Intro and Welcome to SoCon09.

Ruth Ann Harnisch Skyped in from TED in California participates in $1.5 million Center for Sustainable Journalism announcement with Dr. Dan Papp, president of Kennesaw State University, and me.

Jeff Haynie talks of why he left Atlanta for the greener entrepreneur fields of Silicon Valley.

Andrew Wilson moderates a free flowing discussion, asking what is Metro Atlanta’s niche in the Social Media world.

You can see Amani Channel’s Soconj09 livestreamed, now archived videos at MyUrbanReport.

Amani photo by Hyku.

Ruth Ann and I found each other thanks to the power of the internet in this digital era. Of course, this power is also disrupting how journalism is practiced and is especially changing the old business models.

The Center for Sustainable Journalism will seek new business models so that high quality, ethically sound journalism continues to have a role in our democratic society. I am in the midst of our SoCon09, conference where the gift is being announced. So I must get back to that, but here is the full press release with the details and a link to an excellent profile about Ruth Ann.

$1.5 million gift will establish innovative journalism center at KSU
Harnisch Foundation award advances work of distinguished communication scholar

KENNESAW, Ga. (February 7, 2009) In the midst of an annual conference designed to pinpoint the Southeast’s niche in the digital media revolution, Kennesaw State University announced receipt of a $1.5 million gift from the Harnisch Foundation to establish a center to research and develop innovative ways to produce and distribute news.

Kennesaw State President Daniel S. Papp announced the award and the creation of The Center for Sustainable Journalism Feb. 7 at the SoCon09 “Unconference” attended by more than 300 business, non-profit and media professionals, bloggers and digital media enthusiasts.

The center will be overseen by Leonard Witt, Kennesaw State’s Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication, eminent scholar and associate professor, who organized the SoCon09 conference. Witt is a pioneer in developing community-supported journalism models and exploring the potential of online social networks to disseminate news.

Witt’s work caught the attention of Ruth Ann Harnisch, president of the Harnisch Foundation, which supports and funds projects and programs that promote sustainable social change in philanthropy, coaching and journalism. The Foundation initially provided more than $60,000 to support Witt’s launch of a Minnesota-based community-supported journalism project.

“The continuing support we are receiving from the Harnisch Foundation enables KSU to further support the important nationally recognized research being conducted by Leonard Witt,” said KSU President Daniel S. Papp. “This major gift will go a long way in establishing KSU’s prominence in the emerging field of news dissemination through social networks.”

The current award, which will be spread over five years, will help underwrite applied research‚ build collaborations and advance innovative journalism projects regionally and around the country. The center will research and test a continuing stream of innovative journalism projects and nurture the best of them into self-sustaining entities.

“We are living in an era when old journalism models are failing, newspapers are faltering
and experienced journalists are losing their jobs,” Witt said. “This solution-oriented funding comes at a critical time, and with it, we can start to build new models that will ensure journalism continues to play its vital role in our democracy.”

Witt has been sharing his ideas about journalism innovation on his blog (PJNet.org) for six years.

“Technology has changed everything for everyone in every way,” said Ruth Ann Harnisch. “Len Witt understands how that affects the flow of information. I am investing in his leadership in the field because he’s willing to engage in bold experiments that could help shape the future of journalism.”

Witt said the Harnisch’s gift addresses a mutual concern for the future of traditional journalism.

“This gift is a tribute to the belief that Kennesaw State is at the forefront of helping reinvent journalism in this era when old business models are crumbling and new ones need to be tested and advanced,” he said. “It is also a tribute to Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch, who understand the need to act now to ensure that we have high quality journalism in the future.”

For more information on the Harnich Foundation award to KSU and learn more about Ruth Ann Harnisch, scroll down on this newsletter.

Today in The New York Times media critic David Carr wrote:

Is there a way to reverse the broad expectation that information, including content assembled and produced by professionals, should be free? If print wants to perform a cashectomy on users, it should probably look to what happened with music, an industry in which people once paid handsomely for records, then tapes, then CDs, that was overtaken by the expectation that the same product should be free.

Here is what I wrote on January 12, 2007 exactly two years ago to the day:

Here is my biggest question. What will happen when only the journalism is left? It has grown out of a Christmas present I received. It is a small portable GPS. So I can walk about, tell it to find me the barbecue places or the department stores or the visitor center. In other words, what I might have needed a newspaper for in the past all pops up instantly in front of me when I need it and literally walks me to my destination step by step, street by street.

So who needs newspaper advertising if you have that, and, of course, soon everyone will have it in a more perfected form than we have now.

Today we have the iPhone and that is only a primitive example of what we will have in the future.

David Carr ended his piece today by saying:

Now all we need is a business model…

Well a week later in January 2007, I posted my manifesto of sorts called: The Need to Reinvent Journalism While We Can. In it I wrote about what we needed then and still need now. We need:

A model where everything goes back into paying for the journalism. High quality equipment, high quality reporters and editors paid an excellent wage, high quality connectivity with the communities served, and high quality journalism that helps the community members find their way, while always being ready to speak truth to power. We can do it.

Here it is:

Kennesaw State awarded $250,000 grant to advance community-based journalism
New business model envisioned to combat erosion of traditional news media

KENNESAW, Ga. (December 19, 2008) – Kennesaw State University and the KSU Foundation received a $250,000 grant from the Harnisch Foundation as part of an ongoing relationship to advance research aimed at discovering innovative ways to produce financially sustainable, high quality and ethically sound journalism.

“The continuing support from the Harnisch Foundation enables KSU to do important work in preserving journalism in our democracy,” said KSU President Daniel S. Papp.

Leonard Witt, Kennesaw State’s Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication and an eminent scholar, has been sharing his ideas about journalism innovation on his blog (PJNet.org) for two years. The grant from the Harnisch Foundation will help Witt expand innovative ways for communities to fund online news media.

“We are living in an era when old journalism models are failing, newspapers are faltering and experienced journalists are losing their jobs,” Witt said.

Earlier this year, The Harnisch Foundation provided more than $60,000 to launch a test run of “representative journalism,” a new concept developed by Witt. It allows communities, individuals and groups to underwrite their own journalists to deliver Web-based local and topical news. The pilot project is a collaboration between KSU and a Minnesota-based online news community. With the new funding, Witt aims to expand this and other concepts nationally.

“Professor Witt is a nationally recognized leader in exploring new ideas for creating and distributing important, ethically gathered, responsibly presented journalism that helps people make informed decisions,” Harnisch said. “Our foundation is pleased to increase its investment in his cutting-edge work.”

Witt’s test project was launched in Northfield, Minn., on “Locally Grown,” an interactive Weblog and podcast with a large participatory following of area residents and community leaders. In July, Bonnie Obremski, a former general assignment reporter for the North Adams (Mass.) Transcript, was hired to file in-depth local and topical stories on the citizen-run blog.

The new funding will help underwrite more applied research, build collaborations and advance innovative projects around the country to test the viability of citizen-funded journalism. “The days of advertising paying the lion’s share of the news and information delivered to a community are waning,” Witt said.

“Ruth Ann Harnisch has provided inspirational, intellectual and financial support for representative journalism from the beginning,” Witt said. “This gift is a tribute to the belief that Kennesaw State is at the forefront of helping reinvent journalism in this era when old business models are crumbling and new ones need to be tested and advanced.”

Watch PJNet.org for continuing updates on the progress made on innovative journalism funding models.

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A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive‚ residential institution with a growing student population of more than 20‚000 from 132 countries. The third-largest university in Georgia‚ Kennesaw State offers more than 60 graduate and undergraduate degrees‚ including a new doctorate in education.

Free .TV show from Ustream

Also the forum set up by Bill Densmore of the Media Giraffe project, had several interesting presentations on topics such as teaching journalism literacy, the AP and copyright, social networking tools and teaching citizen journalism. If you have time, they are all worth downloading.

The podcast gives an excellent idea of what we will be doing there. There is just on issue that I am kicking myself about. I never mentioned Ruth Ann Harnisch’s name. This project would not be happening without her intellectual, inspirational and financial support.