Another citizen's media conference

Our own Kevin McCrea attended J-Lab’s Citizens Media Summit last week. His takeaways from the confab:

• Very easy to get people to contribute photos.  Flickr interface particularly
  good.  People are generally more comfortable sharing photos than
  writing
   
• As we’ve learned before, some contributors like to be edited before their pieces
  are posted
   
• Few like to be called "citizen journalist"
   
• Partnerships (with other publications, etc.) are beneficial but eat up more time
  than anticipated
   
• VoicesOfSanDiego.com, which is a non-profit, uses a PBS-style "membership
  program"
   
• desire for more "technically savvy" journalists, particularly those who could
  integrate photo and video
   
• YourHub.com: licensing (or, in their word, "syndicating") its platform
  throughout the country, with papers in CA and FL going live by the end of the
  year . . . having .
  a "this week’s topic" to lure contributions of a particular theme has never
  worked for them . . . has 42 websites and 15 print editions . . . used frisbees
  and dog chains in its promotional efforts . . . 26 employees . . . "people love
  the print edition" but it confuses people into not knowing about the website . .
  has a full-time customer service rep who would-be contributors can  call so
  that they can be walked through the steps of what needs to be done to contribute
  . . uses Unisys as a publishing system . . . "will be profitable by December"
  . . 7000 registered users . . . discovered that promoting the ability to
  contribute stories actually discouraged readers who simply wanted to read
  without contributing . . . took a while to realize that it is not a
  newspaper, and has already changed the website to get away from a newspaper look
  and feel
     
• community reachout requires continual marketing even beyond the
  launch
   
• check out BBC Video Nation for idea of how citizen video contributions can work
  well
   
• even if a contributor is looking to publicize themselves through their pieces,
  that is still OK since that leads to promotion of the site itself (from
  Bakotopia band site)
   
• at Bluffton Today, everyone who is photographed randomly for the site gets a
  business card that says "you’ve been spotted . . . check yourself out at
  blufftontoday.com" — great idea!!!
   
• Adrian: encourage citizens to contribute technology, not just text/photos, to
  take better advantage of our content . . . BBC has language that encourages its
  users to create things with its tools
   
• one paper discovered much less profanity in comments without a filter because
  that ended the gamesmanship and uses an eBay "trusted seller" model for
  contributors
   
• Mary Lou: make contributors the stars . . . "If it’s local & legal, we
  publish it.  All of it." . . . continually suggest easy ways for people to
  contribute — photo contests work particularly well . . . print big for
  marketing and revenue . . . three out of four staffers not from the newspaper
  business, and staffers have to be open to a new kind of journalism . . people
  like to be edited.