Here is more about the conference:

One of the first national gatherings for local, online citizen journalists and entrepreneurs, sometimes called “placebloggers.” Designed for existing and prospective journalists and entrepreneurs. Including workshops on the legal, business, journalistic, marketing, advertising and social aspects of starting and running a local online news and commerce community. Timed and located to coincide with the National Conference on Media Reform.

 If you could build the ideal newsroom from scratch, what would it look like? We’re trying to help The Chronicle, the Duke University student newspaper, find an answer. Our project is being funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation  as part of the News Challenge Grant program.

Before we can build the Next Newsroom, we’ve been trying to address many other questions about a student newspaper’s role in its community. How must the newspaper’s mission evolve as technology and media consumption change, and how must its facilities evolve with it? What sort of workspace best attracts and prepares the journalists of tomorrow? How might print, broadcast and online media be integrated? How can such a newsroom encourage the community to engage in citizen journalism? How can a media center shape campus life? How important is the newsroom’s size and location in the digital age?

You can follow along here and since they are using Cover It Live, you can join the discussion.

Of course, I will be touting our Representative Journalism project and the yearlong community reporting fellowship that goes with it.  

So this is the kind of tool that reporters could be using for many events and using Twitter to allow people to join the discussion, especially since you can upload photos, video, URLs, etcetera while live blogging. The Cover It Live demo, says it is similar to sending IM messages.

Armstrong provides his own excellent review.   

I will be at the We Media conference in Florida on February 26-29 and will probably give this program a try then, if not before. My problem is that I am a slow and rather sloppy typist, as many of you might have noticed on these pages. I usually have to proof stuff over and over. So maybe live blogging is not my forte. Still I want to practice with the tool because my new mantra is: You have to play the game to understand it.

Last year SoCon07 was a big success and we were astounded by those numbers: 96 on Friday and about 200 on Saturday. This year, looking at the numbers we are about 150 percent more astounded.  When we started planning for SoCon08 I was thinking there might be Web 2.0 conference fatigue, apparently not in Georgia. One more interesting fact, last year Saturday was free, this year we are charging $15, mostly because we felt if people had to pay something, they would be more likely to show up. It is easier on the conference planners and helpers which include in alphabetical order: Lauren Booth, Jeff Haynie, Sherry Heyl, Timothy Moenk, Sean O’Leary, Barbara Vinning and me Leonard Witt. Apparently, that fee did not deter many from registering.

One figure which I am not sure of yet. Last year as the conference ended late Saturday afternoon, just six of use came to the Marietta Town Square for a evening pub crawl and dinner.  This year 72 folks say they want to join us. After a day and half of networking, we will see how many want to soldier on into Saturday night. Any how, last night, which was Saturday, I had to visit the different possible venues on the Marietta Town Square. Rough duty going from pub to pub, but alas here I am on Sunday typing away.

Finally, here’s another social networking, social media, Web 2.0 message. We did no advertising. It was all word-of-mouth via our various online networks. Does that mean we know all of these people? Heck no, but we all know some of them and they know some others. After next Saturday, everyone’s social network will be increased, fortified and energized. Welcome everyone to the world of Web 2.0 and SoCon08.  

 Saturday registration closes Friday. Register now. A friendly reminder for reading PJNet.org.

I will be moderating a panel on Friday afternoon Feb. 22 entitled Ubiquitous Journalism. What does that mean? As one of the journalists and not one of the computer folks, I am not 100 percent sure. But here is how it was described to me by Nicholas Diakopoulos, one of the conference organizers:

Ubiquitous Journalism is our invented term for how the data flowing from large networks of sensors and/or people can be applied to journalism. In the Ubiquitous Journalism Panel we’re exploring big news data flows, whether they’re coming from lots of digital sensors in confined geography, or from lots of human reporters globally. The discussion will point to how these streams and the systems that handle them lead to public knowledge and public impact.

Of course, journalists, at least this former one, might be a bit intimidated by that description, but that’s why we have to get together with the computational folks. I have some serious reading to get done before my moderation. Here is the whole panel:

• Jenny Preece, Dean of the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, developing 911.gov, a prototype Community Response Grid
• Mark Hansen, Co-PI of the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing , creator of sensorbase.org
• Amra Tareen, Founder and CEO, AllVoices.com
• Leah Culver,  Founder of Pownce, a San Francisco-based micro-blogging service

Here too is a new course Computation and Journalism at Ga. Tech being taught by the conference organizer Irfan Essa. I am having lunch with him next week and talking to this class about civic and citizen journalism 

Very cool stuff. I am excited by the possibilities.

The cost of attending Friday night’s big networking dinner is about to jump because we will soon reach the limit of subsidized spots. Pay $28 now or $48 later. So sign up now.

Also you might want to look at the participant list and see if it makes sense for your business or organization to be a sponsor. If interested, contact me. Last year we had 200 attendees and this year we expect at least as many.