So long, San Francisco

Well, I'm back home. The KDMC fellowship ended Friday evening, and I stayed around for an extra two days to take in some sights. Made it to Muir Woods and the German Tourist Club in Marin, popped my dim sum Cherry in the Richmond, visited the City Lights Bookstore and hit the scene in the Marina. Fun fun fun. What a great overall experience. Lucky me.

My first widget

I guess this is kind of a meta-widget, since it's a widget for this blog, but here it is.

Mark Felt dies

Watergate tipster dies in California at 95. I wonder if he would have talked to a blogger?

Read the stories here:

The Washington Post: "Deep Throat Mark Felt Dies at 95"

The Atlantic:
Deep Throat: An Institutional Analysis

Guardian: Q&A: Watergate Scandal

Beethoven's Fifth

I had the good fortune to see the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra perform tonight. Part serendipity, part crime of opportunity, I charged out of a Flash session to the ticket booth across campus at 7:55 p.m. and scored a free ticket from a generous patron to the 8 p.m. show.

As I waited for the performance to start, the worlds of journalism and classical music bounced around my mind. I started to wonder how it was possible that 100-member cover band playing 200-year-old songs could be in business. Wasn't iTunes and Garage Band putting these folks out of business? The short answer is yes. Berkeley's symphony is not union, and most of the members are not full-time musicians, according to Jean, my mystery patron. (I trust her because not only did she act like she belonged there, she had great seats and considered serving on the board.)

That said, there was a robust crowd that certainly showed its enthusiasm after the final notes of Beethoven's Fifth. Guest conductor Joana Carneiro, who was essentially interviewing for outgoing conductor Kent Nagano's job, got a thumb's up. To be honest, it was her performance that moved me. I know very little about classical music, but it was hard not to notice that she was rising to her full potential. I had no idea conducting was so physical. (Full disclosure: At one point, her jerky hand motions made me think she was doing "The Robot," and I almost burst out in laughter.)

It's that kind of passion-on-your-sleeve performance that really speaks to me, no matter what the platform. It's hit me at Grateful Dead concerts, sports games, occassionally during movies, often when reading a great author, and -- now -- at the symphony.

Anyway, I thanked Jean profusely for the wonderful experience. She smiled and encouraged me spread the joy. "You're welcome, Justin. Take the spirit home."

Thanks, Jean. I'll do that.

Hyperlocal is hard as hell

The fellows heard from Jonathan Krim of The Washington Post last night. The topic: Hyperlocal -- Can it work?

Now, the tone around the journalism graduate school here is -- justifiably, to an extent -- pretty optimistic. But Krim stepped in with a dose of reality. Here are his seven myths of hyperlocal.

1. If you build it, they will come.
2. If it's really cool, they will come.
3. If they come, ads will follow.
4. There's no real competition.
5. People will work for free.
6. Success will come quickly.
7. Really, this will work if you just ... (This one's my favorite and reminded me of a Japanese saying I read recently: "If you aunt had balls she'd be your uncle.)

This comes from a guy who knows through experience. He was behind Loudoun Extra, the Post's aggressive foray into hyperlocal. At times, Krim had an air of exhaustion. This man is a top-notch journalist. He's forgotten more about news than I'll ever know, but I just got the feeling that he was pretty frustrated with the state of journalism.

Don't get me wrong. He's not giving up, and he was extremely engaging. And beyond the tough love, he gave us a list of what works.

* Sites need authority and personality, and the best way to achieve this is through a strong local blogger.
* Although it's labor intensive, breaking news keeps readers coming back.
* user engagement/ownership -- the feeling that the site is a shared facility
* Youth and high school sports
* Aggregation -- try to be the one-stop shop
* Entertainment

Krim also dipped into what types of advertising do and don't work in hyperlocal worlds. Again, his honestly here was welcomed. He also gave us a taste of his favorite hyperlocal site: rotten NEIGHBOR, where you can locate, rate and share the good, bad and ugly of your neighbors. It's a hoot.

Charlene Li, thought leader

It's not too often that you meet a thought leader. And, frankly, if someone is throwing around a handle like that, they're kind of setting you up to be disappointed.

Well, Charlene Li is the real deal. Cool, clear, prepared, deeply knowledgeable and extremely ... well, thoughtful. To be honest, I didn't see a strong role for what most of us consider journalism in her vision of the future. I guess that's the point.

This post is kind of test. Charlene says she markets herself and her work by finding social media references, then joining the conversation. Will she find me here?

I'll blog more about her presentation later, but I'll say this: I hope the Berkeley student bookstore has "Groundswell." I want to read it yesterday.

Soundslide session

Here's a soundslide I helped produce today:

Only in Berkeley, Part II

Nothing says classy like a ceramic Beethoven hood ornament. Speaking of Beethoven, I'm hoping for an early dismissal tonight so I can catch the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra performing the Fifth.

Strap it on

Your backpack, that is. That's what Jonathan Jones did when he didn't have a newsroom to work out of. Jones, a former reporter for the Daily Local in West Chester, took a buyout over a year ago from ANG newspapers in California. He and his wife, Anna Sussman, then became a roving two-person freelance foreign bureau.

Jones and Sussman wrote about hunger, povery, disease and war in Africa and Asia. Heady stuff for two 20-somethings (I'm guessing here. To be honest, they both look like they're 17). But they kicked ass. They sold print, radio and video to news organizations that have cut back on foreign staffing but are still hungry for stories from abroad: CNN, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor and other heavy hitters.

What's next? Anna is freelancing in the Bay area, and Jonathan is writing a book about Firestone's rubber operations in Liberia. He didn't go into it, but I get the feeling the book isn't something Firestone will be sending out to investors. Good luck to them both.

Check out their work at Backpack Journalist.

Only in Berkeley, Part I

I'm pretty sure the lamp in my hotel room was a bong in a former life.

Introduce yourself to TED

This is sort of an aside, but a resource we're using in the workshop is TED. It's an annual conference of thought leaders. Check it out.

Tweet tweet

One of today's sessions shed light on the nearly inexplicable phenomenon that is Twitter.

I get the self-indulgence part, but how -- exactly -- can it be effectively used by a newsroom?

* Speed: A fellow fellow from Kentucky described how one of her reporters tweeted updates from a big trial. When a major claim was staked, there came a tweet. And, of course, they tweeted the verdict in near real time, too. This is particularly valuable in courtrooms where cameras are non grata.

* Entourage: Twitter's also good for networking. Do a quick search for the "Top 10" whoevers you want to find: journalists, PR agents, Internet marketers, bloggers, etc. Follow them, follow their followers. They'll follow you. Watch and learn. Try search.twitter, too, to find people.

* Portability: It's cake to set up your phone to Tweet. Hook it up under Devices in your Settings.

* Honesty: They don't make any money, so I trust 'em. For now.

* Brevity: I'm not a total antisocial jerk, but sometimes I wish I could limit face-to-face conversations to 140 characters. They're on to something there.

I'm only sipping the Twitter Kool-Aid at this point. There's just too much chaff to sort though, but today's session was a good start.