Takeaways from the citizens media summit

Highlights and takeaways from the citizens media summit in San Francisco ontoll May 15, 2005:

Pithiest quote: Joan Walsh, editor of Salon.com: "We don't want to become old media at [age] 10. We still view ourselves too much as a print magazine on the Web."

Most exciting new tool that works: participatoryculture.org's open-source video platform for grassroots culture.

Most interesting new citizens media site: The just-announced (but not yet live) Newstrust.org, Fabrice Florin's effort to "help people find news they can trust."

Most interesting schism that developed: Not so much a schism, really, as a point of emphasis. Several folks, led by Fabrice Florin of NewsTrust, David Bank of Emerging Agenda, Jonathan Weber of New West, Howard Rheingold, Dan Gillmor and others, emphasized training, editing, standards and creating media for a social purpose (the advancement of democracy, etc.). A second group, led mostly by me, Michael Tippett of NowPublic, Susan DeFife of Backfence and Denise Atchley of the Digital Storytelling Festival, sought to emphasize empowering users to create media as an end in itself, as a means of fostering creative expression. The two approaches have much in common, but the differences in emphasis are important to consider.

Most out-of-the-box thinking: By Brewster Kahle, natch, who dusted off two ideas ready for resurrection: a video browser and the library exemption for loaning broadcast news video. (See the meeting summary for more details.)

Most positive development: Action items by Mary Hodder, Michael Tippett, Amanda Michel, Fabrice Florin and others to form teams to tackle a university conference and a learning clearinghouse for training and for legal education.