I've edited (a bit) the whiteboard notes from Saturday's unconference -- mostly, putting them in reverse order so you can see what we ended up with, and then how we got there.
Here's what we said we'd do now.
We will create a Wiki and a blog and a message group to define the still-changing architecture of a norg and - with our users - begin filling out the details, completing the model.
We will start developing an Evangelist痴 Calendar of ways to promote the norgs idea at conferences, etc. (and set up another meeting, inviting new people)
But we aren稚 waiting for a norg to be built. We will publish all the ideas that came up today, begin shaping them in communication with our users, and begin using what ideas we can in our current jobs. We値l be working on three tracks: Building the model; putting the ideas to work during the drama at Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. (because it is so dominant in Philadelphia); and working to have the ideas applied in all local media.
So what's a norg, anyway? The group said it's a newsgathering operation that is:
Continuous; 24/7 hour
Credible
Risky. Composed of risk-takers. Stretching the limits of technology, content and money.
Willing to embrace and seek failure.
Willing to see the union as a partner.
Interactive. Gives voice to the readers.
Realizes that journalism is not always a story. It might be a database.
Multiplatform, including a free print edition. Multimedia; offering different platorms for different audiences.
Not a one-way street. Not print into multimedia傭oth ways
Ethical
Transparent.
Allows reporters to express what they think and feel.
A watchdog of the eternal spin machine. Please, of state government.
Committed to freedom of information, financially and legally. Builds it, buys it and lobbies for it.
Investigative
Financially viable And generous with the money it makes. Supports the acts of journalism.
PERSONAL. Facilitates actual human interaction.
Distributed widely � transit
Devoted to Media literacy � not how to use the media, how to BE the media.
Should empower its users to be citizens
Has a voice. Have a personality.
Enables the community to inform each other.
May offer layers of journalism: Old-school, trained journalism; community journalism
Owned by the community
Uses a new metric for measuring success. Clicks are not the only way.
Should enjoy first-amendment protection
For those who want it, here's how we got to the ideas above:
THE FOUR BIG ISSUES WE TALKED ABOUT:
What is a norg? What content does it offer? What is the ethic/culture of a norg?
How do you pay for it? How do we sell ads, what are the platforms offered, how is it distributed?
What is its role in civic engagement, including: do we filter?
HOW WE BRAINSTORMED OUR WAY TO THE BIG FOUR: We asked...
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO GROW?
How can we redefine what local news can be and ought to be?
Find what ties us together � psychographic, not geographic
Importance of storytelling. Finding new ways to use technology to tell the story. Beyond even our new toolbox (podcast, etc.).
Consider partisan journalism? How would that work?
Something with tone and attitude
What does the consumer GET? Is it fully self-selected? Yahoo as a content model
We are giving people WAY too much. Why are we forcing it down their throats?
WHO ARE WE TRYING TO SERVE?
Do we exist to give people what they say they want and need, or do we exist to give people what we think傭ased on a lot of work葉hey need? Is it possible to open up this decision making process? Can we give people what they need to know in a way that is FAR more accessible and interesting?
One voice for journalism as a hammer, not a mirror.
WHAT DOES DEMOCRACY REQUIRE?
Does democracy need US (us the media, that is) to share the information?
How much do we let non-readers, including corporate interests, dictate our business?
What is the role of citizen-journalists? Can they help answer the 堵eography paradox�?
How do we make the group that痴 doing journalism more diverse and empowering everyone?
How can the emerging role of the Web as a utility help diversify the conversation?
How does a la carte selection limit readers� involvement in a democracy? How will I find out about the things that I didn稚 even know I care about? How would you learn that the public schools were failing somewhere else?
Or is a la carte selection the ULTIMATE act of democracy? There is a tension here.
Oh, yeah: The 登fficial� role of journalism in a democracy. The Constitution.
Free預s in no cost擁s more democratic.
WHAT IS AN ACT OF JOURNALISM?
Can we strengthen our two-way relationship? Why are we still dividing up 澱loggers� v. 屠ournalists?�
There痴 a difference between owning the news and enabling the news.
How do we create the structure around citizen journalists to protect them? (Legal, financial)
What are the new ethics? Transparency? Multiplicity of voices? Why was Karl so upset that the Red State America was at the Post?
How do we protect the values we care about� Accuracy �
Can we have levels of credibility?
What about the editability of the Web? Good, bad?
What outdated rules are preventing the full integration of online and print? (U. Penn. bball coach example.)
No more poaching! Print poaching of blog-originated stories!
猫etting in� others to the Official Acts of Journalism.
Who do we need in a norg? How do we demand diversity? What issues are aroud that: Language, access?
What痴 the difference between online journalism and print journalism?
Journalism IS Rush Limbaugh, IS Don Imus.
MORE LEGAL ISSUES
How should we change libel laws?
THE ONES AT THE TOP (ie our bosses)
Who runs the online operation? Shouldn稚 be journalists, should be people who actually know the technology. Must change the culture of the newsroom to quest after new technology.
The ills of shareholder ownership. How HARD it is to merge Web culture with shareholder-owned companies.
The ills of management whose minds have been warped by shareholder ownership
Do we have any decent managers?
CULTURE OF THE NEWSROOM
There痴 a physical separation of newsroom and online
Interest online in knowing who is talking to me? We like to read people who seem to talk to me.
We like the selection of 吐ilter� that you want. Personality, editorial team, friends and family. But this can lead to a whole lot of preaching to the choir. How do we break out of that?
You don稚 have to have one place where you see both sides. People who are on blogs are interested in the debate. They will have read the other side.
We link to people with whom we disagree.
BUT IT HAS TO MAKE MONEY
How do we pay for this? How do we pay journalists?
Do we have to reduce the number of journalists to make this work?
How do we pay for the expensive stuff? The investigative journalism question!
How do we pay for the BUNDLE? How do we continue to present the news the user didn稚 know they were looking for? Not just informative, but the surprising and delightful and unexpected?
How do we become entrepreneurs?
How do norgs turn their users into revenue-producing opportunities?
粘hareholder fundamentalism�
Phone a thons? The answer. Yahoo as a financial model
FINALLY, WHAT WE BRAINSTORMED TO GET TO THE "TO DO NOW"s:
What we can do�Create the vision of a norg � and show the world (and have them contribute). Model the co-op.
Write a whole new handbook for local news
Develop training for Philadelphia journalists in new media (Amy!)
Invite dissent and failure
Can we draft a norg budget? Can we try it online?
Use it no matter what. Even if not one thing changes at PNI (or, insert your media outlet here).
Close the technology gap no matter what.
Publish (blog? Wiki?) all our ideas so that everyone can have/edit them
Get the word out to 鍍raditional� and 渡ew� media so they can join in. CJR, presentations to conferences, etc. Not just our ideas, but what we have accomplished by bringing this divergent group together.
Get together in person on some regular basis
Broaden our group further � multimedia, business