by Elephants on Bicycles (Flickr)

It took longer than expected, but I finally posted notes from my PublicMediaCamp session “Creating an Online Unconference“ to the PubCamp wiki.

It’s packed with details from the session and links out to relevant materials. Not to mention two funny / instructive videos from recent Intel commercials.

From here, though, the real work begins.

I have a ton of handwritten notes I took while flying home from DC. And I’ve been thinking about this for two weeks. I plan to convert my additional notes next, fleshing out the ideas that emerged in the session in much greater detail. However, I’m concerned the project would become too wrapped up in my own thoughts of what should or shouldn’t happen with this site. I need more input.

For example, I had a good e-mail exchange recently with Kristin Calhoun at PBS. She gave me more ideas on what we could do with this new site / online service. And I’m sure she’s not the only one.

So here’s what I propose:

• You and I reach out to anyone we think might be interested in participating in the leadership of this new online community. We make them aware of what we’re talking about — point to the wiki entry — and see if they’d be interested in not only hearing more, but in shaping the future of this service from the beginning.
• Ask that everyone take this survey about the formation of the community
• We exchange e-mails, building a list of interested parties and probably moving that list to a Google Group or similar system
• We set a date for a live phone conference with everyone that’s interested in materially participating
• Meanwhile, I write up my additional notes on the community idea and post them either to the wiki or this blog, then share them with everyone
• Finally, if you’ve got ideas for the community, you take a few notes, too!

I’m excited! I think we’ve got something here. The new/digital/social media community inside public media has needed something like this for a long time — the conference that never ends, a support group and a resource for ideas and new technologies.

Let’s do it!

I’m currently in Washington, DC, about to board a flight home to Anchorage. I’m still thinking about the weekend’s activities at PublicMediaCamp. I have session notes to post to the wiki, I need to edit up and post the video I shot and I need to get rolling on the project I agreed to start. Sheesh!

But for now I have 14 hours of flying, a short night, and then back to my day job. In the mean time, thanks to @corbett3000, @acarvin, @jdcoffman and everyone else that supported and attended the event.

You may be wondering, “What — or who — in the world is Gravity Medium?”

Well, the short version is this:

• my name is John Proffitt, I currently live in Anchorage, Alaska and this is my blog
• I’ve worked in public media in the past (radio, TV, web and news)
• I’ve been blogging here since early 2008 on public / digital media topics
• I’ve been on Twitter — @jmproffitt — since early 2007; I also have @gravitymedium on Twitter
• I lead a Twitter community called Alaska Tweets
• I’m a huge fan of Umair Haque, Seth Godin, Robert Paterson, Clay Shirky, Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis and all the hard-working web pros in public media today
• more than anything, I want the legacy values and services of traditional public media moved to the web, where I and the generations that follow me already live most of our lives

And perhaps most importantly…

• I’m damn excited to be attending PublicMediaCamp 2009 in DC!

I chose to become a “sponsor” because, well… it’s going to be a great conference (or un-conference, if you prefer) and I feel kinda bad about getting in for free. And, c’mon — let’s get real — a little blog traffic wouldn’t kill me.

Blogging & Tweeting

Right now (early October), I’m firing the blog back up with a revised site design and more postings. Plus, I’m expanding my Twitter community via @gravitymedium. Gravity Medium has been largely quiet for months as I’ve made some professional changes and as I’ve worked heavily on building a social media community in Anchorage.

The PublicMediaCamp has given me new energy to fire things back up. And I owe special thanks to both Karen Olstad, COO at WOSU Public Media and to the Energizer bunny of digital media at NPR — Andy Carvin — for suggesting I attend. They moved me from “meh” to “Yeah!” and I can’t thank them enough.

PublicMediaCamp Tweetup: Friday

Thanks to @acarvin and @jdcoffman for organizing one of my favorite things: a Tweetup!

Photos

My photos from the conference are all posted to Flickr. Check out my photos or all the photos in the Public Media Camp group.

Finding me online

If you’re looking for me anywhere online, you can find pretty much everything on my Google Profile.