Logo by Brian James Kirk

Some 250 years ago, Ben Franklin had a problem.  He suspected “electrical fluid”  was contained in lightning, an uncommon belief at the time.  As legend has it, near Philadelphia’s own Christ Church, Franklin reasoned a kite would be the easiest way to get close to a thunder storm.  As the kite flew close to the storm, he witnessed the fibers standing erect.  After touching a key to the string and his knuckle, his discovery was complete and the rest is history.  Or folklore, depending on who you ask.

The news industry needs its own kite moment.  It’s time to throw conventional wisdom to the wind and try something different.  That’s why in the very city that Franklin conducted his kite experiment, the industry’s forward thinkers will have a meeting of the minds.

After going on a meeting bonanza, I can tell you the following:  The event will by hosted by Temple University’s School of Journalism on Saturday, April 25th, which means we will be taking over the Annenberg building.  These facilities are top notch, a we have access to wi-fi, half a dozen smart classrooms, a bigger “smart” lecture hall, a public atrium, 2 computer labs, and even a TV studio.  All told, this venue can hold between 250-300 people comfortably.  I ask that anyone planning on attending register for free (it takes 10 seconds), so we can gauge numbers.  If the number attending creeps close to 300, we will switch to a bigger venue down the street.

Barring any sponsorship that provides food, there is no plan to cater the event as there are roughly 323,233,767 places to eat within 5 minutes of the building.  I, personally, look forward to patronizing Temple’s famous crepe truck.

The event is also in need of a few volunteers such as someone to handle tech/wi-fi stuff, someone to wrangle sponsors, etc.  If this sounds like something you’d like to help out with, drop a line on the wiki or sign up for the Google Group. And a thanks to everyone who has stepped up already.

Maybe we’ll come up with an idea that is as radical as Franklin’s hypothesis.  Excited?  Register below.

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.

Above: Sean's new job

I’ll admit it, I have been out of the loop lately.  That’s why I missed the recent conversation spreading across the Web about the proposed BarCamp: News Innovation.  That is, until my buddy Christopher Wink clued me into the tragedy that was occurring.

If you missed it, a bunch of people way smarter than myself are looking to organize a forum for getting forward thinking media-people together to discuss the future of news.  I agree with the concept, but what I disagree with are the proposed locations.  There is only one place this could possibly go down: Philadelphia.

Why?

Location Location Location. Whenever any group proposes any kind of big event, there is usually a tug of war between New York City and Washington D.C. This never made any sense to me, as Philadelphia is right in between these two locations.

On the Barcamp Wiki, DC and Boston area is proposed as one location.  This is lunacy.  Philadelphia is in the center of the corridor of Northeastern cities being less than a two hour drive from every major city except Boston.  Having the event in DC and Miami, totally alienates everyone north of the capital.  Having the event Boston increases the travel time for those coming from D.C.

Media Market. Aside from the central location, Philadelphia is the forth largest media market in the country, and second largest on the East Coast.  The other proposed locations?  Miami is 6th, D.C. is 7th, and Boston is 11th.  Philadelphia is the 6th largest city in the country (and it would be ranked higher if Phoenix and Houston didn’t have FOUR TIMES the square mileage Philadelphia does).  Miami and Boston don’t even crack the top 20.

Burgeoning tech scene. We’ve all heard ad nauseum how “with it” Silicon Valley and New York City are.  We don’t need another insidery gathering in cities known for their insidery gatherings.  This event is about fresh faces and fresh ideas.  And, as luck would have it, Philadelphia is currently in the midst of a tech explosion.  As Indy Hall co-founder Alex Hillman put it, a few years ago there were hardly any tech related events in the City of Brotherly Love.  Now?  Ignites, Barcamps, and Juntos are fostering a tech community like no where else.  Groups such as the Hacktory, Make: Philly, P’unk Ave, and Indy Hall are leading the way, featuring the wonderful technology related events and people that live here.  And these communities aren’t just Web 2.0. Or design. Or journalism.  They’re cross-genre.  Junto is even having a dialog with local nerds on health care this Thursday.  Health care! A similar dialog on Journalism would get a wonderful turnout full of fresh faces.

Philly has talent. Philadelphia is one of the few remaining two paper towns.  However, both the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer have been shrinking rapidly.  This means there is still a large amount of very qualified journalists floating around (maybe in the old Pen and Pencil club?), many of whom might be interested in this conference. And these ex-deadtree reporters are up to some wonderful things.  For example, TreeHouse Media was started by an ex-Inquirer staffer.  The Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab at Temple University was founded by an Philly ex-broadcaster.

The availability of venues.  Temple University, The University of the Sciences, LaSalle University, Drexel University and The University of Pennslyvania are just a few of the colleges all located within blocks of Center City.  Plus, The Pennsylvania Convention Center is being expanded … again.

Anyone who disagrees with me is welcome to drop me a line here or on Twitter, but I can not think of a more convenient and better equipped location that Philadelphia.  Miami (sorry Mr. Linch), Boston, and New York all lack the essential aspects of an event like this: a central location, an underserved community, and the facilities to handle this.

And if you live in Philly and would like this to happen, drop a note on the BarCamp wiki.  Cmon, Why Cant Us?