When I decided the Culture Vulture followers deserved a preview of this Wednesday’s WePublish event featuring a discussion panel of some of the leading lights in blogging and digital publishing, I crashed headlong into a bit of a stumbling block.
Those who I wanted to ask to talk about the subject were already booked to talk (and I didn’t want to steal their thunder) or had talked about the subject elsewhere. And then I decided to look in my own backyard – to Imran Ali.
Imran is the founder and driving force behind the LSx family of events. These include, among others, Open Coffee Leeds, TEDx Leeds, Ignite Leeds and Barcamp Leeds. However, fewer people are aware, however, that one of his day(night?) jobs is as a writer himself – and so I asked him to combine his journalism and digital evangelist hats to answer three questions…
As a regular blogger yourself, what are your thoughts on how(if?) the traditions of journalism and modern technology are moving forwards?
I’ve never described myself as a blogger – simply a writer, shifting from medium to medium, latterly upon blogging platforms! The broad arc of journalism’s reboot has largely been about the democratisation and decentralisation of the technologies, business and process of journalism. Alongside this, the boundaries between readers and publishers have become permeable and diffused. Like other disciplines that have have been digitised, these turbulent disruptions are causing some to see profound opportunities and others to retreat into protectionism.
Do you see the closure of The Guardian’s Local ‘experiment’ as detrimental or an opportunity for the local area?
I know the Guardian Leeds people very well and was privy to the closure some months ago. Sure it’s disappointing, but it was always an experiment with a finite life. One year of Guardian Leeds has demonstrated that while the city’s existing local news media is complete garbage, there is a sizeable audience for skilled civic journalism. The Guardian’s experiment is over, but others will step in to address this audience, but with a focus on monetising and sustaining a business too.
Who do you turn to for inspiration and a glimpse of what’s next in publishing?
Where the attention of publishing has been focussed on the likes of Apple’s iPad, an imploding newspaper industry and Amazon’s Kindle. I look to innovative US publishers such as O’Reilly Media as the scene-setters for digital publishing. O’Reilly’s overlapping conference, news and publishing businesses show how authors, publishers and readers can exist in a virtuous circle without locking people into particular platforms, but offering good terms to creators and respecting the audience’s interests.
Well – that’s a little insight into Imran’s thoughts on the future for publishing; why not come along to WePublish – What did the Digital revolution ever do for Journalism and find out what The Guardian Local’s Sarah Hartley, Inside the M60’s Nigel Barlow, Video Blogger and Digital Journalist Adam Westbrook and The Culture Vulture’s own Emma Bearman have to say on the subject? (Wednesday 11th – from 6pm)
Image © Derek Gavey 2010. Some rights reserved. Image used under Creative Commons licence.