Like so many others involved in digital journalism, I am off to the Online News Association annual conference in Washington DC. It promises to be a great event and a good opportunity to catch up with friends, from the US and overseas. The ONA is ostensibly an international organisation yet it is largely defined by its American origins. A quick glance at the schedule (PDF) reflects the US dominance, with

The list of finalists for the Online Journalism Awards is out. As usual, it is dominated by US entries. One notable exception is Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, nominated for its Talking to the Taliban special in the investigative and multimedia categories . Also interesting to note that the Huffington Post and Politico are one of the finalists in the General Excellence, Large Site, category, up against the likes of

The conference of the Online News Association climaxed on Friday night with the awards ceremony. USAToday was the overall winner for general excellence as the judges were impressed how it had moved to put its audience at “the centre of news, not just at the receiving end”. One of the most interesting aspects of the awards was how blogs won many of the 20 categories. Blogs won in: Online commentary

Mike Oreskes, executive editor of the International Herald Tribune, was the keynote speaker on day two of the Online News Association conference in Toronto. The main thrust of his talk: quality journalism is good for society, it creates a democratic society and that builds wealth. Some highlights: Journalists can help audiences deal with information overload. The proliferation of sources online is increasing the need for journalists, but these same forces

If you are a journalism student, this is what senior editors are looking for. Speaking at the ONA 2007 conference, Kinsey Wilson of USAToday said J-school students need a grounding in the fundamentals of journalism – research, reporting, writing. But secondly, they need a complete immersion in the news media and the technology that surrounds it. Wilson wants students who are comfortable and conversant with the new media tools, and

The first ONA panel on day 2 is about how to manage a newsroom in the 21st century. Despite starting at 8.30am, the session is pretty packed. This is understandable, as just about every newsroom is struggling to bridge the cultural differences between print, broadcast and online. Jim Brady from the WashingtonPost.com admitted that managing the relationship with the print side was still the biggest challenge he was dealing with.

Are cellphones the platform of the future? They are, according to Eric Schwartz of Foneshow. Talking at an ONA panel on the future of publishing, Schwartz went al evangelical about mobiles. He argues cellphones are the future because there are more cellphones than toasters on the planet – 2.7bn mobiles worldwide. Cellphones outsold iPods 20 to 1 in the US, says Schwartz. To do news, you have to be a

At a session of video games at the ONA 2007 conference, Marc Prensky, made a plea to the journalists in the room to change how games are viewed. His argument is that games are a powerful learning tool and they have developed at an amazing rate -we’ve gone from Pong to Halo 3 in 35 years. As Prensky pointed out adults – parents, teachers – are ignorant and scared of

CBC held a debate on the future of the future of news, ahead of the ONA conference in Toronto. This clip from NowPublic.com’s Len Brody gives a flavour of the discussion: The sound quality could be better. It was shot on a Nokia N95 and I was a few rows back from the podium