Thanks to our newest sponsors: Publish2 and the Society of Environmental Journalists
It is with great excitement that BCNI announces its two newest sponsors: Publish2 and the Society of Environmental Journalists.
The Society of Environmental Journalists is dedicated to improving environmental reporting. From their site:
SEJ programs are designed to build a stronger, better-educated, and more closely connected network of professional journalists and editors who cover the environment and environment-related issues. SEJ’s primary goal is to advance public understanding of critically important environmental issues through more and better environmental journalism.
Publish2 powers link journalism on the Web offering tools to help reporters aggregate content on the Web. Publish2 is used in papers like the Chicago Tribune the Washington City Paper and dozens of others.
If you would like to sponsor BCNI, there is still time!
National Mechanics to host BCNI Philly 2009 afterparty
After we’re all done BarCamp’ing and NewsInnovating, National Mechanics has been kind enough to host the BCNI Philly afterparty.
The bar and restaurant, located in Old City blocks from Independence Hall (and Independant’s Hall), is a local favorite among the tech community and anyone else with taste buds. The bar is easily accessible through public transit, and is smack in the middle of Philadelphia’s tourism and nightlife attractions. Oh, and did we mention their wonderful food and a selection of beverages that would make Ben Franklin proud?
Party starts at 7 p.m. (an hour after the last session closes).
If innovating the news industry isn’t enough reason to sponsor BCNI, we’ll be taking all sponsor money left over and contributing it to the bar tab for all to enjoy.
Hope to see you there!
Attendee Interview #4: Colleen Newvine of the AP
Who are you and what do you do?
I am a former reporter and editor now working on the business side of the news. I worked in the newsrooms of a variety of publications, including the Alpena News, the Insider Business Journal and the Ann Arbor News, before getting my MBA at the University of Michigan. I joined the Associated Press in 2006, and I now serve as head of market research. My job is to help the AP stay in touch with what our current and potential customers want and need from us.
Why are you coming to BCNI Philly?
I am grateful to have been peer pressured into learning about social media and now I’m a Facebook and Twitter addict. But I know I still have a lot to learn about the available tools and about how to get the most value from them. I’m excited to hear from people who care about the future of news enough to give up a Saturday to talk about its future. Online tools give the media great opportunities to tell stories in different ways, to serve advertisers better than ever, to create a dialogue instead of a one-way stream, and I’m interested to hear the innovative ideas that come up.
If you decide to present, what would it be about?
I won’t presume to be enough of an expert to present but I would love to be part of a conversation on how we make online news self supporting. I’m also really interested in how news organizations are using social media for marketing, not just as a reporting tool. I worked as a clown when I was in high school, so I could also teach everyone how to make balloon animals.
Where can we find you online?
AP’s Web site is www.ap.org. You can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cnewvine I only friend people on Facebook that I know in real life, so check me out there after we meet in Philly.
And finally, finish this sentence: What the news industry really needs is ___.
Hope. I heard someone explain once that when you’ve given up hope, there’s no motivation to try to save yourself. Why would you pick up a bucket and start bailing water out of the Titanic when it’s clear it’s going down? I think sometimes journalists fall prey to fascination with our industry’s challenges and we seem to take perverse satisfaction in writing our own obituary.
How about instead fixating on the incredible opportunity to use new tools to distribute news faster and cheaper, and on the public’s seemingly insatiable demand for news and information? Did you see the ComScore report that the number of people who access news and information daily on the mobile Web more than doubled over the last year?
I’m not saying we ignore the significant challenges, but the news business has had to evolve to accommodate the arrival of radio, television, cable TV, the Internet and mobile phones, and I think we need to consider this part of a continuing transformation. Like Winston Churchill said: “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
SPJ regional conference will attend BCNI 2009
In the length of a few hours the amount of participants in BCNI Philly has doubled.
When BCNI was scheduled, we kept hearing people griping that there was already a journalism conference taking place in Center City, and many were unable to make both. Well, BCNI is pleased to announce that the SPJ regional conference, led by Phil Beck, will be moving their Saturday sessions to Annenberg Hall. BarCamp attendees will be able to attend SPJ sessions and vice versa.
This brings the anticipated attendance in the mid to high 200′s. Have that presentation ready yet?
Sponsor BCNI 2009!
BCNI Philly is, and will always remain, a free event. However, the success of the event depends on dozens of volunteers, the media community and the generosity of our sponsors.
On that note, we are proud to announce that Reportingon.com is the third sponsor of BCNI Philly. ReportingOn.com is the baby of Ryan Sholin and one of the winners of the Knight News Challenge. ReportingOn serves as a back channel for journalists to share what they are reporting on so they can collaborate, discover and communicate with one another.
We thank Ryan and ReportingOn for their support, but BCNI is in need of a few more sponsors. Head on over to our sponsorship page for documents and contact information. In a nutshell we need some help supplying breakfast, various office supplies, gear for volunteers and guests and help with an after party.
Email sponsors@bcniphilly.com if you or your company is interested in helping make BCNI Philly rock.
The official BarCamp NewsInnovation flyer
Thanks to Brian James Kirk for the design. Download the PDF here. If you want some for your newsroom.business, drop me a line and I’ll happily mail a few.
Attendee Interview #3: Steven King of the Washington Post Web Ninjas
(From Left to Right) Steven King - Editor of Innovations, Dan Berko - Developer, Jesse Foltz - Interface Developer.
Who are you and what do you do?
Known as the Web Ninjas, our rapid development team strives to create and implement new technologies and innovations in a reusable and sustainable form. We have the freedom to try new things and are tasked with leading to the news room to new ways of telling stories. The collaborative effort among the team and with the newsroom is what makes our projects sucessful.
The Web Ninjas are all journalist and technologist combined. Our back end developer is Dan Berko, innovations developer, builds the databases, scripts and admin tools to run our projects. Jesse Foltz is our Interface developer and is responsible for the front end applications and the visual elements. As innovations editor, I work to integrate our projects with the rest of the organization and find editorial uses for emerging technology.
Why are you coming to BCNI Philly?
We are always looking for new ways to present news and information and we enjoy sharing ideas with different people working on similar problems. We hope to find and contribute ideas during BCNI Philly!
If you decide to present, what would it be about?
We would be happy to present TimeSpace and how it was developed or we can give a inside look at our current project that will launch just before the Camp.
Where can we find you online?
Check out specials.washingtonpost.com/timespace/world/
My personal blog is cujosbyte.com
And finally, finish this sentence: What the news industry really needs is ___
The news industry must change with the evolving media around it. We must present quality journalism in visual and interactive forms from various sources through every medium possible. A news website must be as engaging and as interactive as a video game or major social network that users can’t break away from. We must drop the egos and forget about awards and prestige. We must give more attention to what the user wants while continuing to give them what is necessary. We must inject our content into the media landscape the rest of the world lives in.
Attendee Interview #2: Brandon J. Mendelson
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Brandon J. Mendelson, and I am the College Community Organizer for the 1 in 8 Foundation.
Why are you coming to BCNI Philly?
Because I am a blogger with the Albany Times Union and have about eight years or so of college media experience, so I thought I’d have something interesting to contribute to the discussion. More importantly though, I feel like I can learn so much more at BCNI Philly by listening to what the attendees have to say.
What do you plan on presenting?
Not sure yet. Probably something about using Twitter to save lives. We’re up to 47,000 followers right now and I’m only just now getting into a groove with our tour.
Where can we find you online?
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BJMendelson
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/brandonmendelson
Web: http://www.thebrandonshow.com
Final question, and its an impossible task. With one word, finish this sentence: What the news industry really needs is ___.
What the news industry really needs is to drop the bullshit.
Newspapers are better than this than TV stations because newspapers need to evolve. TV stations are still recycling the same old stories every year with the same old editorial calendar, and that model just can’t sustain itself.
Attendee Interview #1: Ryan Sholin
Who are you and what do you do?
Hi, I’m Ryan Sholin and I do a lot of things. By day, I’m the Director of Community Site Publishing at GateHouse Media, which means I train journalists at small town and rural newspapers across the country how to get ahead of the curve online.
I’m also one of the founders of Wired Journalists, a social network for journalists looking for answers (and questions) about online news skills, tools, and ideas. And I’ve been blogging for about four years now at ryansholin.com, and my side project for the last eight months or so has been ReportingOn.com, a Knight News Challenge project.
Why are you coming to BCNI Philly?
Well I’ve been excited about the BCNI meetups happening all over the country. I think it’s a great chance to get some small groups together and spend a day or two sharing what we’ve been learning about online news for the past few years. I’d love to see demos of what’s working at news sites, and I’m psyched to talk a little bit about some of the projects I’ve been working on.
Which, I suppose, leads me to the next question … are you going to present?
Everybody has to present, right? Yes, I’d love to talk about ReportingOn — by the time the Philly meetup happens, I should have something new pretty ready to show off. And if not that, then I’ll definitely try to share some of what I’ve learned about community management from Wired Journalists.
Well everyone does have to present, but we will have roughly 54 slots so if more than 54 come, that might not be the case.
Sounds good – I hope everyone gets a chance to share something.
Where can we find you online?
The easiest way to find me is on Twitter, @ryansholin, but you can find links to most everywhere I publish and share at ryansholin.com.
Final question, and its an impossible task. With one word, finish this sentence: What the news industry really needs is ___.
Only one word?
Haha, I’ll give you 5.
How about: hard work. Which is to say, you can come up with all the brilliant ideas for news and revenue that might work all day long, but nothing works until you put your head down and build something new.
Open for business
BarCamp NewsInnovation is but a few short months away, but that doesnt mean we aren’t doing everything we can to make this event rock.
If you haven’t heard, BarCamp NewsInnovation is the brain child of a group of journalists and media-types who want to throw away all of the negativity surrouding the industry and just get together to create something interesting. On April 25th, journalists, editors, teachers, techies, photographers, chemical engineers, web designers, bakers, and welders (among others) will get together to discuss the news industry.
But this event is not your traditional conference where you are herded like sheep from one drawn out keynote to another. The schedule for BCNI is … there is no schedule. Any interested party can sign up to present. In fact if you come and don’t present, we might be slightly offended.
Keep an eye on this space for attendee interviews, after party information, and general media awesomeness.
Oh, and you should probably register, space is limited.
