I joined Wendy Brawer, Green Map Systems Founding Director, to demo the Open Green Map at this conference of public media professionals exploring the ways that mapping informs communication. Much discussion about data visualization through mapping, about the central role of interactivity in creating and sharing content, about taking full advantage of the diversity of media formats/outlets in play these days, and of the imperative for NPR/PBS/CPB to engage or lose audience.

We heard/viewed the presentations of journalists, documentary and public access producers, designer/programmers, and social entrepreneurs. Green Mapmaking generated lots of interest in one-on-one discussions.

The panel about business models and funding mechanisms – commerce, advertising, donation in support of message, investors – was of particular interest. Panelists talked about the difficult search for funding to carry a project from concept through execution and about the importance of visibility, wide adoption, interactivity and # of users as a proof of value.

[NOTE to Baltimore Green Map users. Please make your presence felt beyond web stats by nominating sites and posting comments to blog!]

More about conference at http://www.beyondbroadcast.net

Looking around the auditorium, packed with 300 attendees and 200 active laptops/cellphones/PDAs lighting up the room at any given moment, watching the Twitterstream of commentary generated simultaneously with the speakers…What a multi-tasking society we have become!

Tags: Beyond Broadcast, Brawer, maps, media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.