Heavy hitters in the news and technological industry conversed at the fourth annual NewsFoo Camp at the Walter Cronkite School this weekend.
NewsFoo is an exclusive conference with a focus on innovation in news creation. The discussions are not planned until the participants arrive to provoke new ideas.
Tim O’Reilly, the founder of O’Reilly Media, created the “unconference” three years ago. O’Reilly used NewsFoo to invite the top influencers in their field to discuss ideas on how to further develop the news industry.
“The most striking thing about this NewsFoo versus the first one we did three years ago is the sense of optimism,” O’Reilly stated. “People are fired up.”
NewsFoo itself is not a secret, though the discussions are considered confidential.
Harper Reed, chief technical officer for the Obama Campaign, offered an Ask Me Anything discussion. His presence was the talk of the convention, whether the campers just wanted to speak to him or learn more about his technological skills in politics.
Reed was just excited to see the new ideas that were created by the conference.
“It’s exciting to be in a room full of people where you are not the smartest. These people know what they are talking about on a level that is hard to find,” he said. “The most interesting conversations are usually not in sessions.”
The invitations to the conference cap at 150 and most campers are not asked back, to bring fresh ideas to the conference each time. The small participant number encourages personal relationships to form, those of which are both personal and business related.
The sense of optimism for the future was a reoccurring theme as founding director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and Cronkite School professor Dan Gillmor noted the optimism for the future of journalism beyond the newspaper industry.
“One of the great things about this in general is there is absolutely no woe-is-us bullshit,” he said. “This crowd is totally beyond that, even the journalists in this crowd.”
Gillmor has participated in NewsFoo since its first year and this sense of positive thinking has preserved his enthusiasm for the camp.
“This is about people who are relentlessly optimistic that, however problematic everything is, we are going to figure it out,” he said.
The new ideas are stemmed from the accomplished participants as the ideas flow openly throughout the conference.
“Anyone who is not an egomaniac is pretty sure that they are among the stupidest people in the room and that is a wonderful opportunity to learn something,” Gillmor said.
Writer and New York University assistant professor Clay Shirky wrote on the social and economic effect of technology in his essay, “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable” and his idea of “nothing will work but everything might” applied to the innovation the conference tackled.
“If the old model doesn’t work what will replace it? My answer was nothing. Nothing is going to simply lift up the system as we know it in the 20th century and find it a new home,” he said. “We are not moving from A to B; we are moving from one to many.”
Shirky said the success of the conference did not come out of the direct ideas for projects but the personal relationships it created.
“It is much more about densifying the conversation,” Shirky said.
Ruth Spencer, U.S. community coordinator for the Guardian enjoyed the social opportunity the conference offered.
“It is a really social event so there is a lot of talking that happens at the bar and a lot of talking that happens after the conference,” she said.
Digital Democracy co-founder and Executive Director Emily Jacobi focused on how the news was being told, and how the conference provided a shift in focus to a new type of storytelling using new technology.
“People are really thinking and grappling with different forms of content and getting them out there,” Jacobi said. “People are really looking on how the engineering aspects of technology can really be harnessed to ensure that the right kind of news is getting to people, so a lot of discussion is getting out of the filter bubble.”
Rachel Sklar, founder of TheLi.st and Change the Ratio, was happy with the personal opportunity that was available.
“I’m on crutches, I could have a total excuse to not come and no one could say boo, but this is awesome,” she said.
Sklar also attended Foo Camp this year, which has a focus on technology while NewsFoo focuses on media.
Sklar said as someone who focuses on increasing the visibility of women fighting for equal opportunity, she was glad that advocates for women and feminists were not afraid to speak at the conference.
“Usually when I go to conferences like these they tend to be lopsided in terms of men and women,” Sklar said. “This is one of the best ratios I’ve seen.”
She said that this created a comfortable environment.
“It suddenly allows it to be a safe space where it is OK to have these conversations and no one is going to smack you down, you aren’t alone,” she said.
WFMU radio station manager Ken Freedman said he appreciated feeling like the dumbest person in the room, learning from others who knew more in a particular field than he did.
Freedman is a second-year participant. He decided this year to join in on conversations that he knew little about.
“Really amazing people come here,” Freedman said. “I learn a lot and really get inspired every time I come.”
Contact the reporter at aimackli@asu.edu
