Last summer the Dutch Journalist and columnist Luuk Koelman declared citizen journalism dead. He came to that conclusion after a striking experiment. And admitted, it is hilarious to read on his blog how he tricked de newspaper Algemeen Dagblad by writing completely made-up articles as ‘citizen journalist’ in Japan.

However, although citizen journalism might be a tricky business from the perspective of traditional ethics of journalism, it seems an irreversible fact that social media developments have changed the field. Last Monday, the 13^th of September, we discussed the consequences and possibilities of these developments with several people active in the field of (citizen-) journalism. In this first of two blogs some preliminary findings are presented. The discussion will be continued during the State of Social Media Summit the 28^th and 29^th of October.

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Today we are hosting a round table on the topic of citizen journalism. At this round table we will present our  first findings on a dozen experts we interviewed the last weeks about. The round table is part of a research study into the influence of citizen journalism we do on behalf of the Ministry of Education. The study consists of a quick scan for promising initiatives, interviews with experts and a proposal for a possible instrument to promote citizen journalism in the Netherlands.

As the interviews are still ongoing, we will take a lead on our end report, conclusions and recommendations. Today will address the following questions:

• What is the impact of Internet and citizen journalism on (professional) journalism, especially with regard to methodology and quality of journalism?
• What are the needs in the field?
• Can we, based on the first results of our research, argue that more attention in policy for the subject of citizen journalism is needed in the Netherlands?

We will report back on our blog for our findings today!

photo by Sebsatiaan ter Burg

Several recommendations that came up during the Open e-culture round table discussion are presented in this third and last blog on this particular topic. Mind that this is just the start of a discussion that will be continued online and during the State of Social Media Summit (28th-29th of October). Your comments are most welcome!

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In this second blog on the Open e-culture round table we recently organised (see first blog for an introduction on open e-culture initiatives) several challenges are presented regarding the development of the movement in the near future. It became clear from the discussion that the goals and ambitions of open initiatives still give rise to many questions. As been said before, these are fundamental and urgent questions that reach the heart of our contemporary social system. The possibilities of the state of communication technology today confronts us with dilemmas regarding law & policy, economic logic and social organisation.

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Last friday, august 9th, we hosted in association with creative commons a conversation on open e-culture and the challenges for the near future. The participants shared their valuable knowledge based on a wide variety of experiences as Digital Pioneer, activist, policy-advisor, social entrepreneur and the like. The discussion resulted in fundamental and urgent questions that reach the heart of our contemporary social system. In fact, the posibilities of the state of communication technology today confronts us with dilemmas regarding law & policy, economic logic and social organisation.

In this first of three blogs a short introduction to the several open initiatives in the Netherlands.

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While the Gay Parade pre-started the party last Friday night, we had a great dinner with digital pioneers, artists, researchers, activists and programmers and talked about the state of open e-culture in the Netherlands. Thank you all for your contributions! And thank you Sebastiaan for making pictures, you can see the whole set here.

Photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg.

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Tonight we are hosting a round table session on social media and open culture in cooperation with Creative Commons Netherlands. Together with different stakeholders working as researcher, activist, programmer, digital pioneer in the field of open e-culture media projects, we will address the following questions:

• In what ways has the open – open source and content – production of creative works contributed to a stronger civel society? What successful business models can we identify?
• What needs exist among existing projects in the field?
• What solutions can be proposed and what recommendations can we make to the outside world and politics?

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In the last few weeks we have been busy making a questionnaire for all pioneers who have been supported since the beginning of the Digital Pioneers program in 2002. Today we sent the questionnaire to some 180 people in our network! And now we are hoping for a big response to make some more sense of 8 years of pioneering in civil society media in the Netherlands…

After a project is finished we keep in contact closely with all pioneers. Some projects grow further in new directions, some stop and some keep doing what they’re doing. With our questionnaire we want to find out more exactly what happened with the projects. We want to find out what the contribution of the Digital Pioneers program was and what needs to be done in the near future for supporting civil society media in the Netherlands. If necessary. And of course how the State of Social Media Summit can play a role in this.

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In our search for the state of social media we presented initiatives working on the theme of migration and identified their challenges (see previous blogposts). During the round table conversation several ideas for possible solutions came up we would like to share with you:

• Create valuable networks of initiatives and people active on the theme of migration. Use existing networktools such as Linkedin or an intermediary website. Look for possibilities for cooperation, businessmodels, exchanging content, promotion etc.
• Circumvent the regular media by creating news networks based on migrant Diaspora. Connect different ethnic groups to achieve this

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In our last blogpost on social media and migration we reflected on the question how social media initiatives have empowered and facilitated migrant communities in the past few years. The report was based on a round table we organized with different pioneers and stakeholders. We found that initiatives play a role in connecting Diaspora and specific ethnic groups, generating dialogue and discussion, and sharing knowledge.

As Stefano Kluzer rightly commented, we mainly focused on the role of online services, not that much on the role of offline initiatives empowering digital illiterate migrants by teaching them ICT skills. An issue that obviously plays an important role for migrants and integration and is supported by initiatives like Computerwijk.

We see that pioneers have initiated all kinds of interesting social media initiatives related to themes of migration. However, now the pioneering has been done, the question is how to proceed. What are the challenges for these initiatives in the near future?

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