p2p news / p2pnet: I started keying this at Vancouver International Airport at about 10:00 pm Pacific on April 30. I was on my way to England for the May 3 and 4 We Media Global Forum.

I’m finishing it in a hotel room in Chalk Farm, London, at 6:00 am on May 2, UK time. But I can’t post from here. How come? Because although the hotel guarantees Wi-Fi, it failed deliver, thanks to BT, I was told. Happens all the time, a helpful staff member informed me.

I spent some hours late last night trying to get online by various means, but no luck.

Solution? At 7 am (UK time) this morning, I ended up at a Starbucks cafe just up the road. Troubles over. Or so I’d hoped ; ) But when I tried to open a T-Mobile account (I was determined to get at least ONE post up for May 1 ; ) their subscription service was offline, “While we upgrade it. We apologise for this interruption of service.”

I tried manual. It rejected my cards. Naturally.

Tonja, the woman in charge of the cafe, let me use her cell phone and I finally acquired a temp account.

So here’s the post, with 16 minutes to go before it becomes May 2 in North America.heh

My problems with logging on had a special poignancy because as I said earlier, I’m in England for a conference which is, basically, about connectivity, but in the ‘citizen journalist’ rather than Wi-Fi sense.

I’m Much of the focus will be on content, “trust” and citizen journalism and given the fact it’s being conducted at, and hosted by, the BBC and Reuters, it should be interesting. As a friend in Ottawa said, “They [the Beeb and Retuers] tend towards newer ways of doing things,compared to the mainstream centralized publishing organizations.”

We’ll see ; ) And if you’re going to be there, let’s try and find each other. I’ll be watching my incoming emails closely : )

I’ll be in Europe until May 9 and I’ll also be talking to several European site owners, and other people of interest.

Meanwhile, although I’ll do my best to keep up with postings, there’ll be times when it gets thin, or fades out altogether. So please bear with me.

Or, if any of you citizen journalists out there feel like it, help me out by emailing articles. No guarantees, but if I use your submission, you’ll get a by-line, if you want one (nick or real name), as well as my sincere thanks. And if I don’t use it, when I get back I’ll tell you why I didn’t.

Here’s how I compile posts:

I scan the Google and Yahoo main news pages, as well as the science and technology and entertainment sections, and various rss feeds and news sites. I pick out two or three stories on each given topic, read them, and cobble them together into a single story. I always mention the sources several times in the body, with links at first mention and story heading and another link and the date at the bottom. I try to keep posts short by cutting out obviously extraneous PR BS, such as quotes about how excited and thrilled various people are.

Check out a few stories to get an idea, and if you do send in a piece. Don’t worry about html. I’ll do that when I go through it/them. And don’t worry about spelling or perfect grammar,either. Just worry about content : )

Meanwhile, the forum is being staged at the BBC Television Centre in West London, and Reuters’ global HQ at Canary Wharf in the on the old West India Docks in the London Docklands.

Here’s a brief breakdown of what’ll be happening:

MAY 3
The Power of Trust Forum | How Trust and Empowerment Shape Our Global Society
Transformations: Know-and-Trust
BBC-Reuters-Media Center global poll
Conversation: Trust, Media and Society, moderated by Merrill Brown (Media Center), with Nihal Arthanayake (BBC), David Brain (Edelman), David Schlesinger (Reuters), Karen Stephenson (Media Center)

Future Forward | Exhibition, networking and break
Moderated by roving reporter Andrew Nachison, with BBC, British Telecom, Integrated Media Lab, Microsoft, Nokia, Picsel

Big Idea 1 | Media and the Connected Society, Part 1
With Nitin Desai, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Leaders Forum | Media and the Connected Society, Part 2
Moderated by Nik Gowing (BBC), with Akwe Amosu (OSI), Timothy Balding (WAN), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Nikesh Arora (Google), Mark Thompson (BBC)

Big Idea 2 | Media and Civic Discourse
With Richard Dreyfuss, Actor and Activist

Citizen Journalism Forum | Who’s Making the News?
BBC video on citizen reporting
Conversation moderated by Paul Holmes (Reuters), with Helen Boaden (BBC), George Brock (The Times), David Gyimah (Video Journalist), Andrew Hawken (MSN.com), Salam Pax (talkleft.com, via satellite)

Real World Forum | Meet the Digital Assassins
Moderated by Spencer Kelly (BBC)

Big Idea 3 | Conversation With Richard Sambrook (BBC)
Interviewed by Andrew Nachison (Media Center)

Future Forward | Exhibition, networking and break

Real Time We Media | World Have Your Say
Live-radio and online broadcast, with Ros Atkins, Vera Kwakofi, Solomon Omollo, Rabiya Parekh, Mark Sandell (all BBC)

MAY 4
Big Idea 4 | The Democratization of Media – Where Does Trust Fit In?

With Tom Glocer, CEO of Reuters

Global Forum | We the World
Global conversations via satellite from Reuters bureaus around the world

Asia and China (with satellite from Hong Kong)
Moderated by Rebecca MacKinnon (Global Voices), with rapporteur Rachel Rawlins (Global Voices), and Jean-Marc Coicaud (UNU), Rudy Chan (China.com), David Schlesinger (Reuters), Michael Tong (NetEase.com) , Marcus Xiang (PDX.CN), We Media Fellows

We the World (cont’d) | South Asia (with satellite from Delhi)

Moderated by Rebecca MacKinnon (Global Voices), with rapporteur Rachel Rawlins (Global Voices), and Sunil Lulla (Times Global Broadcasting), Neha Viswanathan (Global Voices), WM Fellows

We the World (cont’d) | Middle East (with satellite from Baghdad)
Moderated by Keith Porter (Stanley Foundation), with Zuhair Al-Jezairy (Aswat Al Iraq),
Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Rami Khouri (Lebanon Daily Star), Dr. Michael Kraig (Stanley
Foundation), Salah Negm (BBC), WM Fellows

Big Idea 5 | A Global Call to Action
With Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute (via satellite from New York)

We the World (cont’d) | Africa
Moderated by Rachel Rawlins (Global Voices), with Akwe Amosu (OSI), Mathew Buckland (Mail & Guardian), Wilfred Kiboro (Nation Media Group), WM Fellows

Business Forum | Investing in We: Where’s the Money?

Moderated by Stephanie Flanders (BBC), with Rafat Ali (paidContent), Sebastian Grigg (Goldman Sachs), Carolyn McCall (Guardian), Shoba Purushothaman (TheNewsMarket), Dave Sifry (Technorati), Chris Ahearn (Reuters Media)

Call to Action | The We Media Global Initiative
Moderated by William C. Weiss (Media Center) and Andrew Nachison (Media Center), with Jeff Belk (QUALCOMM), Jean-Marie Colombani (Le Monde), Graeme Ferguson (Vodafone), Scott Heiferman (Meetup), Dr. Paul Jacobs (QUALCOMM, pre-taped), Katherine von Jan (Infinia)

If I can, I’ll do one or more live posts. If I can’t, I’ll be doing write-ups when I get back to Canada.

Cheers! And all the best …

Jon
jon @ p2pnet.net

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