Innovation is dead. Long live innovation.
Posted under: Having spent the day at Jeecamp, I wanted to share a few of my thoughts on the day. This year the (semi) Unconference feels like it has focused more on the business / innovation side of journalism than ever before. It was a very different experience to the unconference of a year ago, however I do not think the more formal nature of the event is entirely to blame.
When attending last year I had been elected as Redbrick editor only days before and as such I had a platform with which I could experiment. This time around I have nowhere to try-out the ideas and possibilities that have come out of the discussions I had on Friday
The highlights of the day were the opening and closing keynote speakers (Simon Waldman and Stewart Kilpatrick) and the breakout discussion on community management that I took part in.
A variety of problems were put forward in the discussion, everything from a lack of conversation through to fighting and trolls in comment sections. I do not think there is any need to detail the problems, they are after all fairly common place among all sites, however the ‘solutions’ were varied and interesting.
- Involve your ‘readers’ (audience) in the process of writing; the problem with more traditional pieces of journalism is they present a closed and completed argument. We should look to involve people from the beginning – Adam Tinworth suggested that the process was more important than the result.
- Join in with the discussion where it is taking place – if people are commenting on Facebook, or a related forum go to them. Remember that you are not trying to control the conversation, merely start and facilitate it.
- Invest in relationships: avatars are important they allow your audience to build a relationship with writers and with other potential commentators – these relationships are key, they can offer tips, verify content and give insight to writers.
- Add value to engagement: reward individuals for writing good comments – suggestions included Four Square style badges, ‘titles’ and responsibility, such as light moderation duties.
So whats next…?
Jeecamp is about how to move forward and as ever there is no one right answer, lots of people are trying and some are taking baby steps forwards and others are learning hard lessons about trying to be a journalist and a businessman simultaneously.
Simon Waldman talked about ‘Creative Disruption‘ and how businesses either learn to re-imagine themselves in the light of significant change or fail and disappear.
Stewart Kilpatrick talked about his business the Caledonian Mercury – Scotland’s first online only newspaper. He gave us an insight to the structure of the journalism side of the venture as well as some details on the business model – which is based on a revenue sharing concept.
The keynotes are linked to above, so I am keen not to repeat them; but I will write about what I took away from them. There was an overwhelming positivity from the day, that ‘now’ was the time for innovation and taking risks. There also seemed to be a consensus that journalists and journalism would exist in the future, but that ‘newspapers’ would been a completely different manifestation of their current selves.
As someone who is looking for a project (and an adventure) the talks set out some great rules going forward and provided oodles of inspiration.
True innovation is about problem solving, good solutions are elegant, but simple – Simon used the story of Apollo 13 to illustrate this point; talking about how the Houston based support team had to build a Carbon Dioxide filter from what the astronauts had in the ship. It is a fantastic way to conceptualise the basics of problem solving and to me it suggests infinite possibilities for the future – myself and my friends, those of us stupid enough to want to take on a challenge are not quite sure what direction we are moving in yet, but I think we have a better idea of how to start moving in it.
Stewart finished with this:
there’s never been a better time to be a journalist… And there’s never been a worse time to get a job as one.
I think it is time to stop talking about the future of Journalism and to start doing something about it.
