MGP2006: Democracy & Independence -- Sharing News & Politics in a Connected World

Aldon Hynes asks: How should Media Bloggers cover the Libby trial?

Aldon Hynes, the Connecticut-based former Wall Street technologist turned political activist and blogger, has been chosen to occupy one of two seats in the Libby trial courtroom reserved for bloggers. (TRIAL FEED) Assuming the trial is still going on later this month -- and it is expected to be -- he'll be there. Hynes helped put together the multimedia track at MGP2006 in Amherst.  Robert Cox, another MGP2006 alum who heads the Media Bloggers Association, helped organized the blogger seats. Now he's posing the question: "How should bloggers cover the Libby trial?" Can you help him with your thoughts and advice? Here's a link to his own post about this, to which you can add a comment of advice if you first quickly register. If you don't want to register, you can add a comment below, and Aldon will be reading here, as well.  Here's the link to read his query and respond:
http://www.orient-lodge.com/node/2138 

CTNewsJunkie has story about police arrest of reporter taking photos of new governor

MGP2006 alum Christine Stuart, the former MSM reporter who now runs the Connecticut News Junkie newsblog, says her initially exclusive story about the arrest of a reporter while taking pictures of the state's new governor has gotten more "hits" than anything she's blogged previously. The jist
of the story is that Hartford Police arrested a free-lance journalist while photographing Gov. M. Jodi Rell's inaugural parade. The journalist was formerly a Green Party political activist. Her story is thorough, with lots of reader comments piling up . . . . READ MORE

Congresspedia's Conor Kenny spearheading creating of "wiki"-based database on incumbent challengers and winners

MGP2006 alum Conor Kenny (202-742-1520 / ckenny@congresspedia.org) writes to describe the "wiki the vote" effort of his Center for Media & Democracy, which co-produces the Congresspedia.org website.  "Congresspedia is a great place to both find information and put up your own research on Congress, but we also see fostering citizen journalism on other sites as a large part of what we and our friends at the Sunlight Foundation are trying to do," says Kenny.  He says Congresspedia, launched earlier this year, handling 60,000 to 80,000 visitors a day pre-mid-term election -- folks trying to find information about candidates and incmbents. Now they want the public to help flesh out profiles and create new ones.

See:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch:Election_2006

Also:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Congresspedia

Kenny says the affiliated Sunlight Network, which organizes for greater transparency in government, also has several programs that may be of interest. Follow the links:

-- Sunlight Labs ( http://www.sunlightlabs.org/ ): Free web-based tools, including the popular "Popup Politicians" and "Earmark Map," which mashes up Google Maps with congressional appropriations.

-- Sunlight Foundation ( http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/ ): Original muckraking by professional and citizen journalists. References and guides for online journalism. Free PR services for citizen journalists with scoops.

-- Sunlight Network ( http://www.sunlightnetwork.com/ ): Advocates for greater transparency in government.

Twice-monthly print paper fosters civic engagement by putting YouTube-enabled candidates night on web page

MGP2006 participant Jeff Potter demonstrating no-cost application of multimedia by a small, twice-monthly community newspaper using YouTube and volunteers.  Potter, owner/publisher of the The Independent of Shelburne Falls, Mass.  (population, 1,951) has already added a full-service website to his 1,500-circulation paper. He did all the programming himself, including a module that allows print subscribers to download a PDF of the full edition at no extra charge.  Last week he teamed up with volunteers who organized a candidates' night for state senate and state representative races in Berkshire/Franklin counties. Jeff took the resulting video, loaded it to YouTube, and is showing it to his readers. He wrotes in a promoting email:

"Kudos to Ashfield residents for some terrific questions, and to residents and town officials for organizing the night. Watch for some excerpts on the editorial page next issue. It's good food for thought for anyone who cares about state issues and the concept of what it means to have one's interests represented. Special thanks to Dave Gold for his videography and enthusiasm for experimenting together with this new communications frontier on short notice. We did it! All readers will have access to this video. Please feel free to forward this message appropriately. / All the best, / Jeff Potter, editor / (413) 303-9883 /  editor@sfindependent.net"

MGP2006 attendee Steven Clift quoted in AP story on cadidate pages and MySpace

Steven Clift, the Minnesota-based originator of the Democracies Online
Newswire and an expert on how governments can connect with citizens via
the web, is quoted in an Associated Press story about MySpace. AP reporter
Anick Jesdanun's Aug. 17, 2006, story, "Candidates seek youths at
MySpace", reports on unauthorized MySpaces pages for political candidates
and how the candidates are dealing with them. "It's almost like an
endorsement list," Clift told Jesdanun. "Pictures show up, and it gave me
the impression that these are real people who support these people." Clift
adds in an email to friends: "The most popular candidate on MySpace by
far is Kinky Friedman, the independent candidate for Governor in Texas. He
has close to 25,000 friends on MySpace. That is five times more than the
Democratic candidate for Governor in California mentioned [in The AP
story]. 

Net neutrality proponents weighing 'slow the Senate' tactic

Proponents of so-called 'network neutrality' legislation are working on a tactic to illustrate their point to Congress and part of the Washington press corp -- they'll "slow down" websites visited by those groups. Network neutrality refers to the idea that major telecommunications carriers should be prohibited by law from varying the quality of their Internet services from users whose content they support or oppose. Supporters of legal protection against network discrimination argue that without the law, consumers will find access to some websites and services noticeably slower than to favored sites. To illustrate the point they are asking supporters to install a little bit of code on their website which will track whether a user is coming from house.gov, senate.gov or washingtonpost.com domain. If so, the code will delay serving the page by 15 seconds which a message about net neutrality is shown. For a good summary of the arguments for and against network neutrality, read Google technologist (and internet-protocol inventor) Vinton Cerf's testimony, and the testimony of an executive of Comcast Corp., David Cohen.  You can also view the website of the coalition supporting network neutrality, which includes some major internet companies, and the website of the telecommunications-lobby opponents of network neutrality.    (MORE NET NEUTRALITY BACKGROUND)

Proponents of so-called 'network neutrality' legislation are working on a tactic to illustrate their point to Congress and part of the Washington press corp -- they'll "slow down" websites visited by those groups. Network neutrality refers to the idea that major telecommunications carriers should be prohibited by law from varying the quality of their Internet services from users whose content they support or oppose. Supporters of legal protection against network discrimination argue that without the law, consumers will find access to some websites and services noticeably slower than to favored sites. To illustrate the point they are asking supporters to install a little bit of code on their website which will track whether a user is coming from house.gov, senate.gov or washingtonpost.com domain. If so, the code will delay serving the page by 15 seconds which a message about net neutrality is shown. For a good summary of the arguments for and against network neutrality, read Google technologist (and internet-protocol inventor) Vinton Cerf's testimony, and the testimony of an executive of Comcast Corp., David Cohen.  You can also view the website of the coalition supporting network neutrality, which includes some major internet companies, and the website of the telecommunications-lobby opponents of network neutrality.    (MORE NET NEUTRALITY BACKGROUND)

CTNow's Christine Stuart issues an invitation to help cover Aug. 8 U.S. Senate primary in Connecticut

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an excerpt of an email sent by Christine Stuart, owner/editor of the online news site CTNewsJunkie, to fellow attendees of the Media Giraffe Project's MGP2006 summit on the future of journalism, June 28-July 1 at UMass Amherst.

"As a former print reporter I've attended my fair share of conferences where speakers talk about writing like they're dancing about architecture. I am happy to report this was not the case last week (at MGP2006). It's refreshing to see the profession return to its rightful place amongst the people. When I reflected on the weekend and read all your wonderful emails, I suddenly remembered my favorite thing about being a web reporter (I hate the word journalist like Cho's family), the ability to link readers to original documents. I wasn't sure we explored this capability in any of the citizen-journalism track panels. To be able to give my readers the tools I use in writing a story empowers them with access to first-hand information.

"I just wanted to share that thought and thank all of you for doing what you're doing. In my opinion reporting and holding those in power accountable always was and should remain a blue-collar profession. And for any of you new citizen reporters who haven't seen the 1994 movie "The Paper" with Michael Keaton, Robert Duval, Randy Quade, and several others, rent it for Duval's lesson on Picasso.

"Anyone who would like to join me in Hartford, Conn. on Aug. 8 to help report on the U.S. Senate race between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont is welcomed to help report poll results and reactions from voters and candidates at CTNewsjunkie.com. Those of you who don't live on the east coast but are interested in participating in the policy debates please feel free to aggregate copy Aug. 8th from my web site for your own web sites. Paul Bass from the New Haven Independent will also be reporting that night on one of the most exciting mid-term elections since the Clinton era."

Best,

Christine Stuart editor 
CTNewsJunkie.com
Windsor, Conn.
cell: 860.978.1446 /  office: 860.219.0078