Lessons Learned from First Online Newspaper in 1974 |
|
| Event | Interactive 2011 |
| Format | Solo |
| Organizer | Brian Dear – PLATO History Foundation |
| Description | Yes, you heard that right: 1974. In my upcoming book, The Friendly Orange Glow: The Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture, I cover the history of the Red Sweater News Service, aka NewsReport, which was not only the world's first online newspaper, but the world's first blog. Sounds incredible, given that the web wouldn't arrive for nearly 20 more years, but it's all true. In this session I'll describe: what NewsReport was like, its content, who created it, its architecture, and the 1000s of people who read it every day. And not only read it, but contributed to it. Yes, even the notion of crowdsourcing and participatory interactive journalism was alive and well on PLATO - the birthplace of social media - at a time when future Google moguls Larry and Sergey were still in diapers and many an SXSW attendee (and presenter!) wasn't even born yet. This presentation wraps up with lessons learned from the NewsReport phenomenon and how they still apply today. Come to this session to not only get a blast of the past but more importantly a fresh perspective on where we are now and where we're headed. The question for SXSW is: dare you be unconventional and offer your audience an opportunity to hear about something unique and different, or, will the slot taken by this session be given away to something less risky but more commonplace, like yet another me-too Twiiter/FB/social media session? Here's a chance to do really cool and different. Go for it! |
| Questions Answered |
|
| Level | Beginner |
| Category | Journalism |
| Tags | blogs, journalism, online newspapers |