On Saturday, Apr. 25, Barcamp News Innovation Philadelphia was held at my alma mater, the Temple Univ. School of Communications and Theater. I wasn’t able to attend, being on the opposite coast that day. But I was able to follow the action via Twitter.
This was a free, unconference-style event, so sessions were planned at the start of the day by participants. Someone set up an iPhone-friendly version of the schedule — very smart!
Seemed like a high-energy event. Some provocative ideas and insights were tossed about. Here are some choice tweets from attendees.
Kevin Koehler: “What if we abolished J-schools? Three of five Pulitzer winners never studied journalism.” Also, he overheard this remark: “We’re here for the SPJ conference, but this is far more interesting.”
Kaizar Campwala: “Great presentation by the folks at Philly.com. Newspapers are sounding entirely sensible about the web… ten years too late.”
Many people tweeted and retweeted this remark by Howard Weaver: “The only way to maintain professional journalism is if you add more value than the people doing it for free.” Also, Ryan Sholin quoted Publish2 founder Scott Karp as saying, “Journalism’s a huge job. Collaboration helps, right?”
Business models and revenue streams also were much on people’s minds:
Amy Z. Quinn: “In my opinion, trying to find THE new revenue model is a mistake. It will take different models for different markets/papers, etc.”
Kevin Koehler: “Paywall fight breaks out… Fight! ‘People will pay a little if it’s good.’ Fight! ‘No we won’t. Ever.’ ”
Bobbie Lee Hitchon: “Paper used to be source for news and we paid for paper. Why not include cost of news in cost of computers, phones, etc?” Carl Lieby responded: “Are you serious? Papers were a single use device. I don’t buy a computer to read the news.”
Whitney Rhodes: “Just outside revenue 2.0 workshop. Room super-packed. Heading in late? Good luck.”
Ian Smith: “Info-snacking — genius! Taking advantage of impulse micropayments. Thanks for starting that, Xbox Live.”
There were also various liveblogs, including Greg Linch’s coverage of the Publish2 session. And some attendees offered live streaming video, such as Christine Cavalier’s coverage on Qik.
…Did you have a chance to attend BCNI Philly, or follow it online? What stood out to you? Please comment below.
