[MGP-Forum Announce] REGISTER NOW/SAVE 20%: June 4-5 Minneapolis -- Best practices for local online news entrepreneurs

[Bill Densmore]

Saturday is the deadline for a 20%-discounted registration to attend . . 
. any MGP/JTM alumn may register at the local placeblogger rate ($139) 
***BUT ONLY UNTIL SUNDAY.

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Register now for A PASSION FOR PLACE:
New Pamphleteers/New Reporters -- Convening Entrepreneurs
Who Combine Journalism, Democracy, Place and Blogs
June 4-6, 2008 / Minneapolis, Minn.
http://www.newpamphleteers.org
JOIN THE NETWORK: http://jtm2008.ning.com/?xgi=6YNLL4g
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Save 20% by registering before Sunday, May 11. Only $139.00 for two days, 
including meals.

REGISTER:    https://www.123signup.com/event?id=tzfmb
http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/Jtm-mn-participants

***Stipends available***

DATES
=============
Wed., June 4, 2008, 1 p.m. through
Thurs., June 5, 2008, 6:30 p.m. (dinner optional)

LOCATION
=============

McNamara Alumni Center
University of Minnesota
200 Oak St., S.E.
Minneapolis MN 55455

Preceding the National Conference on Media Reform
Minneapolis, June 6-8, 2008 also in Minneapolis
http://www.freepress.net/conference

WHAT IS IT?
=============

A unique event designed to give local online news/community web entrepreneurs 
and activists a chance to share hands-on advice about best practices, hear 
research in the field, and get advice on advertising, legal and organizational 
issues.

You share a passion for place and you're taking that passion online. Please
join with your colleagues around the United States as we gather on June 4-5
for one of the first convenings intended for operators of local onine news
and community websites.

Share best practices . . . learn what hasn't work . . . and what does, at:
"New Pamphleteers/New Reporters: Convening Entrepreneurs Who Combine
Journalism, Democracy, Place and Blogs."

DETAILS: http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/Jtm-mn-mgp-forum
DOWNLOADABLE FLYER: http://www.mediagiraffe.org/minnesota/flyer.pdf

Co-convenors and supporters include: Journalism That Matters collaborative,
The Media Giraffe Project, the Blandin Foundation, The Center for Citizen
Media at ASU, the Berkman Center and Citzen Media Law Project at Harvard Law
School, Placeblogger.com, the Mott Foundation, the Minnesota Journalism
Center, J-Lab at the University of Maryland, the Park Foundation and others.

STIPENDS AVAILABLE

We're all in the early stages of developing local online news communities
that will become of lasting value. Knowing that it may cost a few hundred
dollars for you to fly to Minneapolis, we are offering registration stipends
and very inexpensive lodging once you get here.

You can stay in a University of Minnesota dormitory for $48 a night/single
occupancy right near the the spectacular McNamara Alumni Center where we'll
be meeting. Our attendance is limited to 100 people -- so you can be sure of
plenty of time to engage with your fellow "placebloggers."

Learn from experts the business, marketing, legal, advertising,
journalistic, technical and fund-raising skills needed to approach success
-- in a participatory, roundtable event.

And -- we're going to take a straw vote about whether to start an "American
Society of News & Community Forums" -- to help us build or partner with
advertising, professional, journalism and business networks, develop
practice recommendations, and help with staff/volunteer recruitment and
recognition in our communities.

REGISTER TODAY

Register today. If you really can't afford the $139 registration (including
meals!) for a day and a half of critical information sharing (and fun!), pay
only $25 and request a stipend. We'll accommodate as many such requests as
we can.

And don't wait to book your air travel -- the National Conference on Media
Reform (http://www.freepress.net/conference) starts up on Friday, June 6 as
we wrap up and it's filling up planes to Minneapolis.

But that also creates an excellent opportunity to attend two events on one
trip -- a intimate, roundtable-format, nuts-and-bolts business/vision
session followed by a multi-dimensional gathering of thousands of media
reformers -- some of whom may be your potential supporters, bloggers,
writers and contributors.

We have a combined registration ($270) if you want to stay through the
weekend for both meetings in Minneapolis.

It all starts with registering:
REGISTER:    https://www.123signup.com/event?id=tzfmb

Please do so today . . . or call me if you have questions. And even if
you're unsure of coming yourself, please pass or post this email where it
might reach another person with a "passion for place" and news. Reaching out
to our new world is difficult -- you can help us by find the real
contributors who can help us learn together.

Not wanting to miss this one opportunity to communicate, I've added more
information below my sig. But it's duplicated on the website and in the PDF
flyer.

"New Pamphleteers/New Reporters," is organized by the Journalism That
Matters collaborative. (http://journalismthatmatters.wordpress.com/about/) I
hope to see you in Minneapolis on June 4-5.

MORE INFO:

http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/jtm-mn


KEY OBJECTIVES
================

-- Share best practices for community, business and social success of rural
and neighborhood web civic/news initiatives
-- Learn about available tools, networks, software and partnerships
-- Understand and build relationships with legacy media
-- Consider forming a national business/professional/advertising
collaborative
-- Be part of themaking of an inspirational video about online citizen
journalism

WHY NOW?
==========

Part pamphleteers, part reporters and part entrepreneurs, America's new
online citizen journalists are inventing a new business and a new passion --
the business of building local, literate, digital domains on the web where
community and commerce flourish. But efforts -- and structure -- to share
best practices are only just emerging.

We're inviting some of the best examples of local online news operations
run/owned by citizen/journalists for a sharing of best practices. This is
less an event to show these folks to the outside world and more an internal,
sleeves-rolled-up working session for them to learn practical things from
each other -- almost continuing education. These citizen journalism and new
media entrepreneurs from Minnesota and around the country will share
successes and failures, and collaborate to take the next steps to ensure
quality storytelling in service to democracy.

We'll serve as an incubator / think-and-do tank for those who are
considering starting their own civic engagement / citizen journalism
projects in urban/rural Minnesota and nationally.

WHAT TO EXPECT
===============

-- Intimate, roundtable discussions about best business, reporting,
community, people and legal practices and ethics.
-- Latest ideas on how to promote local, participatory democracy online
-- Advice on the future of placeblogging and local online services
-- Briefings on the latest technology tools
-- A workshop on cyberlaw -- including libel and defamation
-- Discussion about forming a co-operative national service organization for
independently owned local placeblogs
-- Strategies for advertising and listing sales and network

CONTACTS
================

Program:
Bill Densmore, director/editor
The Media Giraffe Project
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
413-577-4370 mediagiraffe at journ.umass.edu

Logistics:
Rachel Johnson, Events and Marketing Coordinator Minnesota Journalism Center
School of Journalism and Mass Communication University of Minnesota
111 Murphy Hall, 206 Church St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
PH. 612-626-1723; FAX 612-626-7543
rachelj at umn.edu