Sean Blanda

Cosby thinks this is a good idea, and you should too.

The last post on this blog outlined reasons I think Barcamp: News Innovation should be in Philadelphia.  A few people agreed with me, a few did not.  However, people agreeing with me does not magically bring the event to Philadelphia.

After shooting a few emails around I can tell everyone this:

• Temple University’s School of Communications has agreed in principle to host the event.  This is good news as projectors, wifi, and other technology would be readily available.  Temple University is also located right off of the Broad Street subway line, so it is highly accesable from anywhere in the city.  If it was held at Temple, it would most likely be on the weekend as to not interfere with classes.
• Chris Krewson at the Philadelphia Inquirer, offered the facilities there as well, and offered to do his best to provide speakers from the Inky.  The Inquirer building is so close to Temple that you can see it, so it is possible to have a few events at each.
• Philly tech event planner experts at P’unk Ave have agreed at the very least to lend general support with more specifics available as details emerge.

So a BarCamp Philly has general support from the three pillars of Journalism innovation: the education community, the online journalist community, and the tech community.  Various students, reporters, tech people, and educators have contacted me in private to offer a show of support.

So, the next step would be to have a degree of certainty that this event is happening. This is something I can’t accomplish on my own so I have set up the offical Philadelphia wiki page.  It is bare bones now, but if you have any interest in this happening, even if it is a casual “I’d go” please drop by and leave a comment.

Hopefully this can fill out over the weekend, and thank you everyone who has offered support.