Alumni Directory

[Maurreen Skowran]

As Steve mentioned earlier, we have in mind to get a new Web site
built, which would include a directory of participants and their
projects.

Michelle and Tracy had talked about this earlier. Michelle suggested
including:
* Website/Blog URL:
* Audience served: (Geographical or Topically Based)
* Launch Date:
* Technologies Used:
* Contact Name, Number, Email, Twitter...etc.

I would also suggest including:
* Location
* Strengths

Maybe include something about size?

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions or questions?

[Persephone Miel]

Hi guys,

Before we go launching a new list please take a look at the J-lab
directory (http://www.kcnn.org/citmedia_sites/) with about 800 sites
and the placeblogger one
(http://www.placeblogger.com/location/directory) which has about 3000.

I've been talking with Jan and Lisa and others about making a meta
directory that would link their data and some other less public
research projects that are collecting info on sites (there's a project
at U Missouri that has catalogued community news sites in 50 US
cities). The key things would be that people who wanted their sites
listed publicly would be able to put them in just once and have them
made availalbe to a bunch of different groups and that people studying
the landscape would be able to put the sites they were studying in the
context of others instead of starting from scratch and saying we think
there are 700 citizen media sites as we define them.

My hope is to make something that makes the many different kinds of
uses of lists that people want for various purposes easier and
eliminates duplication. So any group that was researching or sharing
info or whatever, could create its own sublist by just putting a JTM
checkmark by those sites and adding any other info but benefiting from
the info already in the system (which would certainly include most of
the basic fields you name below)

I've not had time to work much on this recetnly but once my paper is
passed in I'm hoping to find a way to get Berkman to adopt this and
someone to fund it.
Persephone

--
www.mediarepublic.org
www.fonchik.org/wordpress

[Michelle Ferrier]

Tracy and I were trying to keep it short and easy, but if we're asking,
will it help to find out revenue streams and profitability? Inquiring
minds like to know....
Michelle


Michelle Ferrier
Managing Editor, Online Community Hubs
Columnist, Daytona Beach News-Journal
Direct: (386) 681-2572
Tele: (386) 252-1511 ext. 2572
GoogleTalk: michelleferrier
Twitter: mediaghosts


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[Bill Densmore]

Persephone et al.:

As some of you know, I'm at Missouri this academic year. The directory
Persephone Miel mentions is a feature of a site under construction here:

http://www.newnewsmedia.org/

Margaret Duffy is the principal person working on it, I believe. Hence
I've copied her along with Jan and Lisa.

FROM THE SITE:

"NewNewsMedia.org began with a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts and
the Knight Foundation. Under the grant, researchers from the Missouri
School of Journalism, Michigan State University, and Ohio University
conducted an extensive content analysis of digital, community and citizen
journalism cites around the U. S. The range of findings was impressive,
and we felt it was important to share and discuss this with a broader
group of experts and citizens."

It strikes me as useful to consider integrating all these efforts, or
making them interoperable, or at least harmonizing their intentions.

Persephone's suggestion, below, of a consolidated database is perfect if
it can be maintained in a wiki-like fashion, yet reviewed for accuracy,
and if it can be viewed in different formats useful for varying purposes.
And we need to make sure to ask the right questions of the site
entrepreneurs and sponsors so that it is comprehensive.

Perhaps we should schedule a conference call among reps from:

-- Placeblogger
-- J-Lab
-- New News Media site at Reynolds/Mizzou
-- The JTM-Minnesota followup group

To:

1) Identify the features/benefits and intentions of the existing lists

2) See if there are other features/functions that are felt to be needed

3) Determine whether all the desired features/functions can be
incorporated into an existing database (usable by all), or whether a new,
consolidated one is needed.

4) Determine if existing databases are in a position to contribute their
data to a consolidated one (or become the consolidation datbase)

Placeblogger, J-Lab and NewNewsMedia all are or were grant funded, in
varying parts by Knight. The JTM discussions are ad hoc at this point.
None have a for-profit intent.

Just to put a date/time on the table, how about scheduling such a call for
11:30 a.m. EST on Tues., Sept. 30?

-- bill

--
-------------------------------------
Bill Densmore, 2008-2009 Fellow
Reynolds Journalism Institute
201 RJI Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia MO 65211
573-882-9812 / VOICE MAIL/CELL: 617-448-6600

MAKING THE MARKET FOR DIGITAL INFORMATION:
http://www.informationvalet.org
http://journalism.missouri.edu/news/2008/09-05-reynolds-institute.html

REBOOTING THE NEWS: A civic-education agenda
http://www.rebootinghtenews.org
http://mediagiraffe.org/reboot.jpg

*********************************************************
WATCH/LISTEN TO THE WRAPUPS . . .
A PASSION FOR PLACE:
New Pamphleteers/New Reporters -- Convening Entrepreneurs
Who Combine Journalism, Democracy, Place and Blogs
June 4-6, 2008 / Minneapolis, Minn.
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[Michelle Ferrier]

Works for me Bill,

Michelle


Michelle Ferrier
Managing Editor, Online Community Hubs
Columnist, Daytona Beach News-Journal
Direct: (386) 681-2572
Tele: (386) 252-1511 ext. 2572
GoogleTalk: michelleferrier
Twitter: mediaghosts


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attachments, is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient,
please notify the author immediately and destroy this message. Also,
refrain from copying, disclosing or using the contents in any way.


-----Original Message-----
From: jtm...@googlegroups.com [mailto:jtm...@googlegroups.com] On

[Kara Andrade]

Has the call been finalized?

[Maurreen Skowran]

11:30 a.m. EST on Tues., Sept. 30 works for me.

But a citizen media directory is different from a JTM alumni directory.

[Steve Hanson]

Maurreen Skowran wrote:
> 11:30 a.m. EST on Tues., Sept. 30 works for me.
>
> But a citizen media directory is different from a JTM alumni directory.
>

Yes --- I think we need to first be clearer on what JTM's needs are --
And I'm certainly not clear on it.
> >
>

[Tracy Record, WSB Editor]

and how about the needs of our ultimate end users ... the citizens of our many cities and towns? Placeblogger at some point was supposed to be a directory of all "placeblogs." We discussed here recently that it was going through some technical challenge and that was affecting its updatability, or something like that (I'm sure someone directly involved can provide better info). Whatever form it takes, that's what interests me, fwiw. Someplace where, let's say I am moving to New Pumpkinseed, Colorado. Where do I find if somebody has a placeblog there, besides just googling "new pumpkinseed" and hoping it comes up? This is what folks ask me all the time, and not just Seattleites. "Is there one in my neighborhood? How do I find it?" and while some of us index very well in Google (I'm #2 result for my community name and expect eventually to be #1, unless of course somebody comes along and does a better job of covering the community, in which case they deserve
it!!!!) - not everybody does. Or are we just trying to create a directory for our "industry" such as it is? - TR in WS

--- On Mon, 9/22/08, Steve Hanson <sha...@cruiskeenconsulting.com> wrote:

> From: Steve Hanson <sha...@cruiskeenconsulting.com>
> Subject: {JTM} Re: Alumni Directory -- proposed telconf Tues., Sept. 30, 11:30 a.m. EDT?

[Dan Rader]

I know I'm jumping into this conversation a little late, but I work
with New America Media on our directory of community and ethnic media
and was interested in the talk of a directory.

It sounds like we may be talking about two or three directories:

1 - Projects and Resources (what other groups are working on and who
to contact for similar projects)
2 - Community/Local blogger directory - searchable by area and focus
3 - A directory of JTM members (those that are in the network/active
or otherwise)

There are issues with interactivity and updatability with databases of
community media/bloggers since there is a lot of turnover (as I'm sure
we are all aware of). However there are ways of managing a database
as large and dynamic as the ones we are talking about.

Additionally NAM is funded by Knight and is working on expanding and
updating our online presence in partnership with other blog sites and
community media members.

Let me know if there is any interest in including NAM in this
discussion as it sounds like something we can help with as well.

Dan Rader - Director Manager

[Bill Densmore]

Dan:

I'm guessing there is a consensus that we'd love to have you speaking for
New America Media on Tuesday's phone conversation (next Tuesday, not
tomorrow). It looks like 11:30 a.m. EDT is the preferred time. Will that
time work for you?

I think you delineate very cleanly below as 1-2-3 a good segementing of
the three uses. The question I would have -- could we all pull together a
single database which can be viewed in all the ways it would be useful to
be able to view it, and perhaps with differing access privileges to
differing pieces of info? By combining in a single database, perhaps we
could afford to have some dedicated staff making sure it stays reasonably
accurate and up to date.

The challenge of how to weed out ghost sites is a big one. Perhaps there
would be a way to automagically crawl or ping them regularly and move
those that seem to have gotten mildewy into an "inactive" category -- not
out of the database, but just flagged as user-beware.

-- bill densmore

-------------------------------------
Bill Densmore, 2008-2009 Fellow
Reynolds Journalism Institute
201 RJI Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia MO 65211
573-882-9812 / VOICE MAIL/CELL: 617-448-6600

[Kara Andrade]

I think we need to invite a web developer or back-end person into this
conversation. Can someone please recruit someone who has these hard skills
so we don't go around in circles conceptually? I will also put my feelers
out.

Thanks!

Kara

-----Original Message-----
From: jtm...@googlegroups.com [mailto:jtm...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf
Of Bill Densmore

[Maurreen Skowran]

I think that's already covered. --- On Mon, 9/22/08, Kara Andrade <kara.a...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Dan Rader]

Bill,

Unfortunately I will not be in the office on Tuesday September 30
since NAM is holding an Immigration Summit in AZ. I will be returning
on Wednesday October 1 and I am available anytime that week or the
following week. Please let me know if you can reschedule. If not
there is a slim chance that I can call in and participate remotely,
but it my be brief. I will take some time later this week to find
some key points that we should cover in this conversation, but the
topics we need consider and discuss would be the following:

- What kind of CRM/PRM management software do we want to use?
(In-House, Pre-existing, 3rd Party Provider)
- What are the key fields we want to include?
- What kind of interactivity/functions do you want to include in the directory?
- Will we create different logins for different types of users?
(Bloggers, Project Leaders, JTM Alumni)
- What information will you capture for those that just want to view
the directory? (eg - asking for an email or contact info to access
directory for free or do we want them to fill out an entire profile to
get access)

These are just some ideas I have off the top of my head, but I will
write something a little more comprehensive up when I have some time
this week.

Additionally I can bring in our IT Director/Lead Programmer into the
discussion as well if we need to. Maybe some of the folks from other
directory projects at J-Schools would like to be in on this as well
(or once we figure out our main goals and functions of the directory)

Let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions for what
should be on the agenda.

Dan

[Michelle Ferrier]

A couple of things might be useful here:

1. I don't think it serves anyone to divide the JTM folks up by conference, or to segregate them from a larger group. Membership categories might include those used for the JTM badge stickers....technologist, blogger, educator, content provider, software developer, butterfly...remember those?

2. Platforms for the larger site should include access for admin levels and those of users. Right now, I think that's all that's necessary. Although we might create some basic topical categories for posting information -- along the lines of the categories JTM used to identify its attendees.

3. As for viewing the directory, I think capturing some basic email information should suffice.

4. I would love to see these entries geotagged so that they can be mapped.

 

 

My basic goals with the directory and website are to:

1. Connect with those who are in the same endurance race (similar platforms, age (from launch), revenue streams, content ideas, functionality, audience size or locale, content structure, etc.)

2. Measure my performance against the metrics of those who have gone before me.

3. Document my progress and development along a timeline so that those who come after me can follow.

4. Gain ideas for site development from the ideas of the masses.

5. Support those at all stages of development.

 

Michelle Ferrier

www.mytopiacafe.com

 

 

---

From: jtm...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Dan Rader
Sent: Mon 9/22/2008 5:43 PM
To: Bill Densmore

Cc: westsea...@yahoo.com; Maurreen Skowran; Steve Hanson; Journalism That Matters; li...@placeblogger.com; Lisa Williams; Jan Schaffer; Duffy, Margaret

[Maurreen Skowran]

Access -- I think anyone who just wants to use the information should be able to do so without giving us their e-mail address or anything else.   Scope -- If we are going to have a larger group than JTM, how would that be defined? Any civic media? The totality of A, B, and C?    - Maurreen --- On Mon, 9/22/08, Michelle Ferrier <Michelle...@news-jrnl.com> wrote:

From: Michelle Ferrier <Michelle...@news-jrnl.com> Subject: RE: {JTM} Re: Alumni Directory -- proposed telconf Tues., Sept. 30, 11:30 a.m. EDT? To: "Dan Rader" <dlr...@gmail.com>, "Bill Densmore" <mediag...@journ.umass.edu> Cc: westsea...@yahoo.com, "Maurreen Skowran" <maurree...@yahoo.com>, "Steve Hanson" <sha...@cruiskeenconsulting.com>, "Journalism That Matters" <jtm...@googlegroups.com>, li...@placeblogger.com, "Lisa Williams" <li...@cadence90.com>, "Jan Schaffer" <ja...@j-lab.org>, "Duffy, Margaret" <duf...@missouri.edu>