Scripting News for 2/24/2007

Boston blogger dim sum, tomorrow, 1PM. 

Afternoon working group  

I’m participating in Charlie Nesson’s discussion group about a project he’s contemplating.

Charlie talked about Harvard’s deal with Google and the role a university can play in building an open library.

In K-12 in eduction there’s a system called United Streaming from the Discovery Channel.

For the second time in two days I’ve been pointed to PBCore, that I had not heard of before.

Photo of our working group.

Beyond Broadcast II 

Starting the second morning panel, after a great coffee break.

Movie: What Beyond Broadcasting looks like in the overflow room.

I have no idea what they’re talking about. They use terms that I don’t have a sense of what they mean in real terms. When they talk about the “grass roots” I guess those are the people you see on BART or the Red Line. How do these people meet them? When these guys go to work, what do they do every day?

I signed up for the You Call Yourself a Journalist? dinner tonight. Actually I’m more of a source than I am a journalist. If you want to sort this stuff out, it’s a good idea to enumerate the different roles that go into creating a news story. Professional journalists tend to ignore their sources in this enumeration (they talk about all kinds of editors, researchers and management). Blogging allows us to go direct with our knowledge, experience and insignts, without waiting for a reporter to ask us what we think (and likely mangle it). I’m a total fan of the NewsHour, so I’m optimistic about an interesting conversation over dinner tonight.

Beyond Broadcast 

I’m at the MIT media conference, it’s so well-attended I’m in an overflow room with good MIT-hosted free wifi. It’s like watching a TV show with lots of familiar faces on the screen. Watching Doug Kaye (hi Doug!) sitting in front of a guy asking a question/giving a speech. John Palfrey my former Berkman colleague just gave a rousing Palfreyesque convocation following a Henry Jenkins keynote. I’m in a good mood at least partially because it’s warm in here and so damned cold out there.

Movie: Cab ride on Mass Ave crossing frozen Charles River.

Movie: Henry Jenkins keynoting Beyond Broadcast conf.

Jesse Walker is moderating the panel now, he looks strikingly like Scoble. Great line — “…when people talk about Web 2.0 — which I like to call (slight pause) The Web…”

People in the overflow room can’t ask questions, so if someone in the main room is reading this, please ask the Yahoo rep if they point to amateur journalism that isn’t hosted on a Yahoo site? Amyloo submitted my question in the Second Life question tool for the conference. The moderator just explained the tool, but said they waren’t going to watch it. Huh??

The preambles of the panelists are mind-numbingly boring. They ramble on and on. One of the panelists couldn’t even make it to Boston. With all the incredible minds in the “audience” — what a waste. My head keeps nodding. I’ve even noticed bits of drool forming in the corners of my mouth. Thank god for wifi.

Papa Doc is blogging away over in the other room. So far nothing from him on the panel. Could his head be nodding too?? The guy in LA is rambling infinitely on and on ad infinitum. Zzzzz.’

The Yahoo panelist says we can find real journalism on Flickr.

Brrrrr 

Except for a brief excursion to Berkman on Thursday evening, I haven’t had to go outside because of a remarkable set of indoor walkways that connect the hotels of Copley Place with shopping and food places scattered along the way.

Today I’m heading over to MIT in Cambridge for the Beyond Broadcast conference (where I am a participant, an observer) and for that, I have to go outside. Brrr.

I was shocked to see that it’s 17 degrees. Not fair! 🙂