Creating Community, Connecting Industry at the ONA Conference
ONA08, the Online News Association’s national conference, has launched several sites online, where you can connect with others who will be in Washington, in person or in avatar, next week.
There’s:
- A Twitter feed that’s the “control tower” for all things ONA08 online
- An embeddable Twitter widget that collects all tweets tagged @ONA08 and #ONA08
- A pre-conference podcast series (RSS feed | iTunes subscription)
- A public bulletin board for discussing panels and workshops, arranging meetings, and making last-minute announcements
- A conference-focused Facebook group
- And the ONA08 conference homepage, where you’ll find on-the-scene reports about ONA08 produced by the very talented student newsroom.
My team, the ONA08 Social Media Subcommittee, wants to make ONA08 as much about community as it is about industry. I hope you’ll join the conference online and in person. And if you want to get a hold of me, send me a message or reach me on Twitter.
The Subcommittee members are Mary Ann Chick Whiteside, who will be among those liveblogging the conference; Paul Hyland, who’s been a creative sounding board and instrumental in gathering volunteers for on-site help; and Steven Lubetkin, who’s putting in a tremendous effort producing the podcasts. This conference is made possible in no small part because of them.
Tim Robbins Tells Off Broadcasters
Actor and activist Tim Robbins was opening keynote speaker at the recent National Association of Broadcasters conference. An interesting choice, for sure.
When the time came, Robbins balked, according to an AdAge report.
After a bit of confusion, Robbins took the stage and gave a speech that entertained the audience before delivering a thrashing.
Here, in its entirety, is the speech.
(via Paper Tiger TV)
If You Controlled the News, What Would You Do?
The news business, and it is a business, is getting squeezed. There are those who think “big J” journalism is a waste of effort and resources at a time when we can count exactly how many people spend time reading the stories, watching the videos, and clicking around on our interactive features.
Strapped for cash, the easy answer is to do things that drive traffic: produce more photo galleries; publish more “gotchas,” celebrity and entertainment news; follow and there by feed controversy; play up drama and conflict.
Does that mean that the fundamental mission of journalism — to find answers to incisive questions; to explore and reveal the world around us; to gather and check facts and report back; to challenge authority — ought to be left in the wings while we make enough money to get us past this rough patch?
Tim Robbins, actor, director and activist, had a few things to say about that during the National Association of Broadcasters conference, which closed last week.
Maybe we the public don’t need the things Robbins is talking about, but clearly, the numbers show us it’s what people are paying attention to. On the other hand, in surveys and day-to-day conversation, people say they want something better than what’s on offer.
So I ask: As a member of the public — not as a journalist — what kinds of stories do you seek out? How do you spend your time when you’re not working on news? And if you’re not in the media business, what do you spend your time looking for, reading and watching? And what aren’t you finding that you’d like to find?
ONA Conference Info Now on Facebook Group
If you’re on Facebook and you’re interested in the Online News Association conference in September, join the growing Facebook group.
This year’s conference promises to have more hands-on workshops, more networking opportunities, a backchat channel, and more discussions about the business side of the news business.
Full conference details can be found on the conference website.
By the way, if you like the logo above, kudos go to Scott Johnson, Associated Press Multimedia art director.
Computation + Journalism Videos Posted
Didn’t make it to the Journalism 3G symposium in Atlanta? Catch up on what you missed.
Georgia Tech has posted videos of the talks and panels, and links posted by conference attendees.
What’s the Big Deal With TED? Watch for Free Tonight
The TED conference has been surrounded by some pretty heavy mystique since its inception almost 20 years ago.
This year’s conference seems to be changing that. In addition to the main conference in Monterey, Calif., 300 people are in Colorado, attending a simultaneous gathering at TED@Aspen.
TED organizers announced they’ll be live streaming the TED Prize ceremony today at 5:15 p.m Pacific Time.
The TED Prize is awarded to those whose work extends beyond their area of specialty to educate, inform and enlighten people around the world.
This year’s winners are Karen Armstrong, a former Roman Catholic nun who has become an authority on comparative religion; Dave Eggers, author, philanthropist and founder of the 826 writing labs for kids; and Neil Turok, a cosmologist and education activist.
In addition to the $100,000 prize, the recipients are granted a wish that’s fulfilled through donated goods, services and connections.
What does this have to do with news? Aside from the conference being something of news itself, it may spark broader thinking about the nature of news, and what is possible online. Each one of the recipients started in a single calling and through curiosity and application expanded and shared their body of knowledge.
Learn more about this year’s TED Prize recipients and read up on live blogs from the conference before watching the ceremony.
Keeping Up With We Media
Down in Miami, people are recovering from a massive power outage.
Now that the power’s back to most of the city, I expect We Media Miami will be kicking off.
In addition to scanning Twitter and following Web posts by other attendees, conference organizer iFocos has an embeddable widget that carries the latest from the official blog.
Not a bad way to spread the word.
Watch Journalists and Other Web Geeks in Action
As mentioned earlier this week, the live webcast from “Journalism 3G: The Future of Technology in the Field” (a symposium on computation + journalism) begins at 1 p.m. ET.
Speakers and panelists include:
- Krishna Bharat - Principal Scientist at Google and creator of Google News
- Ian Bogost - videogame designer, critic, and researcher, Assistant Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner at Persuasive Games
- David Cohn - Beatblogging.org and NewAssignment.net
Ezra Cooperstein - Director of Development and Production for the Viewer-Created Content group at Current TV - Leah Culver - Founder of Pownce, a San Francisco-based micro-blogging service
- John Geraci - Co-Creator of outside.in
- Mark Hansen - Co-PI of the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing at UCLA, creator of sensorbase.org (and one of the guys who created the cool art installation in the NYTimes Tower)
- Alexander Hauptman - Senior Systems Scientist working on the Informedia: News-on-Demand project at Carnegie Mellon University
- Elizabeth Spiers - media columnist for Fast Company magazine, founding editor of Gawker.com
Check out the full list of speakers, then be sure to watch the webcast. QuickTime 7 or later required.
News Flash: In Blogging, Timing Matters
Those who blog conscientiously know this already, but it’s worth bringing up this excellent post from Mindy McAdams.
Today, OC Register science columnist Gary Robbins spoke at a panel about blogging during the Future of Science Journalism Symposium.
In addition to writing about things his local audience can actually see and experience for themselves, Robbins times his Sciencedude posts to have the most impact:
The idea that “people will find it” is a vestige of the old journalism, Robbins said — no, they won’t find it, unless you play it correctly.
Therefore, it pays to know your metrics. Any site that doesn’t let its producers see Web traffic is wasting opportunities to tailor its content for maximum traffic, which translates, of course, into money. Think about that.
(via Teaching Online Journalism)
Journalists Get Geeky in Georgia
Starting Friday, journalists and researchers from all over will gather at Georgia Tech for Journalism 3G: The Future of Technology in the Field.
Though there hasn’t yet been a lot of discussion on the group’s CrowdVine site, a look at the member list shows a wide swath of interesting minds and movers who are pushing online journalism to be more than just text + photo + video + comments.
According to the conference website, there almost 220 people have registered. If you can’t make down to Georgia, you can watch the live webcast starting Feb. 22 at 1 p.m. ET
