Journalism 2.0

It’s hard to pinpoint the single best thing about GonzoCamp.

It can be watching journalists learn from programmers how to define a problem and find the right approach toward solutions. Or the way students bring fresh perspectives and are enamored with working side-by-side with professionals to build something that’s real. Or the suspense that builds throughout the day as teams take an original idea and craft and mold it and produce something that may be totally different by the end of the day.

But, in the end, it’s the fact that ideas get done that I enjoy the most. And that’s what makes GonzoCamp different than other conferences, workshops and meet-ups.

From the other side of the country, Xarker Dan Conover recognized this and posted to Twitter:

You learn by doing, after all. And racing against a clock, in the same room with other teams in the same race, injects a certain energy into the event that I haven’t seen elsewhere. When our lunch speakers from the Seattle P-I, Pat Balles and Michelle Nicolosi, came to give a quick talk and answer questions, it took several tries to get the teams to take a break. The momentum they had created in just over an hour of forming their ideas and projects was difficult to pause.

The urgency of a one-day event helps frame the projects. A team can’t try to take on too much with such limited time. But this urgency is not contrived. Not if you subscribe to the notion, as I do, that the news industry had better get moving faster with innovation in the digital age.

“The news media business faces a stark reality today: innovate or die,” John Cook wrote on TechFlash to lead off his report GonzoCamp: Five entrepreneurial ideas to help save journalism? “Some organizations will make the transition to the digital world. Others won’t. And while one could argue that it took far too long for newspapers, magazines and TV stations to recognize the transformational power of the Internet, at least some newsrooms throughout the country are awakening to the opportunities. The new entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well Friday in Seattle as journalists, developers, laid off newspaper hacks, students and others gathered at GonzoCamp II.”

(Complete reports from the five teams are being posted on the GonzoCamp site as they become available.)

What’s next? How about a national “tour” of GonzoCamp events? Maybe it will become a competition like the Global Innovation Tournament. While it’s not clear how it will continue, the energy and interest that GonzoCamp has created means it will continue in some form in 2010.

“It was really amazing for me to get to just hang around and soak up all the years of experience in the room, let alone participate with them in creating something so cool,” student Daniel DeMay said in an email. “Some really intelligent people who are very motivated for sure. I look forward to the next event.”

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