Jtm-sv-program-topics
JTM/Silicon Valley: Innovation, democracy and a new ecology of news
How will technology innovation support journalism and participatory democracy?
We're four months out and won't settle the format precisely until late March. However, here are some thoughts. You can view some working documentation at: http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/jtm-sv
Right now, our thought is to spend Wednesday evening and a Thursday morning framing those future-of-journalism challenges which appear addressable by technology.
Design circles
On Thursday afternoon and most the day on Friday, we'll create an environment where groups -- many of them pre-arranged and each headed by a journalist and a technologist -- can break out as design circles and craft solutions.
At day's end on Friday, we'll re-convene and learn what's been hatched. After an opening evening Friday, these design circles will reconvene on Saturday morning and either finish their work, meet informally, or attend a morning "idea fair" featuring juried innovators in citizen and social media.
JournaTech Expo
In addition, the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will be meeting on Saturday. SPJ is considering organizing an "JournaTech Expo" on Saturday morning for entrepreneurs, startups and non-profits/NGOs with innovative ideas advancing journalism.
Roundtable discussions
For those participants who prefer not to be part of a design circle, there will be roundtable discussions throughout Thursday afternoon and part of Friday. These might include:
- Current-awareness briefings on the 5-10 technologies most likely to disrupt -- and reinvent -- journalism, news and democrdacy
- News about the latest experiments in non-profit and citizen journalism and the technologies they are using.
- Shared insights on how the concept and practice of journalism may adapt to search and social networks, crowdsourcing, diverse, fragmented audiences and digital, participatory politics.
Some participants won't be able to devote two full days, a Wednesday evening and a Saturday morning to this. So we'll make it easy -- and acceptable -- for folks to drop in for what matters to them. Because we'll develop many ideas via pre-convening, web-based collaboration, people who can't attend at all can still make a useful contribution and learn.
