One night a little over five weeks ago, Samhita pops up on Google Talk. She asks if I've put in an idea for a panel for next March's South by Southwest Interactive Festival.
I said I hadn't brainstormed things I'd wanted to do yet. Then I asked her how much time was left before the early-submission deadline: two days, as it turned out.
I asked her if she'd want to talk about making the relationship between citizens and media more equitable, and not just one charged by disruption, disengagement and distancing. I mentioned my panel from last year, "Roll Over Gutenberg and Tell McLuhan The News."
"What's on my mind this time around," I said, "is organizing."
Buy N Large
Samhita listened to me ramble about how cool it felt to stand out at the Oakland farmers market back in mid-May and tell people walking past about what was going on at the paper, how important what we were doing was and what it could mean for coverage, for thinking ahead, brainstorming and testing strategies for the strange terrain ahead: a post-paper, post-broadcast, post-traditional dynamic.
Then she was talking about her media-organizing gig and wondering "how do we capture this moment of using online technology for media accountability, and have media makers, bloggers and media activists" involved.
And she asked me if it was something I would want to be a part of. And I said yes.
She's the DJ, I'm the Rapper
Then the phrase "old media checkers, new media chess" fell out of my mouth and, to her credit, she didn't make me dig in my heels by saying it was trite. Instead, she started talking about the people we knew and could call on: fellow bloggers, media activists, credentialed and grass-roots journalists, academics researching the intersection of organizing and/or media consumption.
And then something else fell out of my mouth.
