Thursday Meetings at Berkman Blog

Posted by Erica, 4/7/05 at 7:11:19 PM.

04/07/2005 Meeting Notes

These notes are a best effort.

Blog your corrections and commentary.

Attendees:

• AW: Amanda Watlington
• AH: Ann House
• EG: Erica George
• j: j
• JD: Jared Dunn
• JS: Jennifer Stoner (via IRC)
• JW: Jon Winsor
• JA: Josh Ain
• LW: Lisa Williams
• LB: Lynne Baer
  
• LG: Louis Godena

• MW: Mal Watlington
• RF: Randy Fenstermacher
• SR: Shimon Rura

Audio!!!!!!

Agenda:

• Random blather
  • We chat about why people name their blogs certain things, and whether ’tis better to be clever, or be clear
• Citizen journalism next week
  • LW: http://www.cadence90.com/wp/?p=3732
  • LW: Can anyone name any of the hyperlocal blogs that were launched by Advanced Media, Jeff Jarvis’s company?
  • LW: One of the under-talked-about areas in citizen journalism is blogs doing things that the MSM (Mainstream Media) *can’t* do (instead of “when bloggers do things that the MSM already does,” which is how coverage of blogging journalists has focused so far – and is not a bad thing to highlight).
  • LW: It’s easier to find out what’s going on in Indonesia than in Watertown, where I live. Economic landscape for small town newspapers is bad.
  • LW: I TiVo city council meetings, and am the only secondary source of news for those at the moment. Lack of information for town citizens leads to town being led by small group of people in the know. I want to change that. Launched H2Otown.info to provide a forum.
  • LW: Still seeking more info: citizen journalism sites, good blog posts on this issue. Anyone who sends her email or adds to her Del.icio.us tag on this before the meeting next week is most welcome.
  • LW: I am also talking to some of the more famous blogging journalists to see if they’ll remote-participate.
  • AW: There’s so much more commentary than actual news on blogs – not a bad thing
  • LW: The op-ed piece wants to be in the blogosphere not the newspaper. It’s like how dramas moved from radio to TV once TV took off
  • LW: Are these people just pointing to other (MSM) news sources, or are they doing their own news?
  • LW: Should I count snark sites? Where to put sites like Gothamist, Bostonist in this framwework?
  • LW: Legitimate criticism: not everyone has net access. This privileges those who do. Is that OK? If this is the only economically sound way to distrib. news to these markets, how to make sure it’s distributed broadly enough?
  • MW: http://www.ncblogs.com
  • JS (on IRC): question for lisa – and maybe i’m just missing it because i’m getting bumped off the feed alot – but what about looking at other small towns’ non-bloggy media?
  • LW: I’m looking into this, am trying to contact sites individually
  • MW: Charlestown has 2 print weeklies. Why?
  • MW: Are some towns simply not as newsworthy?
  • LW: If a town is small enough, you don’t *need* a paper – everyone knows everyone anyway. But Watertown is too big for that, and too transient.
  • LW: In the Boston metro area, almost all the local newspapers (80 towns’ worth!) were bought up by one single company (Fidelity). They then sold this to the Herald (local Boston daily), and the Herald is doing badly. The reporters for the local papers cover more than one town, and rarely get into the field. Doesn’t make for good news.
• BlogFest Boston
  • SR: It’s mainly going to be for local folks in the metro area. Talk to Mike if you have suggestions/want to help.
  • LW: Bob Stepno, bloggroup alum now elsewhere, may be helpful in getting meeting space
• What else?
  • JW: Grassroots Use of Technology conference at MIT on April 15-16.
• Eat -> Short agenda = finish sooner & eat earlier!
  

  • Uno’s
  • Last week: Bombay Club