A core dump from the morning session. After that we’re booking to the airport to get in the air before the storm arrives. Warning: I’m blogging this almost-real-time, and it will be rife with errors!
Webcred conference attendees have that sleepy, slit-eyed look of people who stayed out too late and got up too early, but nonetheless I’m enjoying a lively presentation on podcasting by Brendan Greeley. I heard a clip from the Public Radio Exchange and am now hearing about the Mbox, a Mac tool that makes podcasting easier and higher-quality. Audio quality is a major obstacle to getting shows on NPR. Discussion following… about using podcasting to reach… FCC rules different for advertising within podcasting? … Podcasting has no profit model… Also, podcasting circumvents the problems with limited spectrum on the radio band… Andy Carvin of DDN talking about mobcasting via mobile phone… mobcasting.blogcast.com …
Jay Rosen, talking about podcasting, asked “Have you ever tried to speak on public radio? You can’t do it!” He added that he’s not hostile to public radio at all, but it has barriers to entry.
Now hearing the wikipedia dude talking… made reference to the infamous (to me) NPOV, which I reject as a concept. Someone said to me he has an “operational view of neutrality.” “People who can’t write neutrally aren’t very comfortable in our community.” “In the tech world, we talk about love and respect a lot.” “One of the central pillars of everything we do is neutrality.” Acknowledges that wikinews (a different animal) is “not exactly neutral.” Says it has a good “vetting process.”
Dan Gillmor (We the Media) talking about what he’s doing–which he’s still figuring out–and that “the plan will change before we get very far”
David Weinberger vis a vis wikis: “Who are ‘we’?”
Jimmy Wale: says “the openness is a really big part of that”
Weinberger brings up demographics of wikipedia
Jimmy Wale: yes, we’re white, male, etc. something we’re trying to address… how? By being open…
Jimmy Wale: talking about his organization’s funding… all volunteers…
Gillmor talking: has something in mind for a “community of interest” site — looking for a “really great businessperson to come in and help with the revenue model”
Xiao asks one of my wikipedia questions: about the loudest voice winning
Jimmy: Wikipedia is done by a “small, strong, tight-knit community… the quality of the encyclopedia is one of our central organizing principles… the openness is a means to an end… discussion turned to trust issues…
Btw, I now have a signed copy of Small Pieces Loosely Joined tucked in my briefcase, and I’m thinking how great it would be to have a review source on the Web that does for creative nonfiction what Beatrice does (largely) for quality fiction.
John Gillmor: wants to help people find things that journalists use every day
Johnathon Z: wp community is “a distributed, friendly, monastic priesthood… it works like a charm” but has problems; imagine Walmart saying it was a user too
whoops, gotta run!
Posted on this day, other years:
A question for your later review:
Now that you were there (as, I believe, the only library person outside of ALA staff), could you inform ALA members why ALA was sponsoring a blogging/journalism conference with (nearly) no member participation?
Am I correct in assuming that ALA money was spent in that sponsorship?