Scripting News: Unconference for journalists?

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Unconference for journalists?

Reading these notes following the We Media conference in Miami, I'm happy to report that there have been unconferences for journalists -- all unconferences are for journalists (and of course for everyone else too).

We had professional journalists, many of them, at the first couple of BloggerCons at Harvard in 2003 and 2004.

Maybe it's better to flip the question around -- I wonder what is served by continuing the hierarchic speaker-panel-audience conferences, where the action migrates into the hallways? Why keep organizing that kind of conference, when the newer models are so much more effective at sharing information and ideas, so much more inclusive and interesting, and so much more fun!

In any case, if there's an interest in an unconference specifically for professional journalists that's open to all interested parties, I would be happy to help in the planning of such an event. Anything to help my brothers and sisters in professional media embrace the changes that are in process.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:29 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

Jan Mar