My Day With Jeff Jarvis…

…and a lot of other people…

I am sure we can find some way to work together….

Yesterday, I spent the entire day with Jeff Jarvis and about 200 of his closest friends.

It was the second annual New Business Models for News Summit at CUNY. A gathering of some of the biggest names in the business, we spent the day hearing some very interesting ideas about where journalism and the digital revolution are heading.

You can see the videos at the link above, and I have to hand it to Jarvis and CUNY for transcending the usual pap that you get at these things.

First, Jarvis has just finished his new book, What Would Google Do?, (which he pimpled mercilessly, but why not?) I have already ordered my advance copy! The point of the book, and of the conference, was forward looking, (as opposed to the sturm und drang ‘the world is coming to an end’ speeches I normally hear (and give). This one was about solutions.

As a result, the cast of characters was new. (at least to me).

Among the standouts:

-Ed Roussel, Digital Director of The Telegraph (UK) who gave a stellar presentation on what the Telegraph is doing and why.

-Charlie Sennott – Former foreign correspondent for The Globe (Boston) who is striking out on his own to recover foreign journalism from a newspaper world that no longer cares.

-Tom Evslin – founder of ITXC, who is not a journalist but an engineer who developed, among other things, VoIP and apparently disconnected ATT from charging per minute rates for web use (remember that?). It was fascinating to get an engineer’s perspective on how to build networks and why they work or fail.

We spent the afternoon in Aspen-like groups, grappling with an assignment. I was in the “new structures for newsrooms” which was chaired by Andrew Heyward, former President of CBS News. He was remarkably insightful and plugged into the new media revolution. Sorry he is not running CBS now. It would help.

I hope we can get a few of these folks to make the trip to Brussels for DNA2009. March 4-5, Brussels, Belgium. sign up now (shameless self-promotion).