April 5, 2009

ThinkBalm publishes special issue of Storytelling Series for Virtual Journalism Summit

Historically, journalists would go to a location and take notes about the scene or event or would interview people with relevant information, perhaps writing with a pencil in a ringed notebook. They would then return to the office to write the story. Nowadays, journalists use computers to write and mobile devices to collect and evaluate information. They have access to a wide range of tools to help them, including Google search, Wikipedia, email, blogs, wikis, and social networking tools. How will the Immersive Internet change all this? How will today’s journalist move on to take advantage of the next generation of technology and tools?

ThinkBalm principal Erica Driver is delivering a presentation on Monday, April 6th at the Virtual Journalism Summit, being held by The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University in partnership with the McCormick Foundation. The event examines the growing popularity and influence of virtual worlds in the context of journalism. To prepare the presentation for this event, we convened 17 members of the ThinkBalm Innovation Community and conducted a 3D brainstorming session. Our objective was to generate and record as many relevant, insightful ideas as possible in an hour’s time. We brainstormed five questions for 10 minutes each, ranging from, “How comfortable are journalists with using the Immersive Internet?” to “How can journalists use the Immersive Internet to differentiate from competitors who don’t?” The two main findings from the brainstorming session were:

  • The Immersive Internet presents multiple barriers to adoption for journalists
  • The Immersive Internet will change the face of journalism

With the help of eleven ThinkBalm Innovation Community members – Cherisa Burk, Christopher Bishop, Christopher Simpson, Claus Nehmzow, Donald Schwartz, Ehsan Ehsani, Jan Herder, Leslie Ehle, Rita J. King, Robin Harper, and Steve Baxter – today ThinkBalm published the fourth issue in the Immersive Internet Storytelling Series, titled “Gathering Insights via 3D Brainstorming: ThinkBalm Innovation Community Looks at Future of Journalism.” The objective of this issue of the ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Storytelling Series is to paint a picture of the future of journalism, as affected by the Immersive Internet, while using the insight-gathering process as a vehicle for demonstrating how work will change. This report is both a take on the future of virtual journalism from the perspective of Immersive Internet advocates, implementers, and explorers, and a discussion about how 3D brainstorming can aid in support of development of ideas and presentation content. For a PDF of the report click this link or click the image of the report’s cover above.

Related Posts

From Meditation to Mainstream: The Journey of Breathing Exercises

The Ultimate Guide to YouTube Downloaders: Everything You Need to Know

AI-Powered Automation Tools for Search Engine Marketing Optimization

Erica Driver

Erica Driver was a co-founder and principal at ThinkBalm. She is a leading industry analyst and consultant with 15 years of experience in the software industry. She is quoted in mainstream and industry trade press including the Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CIO, and Computerworld. Prior to co-founding ThinkBalm, Erica was a principal analyst at Forrester Research, where she launched the company’s Web3D coverage as part of her enterprise collaboration research. She was also the co-conspirator behind Forrester’s Information Workplace concepts and research. Prior to her tenure at Forrester, she was a Director at Giga Information Group (now part of Forrester) and an analyst at Hurwitz & Associates. She began her career in IT as a system administrator and Lotus Notes developer. Erica is a graduate of Harvard University.