As usual, I am live-blogging so notes will be rough and I won't get everything :-) Dan Gillmor is leading this session. Dan's blog.
Dave Winer is sitting next to me. Dave says "Flickr is for sissies." Dave Winer has uploaded some photos from the previous session.
Packed house for Dan, we're just about to get started.
This is session about Citizen's Media. He said that J.D Lasica and he should have swapped panels since he knows more about citizen's media. Dan says he is not hear to lecture, but to lead the discussion and learn.
The tools for producing your own conversations (he doesn't want to call it media) and conditions are a wonderful confluence of events. The barrier for entry is much lower. It still has a long way to go to become very easy.
We're trying to get to what Tim Berners-Lee was trying to get to, the web as a read-write medium. It's not just the A-listers, everybody has a voice.
Dan set up his blog post on this discussion to start the conversation today.
If you say/write something and you are sued and you lose your house in the process but you are right then what justice is there in this?
Who will provide this content of the citizen's media? Will they all do it for free?
Opens up for questions:
Commenter: I posted a negative comment about a local car dealership on my blog, they said they would sue me for defamation. Various legal ramblings have gone back and forth, 1st letter, 2nd letter and then a Final Notice. The blogger was Mister Orange. Here is his post about the local car dealer.
Dan says check out Chilling Effects. This site shows letters and threats the people have received to 'take down' content.
Commenter: The libel laws a different in various countries and you need to be aware of this. Britian has different laws than the US. (my note...one good case is McLibel case in the UK)
Commenter: Wild west frontier there are not rules/laws. Attempts to defend the car dealership to some degree.
Dan asks if the car-dealer has responded to the original blog post? Should we give the respondant equal time?
Commenter: Speaking from a legal background. Truth is not always on your side, it's unfortunate.
Commenter: Smart companies are doing reputational management
Bob Cox: Media Bloggers Association is working with bloggers to help fight-back those 'sternly' worded letters. They are also partnering with Poynter Institute on a series for bloggers on legal issues.
Commenter: Removing negative comments can often be more damaging to the company than the origianl offense. Something that is removed from the web lives on in other sites and blogs.
Commenter: Citizen's Media is a bottom-up. Write against convention
JD Lasica: Current copyright laws has been written for 19th and 20th century companies and never expected to deal with bloggers. They are constantly facing issues of what can and can't be posted online. There are number of people that violate copyright law by posting items that include small items or snippets.
Commenter: Coming from outside the blogging community, this is a new society, society creates their own laws. Should the blogging community create their own rules?
Commenter: As a teacher she is torn between telling her students to be creative and not breaking the law. We are in a situation similar to the prohibition.
Commenter: Laws are constantly changing and always need to be reviewed. What is fair use?
Commenter: What can we do as bloggers to help promote and grow citizen's journalism?
Commenter: They have set up a hyper-local blogging hub Your Hub, but they are unique because they have a printed version of their content, select stories or blogs posts from
Commenter: Imagine if people in nursing homes could blog? What would they tell us?
Commenter: Is it the role of citizen's journalism to educate people on how to consume news? So many people only read one newspaper and don't broaden their horizons.
Other's live-blogging the session:
Chasing the Dragon's Tale
Scared Monkeys
Media Drop
Kicking over my Traces
Photos from Frank Paynter's photostream
Tag: blognashville
