I had the opportunity to attend the wonderful International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) this weekend. It’s a great event where educators, professionals and students share ideas and discuss the role of technology in journalism. Now, in it’s 14th year, it’s been the place where I have explored disruption in journalism since before I entered the Ph.D. program at UT. Toward the end of the conference on Saturday, after a question I asked that mentioned South By Southwest (SXSW) as a media engagement opportunity related to research presented by Jake Batsell of SMU, a few comments and tweets went around comparing ISOJ and SXSW, in some cases making what I felt were unfair assessments. Since I attend many of these conferences that intersect technology and media, I wanted to provide my take on the strengths, weaknesses and differences of these various opportunities for enrichment and development.

TXST student Philip Hadley will long remember posing for this photo with keynote speaker Mark Zuckerberg at Iron Works BBQ in 2008

South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW) – I have attended SXSW since 2005 and have led a student reporting project of the event at SXTXState.com for the past six years. I have presented at or been asked to lead official SXSW events for the past five years. I can say unequivocally that there is no one event that has informed and influenced my approach to media more than SXSW. Its value to me is in my being exposed to big thinkers, big ideas and technology tools, platforms and trends. My students and I have been in the audience to hear from tech luminaries that include Craig Newmark, Jimmy Wales, Mark Zuckerberg, Internet pioneer Bob Metcalfe, Marissa Mayer (before she took the reins at Yahoo), Gary Vaynerchuk, Kathy Sierra, Lawrence Lessig, Chris Anderson of Wired (at the time) and many more. This year alone, we saw Tim Berners-Lee, Elon Musk, Chad Hurley of YouTube, David Karp of Tumblr, Matthew Inman of the Oatmeal among many other distinguished guests and attendees.

Emily Lyons interviews David Karp, CEO of Tumblr, at SXSW 2013

We were present when Twitter tipped (I first joined Twitter during SXSW 2007) and when Foursquare and Gowalla were introduced. We have seen the Interactive portion of the festival go from a manageable 8,000-9,000 attendees to more than 30,000. We’ve watched discussions on breakthrough technologies, as far back as the advent of CSS to Web frameworks to iOS programming to responsive design to the “learn to code” revolution. Journalism as a track was added to SXSW in the ensuing years that I have been attending. I have been encouraged to see people like Jill Abramson, David Carr, Jeff Jarvis, Evan Smith, John Keefe, Bill Adair, Jim Brady, Burt Herman and Brian Stelter featured. I’ve been on panels with data journalism innovators Aron Pilhofer, Tyson Evans and Matt Waite. My students used Storify during SXSW when it was still in beta. It’s been a strong confirmation that SXSW is not just a tech conference, a developer conference or a gadget conference. It’s a media conference in the broadest sense, and even in its current, behemoth incarnation, it is still the place to learn about (or more importantly, to be able to critique and assess) the “next big thing.”

We begin our interviews before SXSW. Here is Sarah Hopper previewing Bob Metcalfe’s SXSW 2011 talk.

The coverage that my students have done over the past six years is a body of work that demonstrates the educational value of attending this event. And the fact that some of them have ended up on panels themselves in the years following their SXTXState.com participation has been a surprise bonus. There is a culture and a vibe to attending SXSW. Yes, it’s bigger than it used to be. It’s not as easy to do all the things you want to do, and you may not be able to have a conversation with everyone you want to meet (although I have wonderful photos of my students talking with a range of tech rock stars). There are lots of parties and distractions. There are people who are there to only pitch their startup. But somehow in the mayhem, main themes rise to the top, and I try to write about them most years. Here are a few of my wrap ups:

• Impressions of SXSWi 2013
• SXSW 2011 Wrap Up
• SXSW 2010 The Big Picture

Sara Peralta interviews Adrian Grenier of Entourage fame at SXSW 2013

So, even with all the haters, I still feel that SXSW is a unique opportunity for me to think beyond the confines of journalism. My goal is that something about the event stays with students. It becomes part of them and that is emanated from them in all their future interactions. It encourages them to look beyond their chosen industry and seek inspiration in what might initially seem an unlikely area.

SXSWEDU is in it’s early years, but has already become an important addition. This year, the keynote was Bill Gates. And, of course, there are the music and film festivals that just add on to the hoopla of mid-March in Austin. There’s something for everyone at SXSW, it’s not a bad time to be in Austin. Plus, two words: breakfast tacos. It’s expensive for a badge, expensive to travel to SXSW, you have to plan well in advance. And some of these aspects are things that don’t apply to me as a local. But if you can make it happen, I highly recommend a visit to SXSW. If you can propose a panel when the Panel Picker opens this summer and get it accepted, that’s a great way to get you caught up in the SXSW excitement. As a matter of fact, my students’ final assignment for the SXTXState project is to prepare their own panel proposal to submit for SXSW 2014.

International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) – I was invited to attend the very first ISOJ in 1999, the semester before I started in the Ph.D. program at UT. I remember feeling honored to be included by Rosental Alves in this inaugural event and being a bit overwhelmed by the topics of this new career field I had chosen. Since then, I have attended each ISOJ. I have presented research and moderated panels. I have accompanied students. I have watched as the conversations changed from fear of the death of newspapers to optimism about a digital future. I’ve heard talks of paywalls and advertising models and social media and news startups and non-profits. I’ve seen news executives come and go. I’ve inquired about skills we should be teaching students over the years and have watched the advice go from emphasizing the basics to gaining multimedia traction to learning to code. I have seen the research segment of the symposium spawn a well respected and disruptive journal. No other event seamlessly integrates professional and scholarly as well as ISOJ.

Here’s my beautiful TXST student team attending ISOJ this past weekend.

And, I have met and had engaging conversations with people who have had a profound influence on my career and those of my students. I have much to thank Rosental and Amy Schmitz-Weiss and all the people who put on ISOJ for the wonderful job they have done each year, identifying just the right mix of people, places and topics as they relate to journalism.

And, I am extremely lucky that both these events, SXSW and ISOJ,  happen in Austin! They are different events offering different value. They are an excellent complement as a one-two punch in the Spring. The big ideas from SXSW are honed and discussed and dissected as they relate to journalism at ISOJ. The gigantic nature of SXSW demonstrates the scope of digital media’s domain, and the intimate nature of ISOJ allows for more focused application and easier access. Plus at the $30 registration rate, it’s an incredible bargain to attend.

But I also attend other tech-related development events throughout the year, when I can. During the past academic year, I have been lucky to be able to also attend:

National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) – I have attended NICAR twice over the years, but I hope to attend it as often as possible going forward. I go to NICAR purely as a development opportunity. I was introduced to this event as I became interested in data journalism and programming. The NICAR community is unbeatable in terms of representing the people who are doing the most progressive work in news. I am talking about folks from NY Times, WNYC, Digital First, NPR, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, ProPublica, Politifact, Texas Tribune and more. And, they have great training workshops at reasonable prices. It’s a great place to get a foundational exposure to topics such as Web frameworks, scraping, programming and data visualization.

NICAR takes place in different cities each year. I attended in Raleigh and Lousiville. I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in data storytelling, expanding their skill set and becoming a part of a supportive and progressive tech community.

NICAR is a subset of the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization. I have not attended any of their conferences as of yet, but their national meeting is being held in San Antonio this year, so that’s another central Texas opportunity for enrichment.

Online News Association (ONA) – Online News Association approaches the digital revolution in a broad way, much like ISOJ, but on a much larger scale. I have attended the past four ONA conferences and presented once, on the “If I Were in Charge, …” session. Like NICAR, my attendance is mostly for development and networking. It emphasizes multimedia storytelling, social media and data journalism. I am guessing that more than 1,000 attend ONA, as opposed to 300 or so at ISOJ. They host the prestigious Online Journalism Awards. They also offer great training opportunities by providing workshops at reasonable prices on the Thursday before the main event. They host ONA in different cities each year, usually large cities like Boston, DC or San Francisco. They are progressive in their selection of speakers. I have seen Ben Huh of I Can Has Cheezburger, Dick Costolo of Twitter and prominent blogger Robert Scoble. The audiences for ISOJ, NICAR and ONA overlap, but each has a slightly different emphasis.

Journalism Interactive (JiConf) – JiConf has had two events so far, and I have attended and presented at both. For the 2013 conference, I was on the national planning committee. This event is primarily focused on journalism educators, but has attracted professionals as speakers and attendees. While some of the other events have educator subsets, this event focuses on integrating digital media into curriculum. Topics include teaching multimedia, mobile reporting and social media, and it serves as a place for teachers to begin to learn about programming and data. This group is greatly needed in making sure that journalism education keeps step with the changes in the industry. It also has a research element that continues to grow and be refined. It takes place at different universities each year, so far it has been held at University of Maryland and University of Florida.

We were lucky to get social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk to join us during MCWeek 2009 on the day his book Crush It hit the NY Times best seller list.

Mass Comm Week - I have to mention one more annual event. It’s Mass Comm Week held at Texas State University each fall. It has a long history, dating way before my time at TXST. I have been involved with it since 2008, first as the social media leader, instituting our blog coverage, live streaming and Twitter and Facebook interaction, and for the past two years, as the director of the committee who puts on Mass Comm Week. I have to admit, in the years since I have been involved, I have tried to influence the programming to be more in the realm of SXSW. We have had social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk, Internet pioneer Bob Metcalfe, Brian Stelter of NY Times, Annie Werner of Tumblr, Evan Smith of Texas Tribune, Burnie Burns – CEO of Rooster Teeth, Hugh Forrest of SXSW Interactive, Ethan Zuckerman from MIT’s Center for Civic Media, Matt Stiles of NPR, people from local organizations HomeAway, Spredfast, Blackbaud and GSD&M, and executives from news organizations across Texas. TXST alumni are prominent in our programming. It’s another opportunity, close to Austin, to be able to hear from progressive media professionals. Attendees are mostly students, but anyone is welcome. And it’s free!

So, as you can see, there are many opportunities for development and participation. There’s no need for name calling or unfair comparisons. I have selected each of these events for their unique aspects. There are others, and maybe you have favorites for different reasons. We all have limited time and numerous constraints that demand our time, so we each have to make our own decisions about which events offer the most value, whether for ourselves or our students. There are also numerous local events and meetups (like Hacks/Hackers, ONA Locals, tech and design meetups, etc.) that I encourage students, faculty and others to attend throughout the year that augment what these larger events introduce.

The only mistake is in not recognizing the vast opportunities that exist to advance one’s development and insight.

This weekend, I attended the Online News Association Conference in Boston. It was a great gathering of multimedia developers and those concerned with all things digital – quite a fantastic event. I had the opportunity to participate on a panel called “If I Were in Charge, I’d…” Proposals for the panel were solicited before the conference, and mine was one of six selected. The presentation is below, but I wanted to provide a few more details, beyond the eight minutes I had to present. And I wanted to see if there was any feedback or critique. Rob Quigley live blogged the entire session, if you’d like to see the other topics and presenters. And ONA just posted the video of the whole session.
ONA: 7 Things Everyone Should Know
Are you in charge? Maybe you’re an editor or a general manager of a newsroom, or perhaps you’re a dean or director of a university organization. Maybe you lead a media company that specializes in PR or Advertising. Do you consider yourself in charge of a digital media organization? And, does everyone in your organization know that they work in a digital media organization?

Does everyone in your organization know what an API is and why that’s important? Do they know what SEO means and what value it brings the organization? Are they familiar with the type of CMS your organization uses and how it works? And do they know some basic concepts like HTML or how to embed a video or widget onto another Web page?

If I were in charge, I’d be making sure everyone associated with the organization – every reporter, columnist, copy editor, photographer, videographer, every faculty member, every associate – I’d even go as far as saying that every person who answers the phone – knows these things and more. This is not the template for a two-hour workshop. This is not a quick fix or a tweak. This is a tectonic shift in the ways that people envision what it is they are expected to know and do and the kind of organization for which they work.

I propose 7 Things Everyone in a Digital Media Organization Should Know:

1. Everyone would know the history and background of the Web.

Why? Because it’s fun to study the history of something. And, it provides a foundation for understanding the future. By learning about the role of the ARPAnet (and later Tim Berners-Lee in Switzerland), the people involved and the culture surrounding the development of the Internet, we begin to see what makes this environment different. We can learn about the origins of hacker and open source culture and why this presents an alternative and a complement to commercialization. Oh, and we’d know that Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet, and that he never actually said he did.

2. Everyone would understand the key terms of digital media.

We must speak the same language in order to collaborate and have a shared understanding. You can’t have the tech folks spewing jargon while the rest of the organization stands around the sidelines and rolls their eyes. We’re not talking about buzzwords and marketing posturing, but things that everyone needs to know, like what an Application Programming Interface (API) is and why you might use one, why your organization should have them and who benefits from them. When we talk about the “cloud,” what do we mean and how is that different than where we’ve been hosting things all along? What is Search Engine Optimization and how does that compare to Social Media Optimization? What do we mean when we use the phrase “data visualization” and what are these platforms (frameworks) of Ruby on Rails and Django? People may not actually perform these functions or use these platforms, but they should have a clue about what they are and what they do.

3. Everyone would know how Google makes money.

Why? Because Google makes a lot of money. And I bet most of your organization has never paid anything to Google to use their multitude of services. Google has a $170B market cap, one of the most successful companies in history. They made the majority of their $29B in revenue in 2010 with advertising – those little ads you see on the sides and the sponsored links on the top of your Google search. But it’s the power of their search algorithm and their ability to provide products to us that are useful and that integrate with our lives, that allows them to continue to learn more and more about us. Knowledge is power, right?

4. Everyone would be able to explain why social media is important.

No, Twitter’s not about what you ate for breakfast. And Facebook’s not just a place to upload photos of your kid’s birthday party. A modern media organization understands that interaction is the key. The technologies known as Web 2.0 drive interaction with the audience that was unheard of in prior eras. They make media a conversation, and those conversations have value. People are gaining an expectation of participation because of their participation on social networks, and they will begin to find media irrelevant that don’t give them something to do, don’t provide a user experience. Get ready for new social platforms to be introduced over time. Google, who is the king of search, is now trying to develop social competencies with Google+. Location-based platforms, reviewer sites, online games… new things are coming out every minute. But you can’t expect people to understand them if they don’t use them. People should be encouraged to try new things. And they should be comfortable with the idea of using social media to develop their own brand or to support that of the organizations with which they work.

5. Everyone would understand how data can tell a story.

That doesn’t mean that everyone will know how to program a data visualization. But everyone should understand that a data visualization is an important element of storytelling, just like text, photos, video, other graphics. The benefit is the interaction, the ways that you develop to integrate the user into the story. There are a million ways to do this, and we are just starting to see brilliant examples of this type of work by organizations like the New York Times, the Guardian, the LA Times, the Texas Tribune, the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, ProPublica and more. The example I used in my presentation is the Rent vs. Buy interactive that the New York Times did several years ago, but is still updated on their site. You can read a story about whether or not you should rent or buy a house, but how does that really help someone make their own decision, with their own variables? Everyone needs to understand the power of this type of information and comprehend their role in creating it. How would they propose such a project? Who will they work with? What tools can they use and what resources are out there? This doesn’t mean someone needs to tell them or train them. They need to be focused enough on the importance of it that they are seeking out this information on their own and figuring out ways to integrate it into their own workflow. That’s how the people who are doing this kind of work learned it… by figuring it out themselves.

6. Everyone would know a little HTML (and some CSS for that matter).

Why? Because it’s the language of the Web. If you don’t know the language, you can’t understand the platform. You need to know HTML to maximize your ability to customize the things you do in blog or content management systems. And it is the foundation for more advanced coding, like CSS, Javascript, JQuery and on and on. For the most part, code snippets are available in libraries, so what most people are doing when they work in code is tweaking and customizing, rather than cranking it out from scratch. It’s not that everyone should become a programmer, but it wouldn’t hurt to know a bit about how it all works. Knowing a little html can go a long way in being able to read and tweak code (like reading a foreign language versus writing or speaking it). And, it’s not hard. It’s a markup language, using tags to give meaning to text. It fits in perfectly with a communicator’s skill set. And it’s fun to learn.

7. Everyone would understand the elements of a digital-, and increasingly mobile-, first strategy.

Until this happens, your organization will still be mired in legacy culture. People need to understand how it changes the processes of the newsroom, how their roles change, and most importantly, how it affects the experience of the user. Breaking a story on Twitter is the new “scoop.” The analysis and conversations that happen after is what a news organization does now. Sure, you still produce a paper or newscast, but that’s only a part of what you do. It’s what you share all day long and what others share of the work that you are doing that establishes your brand and your value. You have to re-prioritize that to your organization.

So, as I said above, this isn’t about developing a 2-hour workshop and then going back to the way things have always been. We’re not a weekend behind and then we’re all caught up. Digital media has been developing for the better part of two decades, and it’s time everyone who works in media realizes they work for a digital media organization. We can’t solve the pressing problems of the field with just a few who are in-the-know. We need everyone to be working toward the same goals, gaining knowledge and contributing to the solutions. This will require constant, ongoing and consistent messaging in the following areas:

• Leadership must evangelize from the top – it’s not enough to have the tech people at the grass roots take responsibility for training the whole organization. Leadership must communicate that it is everyone’s responsibility to keep up-to-date and learn. It must be a consistent part of all messaging, all meetings, the mission and goals of the organization.
• Foster a meetup culture – how can they learn? Well, for one, they can start attending any of the multitude of professional meetups that are probably already happening in their area. These resources exist. There are regular presentations on relevant topics, and you don’t even have to organize them. Just make sure your organization knows that it is an expectation that people participate. And, people should gain a level of comfort in going to groups where they don’t feel like they have a command of the material. Don’t be afraid to be the stupidest person in the room. In fact, that’s preferable. That’s when you learn. And, like a lot of this stuff, it’s fun. You meet people, who may be able to help you professionally, or guess what..? You just might end up with a few new friends. Personally, I view my professional network for its power in assisting my students, but I really enjoy meeting people and learning about these topics, and have made some wonderful contacts in the process. Don’t attend a meetup that you dread or hate. Find one that interests you. They’re out there.
• Encourage innovation through exploration – It should be expected that people try new things when they are released. Get on Google+, try Foursquare and Gowalla, sign up for Storify… Guess what? They’re free. Yes, they take time. But if that’s what your job is, then you are using that time wisely. Having a little knowledge about a new platform and some perspective can be quite beneficial when trying to weigh options and quickly make decisions about the usage and relevance of platforms. And you don’t want to ignore new technologies to the point that you suddenly have “unexpected” time on your hands, do you?
• Read tech/media publications – This should be a given. We expect people to keep up with news, be on top of things, know their beats, keep up with trends. Well, this is our business now, so shouldn’t we expect people to keep up with it? Know about the key players, tech mergers, new media projects, startups. There are numerous publications, but Wired, Fast Company and a multitude of blogs, like Mashable, 10,000 Words and TechCrunch, are a good start.

I have had success in sharing these concepts with students. My feeling is that they gain an enthusiasm for the future of media by having it presented in this manner. These are opportunities, not annoyances. There are challenges, but everyone needs to be on board so they can be overcome. If I were in charge, I’d find a way to make everyone excited about the future of media.

Are you in charge? What do you think about these points? Does everyone in your organization know these things? Maybe you’re not “in charge.” I’m not either. This was just a hypothetical exercise. But what do you think your organization should do to integrate these concepts, if you think they are valid at all? Let me know if you have any additional items or if you just think I’m full of it. I’ll be interested in any discussion generated.

Some resources I have used:

The Internet: Behind the Web – it’s an old video, and is probably only available on VHS (I have since dubbed it DVD), but it’s a great way to learn about the history of the ARPANet, Internet and Web. It has some abridged content from the longer series Nerds 2.0.1

Download: The True Story of the Internet – this is a great series that covers Browsers, Search, E-Commerce and Social Networking. It brings everything up to date after the above video.

Hacks/Hackers Glossary – a great set of terms and definitions developed by the main Hacks/Hackers organization. They’re a meetup group, probably a chapter in your area, that brings journalists and programmers together.

Lynda.com - this is a software and programming training library. It costs money, but on a month-by-month basis, it’s cheaper than purchasing a book to learn a particular language or platform.

South By Southwest – You should attend conferences. ONA is fantastic. Another one that I love is the South By Southwest Interactive Festival. It’s huge and broad, but nothing has influenced my approach to teaching media more than my regular attendance, year after year, at this event. And, like a lot of these recommendations, it’s fun. Trust me on this one. Plan to attend SXSW in March.