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
Wednesday afternoon
Convene about 3 p.m.; introductory remarks by Chris Peck and other co-convenors. 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.
Thursday lunch panel
A Thursday lunch panel, lead by Paul Gillen, former editor of ComputerWorld magazine and author of "The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to Social Media," will create a scenario for tech-driven journalism of the future, and challenge fellow participants to poke holes and suggest alternatives.
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.
Thursday evening
An early buffet dinner will afford time for information meetings and interactions, followed by an optional evening presentation. Some participants may choose to continue design-circle meetings into the evening at the Yahoo facility or the conference hotel.
Friday morning
After a buffet breakfast and speaker, and a 30-minute period of morning reflection and announcements, design circles reconvene. A concurrent moderated morning discussion will tackle the question of revenue models for journalism's future, with participants invited to develop and propose their own solutions during an open discussion period. -=-
Friday lunch
Program to TBD
Friday afternoon
Design circles wrap up by 3 p.m., followed by a facilitate session for reporting out design-circle outcomes/projects. These can be concluding reports, or interim reports from groups which intend to continue to meet Friday night or on Saturday morning. Members of Northern California Society of Professional Journalists who are attending on Saturday will be welcomed at the 3 p.m. reporting session.
Friday evening
After a light hors d'oeuvres reception from about 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., conference attendees are on their own for dinner or more work Friday night.
SATURDAY: JournaTech expo
After a continental breakfast and morning-news session, the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will be meeting on Saturday. SPJ will organize a juried "JournaTech Expo" on Saturday morning for entrepreneurs, startups and non-profits/NGOs with innovative technologies, systems, collaborations or ideas advancing journalism. Some of these presentations will by companies or groups not otherwise involved in JTM-SV; others may be the outcomes of design circles. The presenters will be vetted an announced in advance of the conference so participants will know who to look for. The format will be "booth like", but there will also be a series of scheduled, 15-minute presentations through the morning.
Saturday box lunch
A box lunch will be served to both SPJ's Saturday-only attendees as well as continuing JTM-SV event attendees. No specific lunch program is planned -- a time for wrap-up networking.
In the afternoon, SPJ plans at least two flights of workshops, TBD.
Flexible attendance
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.
