Public Media 2009: Atlanta

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2009
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Conference Sessions

 

GENERAL CONFERENCE SESSIONS February 19-21, 2009 *Sessions listed below are under development and subject to change.

Thursday, February 19: Our Dual Keynote Addresses Next Generation Internet Joaquin Alvarado, Director, Institute for Next Generation Internet San Francisco State University While our partners and competitors internationally are making major investments in their high speed fiber infrastructure to provide the right network for the global marketplace, the U.S. languishes in the Cable Modem-DSL universe that is neither sufficient nor future proofed to insure our continuing viability as a leader in technology. Professor Alvarado will discuss the potential for a major infrastructure initiative--a common effort among Public Broadcasters, Community Based Organizations, and High Tech Industrialists--to shape our national telecommunications agenda.

Born Digital John Palfrey, Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University In his address, Professor Palfrey will expand on the subject of his latest publication Born Digital and draw on the Digital Natives Project, developed by the Berkman Center and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland.  This ground breaking research examined the attitude and behavior of young media consumers and creators around the world and the implications of a digitally empowered population.

Introducing Vivian Schiller, CEO On December 1, Vivian Schiller, the longtime head of NYTimes.com’s digital efforts, left the Times to become National Public Radio's new CEO. This will be her first major conference address. At NYT, Schiller led the day-to-day operations of NYTimes.com, the largest newspaper website on the Internet, overseeing product, technology, marketing, classifieds, strategic planning and business development.  Before joining NYTimes.com, Schiller spent four years as SVP and GM of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of NYT and Discovery at the time.

Making Inroads thru Mobile Panel: TBA A candid discussion of the role of hand held devices, including, of course, cell phones, as multi-media players and what public broadcasters should be doing to gain a foothold in this exploding marketplace.

Through A Lens Darkly:  Public Media As Art and Archive

The Next Generation Internet Breakout Continue the conversation with keynote speaker, Joaquin Alvarado.

The Next Generation Internet Breakout Continue the conversation with keynote speaker, John Palfrey.

Redesign: What We Fixed We've all made mistakes -- in designing our sites, creating and distributing our content and staffing and budgeting. Learn 5 new methods of New Media strategy, content and production from people who have have refined their processes.

The Shape of Content to Come: Think About It! Build It!  Learn how to create the same way the big shots do with Design Thinking. The best multi-platform thinkers start with the user before they design an application or new content. By understanding the needs of target users, designers can create applications that successfully serve unmet needs. This user-focused Design Thinking process can be used anywhere… no matter what your budget. The process can help you come up with innovative ways of doing more for less. In this hands-on session, join your colleagues in a mini-design thinking project, where we’ll show how easy it is to generate multiple approaches to serving your audience. You’ll leave brimming with ideas you can take back home with you.

The New News Models Let's look at convergence tactics that are working in public broadcasting newsrooms. Learn how station-based journalists are changing their thinking, their departments and their work to embrace new media. Our panel will demonstrate three models that fit three levels of staffing, service aspirations and budgets -- and are yielding excellent results.

Producers: Moving the Listeners of Tomorrow Join some of our brightest lights -- producers from within public radio and beyond -- to hear, see and discuss their work blending traditional broadcast and new media. Learn how they are creating content to forge new channels between traditional and newly emergent communities and helping to advance a culture of experimentation within the public media industry.

Public Gaming The Ford Foundation and other funders have been exploring the notion of "public gaming," where video games are used to help tell stories to youth and others in ways that may be effective and highly compelling. Join us to hear about how games can be used to teach, tell stories and engage people in new ways.

Year Round Donors: For public radio and television stations data shows that most of the online donations from individuals come in during the on-air campaigns. Plan to attend this session to get up to date on some of the latest statistics on online fundraising, learn how organizations that don’t have on-air campaigns convert web visitors to donors, and participate in a lively discussion about what’s working and what some of the greatest challenges are for public broadcasting when it comes to raising funds and acquiring new donors online all year long.

Political Fundraising: What Can We Learn? Political fundraising has grown exponentially in recent years and the web has been a major catalyst for this growth. This session will provide detailed insight from three prominent campaign veterans including specific online strategies and tactics that enabled their fundraising success.

Strategies for Maximizing Online Revenues What are the opportunities to generate revenues from your website? What does it take to implement them at your station? And what is the advertising market looking for in an online buy? Our panelists will share experiences from their stations and in the market to provide you with insights into how to implement these strategies at home.

Fundraising via Social Networking How can your station leverage social networking and other tools to engage users? Hear about success stories at stations today and gain insight from industry leaders about trends for tomorrow.

The Information Valet Economy: Learn how the Information Valet Project at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute is organizing an information-industry collaborative to build, own and operate a shared-user network layered upon the basic Internet. The IVP network will: (1) Allow end users to own, protect -- and optionally benefit by sharing -- their demographic and usage data with the help of their competitively chosen "information valet" (2) Update the role, effectiveness and compensation for online advertising and marketing services (3) Allow online users to easily share, sell and buy content through multiple websites with one ID, password, account and bill.

Social Media: Latest Lessons Learned 2008 will probably be remembered as the year that social media kicked into high gear across public media. There's been no shortage of projects, including embracing of Twitter on-air, user-generated content initiatives and full-blown social networking rollouts. But how are these activities impacting public media? How are they changing the way we interact with the public and produce our content? What lessons can we take away from these experiences? Please join us for this lively discussion featuring public media leaders who have been on the forefront of utilizing social media.

Social Media "How To" -- Choosing the Right Tool for the Job: It seems like every week there's a new social technology - are all these tools really necessary, and which ones should I bother with? In this highly practical session, we'll demonstrate real-world uses of several social media tools and platforms - such as Ning, Public Action, Twitter, and Facebook - and help clarify the major types that you or your engaged audience might consider. The focus will be on describing key differences, what they're used for, and why you might choose one over another.

Cultivating Partnerships: Discovering and Working with Talent Outside Your Door How do you define and discover partners that strengthen your content and extend your reach? Our panel covers different types of partnerships to create and present content, as well as attract new audiences. Come to this session to learn how to identify - and partner with - contributors who can use their social media superpowers for public media's good.

The Sound of Young America How do you translate your trusted brand on-air, to a killer brand online? Merlin Mann, of 43Folders.com and the You Look Nice Today podcast, knows a thing or two about brand, and he's a public media fan, as well. The Sound of Young America's Jesse Thorn interviews Merlin about how to creatively build your organization's online brand.

Net Neutrality and the Mobile Journalist: A conversation on how the net neutrality conversation impacts mobile journalists and the work they undertake. If telecommunication companies ultimately get to shape, mold, and direct the bytes of information traveling via "their" network what does that mean for all these innovative tools of mobile journalism being created almost daily? If these companies claim a need to charge more money based on how much information one can send and receive, how much will you soon be paying to publish your blog? Would mobile journalists essentially need to compromise their content in order to participate in a new internet landscape that costs more money. And, if so, what effect does that have on a democratic public media landscape?

The Mobile Journalist's Many Faces A conversation on the various forms of mobile journalism and its contribution to the media overall.  Is mobile journalism a natural or essential part of the evolution of media? What are the various genres being used currently for mobile journalism and what other Mojo genres are likely to follow?

What are People Actually Doing: The Jacobs Tech Poll With the support of NPR, IMA, & PRPD has fielded the largest research project in Public Radio history, with over 30,000 responses from listeners to 70 Public Radio stations. The survey covers a wide range of attitudes and usage of technology and media. This first annual Tech Survey was implemented with the objective of helping to define the digital road map for the coming year for Public Radio stations. They'll present details on ipod ownership, podcasting, streamed content usage (video and audio), social networking, digital news consumption, and more.

Public Media Metrics The Second Annual Report on "what is really happening online" from the IMA Sponsored project that is tracking more than 100 station and program sites.  This session will look at year-to-year growth trends and review the key research findings from the past-year issues of the PMM Report, including use of news/politics, movement of traffic through "goals and funnels,"and  the impact of election widgets.

Online Strategy: Looks Like the Internet Will Last What's the next wave for station web sites? Does public media's online service continue to tightly focus on supporting on-air? Does online go deeper in strategically chosen content areas or genres? Does online take on a new identity, less dependent on station branding, and focused more tightly to the needs of the target market? If these are all good ideas, how do you decide what to do? Three radio and TV stations, large and small, discuss their strategies, show what they're doing, and why.

Top 5 Legal Mistake Your Station.org is Making: This session explores the most commonly-recurring legal problems found on media websites – problems such as streams for which no notice of use has been filed, insufficient or unenforced privacy policies, collection of data from minors, use of photos without permission, and failure to comply with laws regarding telephone consumer protection and spam.

New Media in Classrooms Three educators will share how innovative media is transforming classroom learning throughout the country. Leaders will demonstrate how gaming, mobile devices and Web 2.0 technologies are being used to effectively engage and teach key concepts – even as early as Kindergarten! Explore how digital demand is helping to reshape the learning landscape, and how public media can play a role. Panelists will share specific examples of what kids are learning through electronic gaming environments, the use of iPods to improve reading fluency, and how blogging with students is proving to be an effective learning tool.

Media Archive: The Public Media Library

PRECONFERENCE SEMINARS:

 

IMA WEB TECH SEMINAR Wednesday, February 18, 2009 This year's Tech Summit will include general sessions as well as breakouts for both novices and more advanced tech staff. Sessions run from 9a.m.-6 p.m., with the option of continuing discussions around dinner. *Sessions listed below are under development and subject to change.

Opening Keynote:  In development

Mobile Site Development The "mobile web" has been around since the late 90s (anyone remember WAP?), but with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the first Google Android phone in late 2008, the mobile web is finally in millions of hands across the globe. You know mobile is important, and great projects from NPR, APM and the private market are pointing the way. But how do you get started? What's the difference between mobile-optimized sites and mobile apps? What skills do you need to get started? What's next in mobile and how can you get ready? We'll chat with mobile developers in the public media universe, review today's mobile market and figure out what we can do together and independently to create the first generation of pocket public media.

Practical Social Media You've got a Facebook account. You've tried Twitter. You've got an NPR account. Your station is on MySpace. You've even started a blog on your station site. Great. But what should you be DOING with all these social networks? How do you keep up with all these various services and where should you spend your scarce hours if you want to get the most social capital in your public media community? In this session we'll quickly review the top social networking platforms and applications, but then get down to the nitty-gritty of how to use them for the most impact for your station, program, network or project.

Open Source Tools Building web sites and other new media services on public media (especially broadcast-focused) budgets can seem nearly impossible. If you work alone, the challenge is even greater. But there's a wealth of free services and open source tools to make your new media job easier and budget-friendly. Indeed, some of the best free or cheap tools are as good or better than expensive tool suites. We'll highlight some of the best open source and free (or very low-cost) software tools and services that you can use on your next new media project, especially if you're just getting started or work in a one-person web shop.

CMS Roundtable  Used to be it took a Computer Science degree or a six-figure budget to run a website Content Management System.  But the emergence of open source and low-cost systems like Drupal and WordPress means that an enterprise-level CMS is within reach of just about anyone with a pulse.  With literally hundreds of available CMSs, how do you decide which system will best serve your needs over time?  What skills and resources will be required to build and manage CMS-driven sites?  What expectations are reasonable concerning the CMS learning curve, and development time for your CMS websites?  Presenters in this session will share their own hands-on experiences using different CMSs.  They'll provide an inside view of what it's like to develop sites with their CMS, including templates and themes, user management, editorial workflow, content management and archiving, CMS maintenance and support, and special features.  We'll also discuss how the public media community can collaborate on CMS solutions and best practices as the systems evolve and our common needs become more clearly defined.

Shoot. Cut. Post. Video on a Shoestring Video isn't just for TV stations any more! Anyone with an inexpensive digital camera or point-and-shoot videocam can shoot video, cut it on a garden-variety PC and then upload it to the web in just a few minutes. In this optional -- and fun -- session, we'll talk a little bit about the web video revolution, note the cheap multi-platform tools available, then demonstrate the full process: shooting, cutting and posting to the web from inside the session... with audience participation. Adding informal video to your sites is a great way to extend beyond broadcast as you build more personality into your sites and find ways to connect with listeners and viewers in a new way. (We'll also discuss how to plan your time around this additional work -- how can you keep it simple, fast and easy without sacrificing quality too much?

Developing and Using Widgets and APIs  NPR has released their API to allow anyone, anywhere to mine the NPR content database using customized RSS feeds and more. Widgets are spreading quickly: public media companies collaborated on election widgets, commercial video players are ubiquitous and PBS is launching their own video embedding system called COVE. How do you develop widgets? How do you promote your public media content with an API? And how and when should you pull data from other site APIs or place widgets on your own sites?

ONLINE REVENUE SUMMIT Organized by IMA and DEI Wednesday, February 18, 2009 This year's Online Revenue Summit is targeted towards the concerns of Sales Management.  Sessions run from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., with the option of continuing discussions around dinner. *Sessions listed below are still under development and subject to change.

How Sustainable are Commercial Sites? What are the Take-aways for Pubcasters?

A View from the Client Side

Ready-to-Go Out of the Box Sponsorship Opportunities

Maximizing Inventory via Ad Server

Lowering the Firewalls Between Content Creators and Underwriting Departments

Beyond Sponsorship...Major Gifts Funding

Additional Perspectives