[there are five news stories in this post.]
Silicon Valley Biz Ink :: ONA Invites Esther Dyson, Top Editors to Forecast Future of Online News
...CHICAGO, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Online News Association will bring together seven of digital media's most forward-thinkers -- including Esther Dyson, a foremost authority on emerging technologies -- for a bold look into the future. The experts will give their views on where online news is headed during the ONA Annual Conference Nov. 14 and 15 in Chicago. Leonard Apcar, Editor in Chief of The New York Times on the Web; Richard Deverell, Head of News Interactive, BBC News; Mitch Gelman, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of CNN.com; Ruth Gersh, Editorial Director of AP Digital; Retha Hill, Vice President for Content, BET.com; Dean Wright, Vice President and Editor in Chief of MSNBC.com; and Dyson, Chairman of EDventure Holdings and author of "Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age," will come together for a conference-concluding "super panel" titled "Back to the Future." They will address such questions as what role the "amateur" journalist may play and what the next "killer app" will be for news presentation and delivery.
"We've assembled a group of digital pioneers and editors who can provide insights on the current state of online journalism and scenarios for the future," said the panel's moderator Bruce Koon, ONA President and Executive News Editor, Knight Ridder Digital. "They, along with our audience, will have a lively discussion to help working professionals view news and technology in new and fresh ways."
The conference, which will be held at the historic Omni Orrington in Evanston, Ill, will also confront some of the most critical issues facing online journalists today. More than 20 online media experts will be on hand to participate in panel discussions focusing on everything from Weblogs to war coverage. Among the highlights from this year's panel line-up:
* FLOGGING THE BLOGS -- Bloggers and editors from four media sites will debate such questions as whether Weblog entries should be edited and if journalists should be allowed to blog about the same news they're reporting on...
WorkingForChange-BuzzFlash interview :: Tom Tomorrow
...If you are a fan of "This Modern World," you will love this BuzzFlash interview with Tom Tomorrow (if you want to know Tom's real name, you'll have to buy the book, as they say). BuzzFlash chats with Tom about politics, the art of composing cartoons, FOX News, the endless "material provided" by George W. Bush, and coming up with creative ideas in the shower.
Tom has a new collection of cartoons out called "The Great Big Book of Tomorrow: A Treasury of Cartoons." The Forward to the book answers the question, "Who is Tom Tomorrow," in more ways than one. Anyone living in "This Modern [Absurd] World" knows that you can't get enough of Tom Tomorrow...
BUZZFLASH: Moving away from politics a little bit, in terms of the creative process, do you get ideas in the shower? In the car? While you're sleeping? Or do you just sit down to a board? Writers always talk of writers' block. Is there a cartoonists' block?
TOMORROW: Yes, there absolutely is. And yes, sometimes the ideas do come to me in the shower, or when I'm walking the dog or whatever. That's ideal, because sometimes it's just like being hit by lightning. I see the whole thing. I see all four or six panels. I see exactly how it's going to go. It's almost like a flash. Boom -- right there -- got it. But I wish that happened more often, because my life would be considerably easier if it did. More often than not, I sit down on Monday morning and I read through the newspapers and I read through the news sites online. And I look at the blogs. And I just try to find that intersection between what's going on and what I can do with it and make it interesting and funny. It's the diagram where you have the overlapping circles. I try to find that space in the middle that leads to a cartoon. Frankly, sometimes it can take a long time. Sometimes I can have bad Mondays where I sit there for eight hours and I've got nothing. And those are bad days...
...PDC pre-event buzz already is receiving extensive attention in weblogs, with some 200 bloggers participating through PDC Bloggers, a clearinghouse for bloggers interested in PDC and associated technologies. PDC Bloggers serves as a place where bloggers can connect, whether or not they are attending PDC in person. Widespread blogger coverage is expected throughout PDC, as well as on MSDN(R)...
...MONTREAL, Oct. 22 /CNW Telbec/ - It's a first in Quebec! Since yesterday, around ten graduate students and their professors have been posting real-time updates to a weblog about the presentations and workshops at the joint RISQ-CANARIE conference being held in Montreal this week. The public can access the blog to follow the unfolding of the conference by visiting RISQ 2003 - CANARIE ANW2003. Visitors can also post questions and comments in real-time.
"RISQ is very pleased to be part of this novel experiment. By opening our conference to cyberspace, numerous Internet users will be able to keep a close eye on the presentations and workshops being given by world-class researchers and experts," said Mr. Pierre Bouchard, CEO of RISQ (Réseau d'informations scientifiques du Québec)...
Wired 11.11: The Connectors
By Jeff Howe
...In 1974, a Harvard sociologist made a seemingly unremarkable discovery. It is, in fact, who you know. His study asked several hundred white-collar workers how they'd landed their jobs. More than half credited a "personal connection." Duh. But then it got interesting: The researcher, Mark Granovetter, dug deeper and discovered that four-fifths of these backdoor hires barely knew their benefactors. As it turns out, close friends are great for road trips, intimate dinners, and the occasional interest-free loan, but they suck for job leads and blind dates - they know the same people you do. In other words, it's not so much who you know, but who you vaguely know. Granovetter called the phenomenon "the strength of weak ties." He had discovered the human node.
THE TECH NODE
Clay Shirky: Consultant, writer, and adjunct professor at NYU's graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Node Cred: Shirky, 39, is one of the handful of people with justifiable claim to the digerati moniker. He's become a consistently prescient voice on networks, social software, and technology's effects on society. He publishes everywhere from the Harvard Business Review to The Wall Street Journal, but his most influential essays (like last February's "Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality") appear on Shirky.com.
Operating system: "I like to use email to broker introduction. There are three levels of email introduction: One is when you just provide a party with the other party's info. The second is when you say, 'Yeah, and use my name.' The third is sending email to both, CC'ing them. You have to be careful about which level you use. If you do it right, it's just enough of a spark to get people close."
Node wisdom: "The most important person you know is someone you haven't met. There was this urban myth rocketing around the Valley in the '90s that 500 people - certain CEOs and venture capitalists - ran the world. Then Shawn Fanning came along."...
K-Collector