I’m pleased to have been invited by the Society of Professional Journalists to speak at their upcoming Ethics in Cyberspace: How To Do Bloggin’ Right conference. The conference is happening April 30th at the Denver Press Club.
Cool bloggers who will be there include Rebecca Blood (author of The Weblog Handbook), Gil Asakawa, Chris Cobler, David Thomas, Erin Yoshimura and Ric Soulen. I’ll be on a general blogging panel and our topic of discussion is described thusly…
“The general panel will feature a general discussion about blogs and how each panelist has created them and maintains them. Panelists will talk about their blogs, motivations for creating them, the feedback they’ve received about them, and any practical tips they can offer prospective bloggers.”
The event costs $40 prior to April 25th, and $55 afterwards, including lunch. You can register to attend by e-mailing Boots Gifford at bgifford -at- bizjournals -dot- com or by calling 303-837-3525.
Want to learn more about the event? Well, unfortunately, the conference doesn’t have an informational Web page, let alone Weblog. For that matter, the Colorado Chapter of the SPJ doesn’t have a Web site either, something I found rather startling when I finished spending some time on Google.
I’m delighted to be involved with this conference, and am looking forward to both comparing notes with some of the best bloggers in the state of Colorado and talking about the ethics of blogging. A sneak preview: I don’t think that bloggers can enjoy the legal protection of journalists if they aren’t willing to also adopt the responsibilities and ethics of journalists too.
Finally, the obligatory commentary: I can only hope that the executives of the Colorado Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists are taking notes during the event and rethinking their own online presence. After all, it’s us bloggers, us “citizen journalists”, who are busy nipping at the heels of the mainstream media.
No webpage for a blogging conference? Wow. That’s blog-worthy in and of itself 😉
Hi Blogger
Your blog is realy very informative and usefull for my business even
i am also having a blog. So can we exchange the links so that we can
share the resources.If interested, please mail me
thanks
Way cool, Dave. I’ll be recommending this event to my readers. I’ll be attending, too.
– Amy Gahran
Editor, CONTENTIOUS
You wrote ‘I can only hope that the executives of the Colorado Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists are taking notes during the event and rethinking their own online presence’, but I see no need to “hope”. Our collective motto should be “In Darwin We Trust” or maybe “Sink or Swim”. Let the “old guard” choose their policies as they see fit, and let “the market” decide whether their choices are good or not.
Yes, it’s quite a hoot that they don’t have a blog, but let’s let normal market signals determine what they should do rather than artificially distorting their natural inclinations.
Here’s a question I’d like to see asked: How many media outlets [“old guard” media, that is] ask journalist applicants whether they blog and in fact would prefer that they blog? Or, on performance reviews, how important is “excellent blogging performance” for getting a raise or promotion?
And if you want to be proactive, start sending “messages” to the media that you will only access their content to the extent that the authors of the content make themselves available for two-way blogging.
I’m patiently awaiting the day when a NY Times byline says “reporting by X, blogging by Y”. And for the online version of the article the byline would link you to both the blog and a list of bloggers who participated and added real value. Give some real meaning to “citizen journalist”.
— Jack Krupansky