twitter posses and other tools

The power of “we” is what the civic media movement is all about, I learned this week. It’s about empowering citizens to share news and information, much of it in an unmediated fashion.
The idea is that the more information people have access to the more they will have the capacity to act on their own behalf. That ,in turn, can help strengthen community bonds and ideally further Democracy.

Here are three of my takeaways from this week’s Future of Civic Media conference at MIT that I’ll be talking about with my students when I begin teaching at KU in August.

• “Technology was what was invented after you were born.” That line by an MIT professor drew a good laugh and reinforced how valuable it is to take the time to learn about tools and websites that can help you in your work. In three days at MIT, I learned about dozens of new websites such as manyeyes.org, icu.com and selectricty.org and about changes in computers and mobile devices that are making it easier to record and transmit sounds and images.

• Twitter Posses and other social networks can be great for getting feedback. How good is your story idea? Bounce it off your own network of sources, friends, other students to see if they like your idea and can help make it better. Share a first draft for their reaction. Ask them to help you find other people to interview. One fellow conferee called this "digital rolodex" 3.0.

• In this age of Do It Yourself publishing, when the tools allow almost anyone to create content, professional journalists who have the experience and skills to investigate deeply and report thoroughly are vital. We need less crap and more news and information of consequence. Learn what it takes to know the difference between good journalism and all the other stuff. The other stuff can be fine and fun to have but the journalism is the protein the country needs to thrive.