JTM/Silicon Valley: Innovation, democracy and a new ecology of news
NewsTools2008 – the narrative flow
’’What is NewsTools2008 going to be like?’’ you may be asking. To accompany the schedule, here’s a narrative flow (subject to change) that should help answer that question.
Breakouts teed up in advance
First, we are teeing-up “breakouts” in advance, so that people will
arrive with a clear expectation of some of the agenda, and so that we will
execute against their expectations with more care than we did at the DC
Sessions. The start of this process may be found at:
We aren’t setting the breakouts at specific times, and we’re going to make it
the responsibility of the people calling the breakouts to decide whether to go
forward with them, once they show up and see what else is in the room, what
else is happening, and how different ideas may appropriately be mashed up and
fleshed out.
Wednesday: The map, headlines and agenda circles
Wednesday late afternoon (4 p.m. start) and evening will be fairly structured, after a reception and some introductory remarks and agenda-setting.
Visualizing the future flows — a newsroom map
We’ll open by presenting the Journalism That Matters “newsroom mapping project” (presenting how-it-was and what-is-emerging). We’re look not just at how the news-manufacturing flows are changing, but how those changes are affecting the lives and passions of journalists.
*See: https://journalismthatmatters.org/silicon-valley/Jtm-sv-map
Headlines –- 10 technologies reshaping news
Then we’re going to ask 10 pre-designated participants to come up and speak for just minute each on one of the technologies they think has the most potential to disrupt and re-shape journalism (positively or negatively). Think of these one-minute insights as “headlines” about where we are and suggestions about where we’re headed.
Here’s the draft list so far:
*https://journalismthatmatters.org/silicon-valley/Jtm-sv-reshape
If you’d like to nominate yourself to be the one-minute agenda-setter for any of these 10 – or have an alternate formulation for one of the top ten, email us at jtm@mediagiraffe.org.
Setting the agenda: 10 circles
After the 10 minutes – so maybe it will be 15 minutes – but very short headlines . . . . we’ll break to 10 roundtables around Yahoo’s URL Cafeteria (where we’ll be meeting and eating on Wednesday evening). For the first time, you’ll meet fellow participants who are knowledgeable, passionate or just curious about one of the Top 10. You’ll work to suggest an agenda for how to task “Do Teams” and “Idea Teams,” meeting on Thursday and Friday, and prepare for our Thursday morning opening agenda-setting and breakout-calling session.
To stimulate our thinking, here’s some musing about “what journalism needs” from Silicon Valley:
*https://journalismthatmatters.org/silicon-valley/Jtm-sv-wish-lists
Thursday: Do it, discuss it, pitch it
On Thursday we’ll lead have a signature “open-space” activity for an hour to help get organized. We’ll gather circle-round in the largest of the Yahoo conference center rooms for no more than an hour and ask people to describe their breakout offerings. And we’ll certainly encourage people to say why they have shown up and what they want to accomplish. But we won’t require or expect everyone to speak up — we learned from
D.C. that with a larger group that becomes too time consuming.
Then folks will be off. We know that at least three tracks will be running:
Do teams – conceive, design, build
TRACK ONE: “Do Teams” typically co-lead by an engineer/geek and a
journalist/media person will spread out to begin conceiving, designing and
mapping out the construction of new tools for morphing and sustaining
journalism that matters. They will either be working around existing technology
which is newly applied to a journalism/news application, or they’ll be
concocting something technically novel — breaking new ground. These breakouts
may last a couple of hours, the whole day, or even into Friday and Saturday —
whatever it takes to leave with a new business, a new strategy, a new system, a
new set of relationships or a new application.
Idea teams – Create narratives and plans for a news future
TRACK TWO: “Idea Teams” lead by some of our key participants (such as you, dear reader) who step forward and set a time to meet on Thursday. The sessions will be of a size and composition determined by the participants based on their experience on Wednesday with the newsroom maps and the tech talks — and whatever happens in the Thursday opening circle.
We’ll encourage these “Idea Teams” to exchange best practices and new ideas around the technologies they are addressing. We’ll ask them to formulate advice for the event for breaking through to a new ecology of fact/data-rich, citizen-supported, machine-using, inclusive journalism that promotes participatory democracy, accountable government and open institutions.
Passion teams: Your chance to tell your story
TRACK THREE: “Personal Passion Teams” led by participants who have a particular idea or interest they wish to pursue. They’ll announce their sessions during the morning agenda setting. One of the benefits of this format is that it allows for unexpected breakthroughs to arise from the most unlikely sources.
DailyMe/Hauser talk: The state of personalization
During the buffet lunch period on Thursday, we’ll hear a short talk by by Eduardo Hauser, a National Public Radio board member, former executive of AOL Latin America and founder of DailyMe.com — one of our event co-sponsors. Eduardo will talk about news personalization.
In the late afternoon on Thursday, we’ll have a short circle-round check in
where we will hear some highlights of what occurred during the day.
VillageSoup, Topix – the reception, dinner and “untalent show”
Then we’ll move to our conference lodging, the just-renovated Domain Hotel, for
a reception and dinner, arranged logistically to maximize ease of conversation
and networking, and ending with an “untalent show” — where we make our own
entertainment — serious or fun.
Before dinner, Richard Anderson, founder of VillageSoup.com, will preview the open-source relaunch of his learn-share-shop local online news/community platform, underwritten by an $800,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. And during dessert, we’ll hear from Topix, the joint-venture aggregator of local and topical news and communication conversations. Both Topix and VillageSoup are cosponsors of NewsTools2008.
Friday: Widgets and trust – Sunlight Labs, Newstrust and more breakouts
FRIDAY:
Friday morning we’re starting early with two straighforward presentations, each for 30 minutes, one after the other:
— At 8:30 a.m., Bill Allison and some of his team at Sunlight are going to talk about their
new data-drive widget tools that we think are going to revolutionize the way
news organizations watch and connect policy dots around Congress, spending and influence.
— At 9 a.m., Fabrice Florin is going to preview new innovations and partnerships at
NewsTrust.net, the not-for-profit service that helps the public and experts discover and recommend quality news.
Morning meeting: The do, issue and passion breakouts continue
After the two presentations, we’ll go to our “morning meeting” (half-hour
max) to set the agenda for a working day, building on what happened on Thursday.
The sessions will continue through the afternoon, to a “Closing Circle,” where
we’ll wrap what we’ve learned generally, and hear status or completion reports
from the conceive/design/build teams. Some of those teams may continue working into Saturday.
Reception and facilitated dinner on our own
There will be an hor d’oeuvres reception, either at Yahoo or back at the hotel,
and we’re going to facilitate plan-your-own dinner activities for people
(including one option to eat at the Domain Hotel).
Saturday: “Innovations in Journalism Expo 2008” in partnership with SPJ
Saturday’s “Innovations in Journalism Expo 2008” is being arranged jointly with the Northern California SPJ chapter (principally Michael Stoll, Josh Wilson and Linda Jue). Including a box lunch. https://journalismthatmatters.org/silicon-valley/Jtm-sv-spj
and: http://artsandmedia.net/expo/journalism/
Generally:
*In the AM, after continental breakfast, companies and groups are invited to
buy and staff table areas to peddle their products, services and ideas
that are transforming journalism.
*Meanwhile, teams that want to continue their work from Friday may continue through the morning and present in the afternoon.
*In the afternoon,, we’re staging some break-out panels in a standard format.
There’s a wrap up end of day to encompass the whole week, And to give any still-working concept/design/build “Do Teams” a chance to report out what they’ve got.
We’ll end with an informal closing reception – a final chance to catch up with a key idea or person before we disperse.