Submitted by montanacate on Mon, 09/13/2010 – 7:33pm

Journalism That Matters is pleased to announce the first public meeting of a JTM initiative in a series of public initiative meetings scheduled monthly from September through July 2011.

The Puget Sound Civic Communications Commons is holding an open discussion Friday, September 24, from 3 pm to 6 pm at the Seattle Center House in Seattle. The meeting is being held to update the community on the progress of the Commons and examine how the Commons will serve as an information hub and conversation place for news topics in the Puget Sound region. The discussion, which is part of a larger three-day initiative development meeting, is sponsored by “The Next Fifty and Seattle Center Foundation.”

Friday’s meeting will be lead by guest moderator Lewis A. Friedland, professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of Public Journalism, and Civic Innovation in America. The question the discussion will center around is: In what ways could an online civic commons contribute to the well-being of our communities?

Attendance is limited to 50 people, so please contact JTM to get on the list of attendees and join some of the following JTM members who will be attending, including: Matt Rosenberg from Countywide Community Forums of King County, Pam Kilborne-Miller from the Connecting for Change Program and the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, Lief Utne, VP of Community Development of Zanby, and Rod Wittmier, founder of VetsMeetVets.

Over the last ten years numerous exciting project initiatives have developed out of JTM unconferences around the country. From the Common Language Program, informing Americans of crucial issues of our times, and spot.us which focuses on the public commission of journalists to report on overlooked, yet important community topics, JTM has served as an incubator for innovations in the field of communications.

Journalism That Matters Initiatives

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Known as “collaboratories,”  the following initiatives are projects that have sprung from gatherings and events that JTM sponsors, as well as from individual members. The initiatives are as varied as the interests and needs of the people they serve.

Pacific Northwest

Seattle Journalism Commons: Led by Mike Fancher, former Seattle Times executive editor, this group plans to link journalism projects and initiatives with potential donors.

Online Media Guide: Jacob Caggiano of the Washington News Council is mapping media news and information outlets across the state.

Digital Literacy Initiative: Common Language Project leader, Sarah Stuteville leads this initiative aimed towards teaching students how to become more informed media consumers and  participants.

TAO of Journalism: Washington News Council president, John Hamer, is developing a pledge and seal of transparent, accountable, open journalism for display on media websites.

Public Eye Northwest: Lead by former Seattle Times op-ed writer, Matt Rosenberg, this project is developing a public document database called “Public Data Ferret.”

Global Health Journalism Northwest: Pamela Kilborn-Miller of Connecting for Change Program at the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education,  Dr. Michael McCarthy of the Local Health Guide, and Sanjay Bhatt, president of Seattle AAJA head this initiative surveying the health sector for future reporting.

Microfinance: The  initiative is investigating ways to provide business and micro-finance training for journalists.

JTM Online and JTM Publishing: Headed by Brian Glanz, the JTM web initiative is updating the JTM website, creating an online community site for JTM members and journalists, and developing a potential business platform for the JTM Collaboratory by providing web hosting and other online opportunities for journalists.

JTMPNW Collaboratory: Lead by JTM co-founder Peggy Holman, this group provides support for all the initiatives.

Detroit

The Living Textbook helps seventh grade, primarily Arab American students to tell their stories.  Its focus on young, diverse story-tellers met our criteria well.Principals: Emilia Askari and Joe Grimm.

Operation Promise: College Connection will provide an interactive, multi-media search for Michigan colleges, universities and trade schools which qualify for the Kalamazoo Promise Funding.  It experiments with crowd-sourcing and user generated content.
Principal: Sonya Bernard-Hollins.

Front Street – www.detiptv.com uses the Internet to enable community to take greater responsibility for their own information.  It experiments with TV on the web, working with Black, Arab, Latino, and White communities. Principal: Tim Moore.

The Michigan News Center – www.MichiganNewsCenter.org – is a non-partisan source for issues of public interest, especially investigative reporting that performs a watchdog and accountability role.  It approaches a traditional journalistic role in a new way, with a stated intention to share tools, equipment, and their platform with voices in the African-American, Latino, Muslim, and Caucasian communities. Principal: Steve Wilson.

Red Ink – http://www.make-them-think.org/ – provides public, socially driven and open source software for understanding consumer spending patterns. It experiments with visualization and public accessibility to aggregate data to support economic understanding and better quality social action. Principal: Ryan O’Toole.

Re-inventing Assignment Detroit – Transform Time Inc.’s Assignment Detroit into a multiplatform, community centered vision whose mission is to reimagine the image of Detroit. Principal: Juanita Anderson.

JTM Success Stories

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• Common Language Project – Kalamazoo
  It’s mission: to engage, educate and inform Americans of all ages on the crucial human issues of our time through innovative and accessible journalism.
• spot.us – Washington, D.C.
  Community powered reporting – the public can commission and participate with journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics.