Convened by Tom Stites, Founder and President of the Banyan Project<\/p>\n
Participants:
\nRuss Baker, Founder\/Editor, WhoWhatWhy.org
\nSarah van Gelder, Yes! Magazine
\nJennifer Lehman, writer\/future student
\nSarah Van Gelder, Executive Editor of Yes! magazine
\nRob Williams, Publisher\/Editor, Vermont Commons
\nJosh Wolf, Freelance journalist
\nMary Treacy, ex-librarian, former director, Minnesota Coalition on Government Information, Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
News Co-ops<\/p>\n
Tom Stites\u2019 Banyan Project is building a prototype for a collection of news co-ops brought together by value principles and open-source editing software currently being designed. The group exchanged ideas, offered suggestions, questions and what ifs on the topic of news co-ops. <\/p>\n
.
\nBanyan Project model (banyanproject.coop):<\/p>\n
-News co-ops are like food co-ops and credit unions in that they are local<\/p>\n
-All co-ops start small. REI became huge, lost their model and joined the traditional marketplace.<\/p>\n
-Banyan Project (building a network of co-ops) is based on the idea that if journalism is relevant to lives, respectful and valuable, readers\/engagement will come.
\n -News co-op structure will illicit volunteer cooperation
\n -News co-ops are beyond a business model…a model that insists on a different kind of journalism that is from the people up vs. top down.
\n -Co-ops are most trustworthy form of business b\/c of built-in accountability
\n -Community is at the center, editor is a group hire accountable to board\/readers
\n -Editor one level removed from community editorial decisions, not a content free for all
\n -Least central control is best, each co-op is idiosyncratic, based on individual community
\n -Co-ops need central group with good listening skills, leadership skills and a checked ego. <\/p>\n
Building Online Community:<\/p>\n
-Online comments are not community and aren\u2019t really engagement
\npeople need to be able to find each other, more possible with co-op model
\n-No anonymity
\n-Group moderation, flagging system
\n-Comments move into conversation space (searchable threaded archive) rather than just day of story
\n-Hybrid online and face-to-face
\n-Question of the week, engagement<\/p>\n
Questions\/Concerns\/What ifs:<\/p>\n
Least central control is best to allow communities to fit their needs, but what level of control is required from the central organization? Need to find balance.
\n – Banyan hopes to maintain balance through their unique software made available for free to partner co-ops
\n -Software (still being created) includes some editorial barriers\/tips
\n -(ex:) pop-ups reminding team \u201cdoes what you\u2019ve written match the value proposition?\u201d or reminders to check spelling of names<\/p>\n
Dealing with the stray groups (groups acting outside of Banyan\u2019s values)
\n -TED has come out against specific TED talks that aren\u2019t with their values (such as ESP presenters they feared would alienate hard-science speakers)
\n -Are very strong principles needed? People\/co-ops will need to buy into ideals in the beginning and then discuss\/determine if there is too much straying
\n -Banyan project model writes into agreement that co-op can be cut<\/p>\n
Some co-ops may never survive because the culture is never set or is not sustainable.
\n -How to set co-op culture from the beginning?<\/p>\n
Possibilities\/Ideas\/Other Comments:<\/p>\n
Member levels: reader member, institutional member, producer member. <\/p>\n
Worker owned co-op?
\nThis biz model is growing, Stites says, but news co-ops need to be community based, not worker based. <\/p>\n
What is the flexibility for each co-op?
\n\u201cBanyan software will be the hymnal, but you don\u2019t have to sing all the hymns\u201d – Stites
\nSomeone from group: \u201cSoftware cannot drive what you are doing\u201d<\/p>\n
Co-op Alignment Idea
\n-VISA model
\n-basic principles agreed to then you can call yourself Visa (or part of the Banyan Project), principles reviewed over time<\/p>\n
Co-op Internal Structure Example
\n-One excellent editor who knows journalism
\n-One excellent manager — needs to have significant community organization skills (or consider a third position for community organization\/outreach)<\/p>\n
Working Films model (www.workingfilms.org)
\n-Purpose is to create social change with movies
\n-Org. works with filmmakers, identify market, stakeholders, constituents who then become editorial board\/members
\n-Board\/members have place to go\/something to do, involvement, content ideas<\/p>\n
\u201cJournalism should trump ideology.\u201d –willingness to be surprised, to change mind<\/p>\n
Journalists and Journalism
\n -\u201cThe word journalism has lost fixed meaning.\u201d – Stites
\n -Banyan\u2019s definition: reliable information people need make their best life\/citizenry decisions
\nfrom the group: \u201cDoesn\u2019t this lead to a need\/desire for professional, excellent journalists?\u201d
\n -Not everyone can be a journalist — but everyone can be trained<\/p>\n
Books to Read (recommended by Stites):<\/p>\n
\u201cPenguin and the Leviathan\u201d by
\nPenguin is Linux and Leviathan is Hobbs
\n-shows depth of human collaborative urge
\n-web takes tension out of volunteer cooperation
\n-collaboration urge turned off with money<\/p>\n
\u201cFuture Perfect\u201d by Steven Johnson
\n-puts ideas found in \u201cPenguin and Leviathan\u201d into a political framework<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Convened by Tom Stites, Founder and President of the Banyan Project Participants: Russ Baker, Founder\/Editor, WhoWhatWhy.org Sarah van Gelder, Yes! Magazine Jennifer Lehman, writer\/future student Sarah Van Gelder, Executive Editor of Yes! magazine Rob Williams, Publisher\/Editor, Vermont Commons Josh Wolf, Freelance journalist Mary Treacy, ex-librarian, former director, Minnesota Coalition on Government Information, Minneapolis. News Co-ops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":791,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,12],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-session-notes","tag-banyan-project","tag-news-co-ops"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/conversations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}