We Media, part one

I'm at a conference, cheerfully named We Media. The attendees are largely coming from the journalism industry, both the incumbent side and new entrants. I'm here on a fellowship that I got after writing this (from my application essay):

As a representative of 25 organizations and, more generally, a popular movement dedicated to insuring that our media future liberates us and further democratizes society, I can help to connect We Media technology innovators to the issues, ideas, and people that are shaping the future in which their visions will develop. It's clear that We Media is about making the world a better place through communication technology; the many innovators listed on the schedule are a testament to that value. However, the impact of communications technologies on the the world is often decided in the policy domain, and I don't see many technology and communications policy actors represented thus far in the conference programming. The results of current debates over radio spectrum management for wireless networking, network neutrality, broadband deployment and digital inclusion will direct, expand, and limit the capacity of new technologies to bring positive change. Technology innovators have a stake in these debates, and I hope I can offer my knowledge and experience in the policy domain in exchange for the education that We Media would offer to me.

So, far there has been a lot of enthusiastic talk about how new communication technologies and models (pro-am, for instance) can make the world a better place. I'll be doing some official live-blogging for them later, amounting to minute taking, so I wanted to do some personal blogging as well.

I'm excited about a number of the people who are here. Right now, in their first session, we are listening to reps from OneVoice and the Hip Hop Caucaus. It's a strange mix, though, as they are sitting with the executive editor of the Washington Post, who, if I heard correctly, admitted that positive social change is not a primary goal of the Post.

Also on the panel is Katrin Verclas from Mobile Active, a group encouraging the use of mobile technologies for social mobilization. "It's a tool for organizing and mobilization." Ihope to ask her about the NARAL-Verizon case.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. of the Hip Hop Caucus, who has registered over 1 million people to vote, is given the last opportunity to speak. He is asked "How do you motivate people through media to take action on ideas?" "Media is really life and death...it has the ability to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent... when you are oppressed...then you have to create a mechanism to tell the story... The revolution may not be televised, but it will be uploaded. If the media does not make the injustice visible, then people can actually die." "When I was on Capitol Hill, I was beaten." It took the independent media to push the mainstream media to cover the story. In their Katrina work, "We have been using mix tapes, CDs." Placing messages in between the music tracks. I'm pretty sure the suit types sitting next to me don't like the Reverend's comments.