Journalism Literacy

In the run-up to the launch of the D.C. local site TBD, the editors let future readers peek behind the curtain through a placeholder blog that teased new hires and plans for the project. The blog also did a great job of generating buzz; we tweeted quite a few links to the site.

In the spring of 2009, during the last half of my fellowship at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, a group of Mizzou J-school students and professors worked with me to put together a prototype local health site called HealthCommons. Because the Lawrence Journal-World’s had the kind of flexible content management system we needed, I asked if they’d be interested in participating, and they agreed.

Jurnos are entrepreneurs. Jurnos come from all walks of life. Jurnos are community managers. Jurnos are community organizers. Jurnos are catalysts for economic enterprise. Jurnos embrace conversational media. Jurnos strive to serve and be trusted sources for their communities.

I am virtually covering the all-day sessions at the RJI TalkFest today, held at the University of Missouri's Reynolds Journalism Institute. I will be watching in via Adobe Connect, where I can hear and see what's going on and chat in the chat room. The agenda includes sessions on community-building, advertising and marketing, news and information and mobile.

More than 100 journalists, advertising experts, community activists, technology experts, librarians, educators and students gathered -- from Washington, D.C. to Hawaii, in person and virtually -- for an RJI Talkfest to launch the RJI Collaboratory, a news organization incubator for Web-based entrepreneurial journalists.

The Collaboratory is a news organization incubator for Web-based entrepreneurial journalists.

As the first example of how the RJI Collaboratory plans to be a solution-oriented organization, Dean Mills, the dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, announced the debut of the RJI Collaboratory network. The network is a Ning-based social network where people from many professions and walks of life will develop entrepreneurial journalism tools and projects.

Journalists, entrepreneurs, academics, and experts from the worlds of technology and business will gather on January 21, 2009 at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute for a one-day Talkfest called “Putting Feet on the Streets for Journalism.” The participants’ challenge: to develop plans for the RJI Collaboratory, a news organization incubator.

Hate them or love them. There’s no in-between with content management systems. And love can swing to hate and back within the space of 10 minutes.