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INVITATION: Meeting, Tues., 7:30 p.m., Selectmens' meeting room, Williamstown Town Hall

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The public is invited to attend an informal discussion on Tues., Jan. 26, at 7:30 p.m., in the Selectmens' Meeting Room at Williamstown Town Hall, 31 North St., Williamstown, Mass., on the community-information needs of the town and region.

"This is not a town-sanctioned or sponsored event," says town resident, a future-of-jouranlism researcher who set up the meeting. "It's just some people gathering to kick around ideas. We are using town hall merely because the library closes early on Tuesday and we couldn't therefore seek the meeting room there."

Invited participants include:

Events in the Berkshires, Vermont show efforts to assess "community information needs"

The public is invited to attend an informal discussion on Tues., Jan. 26, at 7:30 p.m., in the Selectmens' Meeting Room at Williamstown Town Hall, 31 North St., Williamstown, Mass., on the community-information needs of the town and region.

"This is not a town-sanctioned or sponsored event," says town resident, a future-of-jouranlism researcher who set up the meeting. "It's just some people gathering to kick around ideas. We are using town hall merely because the library closes early on Tuesday and we couldn't therefore seek the meeting room there."

Invited participants include:

-- David Scribner, a Pittsfield-based writer and weekly newspaper editor. Scribner, a former editor of The Berkshire Eagle and The Bennington Banner, has applied to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for a grant to launch "Newshare Commons" -- a journalist-guided, social news network in libraries, cafes and public spaces. Scribner hopes the Berkshires/SW Vermont will be one test region. See: http://tinyurl.com/yacnxdn

-- Jeff Vander Clute, president of CircLabs Inc., a company part-owned by the University of Missouri School of Journalism. CircLabs is working to find solutions for sustaining the values, principles and purposes of journalism in our rapidly evolving media ecosystem.  Jeff is developing the technology for a "news social network." Vander Clute is a 1994 Williams College graduate and was part of the core group at the start of Tripod Inc. See: http://www.avanoo.com

ADVANCES A GATHERING IN BENNINGTON

This meeting also advances by two days a more formal gathering at the Bennington (Vt.) Free Library organized by Shires Media Partnership Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit which owns radio station WBTN in  Bennington (I serve on its volunteer board). The announcement of that event should give you a sense our
subject domain for Tuesday. See: http://dbs.hosting.crocker.com/wiki/index.php/Community-bennington

To get a feel for what a metropolitan area like Seattle can put together to study its 'news ecosystem,' " said Densmore, "Review this page from the Journalism That Matters Pacific Northwest gathering Jan. 7-10 -- http://www.rjiwiki.org . . . . "

Densmore may be reached at 413-458-8001 or densmore@mediagiraffe.org.

Legal fund to support FOI cases offered by national group and Knight Foundation

Tom Kearney, managing editor of the Stowe (Vt.) Reporter, takes notes of: http://www.nfoic.org/knight-foi-defense-fund

And writes . . . Charles Davis, director of the National Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri, is seeking help in spreading the word about a new Knight Foundation grant NFOIC has received. Charles says a huge part of the grant is a newly created legal fund to support FOI cases.

Tom adds: "Here in New England, this might give us an avenue to finance right-to-know lawsuits, and the possibility that the NENPA legal hotline could hand off good cases to NEFAC's state-by-state lawyers. Or some other scenario."

Tom adds: "Right now, lack of a legal budget means we're often unable to pursue good cases that could make good law."