button to see a larger view and navigate through the iReport pins for each perspective in the story.

What's happening now
Just below the gallery, you'll see a ticker of the most recent activity on the Open Story, including a link to the most recently uploaded iReport as well as a link to see all of the iReports associated with this topic.

Story
This part comes from a CNN producer, and adds written context to all the photos and videos above.

Latest additions
iReports are vetted -- which means they're fact-checked and verified -- before they're included in the Open Story gallery and timeline. The latest additions box shows all of the most recently posted iReports on this topic.

Comments
Just like on any story on CNN.com - we're eager to hear what you think.