Seybold 2001 -- Publishing in Crisis

Tuesday, September 25, 2001 by Dave Winer.

Good morning 

Greetings to DaveNet readers.

Most of the action in the last few days, some pretty heavy stuff, is on the Web.

We're getting to know each other again, in our worldwide community, now that things have changed, you can see the geopolitical discussion in the new wartime context.

Remember it's a worldwide Web, it doesn't belong to the US or anyone else.

In the meantime, I wanted to let our Bay Area readers know of an event tomorrow.

90 minutes at Moscone 

I'm moderating a 90-minute session tomorrow at 8:30AM (I know it's very early) to talk about publishing in time of crisis. We'll have people from big publishing companies and amateur journalists (bloggers).

It's going to be a discussion, no presentations, the goal is to learn from others' experience and to find ways to work together when the next crisis rolls around.

You're all welcome, attendance is open and free (but there will be security checks). If you're going to be in SF tomorrow I hope you can be there. Scoble will take real-time notes for people on the Web. Check Scripting News tomorrow for a pointer.

Publishing in Crisis 

The title of the session is "How Publishers and Their Production Teams Fared in Covering the Tragedies in New York and Washington."

Here are some of the questions we'll ask. What did you learn in the last few weeks? Where did your systems work, and where did they fail? How quickly could you respond? Did your publishing process help you get the story out, or was it a hindrance? What will you do better next time?

More questions. How does publishing adjust to the news? Is freedom of speech a strength or a liability? How did the Central Asia cover the events in NY and Washington? The US? Europe? How did the Web participate? What did Big Publishing learn? What role will amateur journalism play? What new technology will we need to do our jobs even better?

Come learn 

So if you have something to add, or want to learn, I hope you'll come tomorrow.

8:30AM, Seybold, Moscone, San Francisco, USA.

Dave Winer