Best Practices: Editorial/Commentary in Cyberspace

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Speakers

Keith Burton is owner of Burton Communications LLC, a multi-faceted company in Biloxi providing Web services, national magazine stories on the auto and boating industries, Internet advertising, and communications consulting services. He owns and operates two Gulf Coast Web sites: Internet's number one site on casinos in Mississippi, MississippiCasinos.com, and GulfCoastNews.com, a comprehensive news and information site. GulfCoastNews.com received national attention following Hurricane Katrina by offering the first online database of displaced Katrina survivors. Burton is a prolific reporter and journalist who has worked full time in major media including radio, newspapers, television and national magazines. He was a featured panelist speaking on Hurricane Katrina at the Online Press Association annual meeting in New York City in 2005, and his Web site at http://www.gulfcoastnews.com received the ONA 2006 Service Journalism Award. Burton has also been featured on National Public Radio regarding Hurricane Katrina coverage. He is a 1975 graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi where he majored in radio, television and film with a minor in communications.

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Larry Dailey holds the Reynolds Chair in Media Technology and is a professor at the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada-Reno. There he teaches courses in nonlinear documentary multimedia storytelling, photojournalism and game design for journalists. Previously, Dailey was an assistant professor of journalism and the director of the Digital Media Minor at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. He has also been a journalism instructor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and taught multimedia and advanced photojournalism courses as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dailey worked for three years as a multimedia producer for MSNBC Interactive, one of the Internet's top news sites. He has been a picture editor for The Associated Press and United Press International in Washington, a newspaper photographer and photography department manager. Dailey holds a master's degree in photography from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and degrees in journalism and education from the University of Missouri.

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William Desmore is director/editor of the Media Giraffe Project at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the New England News Forum, utilizing his knowledge of Internet information technologies and business models. The MGP, launched in March, 2005, spotlights individuals making sustainable, innovative use of media (old and new) to foster participatory democracy and community. A career journalist, Densmore has been an editor/writer for The Associated Press, for trade publications in business, law and insurance; and freelanced for general circulation dailies including the Boston Globe. He has written for ComputerWorld Magazine. In 1993, after nine years owning and publishing weeklies in Berkshire County, Mass., Densmore formed what became Clickshare Service Corp., which provides user registration, authentication and transaction handling for Internet content sites. He has also served as advertising director for a small, group-owned daily; and as an interim director of the not-for-profit Hancock Shaker Village. Densmore has lectured in journalism at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, in North Adams, Mass., and is a director of the Action Coalition for Media Education. Densmore Associates develops partner and other business strategies for independent media and print publishers, including newspapers and NewsTrust, an initiative to create a consumer news-recommendation service. He holds a degree in environmental policy and communications from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

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Phone: (413) 458-8001

Amy Gahran is a journalist, media consultant, and entrepreneur based in Boulder, Colo. Mostly she helps news organizations and media pros wrap their brains around online media -- how it really works, and how to use it well. She edits the Poynter Institute's group Web log E-Media Tidbits, is co-founder of the pro/community journalism project Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker, and blogs at Contentious.com. She covers ahead-of-the curve environmental issues and provides technology consulting for the Society of Environmental Journalists, helped develop the citizen media database for the Knight Citizen News Network, and continues to do freelance journalism on energy, environment, business, media, and technology issues.

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Phone: (303) 554-5550

Rahaf Harfoush is a consultant, writer, blogger, poet and aspiring author. The Toronto-based new media strategist specializes in how social networking sites and other emerging technologies are impacting the workforce, among other aspects of innovation. Harfoush has experience as a research analyst in the new product development team at Hotspex, a global market research firm. In 2006, she was the research coordinator for Don Tapscott's book "Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything." Harfoush writes freelance articles and is currently working on her first novel. She recently completed a term on the Toronto Star community editorial board and is a founding member of the Royal Ontario Museum's visitor experience board. Harfoush earned an Honors in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business, which included an exchange term at the Haute Ecole de Commerce in Paris, France.

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Courtney Lowery is editor-in-chief and co-founder of New West.Net, a next-generation media company devoted to covering growth, the economy, the environment and the overall changing culture of Rocky Mountain West. NewWest.Net is a multi-faceted company comprised of a network of local Web logs, a print magazine and a conference series with the online magazine, NewWest.Net, at the core. Lowery also teaches the Rural News Network class at the University of Montana, a J-Lab funded project she founded in 2006 that aims to connect university students with rural Montana and help small towns revive their newspapers online. The first town site in the Rural News Network was born in her hometown of Dutton, Mont. at http://www.duttoncc.org. The second site was launched this fall on the Crow Indian Reservation at http://www.crownews.net. Before launching NewWest.Net, Lowery worked as a reporter for Lee Newspapers and The Associated Press. She is a University of Montana graduate.

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Chaka M'kali (AKA I Self Devine) is a well-known muralist and graffiti artist, as well as a noted hip-hop performer. M'kali's murals tell stories that speak to the community, begin public discourse and inspire hope. He is arts programming coordinator at Hope Community in Minneapolis where he creates programs for youth ages 14 and up, writing curriculum, recruiting students and teaching classes. M'kali gives his young students the tools to communicate because he believes that the inability to express oneself can result in self-destructive behavior. His own experiences as a troubled young man in Compton, Watts, South Central Los Angeles and Minneapolis lend authenticity to his work and his instruction of young people. M'kali credits his mother, a painter, for instilling in him an innate interest in the arts and the multicultural, multidisciplinary arts center Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis for shaping his awareness of the infrastructure of arts. He was selected as an emerging artist for the Intermedia Arts Extensions program, where he was mentored by jazz dancer and singer Llaugher. Llaugher developed productions where she danced; musician Carrie Thomas played and M'kali painted live in the background. Intermedia later hired M'kali to paint its building's exterior, presented his graffiti art in two gallery shows and employed him to teach the art of graffiti, exploring the connection of hip-hop to other popular cultures. He has attended Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Atlanta College of Art.

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Ocean Mac Adams is senior vice president, MTV News, where he oversees editorial operations. MacAdams has been integral to some of the channel's most successful coverage, from the Sean "P. Diddy" Combs trial and the 1999 riots at Woodstock, to live programming immediately after the 9/11 attacks and as the nation went to war in Iraq. He oversaw MTV News' coverage of the 2004 presidential election, including daily news reports and live coverage on election night, as part of the network's "Choose or Lose: 20 Million Loud" campaign. In January 2005, MacAdams was an executive producer of "MTV News Presents: After the Tsunami," which followed MTV News correspondents to Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka to explore the devastation of the tsunami firsthand. He also helped create "You Hear It First," the MTV News segment that highlights little-heard bands, introducing such artists as Kanye West, Coldplay and Alicia Keys. MacAdams' other highlights at MTV News include booking Eminem for his first MTV interview and helping bring hip-hop radio legend Sway aboard as an MTV News correspondent. MacAdams came to MTV News in 1995 as the assignment editor. He took a hiatus from MTV News in 2000 to serve as a consultant at Media Farm, a media development company, then returned to MTV News in 2001 as the managing editor. Prior to joining the MTV News team MacAdams worked in talent relations for VH1 News. He was also an analyst for The Gartner Group, an information-technology consulting firm. MacAdams earned a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies from Columbia College of Columbia University.

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S. Renee Mitchell (AKA Nae!Nay!) is a columnist for The Oregonian, covering Portland issues ranging from neighborhoods to schools to politics to cultural identity. At the same time, she writes poetry, advocates for women in her community, writes and performs plays, and leads writing workshops. Mitchell recently completed her first novel and is writing a self-help book. Among her additional skills are public speaking, graphic design, multi-media artist and creator of beaded jewelry. Mitchell owns a small business, NappyRoots Press, and is co-founder of non-profits Healing Roots Center and Healing Roots Village. Selected as one of 21 Leaders of the 21st Century by Women eNews, she was also named by Portland's Project Look Up as one of 15 women of color in the region who dared to make a difference and one of the 15 Most Interesting People in Oregon by BrainstormNW magazine. Mitchell received the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism in 2006 and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2005 and 2008. Holder of a Master in Business Administration, Mitchell has taught a newspaper journalism course at Washington State University's Vancouver campus.

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Vikki Porter is director of the Knight Digital Media Center and supervises Professional Development Programs for New Media journalists at USC Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles. She was the founding director of the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. During her 30-year journalism career, Porter worked in five Western states, started a newspaper, served as top editor for three community newspapers, and shared a 1986 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal as part of a five-person team while city editor of The Denver Post. Most recently, she was executive editor of The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs, CA. Porter was a Knight Professional-in-Residence at the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas in 1987-88 and a Knight Journalism Fellow in Studies of Law at Yale Law School in 1988-89, where she earned her Masters in Studies of Law. She is active in the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Associated Press Managing Editors, and has been invited to participate in conferences hosted by the Pew Foundation for Public Journalism, the Freedom Forum, Harwood and Associates and the American Press Institute.

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Phone: 213.437.4417

Leslie Rule runs KQED's Digital Storytelling Initiative in San Francisco, focusing on education and community outreach. She is also co-director of the Center for Locative Media, a non-profit organization for research and implementation of location-based new media and emerging technology projects. Over the last 10 years, Rule developed a nationally recognized teacher-training program for the American Film Institute, taught new media storytelling at the College of San Mateo, and served as an educational technologist in middle and high school. As an expert on digital storytelling, locative media, and place-based narrative, she was a founding member and sat on the executive board of the Digital Storytelling Association. Also a founding member of the International Association for Mobile Learning, Rule is on the advisory board of ourmedia.org. She has spoken at numerous conferences, seminars and festivals, and trained over 2,500 new media storytellers around the world. Recent projects using mobile devices and emerging technologies include "Tagging the Blues Trail" in the Mississippi Delta for NBPC's new media institute, a three-square-block "soundscape" located in the Mission District of San Francisco, a 100-year anniversary re-visioning of the 1906 Earthquake in the Civic Center of San Francisco, and a social justice/environmental racism project in Oakland based on "Eyes on the Prize." Rule is a 2007 Knight News Foundation Grantee in locative media. She has degrees in rhetoric and linguistics from the University of California-Berkeley and a Master of Arts in education with an emphasis on instructional technology.

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Lawrence Wilkinson is chairman of Heminge & Condell, an investment and strategic advisory firm, and co-founder of Global Business Network, a strategic consulting firm, now part of the Monitor Group, where he remains "of counsel" as a strategist. Wilkinson and GBN have helped spread the scenario-planning technique for addressing large decisions and long-time horizons for organizational and project planning. Through his venture formation work at H&C, he is a director and counselor to companies he helped create. Besides GBN, they include Ealing Studios, Design Within Research, Mercantila and Character. Wilkinson was also a co-founder of Oxygen Media, Inc., the cable programming service recently sold to NBC-Universal. He helped form Wired Ventures where he was director and chief architect; Wired properties such as Wired magazine and Wired Digital/HotWired are now part of Advanced/Newhouse Communications-Conde-Nast. From 1984 to 1990 Wilkinson was president of Colossal Pictures. Earlier, he was managing partner of Wilkinson and Associates, consulting on business strategy and venture formation. Wilkinson was instrumental in founding Business Times, a cable and radio financial news service that spawned CNN/fn and The Wall Street Journal Report. In 1983, he partnered with Tom Peters to create Excel/Net, a multimedia management program. From 1979 through 1981, Wilkinson was senior vice president of KQED, Inc., San Francisco, moving there from director of planning and marketing for the Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Author of "How to Build Scenarios" and "The Future of Shopping," he has contributed to general and business periodicals and national television, cable and radio business news programs. Wilkinson graduated with honors from Harvard Business School, Oxford University and Davidson College.

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Phone: (415) 387-6155

Michael Williams is associate professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland-College Park. He teaches interactive media courses. Prior to his move to Maryland, Williams was director of graduate studies for the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University where he taught multimedia and visual communication management. He previously taught photojournalism and multimedia design in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Williams began his 20-year academic career at the University of Kansas on the faculty of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. He has also been a visiting professor in the School of Journalism at Marquette University in Milwaukee. In addition, Williams has done visual communication consulting. He returned to the professional world in 2000 as director of Internet development for Kalmbach Publishing Company, a magazine publisher in Milwaukee. There Williams was founding editor of Trains.com, the most popular site for railroad enthusiasts and rail industry professionals. He was also publisher for Astronomy.com and oversaw development of Web sites for other Kalmbach publications. Williams began his journalism career as staff photographer for the Salem (Ore.) Statesman-Journal where he was later promoted to photo director. He served as graphics director at the Albuquerque Tribune and assistant managing editor at the Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News in Mississippi. He earned his Bachelor of Science in journalism and Master of Science in journalism degrees from the University of Kansas.

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Don Wittekind is an assistant professor in the visual communication sequence in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Before making the move to teaching, he spent 10 years as informational graphics director at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where he led the creation of the first newspaper-based multimedia graphics department. Under Wittekind's direction, the Sun-Sentinel created its first interactive project in December of 1996 and continued as an industry leader throughout his tenure. In 1998, he co-founded Swarm Interactive, a company that provides medical animation, Web design and multimedia production. Wittekind's work has received top honors from the Newspaper Association of America, Editor & Publisher, the Online News Association and the Society of News Design SND.ies. He is an alumnus of the University of Central Florida.

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Todd Ziegler is senior vice president of client services for the Bivings Group, and oversees all client work performed by the firm and plays a key role in all of TBG's business and product development initiatives. He has managed Web development efforts for the firm's biggest clients, including the American Petroleum Institute, Edison Electric Institute, Monsanto Company and Hewlett-Packard. In the political realm, Ziegler has developed Internet programs for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Republican National Committee as well as a variety of Republican candidates. He also heads the Bivings Group internal product development effort, managing the ongoing development of ImpactWatch, a product that provides organizations with real-time intelligence that helps them shape their communications strategy. Ziegler is quoted often in the media about Internet related topics and speaks frequently on how the Internet is changing media and politics. Before joining the Bivings Group, he worked for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Prior to that, Ziegler interned in the press office of former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson. He holds a Bachelor of the Arts degree from Rhodes College.

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Phone: 202-741-1510

Experts

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