Update on BarCamp NewsInnovation

I keep hearing from many people that the more they learn about BarCamp NewsInnovation the more excited they get. That’s a good thing, and I’m psyched too. But there is still much to do and much to get figured out, so here I am, again, asking for your feedback and help.

First, here is the latest: The national meet up is scheduled for Saturday, April 25 at the Annenberg Building at Temple University‘s department of journalism. Thanks to Sean Blanda and others for setting that up. Are you going? I am. Please, spread the word.

Here is a rundown of the regional events that I am aware of:

• Chicago – Northwestern University, Chicago Loop, date TBA, but hopeful for a Saturday in February or March, and should have a good idea very soon.
• Columbia, Mo. – University of Missouri, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, Jan. 24
• Washington, D.C. – location TBA (can you help find a location? If so, please contact wamitchell at washingtoncitypaper dot com), Saturday, Jan. 24.
• Portland, Ore.

I also received word at one time from Brian Reich about holding an event in Boston, from Leonard Witt in holding one at Kennesaw State University outside of Atlanta and from Greg Linch in hosting one in Miami. Anyone want to help at those locations?

On BarCamp NewsInnovation Washington, D.C., from Will Atwood Mitchell – The theme is innovation: creating better ways to deliver news. It’s a chance for journalists, news org techies, bloggers, citizen journalists, editors, publishers, and everyone in between to get together and share our best ideas and strategies, and to talk about practical, common solutions to the problems we’re facing. The event will be free and is open to everyone who is interested. The only requirement is that everyone should come prepared to participate.

OK, now to the meat of this post. Last month I asked the question: What should BarCamp NewsInnovation be? I received little feedback on the post, but did get some response on the wiki site that is good to revisit, and I want to open up to feedback and get a conversation going.

Who do we need to participate to make this work?

A mix of journalists, bloggers, technical folks, citizen journalist, editors, publishers, CEOs, business types and organizations and individuals engaged in civic life that regularly interact in news and information

What are the topics to tackle?

• Expanding from “journalism” to “civic media” – from Maurreen Skowran
• What consumers of information are ultimately looking for – from Chuck Peters who referenced Brendan Watson.
• What’s working/what’s missing in your organization – from Ryan Sholin.
• Web shells – via Jane Stevens
• Business models and revenue – Steve Buttry
• Presentations could be about cool blog and CMS plugins, strategies for using Twitter effectively, tips for producing video and integrating it with other content, better ways to involve readers interactively, success stories (or tragic failures) of attempts to build a social network presence, compelling uses of aggregated content and link journalism, community management guidelines, new story forms, and especially anything innovative you’re doing that doesn’t have a buzzword (yet). Discussions about pie-in-the-sky ideas and how they might become reality are also encouraged. – Will Atwood Mitchell

• What are the other topics or problems that we can try to solve?

Random thoughts from random places associated with the BarCamp NewsInnovation idea?

• Solving problems: “My primary lesson is that working sessions only worked when they were presented with a problem to solve.” – Jeff Jarvis
• Build prototypes to show off back home – Ryan Sholin

• “Don’t focus on current organizations; be open to efforts and organization not yet happening or maybe even not yet imagined, whether by some group or by individuals working alone.” – Maurreen Skowran

• “Best practices doesn’t fit with innovation, because a current innovation would not yet be developed enough to know what is best. On the other hand, there might be practices that are best to develop and support innovation.” – Maurreen Skowran

• David Cohn reminded me today to check out what worked and what could be improved from CopyCamp

So that’s the update and some thoughts that I have been dealing with. I’m looking forward to making more progress in the next week.

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Tags: BarCamp, Chicago Loop, Jeff Jarvis, journalism, media, Northwestern University, University of Missouri

Author: Jason Kristufek