The first phase of our online forum closes tonight as planned. Now I will read through all the posts and edit and organize them into a more accessible format. The posts will help inform Cole Campbell as he writes the next draft of the Charter.

On January 6, 2003 we will open the online forum again for another vetting of the Charter. Then we will bring what we learned to the live Charter Meeting here at Kennesaw State University on January 24-25, 2003.

The unedited forum content will remain available on a read only basis. So you can use it at will. All the posts to this Kennesaw Summit weblog over the past two weeks will remain on display as well.

I agree with Jay Rosen who says an online forum definitely should be part of the new society, and it might be modeled on this one. Thanks to all of you, it works.

We will keep you posted over the next few weeks as we prepare for the second phase of this online forum. Thanks again.

Posted by Leonard Witt at 6:51 PM | Link

 
Hideya Terashima, a Japanese journalist for a regional newspaper The Kahoku Shimpo, joined our discussion today. He is a researching Civic Journalism as a Fulbright Scholar at the Dewitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism at Duke University.

His is yet another voice calling for this to be an international society. He says, "Your experiences with Civic Journalism would be a rich resource of new initiatives and possibilities for us. I hope your new organization could be a bridge which would enable journalists in America and foreign journalists to connect with one another and work together for common issues..."

Indeed in his post he lists civic journalism practices that might work in Japan.

Posted by Leonard Witt at 5:50 PM | Link

 
Jay Rosen makes an extremely thoughtful list of 11 ideas for what we should be doing in this new public journalism society's first year. In essence, he is saying don't overreach. Keep it simple.


Here are his top three priorities:
1. Go all out in creating a top-of-the-line effective web forum for ideas and spreading new knowledge;
2. Do one annual event like an IRE gathering but with our twists;
3. Make sure this society is international from the start and meaningfully so.

Jan Schaffer says, "I would hope that one of the goals of the new society would be to foster responsible journalistic innovations that connect with community," adding, "For me, that has been a hallmark of civic journalism. Civic newsrooms have shown an appetite for trying new things...The level of creativity -- and courage -- is quite a legacy."


So what is your vision for this new pubic journalism society? You have until tomorrow to get in your ideas in this first round of our online forum. Tomorrow we start to incorporate what we learned into a Charter that we will vet again online in January, just prior to the live Charter Meeting here at Kennesaw State University, Jan. 24-25, 2003.

Posted by Leonard Witt at 5:58 PM | Link

 
Both John X. Miller and Dan Suwyn, journalists at the Detroit Free Press and Savannah Morning News respectively, say this new society must provide useful ideas that journalists can put into practice. Miller says other successful organizations thrive because there is, "a hunger for self-improvement, craft improvement and a focus on ground-breaking journalism. These can be very strong catalysts."

John X. Miller
Suwyn says, he wants our new society to produce a database or an annual book in the same way the IRE and the Society of Newspaper Design (SND) do. "What makes those groups so influential is that they give journalists standards and templates which they can aspire to, emulate and break."

Dan Suwyn
What do you envision for our new society? We need to know. Tell us at the forum.

Posted by Leonard Witt at 6:21 PM | Link

 
The first phase of our online discussion is coming to an end. One more favor from all you participants and lurkers. Just how do you envision this society one year from now?

I gave it my shot. Just click here, give my meager try a read and let us hear from you by posting a message at the end of that section.

In the next couple of days we will close shop for a while and then try a second draft of the Charter based on what we have received in this online forum. Then we will do some more online vetting and finally have our live forum here at Kennesaw State University, Jan. 24-25, 2003.

From noon to 5 p.m., July 29, 2003, we will be introducing this new society to academics and students at a pre-convention workshop hosted by the Graduate Student and Civic Journalism interest groups of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in Kansas City.

So we are on the move. Get involved now with your post to the forum. Thanks.

Posted by Leonard Witt at 4:34 PM | Link