UNconference, anyone? ‘Blogging for Journalists’
By Laura Fries for AAN • May 23rd, 2007
It’s a nerdy, populist idea: folks in the audience of a lecture often know just as much as the speaker, so why not have everyone contribute? It’s called an unconference [wiki], and the idea is to democratize the convention experience.
AAN will experiment with an UNconference by hosting a special, free-wheeling session on “Blogging for Journalists,” during the 2007 Convention in Portland, OR.
I’ll guide the session along with an outline of topics, soliciting best practices contributions from UNconference attendees, and - of course, blogging the results on the community convention blog at Portland2007.AAN.org. Later, I’ll work the results of the UNconference into a session on Blogging for Journalists I’ll be leading for the 2007 batch of Poynter College Fellows. [I was a Reporting & Writing Fellow in ‘04].
Interested in attending? I’m hoping to keep it fun and informal (bring beer) while keeping it useful (bring good beer). Lemme know what time works for you in comments.
Tags: beer, blogging, journalists, meetup, portland, UNconference
Cathy Resmer:
May 24, 2007 at 6:24 am
Don’t know what time works for me, but I’m interested in the unconference. I had talked with some blogger friends about hosting one here last fall, but it seemed too disorganized to me and I haven’t done anything with it yet. I’m curious to see how it works. If it works.
vanessa:
May 24, 2007 at 7:19 am
I’m in, but not sure what time is going to be best either. But i will happily bring beer.
LauraFries.com:
May 24, 2007 at 9:10 am
Cathy -
Yeah, the idea of a whole conference that is UNorganized is a little UNnerving for us project manager types. I’m hoping the structure of talking bout blogging for journalists is enough; but hey, it’s an UNconference, so I’m open to whatever we want to learn about, as long as we don’t run out of beer!
julia:
May 24, 2007 at 11:27 am
I’m down.
Cathy Resmer:
May 24, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Oooh, and there will be beer, there, too! How can we go wrong?
Jeff Inglis:
June 13, 2007 at 7:24 am
I’m interested, too. No idea what time is best - the thing I like about nonunconferences (isn’t that what we’re going to, at least now that we’ve started modifying “conference”?) is that there is a lot of time to meet, talk, drink, etc., on the fringes of the “structured” activities. I’m game, though, so see you there!
BrandonSeifert:
June 13, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I’m down. But I don’t really have a time preference, except not Saturday morning or afternoon.