Create or Die in Detroit

Session title:  What is required to nurture innovation?

Session convener:  Roger Gafke

Time:  3:30 p.m., June 5, 2010

Summary:

1.         Connections.  Innovators need connections.  Discussion suggested a high priority should be facilitating the expansion of an innovator^Ys
network in the depth of the contacts for specialties and the breadth of contacts to other areas that may, at the time, not seem relevant.

2.         Metrics.  How should success be measured and reported?  Innovators would benefit from the development of new ways of reporting success.
Potential funders of innovation would also benefit from fuller understanding of how to measure the success of the projects they might fund.

3.         Ideas.  Innovators would benefit from help in refining their core ideas particularly in translating those ideas into projects that move the
idea toward the market that serves people.

4.         Money.  Money is required at two levels ^S bringing a pilot to market and sustaining a demonstrated successful innovation without having to
re-define it for funders who constantly require pitches for ^new^] ideas.

5.         Time Banking and Match-making.  Might the community use these already available processes to connect innovators with experts and mentors they
need for specific tasks?

Topic: If/How does freelancing change with the changing industry

K–Wants to know to contribute and do it effectively, writes about any topic that interests, submits to online publications.  Keep it local it’s OK.  Suite101, Associated Content, looking for more online sites.  Paid based on hits and ads around site.  Paid by paypal.  If it’s local then locals will go to it.  At least 600 words long.

H–how do you present yourself if you’re a freelancer?

M–be self assured, in-your-face, confident.  you have to be bothering all the time until they tell you NO.

Ashlee–are there legal issues when you’re interviewing?

Marcelo–I’m interested in freelancing but it’s sad.  Underpaid.

K–trying to figure out how to get people to come to you when they don’t know who you are.  and to get people to listen.  Interested in blogging and doing something relevant to the community.  Building a reputation where you’re trying to.

Andrea–we face the same challenges as legacy media in terms of credibility.  Lost job in sept.  doesn’t have the discipline yet.  Need advice coming your way, straddling identity as a freelancer.  Maybe being a freelancer translates as unemployed.  We should be proud that we don’t want to affiliate with one news source.

Ashlee–trying to figure out in what capacity I could be a writer.  I’m trying to figure out how to use my talents.

Hyatt–trying to figure out what to do with my degree when I graduate.  Want to learn more about this concept of freelancing.

Lou–professor –looking for ideas for his students –always come to me for ideas and looks for guerilla ways for them to talk to people in online publications.

Geoff–guy in sacramento started a blog covering media and then got hired as a social media coordinator for a local tv stations.  get passionate about a niche and start writing about it and job starts coming your way.  queries not super well received.  they get lost in the shuffle

Andrea–for some freelancing is a bridge to get swallowed up by a larger project.  another way is to say I’m a freelancer .  the economy is pushing us out.  In NYC the freelancers union is considered one of the worst unions in the city and it’s one of the highest concentrations.  member of ass for independence in radio.  they offer a listserve that becomes your office space as a freelancer–a real community.  they offer mentorship programs, stipends for attending conferences, they also now work for corp of pub broadcasting for grants.  Freelancers often have the ideas.

Lou–demand media pays but is there a place where freelancers share–

Geoff–yahoo and aol spend millions a year on freelancers.  aol just bought patch–local level free stuff to build your resume.  one local paid editor and that editor runs a small neighborhood site, then a regional editor that manages.  not really freelancing bc it’s doing it for free.

gifting

Ashlee–worried about people stealing ideas.  everyone has to start somewhere.

Andrea–hates seeing social media intern–we want young people to come to our office and teach us but do it for free.

Geoff–we have an intern, she became our social media expert and now we pay her with benefits and she now has an intern.  It can lead to jobs.  so many of our paid staff came from interns.  our managing editor started as an intern two years ago.

K–don’t feel guilty for telling your students to work for free.  Interns won’t go/return to places that treat their interns badly.

Is there mentoring, are people getting feedback?

K–I got a lot of hard feedback.  I did learn a lot.  You have to ask how long am I going to ride this wave?  even the bad stuff is good.  I learned a lot about how to write fast and under pressure, which I don’t like at all.  as long as you get something out of it.

Ashlee–when you’re writing a freelance article, what is the goal? what are some resources?

Lou–one thing you can do s look at what the paper is covering–follow the briefs to see what the editor cares about, look into it further, you can pursue it and flesh it out.  Look, I know you care about it and would cover it if you had the staff.

Andrea–there’s something to be said for imitation.  look at a writer you admire and look at  how they work.  That’s what Ira Glass said.  I also make sure I’m really familiar with the radio show I’m pitching to, so I know what they’ve done.  It would be really embarrassing if I pitched something they’d already done.

Lou–Yeah, familiarity is key.

Marcela–also researching–stroke their ego, know what they’ve done.

Geoff–funny, random anecdote.  Temp worker that got a job from doing good SEO.  He made sure that his resume showed up first on the google search of the CEO he wanted to hire him.  It would be a funny way to get your work.

Geoff–yes

Bill–support service that supports them.

Harold–a lot of people who offer it but aren’t good

Geoff–you still need to understand the basics of those concepts

social media club, make friends of someone who knows it, basic philosophies
not just people who want your money

social media club, mashable

Lou–devote a month to just learning as much as you can

Geoff–stay on top of it.  There’s not a day that I don’t read 20 different blogs.  it’s really hard to keep up.

L–just knowing the industry is key. now if you know it ahead of time you can meet other people.

Andrea–you can’t just graduate and say I’m going to do just this for the rest of my life.  There’s a real fusion that’s going on .  people wanting to add skills to their bucket but you ned to really be interested.  how is it added into the work that you’re doing?

GEoff–photography is rough.  cameras are getting so great that you’re seeing our amateur photog coming in with really great photos

Harold–photog friend .  most really good photog that are making story are those who can tell a story.  good news for those who can tell story but arent’ nec. photogs.  a series of photos that can sell.

Laketa–how do you get the stories told?  How do you choose which stories to tell?

G–as peole who receive 9 jillion press releases. . . . I just tune them out.  Blog about it on your site and use social media to promote it. Start a fanpage for whatever you’re doing on facebook.  Start tweeting about different things.  Just try to circumvent traditional media.  It’s realy tough and there’s a reason.  There’s just so much. Skip the middle man

Harold–reach out to your network.

Andrea–press releases make me think about when you’re on your own those story ideas are up to you.  I let people know I”m a freelancer and to let me know.  I take in story ideas.  I’ll take ideas.  I can’t guarantee you.  the more I have coming in, the more I can be connected to my community.

Q: how do you stay in touch with your community when you’re a single entity, when you’re a freelancer.

Harold:But you’re not a single entity.  you have your network.  on facebook, etc.

Marcela–you know what he’s doing is making people feel someone cares about them
I used to go to the local newspaper.  It depends on where do you live.

Ashlee–as freelancers why would you ever discriminate against what stories you pick up?

Andrea–as a freelancer you’re still trying to narrow your focus.

G–get involved in the communities and don’t pitch, just get involved and it will happen.

harold–there’s a paradigm, shift–teaching of open space  even big mainstream media are doing things but they’re not.  the reality is they have their niche, their focus, as does everyone else.  that’s just the reality.  If you’re too broad, you end up serving no one.  If you narrow it, then you love that small group, that passion, then you can start growing from there.

G–should freelancers be more open about what they write about?

K–I don’t mind writing about anything.  I’ve been criticized for it.  But it’s like a free education.  I have my interests, but I don’t have an expertise.

Marin–professional dilettantes.  double edged sword.

Taleka–interested in healthcare.  started to read other healthcare writers, and decided I wasn’t really to go marching in that direction, so I have not attacked it in the way that I want.  There’s a formula to each genre.  the circles, the crowd, the audiences are different.

L-how did you learn

Marin–change–used to learn by medium.  no longer that way.  You have to be a generalist.

geoff–huge shifts.

K–trad. media offered you beats, so you got to learn.  You start out shifting around.

Andrea-when you find that spot for your work, you become more valuable to editors. develop that identity.  how do you find your stories.  You can follow trade publications, blogs, talk to friends and family.

L–how do you build your relationships with different media?

Andrea–sometimes as an intern.  but there are disadvantages–

Ashlee–advantages in applying for internships.

Andrea–knowing the show/publications.

Geoff–just be literate.  don’t have spelling, grammar mistakes.  Also, don’t bullshit me.  I see through it in five seconds.  Go in with a humble attitude.  The people I like the most are people who genuinely have that fire.  build a portfolio.  it’s hard work and passion.  hard workers stand out.

how would you advise someone from being an intern to being an editorial assistant?

G–I can’t speak to trad. media.  so the answer is there’s no way.  the best writing is great, but if it’s done by someone who’s not reliable, then there’s no way.

Ashlee–what would you want to see on a blog or a website?

G–what do you want to write? what do you look for?

Ash–pictures, clothes, designers.

G–do it.  You could work for the gilt group–a sample sale website.

T–is it vital to have your own website and market yourself?

Harold–make a friend here, today, and they’ll get you set up in 10 minutes and it will look good.

Andrea–andreasilenzi.com

G–just go to wordpress.com

H–you could start a group, people can meet.

Frank may add some additional notes; here are some rough notes from me.

— Bill

Geoff Samek and Kwan Booth offered great lessons learned from their two successful start-ups, Oakland Local and Sacramento Press. Examples: Social media training is emerging as a valuable sideline for Sacramento Press (now providing an estimated 25 percent of revenue). One way to think about this might be news-as-loss-leader, with little or no direct revenue attributable to the reporting but establishing the wherewithal to offer such expert services as social media training. Kwan pointed out that this approach works for individual bloggers as well, e.g. they make little or no money from the blog itself but it establishes them as valuable thought leaders capable of charging significant fees for their consulting services.  In addition, Kwan described the benefits of including someone who’s been-through-it-before in a leadership position. In the case of Oakland Local, that would be Susan Mernit.

Geoff argued in favor of a pro-am model, pushing the term amateur (the root of which connotes love) as opposed to citizen journalist.

Geoff said Sacramento Press has discovered that some sorts of reporting don’t typically lend themselves well to amateur reporting, includi ng stories about city politics and business development that require well-developed sources over time. Sacramento Press has added some professional journalists and is spending about $60,000 a month on its news operation. The operation, including its social media coaching initiative, is generating about $30,000 a month in revenue. Sacramento Press can afford to run this deficit, Geoff pointed out, because its founders are independently wealthy and are prepared to make a big investment.

Other revenue streams for Sacramento Press include banner advertising and a local advertising network called SLOAN, which Geoff said now represents the third largest online audience in Sacramento (after the Bee and (not sure of the second) a TV operation?)

Participating publishers get 60 percent of the ad revenue generated, with Sacramento Press getting 25 to 35 percent and third party vendors the remainder. Adify provides the network services.

Kwan encouraged media entrepreneurs to take advantage of centers providing training and advice, especially the Knight Digital Media Center. I pitched the Bottom Line News seminar we have coming up at Poynter July 12-16: www.poynter.org/bottomlinenews.

Geoff raised the idea of finding a hole in the market and filling it, also described as finding market pain and easing it. In the case of Sacramento Press, he said the Sacramento Bee closed its regional bureaus, creating the need for coverage of lots of local developments.

As the session drew to a close, we identified a range of unanswered questions for another day:

• If you’re running as hard as you can to develop revenue streams to pay the bills, how do you make sure to carve out enough time for journalism — and not just journalism, but journalism that matters?
• What non-financial incentives work best for content contributors? (Amanda Michel of ProPublica has addressed this elsewhere, noting that most of the volunteers she worked with at Off the Bus (HuffPost) and now at ProPublica are not so much interested in writing as in contributing their other talents of information collection, analysis, etc. They often derive satisfaction (key to incentives) from a sense of worthwhile work completed, participation in a larger initiative that matters. etc.
• How big does any given start-up need to be?
• And perhaps most importantly, what’s the best way for a start-up to pose and address the core question: what’s our journalistic purpose?

This was a follow up session for Sonya, who had convened a session on Friday to gather more technical help on website support and maintenance. Today she wanted to focus on community engagement.

Before we tackled ways to encourage visitors to interact with her site, Community News, which she hopes will serve a Western Michigan audience, we gave her more practical feedback.

Invitation: where on the site is an invitation for visitors to submit writing, vote for stories, participate in a poll or add content? Those tools have to be prominent in order to be welcoming.

Identify your goal. Sonya’s is to make Community News an interactive nws site. She currently has 8 columnists adding content, but no citizen participation.

Have a Snapshot of Enterprise: what’s your business plan? What’s your target audience. We gave Sonya many examples of ways to tackle this problem. She may choose to organize her site around a general topic, or a smaller region.

Community News used to be an African American bi-weekly publication. Sonya acquired it 3 months ago and wants it to be more things to more people. We encouraged her to do so, but with a more sharp focus or niche, so she doesn’t get overwhelmed or overload visitors. Coming at community reporting (Sonya has 20 yrs. experience) from a specific angle doesn’t prevent reporting out all kinds of stories that would fit under tabs similar to the ones she has now: Education, Faith, College Life etc.

What about branding? Changing up the site to fit Sonya’s style better is one solution–with phrases she’d use and design that reflect her. That’s one way to build an audience, though it’s the harder way, according to Bill. Becoming a reliable, go-to source for whatever area of interest or angle Sonya chooses is a simpler way.

Avoid the “website on steroids” complex. Too many options, bells, whistles or categories make a visitor’s experience uncomfortable. The home page should be inviting and welcoming. I can have drop-down menues, but should have tons of choices on top.

Bringing in the audience: there are so many options for welcoming contributors to participate on a community site. The spectrum runs from open forum to highly selective editorial process. Sonya want’s to fall somewhere toward the latter with full story contributors, but liked the notion of including more open crowdsourcing projects within specific areas, as well as utilizing interactive widgets such as polls or Flickr stream displays.

What about Facebook? (Collective groan fm. participants). Sure, it’s important to allow readers to share content on their OWN profiles–it’s a form of endorsement and affirmation. But DON’T make another news fan page that just spits your content out. It distracts from your own site and …well, newsy Facebook pages are annoying.

Harold dropped in and we asked a few more practical questions about WordPress vs. Drupal. He advised that if you want to get more creative, Drupal will allow you more options. He finds WP’s pages/blog stream system limiting. With Drupal you have more options when giving admins permissions and you can ask visitors to register with your site, so you know who your members are (but it’s not required for the whole site experience).

We didn’t get through the goal to create 12 steps, but here are a few:

1. Stick to an angle you know and care about

2. Identify and understand your audience

3. Think about community participation on many levels, from article submissions to sound-offs or comments.

5. Make sure tools you ask contributors to use are easy to understand. Use them yourself and seed the crowdsourcing project with your own work to set the tone.

4. Google maps are fun. Visitors like to interact with and contribute to them.

5. You don’t need to reinvent tools for interactivity. There’s a widget for everything. Look in WordPress or Drupal help sites for links to more tools to employ.

First pass at come ideas, thoughts from session that focused on how social games can increase undertanding of journalism – how it happens, what skills needed, creating watchdogs over government – and its role into civic enagement.

The session included disucssion on types of games, examples of games, racial and gender issue in games, the state of gaming journalism, and ..

It “ended” with the idea of creating a game built around the ideals of journalism, including valor, exposing information that is vital to the public but often supressed and letting people practice journalism skills in a non-classroom, non-lecture way.

What gaming does/must do:

• Brain wipe – clients share common interest; break from conflict; provide energy breaks
• Allow you to absorb information in fun way
• Vehicle to learn
• Fun
• Venue of communication
• Create safe places to discuss issues/ideas unexpectedly
• Often, users can add on to the game, take it places that the developers did not originally plan

Games – types, advantages, why:

• Consule vs Internet
• FarmVille:
• Mirror
• Grand Auto Theft
• Sim City
• Crazy Deer
• Diner Dash
• Newseum – play reporter on computer; get rated for story

Gaming journalism:

• Almost impossible to thrive as magazine, Internet site if you criticize games because you need developers to give you games so that you can have exclusives to draw audeiecne
• Gaming industry in early stages; comapre to how art or music criticism began
• Are all people refelected in games? Do I see people like me in positive roles?

Gaming bias/issues:

Example: Sim City won’t let you succeed if you allow only public transportation

Example: Blacks cast as athletes or villans; few Asians unless games from Asian countries

Why: Very few blacks, minorities become developers;

Atlanta afterschool program hires black students to test games; learn link between games and development

Suggestion: Move beyond violence to see story; interaction

Can we create a game to increase understanding about how journalism works?

• Avoid recreating what we have now to increase opportunties of what we could have
• Help foster citizen journalists
• Make journalism in the field like a mystery game, picking up clues
• Add different characters – what happens if SuperMan energizes self by becoming Clark Kent? (Would clark kent have his job today?) What happens if the game is through the eyes of an editor, a yellow journalist, a Citizen Kane, a citizen journalist, a videographer?

Can we create a game that creates journalism, reporting on a community, government, issue?

• Participants collect information to do audit on community/governement resource; gain points and can level up with new, accurate information

Can we create a game showing link between journalism and civic engagement?

Ideas

Look at creating a mystery that allows participant to pick up puzzle pieces or pieces of a story to end up with a result.

Advice:

Keep it easy to start

Consider mentro that can pop in to help

Platform: