Ten journalism project initiatives emerge from Journalism That Matters convening in Seattle
Bill Densmore
Journalism That Matters is very excited to announce that no fewer than 10 media initiatives, dubbed "collaboratories," have evolved from break-out sessions during the January "unconference" in Seattle. Here's the story, by our new outreach coordinator, Cate Montana:
JTM CONFERENCE INSPIRES 10 JOURNALISM PROJECT INITIATIVES
SEATTLE, Wash., Aug. 18, 2010 -- In early January over 250 journalists, media activists, educators, and community leaders met on the University of Washington campus during the Journalism That Matters unconference, Re-imagining News and Community in the Pacific Northwest. They talked, laughed, cried, shared and brainstormed. Best of all, they rolled up their sleeves and started creating new opportunities in the journalism world.
No fewer than ten initiatives, dubbed collaboratories, have resulted from the four day media mash-up that hosted participants as disparate as Seattle Civic Engagement Project head, Nancy Amidei, the West Seattle Blog, Steve Bass, president & CEO of Oregon Public Broadcasting, and Amy Clark, deputy director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.
The initiatives, which run the gamut from media transparency to microfinancing for new media ventures, are in various stages of development. Each initiative will host a public meeting in the Seattle area over the course of the next ten months. The first meeting, the Civic Communications Commons initiative, will be held September 24, from 3 pm to 6 pm, location TBA. Lead by Rick VanderKnyff , MSN Microsoft, the Civic Communications Commons initiative plans to launch an online commons that will serve as an information hub and conversation place for news topics.
The rest of the initiatives are as follows:
Creating Abundant Journalism: Led by Mike Fancher, former Seattle Times executive editor, this group plans to link journalism projects and initiatives with potential donors. Meeting to be held in October.
Media Mapping: Jacob Caggiano of the Washington News Council is mapping media news and information outlets across the state. Meeting to be held in November.
Support for the Collaboratory: Lead by JTM co-founder Peggy Holman, this group provides support for all the initiatives. Meeting to be held in January, 2011.
Digital Literacy Initiative: Common Language Project leader, Sarah Stuteville leads this initiative aimed towards teaching students how to become more informed media consumers and participants. Meeting to be held in February.
TAO of Journalism: Washington News Council president, John Hamer, is developing a pledge and seal of transparent, accountable, open journalism for display on media websites. Meeting to be held in March.
Building on Transparency: Lead by former Seattle Times op-ed writer, Matt Rosenberg, this project is developing a public document database called Public Data Ferret. Meeting to be held in April.
Seattle Happiness Index: Michael Bradbury of REALscience.us is investigating the possibility of creating a Seattle Happiness Index to measure community well-being. Meeting to be held in May.
Global Health Reporting: Pamela Kilborn-Miller of Connecting for Change Program at the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, Dr. Michael McCarthy of the Local Health Guide and Sanjay Bhatt, president of Seattle AAJA head this initiative surveying the health sector for future reporting.
Microfinance: Currently headed up by Michael Bradbury, the initiative would provide business and micro-finance training for journalists.
A calendar with specific dates and locations will be posted as soon as details are available on the JTM website, www.jounralismthatmatters.org<http://www.jounralismthatmatters.org>.
For more details on the initiatives please see Matt Rosenberg s current update on the JTM website at http://journalismthatmatters.org/content/jtm-pacific-northwest-update or Heidi
Dietrich'ss at http://wanewscouncil.org/2010/08/10/new-journalism-ventures-in-the-works/.
For updates on the initiatives please go to the JTM website or contact JTM Outreach and Information Coordinator, Cate Montana: ca...@fairpoint.net<mailto:ca...@fairpoint.net>; 360-894-1868.