Archive for September, 2007

Date: September 25th, 2007
Cate: Current Affairs, Links and People, My Work, New York/San Francisco, Quote

15 Days Until The Networked Journalism Summit

NetworkedjournalismThe first Summit on Networked Journalism is fast approaching. I have my fair share of work to do before
the actual conference. But it is exciting work – I get to report on the best practices and practitioners of the emerging art of networked journalism. I’ve been interviewing plenty of people and sucking out all their brain juices (yum).

I won’t be blogging here at Digidave.org much until after the conference.

Why?

Because I have to report on all the conversations for the Networked Journalism Summit here — NewsInnovation.com. That’s where I’ll be the next two weeks.

That combined with organizing logistics for the conference and still trying to get other work things done = no time for personal blogging.

BUT

I do have one good suggestion if you are looking for lighter reading: My journo-friend Maurreen Skowran (who is meticulous in the best way possible) has been bitten by the blogging vampire and is now a blogger herself.

Her First post is both poetic and telling.

"The Web whispered.
We didnâ??t hear it when it was born. We didnâ??t hear it start breathing…."

Date: September 19th, 2007
Cate: Social News

Ask the Top Diggers a Question

(Just for keeping a link record: Here is my last story related to Social News, which was published on Wired, not on this blog: Hunting Down Digg’s Bury Brigade).

From The Drill Down

Muhammad Saleem, Andrew Sorcini & Reg “Zaibatsu” represent three of the top submitters on the social news networks of Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. On an upcoming episode of  “The Drill Down” We’ll answer your questions about Social News networks, submitting techniques, and generally anything you’d like to know about social bookmarking.

From Digidave

Last week I met with Mr.BabyMan and it gave me the idea for a social bookmarkers conference.

It spawned another idea for him: Andrew invited me to be a guest on his Podcast, The Drill Down. The question was — what would my role be as a guest?

I’m a journalist who both participates and covers social news sites. Journalists often act as moderators — and that’s what I’ll be doing in the above episode.

I told Andrew that I would do it on one condition: I get to ask tough questions — I don’t want to just ask fluffy “why are you so cool” questions.

So help me think of real brain teasers, grilling questions that will force these top social bookmarkers to come up with thoughtful and telling responses. Either send me an email (dcohn1 AT gmail DOT com) or comment below.

Date: September 18th, 2007
Cate: Links and People
1 msg

While I’m Moving

I’ve landed in the Bay Area. Posting will be light while I get Internet set up and catch up with my life.

In the meantime, enjoy this piece

Top 10 Green Diggers

Digidave got an honorably mention. Hooray. But it should also be noted that the author is a friend of mine from Columbia J-school and I introduced him to Aidenag — who ended up getting the final victory (much deserved).

Anyways. please enjoy the elevator music of this blog while I arrange my life.

Date: September 14th, 2007
Cate: Journalism Practice, My Work, New York/San Francisco, Web/Tech

Networked Journalism Summit

Via Boss Jarvis

Here, at last, is a full description of the Networked Journalism Summit we’ve been organizing at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. I’m really excited about the event: a great list of people participating, many best practices and lessons to share, lots of possibility for new efforts to come out of the meeting:

* * *

The Networked Journalism Summit bringing together the best practices and practitioners in collaborative, pro-am journalism â?? will be held on Oct. 10 at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, thanks to a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

This is a day about action: next steps, new projects, new partnerships, new experiments. The first two-thirds of the day will be
devoted to sharing lessons, ideas, and plans with a representative sample of different kinds of efforts, hyperlocal to national to
international, with participants from big and small media, from editorial and business, from the U.S., Canada, the U.K, Germany, and France. The last third of the day will be devoted to what’s next, with participants meeting to come up with new collaborations.

What makes this meeting different? We hope this does: (read below the click)

more))

Date: September 12th, 2007
Cate: Current Affairs, Environment/Geography, Journalism Theory/Analysis, My Work, New York/San Francisco, Open Source and Community, Social News, Straight Geek, Web/Tech
17 msgs

Social Bookmarker’s Conference 2008

Today I met with MrBabyMan, the top Digger in the world. I had never met another top Digger in person, although I talk with many of them online frequently.

Truth be told, I had always thought he was a stay-at-home father — how else could he find all the time to Digg so much?  I was wrong. Mr.Baby is well employed.

It was nice finally getting a chance to meet a fellow social bookmarker in the flesh. There is only so much effective communication you can do online. Nothing can replace the face-to-face meeting. We chatted, swapped stories and speculated about all the different things we imagine will happen in the future of social news.

An idea I’ve tossed around with some of the other Netscape Scouts (soon to be working for Propeller), Diggers and Viners is a social bookmarkers conference. It already has a nice acronym: SBC08 (Social Bookmarker’s Conference 08). That acronym could also stand for Social Bookmarking Camp, if we want to stay closer to the unconference world of BarCamp, PodCamp, etc.

Why shouldn’t social bookmarkers have their own conference? If the Trekkie’s can have conventions, why can’t we? Organizing tools are free and easy to use online.

Just say "SBC" a few times.

It rolls right off the tongue.

Don’t you want to go to it already?

It would be a chance for people from every social bookmarking site — from Reddit and Del.icio.us to the obscure (but tasty) sites like NewsTrust to the new startups like Brijit.com, to come together, shake hands, network a little and have a few laughs.

I don’t imagine we’d have too many serious issues to tackle — but if we wanted we could try and be really ambitious: A Bill of Rights for Social Bookmarkers — not unlike the Social Media Bill of Rights, or we could use it as an excuse to hang out and get drunk later in the night. It’s all up for grabs. I imagine it would be an unconference anyways – the agenda would be somewhat adhoc. Nothing is set is stone at this point.

Sbc08_convention

Today SBC08 is really just an idea I’ve tossed around while talking with other people. If we could get Revision Three, Propeller, Reddit and Del.ici.us and a few others to split the bill, it seems possible that we could rent a hotel lobby and get some food for the event.

But before anybody actually comes to any of these companies asking for money to throw a social bookmarking convention, it makes sense to test the waters first. Am I way off on this? Is a social bookmarkers conference anti-thetical to the community? Am I a jerk for even proposing it?

Right now I’m organizing a conference on citizen journalism in New York. When that is done, if there is enough positive chatter about SBC08, then I’ll try to make it happen. Once the logistics of money are handled it would just be a matter of picking a host city and spreading the word.

So here I am, testing the waters. If this is something you’d be interested in, let me know by commenting either on this blog post or whatever social news site you found this post on (just make sure I can reach you, so that I can keep you up to date on progress). If it gets enough comments it’ll be easier to come to the social news companies to ask for sponsorship.

If you have any suggestions — all are welcome.

NOTE: If this does get traction, I’ll probably blog its progress here (or I’ll get another URL if I’m feeling giddy). Either way — issues will be openly discussed, decisions like host city will be made in the public and will take into account public input, and I hope the general process, if it does happen, will be a pleasurable experience to organize. But don’t expect this conference to happen overnight. It’s called SBC2008 for a reason. I’d expect it to be in the spring of next year — assuming we are able to find sponsors for it early in 2008, when I’ll hopefully be able to put more time into this.

NOTE 2: Full disclosure – I am a Netscap Scout — soon to be working for Propeller.com. This post/idea is my own and does not represent my employer or whatever the hell I’m supposed to write to make sure they don’t get mad at me.

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