Surfette

Hostage Jill Carroll released - Three Iraqi journos still held

Over on BlogHer, Middle East Contributing Editor LDW reports Hostage Jill Carroll released!

The news -- and the haunting memory of Margaret Hassan -- sent me scrambling to Reporters Without Borders, where I found this photo of Carroll and this story of the three Iraqi journalists who are still being held:

Release of Jill Carroll : A "huge relief"
Reporters Without Borders hailed the news of the release of US hostage in Iraq, Jill Carroll, as a “huge relief”, saying that the campaign on her behalf had not been in vain.

The international press freedom organisation also praised the “exemplary” courage and determination of her family.

“We thank all those throughout the world, particularly the major Arabic media, who campaigned for the release of this young journalist,” the organisation said.

But it added, “Our campaign will not be over until the three Iraqi reporters, Rim Zeid, Marwan Khazaal and Ali Abdullah Fayad have been released in their turn”.

Amen. Kudos to RSF and Paris Deputy Mayor Pierre Schapira for their work to raise the profile of this case, which has all but disappeared from the American news media.

Updated: Childcare at BlogHer '06

That's right -- the childcare fairy has arrived to assist at BlogHer's 2006 conference on July 28-29 in San Jose, CA. Last year, at BlogHer Conference 2005, the concept of throwing the first-ever women's blogging conference and helping women take care of the kids so they could come was inconceivable.

This year, with essential help from sponsor Club Mom, a team of volunteers are making it happen. Mom Writes and tells all.

Technorati tags: BlogHer, Bloghercon, childcare

Cybersalon: A postscript

Last night's panel was both a surprise and a disappointment. I was surprised because there are two critical live-blogs of the event with which I agree:

• Scott Rosenberg: Blogs: threat or menace? He caught Jory Des Jardins' great comment. Check it out.
• Tim/Geodog: Berkeley Cybersalon: Journalism vs. blogging = Yawn

As I commented on Rosenberg's blog, I think Tim did a good job of covering Rosenberg's passionate disagreement to Moderator Andrew Keen's dismissal of the value of 'sharing experiences'. That was an important moment. I also wish we could have had less of a panel and more of an audience-centric group discussion about what the reader wants, about trust and the value of quality information. That's where I expected and hoped our dissection of content that is "elite" would go (see my definition in the previous post). Because the Internet has been manna for me, an end-run around substandard information in any medium.

The moderator always sets the tone. I'm not interested in points-scoring, I'm interested in something new. I'm sorry the group didn't achieve that. I think we could have.

I was even more surprised to wake up to this piece from Steve Gillmor. To have a technology columnist and man of Gillmor's take-no-horseshit approach listen this hard to what I was saying and take my comments seriously is a damn good reason to get up in the morning.

Cybersalon: I'll always be both Daddy's and Mommy's girl

Tonight I'm part of a Berkeley Cybersalon panel that will be asked some bald questions about so-called "big media," blogging and the role of elitism. (Dave Winer quotes Sylvia Paull's email invitation here, including address, nibbles and accessibility to all.)

I've read Moderator Andrew Keen's questions and find myself wondering whether I am always going to feel as though mommy and daddy are fighting. Because I am both a daddy's girl (traditional big media journalist), and a mommy's girl (a blogger). Keen knows how to whip up a panel--or this panelist anyway. He writes via Paull's email:

"Bloggers and podcasters are suspicious of “elitist” big media and view the “democratizing” force of digital technology positively. In contrast, many traditional journalists regard most blogs, wikis and podcasts as amateurish and narcissistic. We wonder if expertise is, by definition, elitist. And we ask if expertise and elitism might indeed be necessary features of a high-quality media."

Since I spoke with Keen on the phone a few weeks ago, I'm pretty sure he's aware of the multiple and contradictory definitions of the word "elite." Given that there are four panelists--John Markoff, Jory Des Jardins, Steve Gillmor and me--and the latter three are journalists who also blog, the conversation about the assumptions in this paragraph should be intense. Especially given Markoff's widely circulated 2003 interview with the Online Journalism Review, which I look forward to asking him about. But first I need to get on the record with my answers to Keen's opening questions:

• Question 1. Is big media elitist?
• Question 2. Do you believe that most blog, wiki and podcasts a[re] amateurish and reflect the increasing narcissism of our electronic media?
• Question 3. Is expertise, by definition, elitist? And if so, are expertise and elitism necessary features of a high-quality media?

To answer these questions I need to back up completely and request that we look at all these questions throught the eyes of the one who matters most: The reader, the poor [expletive deleted because the kids do read my site] reader. Readers who, according the Journalism.org's State of News Media 2005 and 2006, care so much about news and information that we consume it in increasing numbers (although our growth in consumption has dropped). And the younger we are, the more of it we want.

On being both a daddy's girl and a mommy's girl

Question 1. Is big media elitist?

In case you haven't read me before, I've been working in newsrooms to evangelize the editorial value of blogs and conversations with readers at American Lawyer Media | Law.com, the company formerly known as Knight Ridder Digital and Glam Media. To answer this question, I need to acknowledge two definitions of elite (hat-tip: Dictionary.com):

e·lite or é·lite    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (-lt, -lt) n. pl. elite or e·lites A group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status: “In addition to notions of social equality there was much emphasis on the role of elites and of heroes within them” (Times Literary Supplement). The best or most skilled members of a group: the football team's elite.

I like definition (b). If a person or an organization who values the best or most skilled information and news is an elitist, I hope we all are elitists. As a reader, I want the best information. If all big media were elitist in this way, legal bloggers would have been printed in the nation's leading newspapers long before I launched Law.com's blog network in November 2004. And bloggers would never assert opinions without offering up some fact, some basis in reality to give themselves credibility. Unfortunately, the clubby nature of the first definition (a) has been the downfall of newspapers I love very much.

Here's what I mean when I say that I feel feel as though mommy and daddy are fighting. What I have learned is that Daddy (or big media) is predisposed to value hierarchy and status, or elitism in the negative sense, whereas Mommy (or self-published media) is predisposed to value meritocracy or elitism in the positive sense. Daddy's in trouble because being a member of the club has, over time, become more important than being the top expert at his job--indeed has changed his job. As a result, Daddy's product is no longer always the best-- the most elite by definition (b). Mommy's given him some competition because, thanks to her search tool, she's a smart shopper and can find the best, most detailed expert information on any topic because she can look world-wide, rather than being limited by the club.

But both parents, however much I love them, are snobs and prone to cronyism and shameful blind spots that make me want to move to a remote coastal village and open my own show. Oh wait - Elisa, Jory and I already did that. It's essential for bloggers to keep the reader in mind too and to avoid clubby elitism. As I've said before, here and here.

Since when was media not narcissistic? Why do you think I keep clip books from the 1980s onward?

Question 2. Do you believe that most blog, wiki and podcasts a[re] amateurish and reflect the increasing narcissism of our electronic media?

NO, I do not regard most blogs, wikis and podcasts as amateurish and narcissistic. How can I judge what I have not seen and evaluated? Blog, wiki and audio technologies are just like printing presses used to publish newspapers --- tools that a broad spectrum of thinkers are using to get their word out. Period.

Now. If big media is any guide, some of these products are superior or elite (definition b above). Others are foolish. Which leads me to my point: That the true judge of value here is the reader. 

We're all at risk of preaching to the converted, to publishing an echo chamber

Question 3. Is expertise, by definition, elitist? And if so, are expertise and elitism necessary features of a high-quality media?

Again, depends on how you define it. Start at the top.

Hope to see you there! If not, I invite your thoughts and improvements below.

UPDATED: I blogged after the panel at this post: Cybersalon: A postscript.

UPDATED: Public Square or Private Club? - SXSW panel with Tiffany Brown, Melinda Casino and Barb Dybwad

I updated this post after the panel. To read my additonal notes, please click through on the continuation of this post.

Have you ever talked with Tiffany B. Brown, Melinda Casino, or Barb Dybwad about what happens when online communities decide to form exclusive groups based on identities -- gender, race and/or interest?

If not, you've been missing something -- and you have a chance to make up for it, eiher here or at SXSW Interactive if you're in Austin this weekend. Brown, Casino and Dybwad are the discussion leaders in a panel I'm moderating called, "Public Square or Private Club: Does Exclusivity Strengthen or Dilute?"

Don't expect any dictation from the podium - that's not why Hugh Forrest of SXSW asked BlogHer to produce five panels for the conference. Instead, we'll examine the big why behind organizations such as BlogHer and Brownbloggers and other gender-specific, race-specific, interest-specific gatherings online. Riffing on a list of questions I wrote down after a particularly infuriating conversation I had with a reporter last fall, we want to talk with you and examine:

Photos from SXSW

I tried to make my single day at SXSW count. Here's a sampling of my tortured Flickr account, where I occasionally prove that text is my medium...Happily, not even I can ruin a photo of bloggers Mary Hodder, Anastasia Goodstein and Laina Dawes. More from the BlogHer Meetup and beyond here and on Liz Henry's Flickr blog.

Tags: sxsw, sxswi, blogher.

Liveblog of SXSW panel: "We got naked, now what?"

I liveblogged BlogHer's first of five discussions at SXSW, starring Laina Dawes, Jory Des Jardins, Elaine Liner, Evelyn Rodriguez, Elisa Camahort. Good discussion included some important edge back from the audience, many of whom expressed surprise at Laina's and Elaine's surprise at losing their jobs over their blogs. I agree with Chris Carfi that Jory had a terrific point about how blogs are affecting business communications in general. And this exchange brought the house down:

Laina Dawes: "As a black woman, I blog because I have to. Unless you're Condoleezza Rice, no one cares what you have to say. [talks about being  part of a transcultural adoption into a white family.] My parents do read my blog, so I try to keep the profanity down. Wrote a scathing article on Hurrricane Katrina. I had an uncle who felt I was calling my entire family white supremacists. I have to say, it's my life, it's my blog, and I do what I have to do. I cannot restrict what I have to say."

Elisa Camahort: "So you'll say white supremacists, but you won't say fucking white supremacists."

Laughter, as Elisa and Laina howl from the podium.

Here's the play-by-play:

Libre -- si o no? Defining Women's Day 2006

Source: Photo "Libre" by Saúl GM, courtesy of Flickr's 8 de Marzo Día de la Mujer / 8th March Women's Day (Pool)

I remember asking my mother on the eve of someone else's birthday, "why isn't there a Children's Day?" Mom, 33, with four children under seven, stopped whatever she was doing -- folding laundry, cleaning a dish or a behind, chasing mice out of our rental--and put a hand on her hip. "Honey," she drawled, "Every day is children's day."

Lucky girl. My entire life my parents have had one hand on my elbow, the other pointing out some woman who was working forty times harder for 3,000 percent less than we had for the taking. Happily, thanks to the Internet, they can take a breather. Here's a little perspective on March 8, which some people refer to as Women's Day 2006. Are women free--yes or no? Do women need a day of recognition or not? Travel off the beaten path with these women...

Queens of Cyberspace - Cover controversy

Crossposted from BlogHer

This cover art from the Austin Chronicle is heating up the bloghersphere this weekend. I linked it earlier this week in "Queens of Cyberspace" - Women at SXSW, along with a list of the weekly newspaper's interviews with Heather Armstrong, Ronnie Bennett, danah boyd, Elisa Camahort, Barb Jory Des Jardins, Dybwad, Anastasia Goodstein, Lynne D. Johnson, Glennis McClellan, Maxine Sherrin, and Ruby Sinreich. Yesterday mediagirl took issue with the image in, "So what's wrong with a little objectification, anyway?" She writes:

The other hot zone: Community. Friday's talk at OJR 2006

Update: Erica Ogg live-blogged the session here on the Online Journalism Review.

Tomorrow, the day after Yahoo has announced its decision not to go into the TV business and instead focus on user-created content (hat-tip: NYT), I'm headed south to talk with this impressive bunch of journalists and writers about building community.

First thing I'm going to do is tell Peter Roybal of Yahoo News that Lloyd Braun's quote about ego is proof that we proverbial old dogs can learn new tricks - tricks anyone who wants to grow a thriving community online has to learn. (Click through on the NYT link above to read what Braun said).

I'm very complimented that Robert Niles, Editor of the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review, invited me to join this discussion at OJR 2006. My job is to moderate a conversation in which, Robert says,

"We will talk about how journalists are building and managing online communities of readers to extend and deepen their sites' reporting, through discussion boards, wikis, blogs and other forms of interactive publishing. Discussion topics will include how best to solicit new contributors and how to manage those who grow unruly."

Ah yes -- the unruly. More on the unruly in a minute. What I'd like to accomplish tomorrow is a group problem-solving exercise where we can talk about how and when working with users improves the quality of journalism, why this space is so hot, and how to solve the problems everyone in the room is dealing with daily. Here's my working outline for our 90 minutes together, with the understanding that the group controls the agenda (and I welcome all suggestions below)...