Registration is now open for SoCon12, our annual social media conference at Kennesaw State University outside of Atlanta on Saturday, Feb 4, 2012 . Every year we sell out our 325 seats early, so sign up now. Don’t get shut out.

Plus be sure to do some extra networking at our Brews and News Fun-Raiser for our Center for Sustainable Journalism and our centerpiece Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, JJIE.org on Friday night Feb. 3, 2012 at the SweetWater Brewery in Atlanta.

Steve Rubel

One  SoCon12 headliner is  Steve Rubel, executive vice president for EVGlobal Strategy and Insights for Edelman – the world’s largest independent public relations firm. His topic: Transmedia storytelling. Learn how Facebook, YouTube videos, videogames, comics and more could all play a role in your transmedia strategy.

Jeff Haynie will lead off the day with an overview of what to expect on the mobile front and he should know. Haynie is Co-founder and CEO of Appcelerator, which just got $15 million in new a round of funding because as TechCrunch writes:

The company … took the opportunity to provide an update on its growth. It now has 30,000 mobile applications on over 30 million mobile devices in its portfolio and 1.6 million developers in its ecosystem. This makes it if not the largest, then certainly one of the largest, mobile development platforms in existence today.

SoCon12 also will have more than 30 breakout sessions covering a wide variety of topics including this sampling:

• Creating and Leveraging Sustainable Social Media Communities
• Quit the Daily Grind: A Former Newspaper Reporter’s Social-Media Journey to Freelance Success
• The Creative (not creepy) Use of Social Media Analytics
• Create, Connect, Collaborate: Words that Work Online
• Crowd Financing 101

Jeff Haynie

More sessions are coming online daily, so keep watching the site.

There is an early bird special right now Dec. 12 for both SoCon12 and the Brews and News Fun-Raiser so register now before the special lapses. See you on Feb. 4-5 for the Southeast’s premiere social media conference.

In writing the rebuttal, I used the criteria of the AJC’s PolitiFact column which rates public statements from pants-on-fire lies to fully true. PolitiFact says when a “statement is accurate but leaves out important details. That’s our definition of Half True.”

Half truth, that’s also my definition of this six-figure university salary investigative piece. It is accurate but leaves out important details.

I believe my rebuttal, using numbers, provides more context in helping understand who actually is getting those six-figures and why. Greater context would have enhanced the level of debate among those who think state-financed faculty, administrators and staff are overpaid and those who think they are underpaid. Instead judging from the comments of the politician in the AJC story and one of the students paying tuition, the impression was these six-figures salary are an outrage that needs to be fixed.

Half-truth journalism, because of its lack of depth, sounds much more sensational and quickly gets on the radar of grandstanding policy makers and politicians, which results in bad policy and bad lawmaking that stays in place long after those headlines disappear.

It really pains me to write this critique because Georgia is a state dominated by one party and it has a history of inequalities and many varieties of malfeasance and incompetency. Strong investigative journalism is needed. Indeed, it is essential for the long-term health of our local, state, regional and national democracies.

Many of the AJC’s investigations are spot-on and much needed. However, in its zeal to become known as an investigative, muckraking paper, some of its investigations resemble 6 o’clock TV, inch-deep investigative news rather than investigative reporting worthy of the state’s largest news organization. I am writing this in a hope that the leadership, reporters, editors and investigative units at the AJC take some time for reflection, and, perhaps, have some folks they respect review and critique everything that is pegged as investigative journalism.

I am afraid the crooked, unethical and incompetent folks who have been legitimately investigated will use my words to tar all the AJC investigations. This piece is not aimed at defending their actions nor at defending the bureaucratic systems that fail to serve us well. All of them need to be investigated, but that comes with a responsibility that requires in-depth reporting that goes deep beyond the veneer.

As readers and members of the public, we must demand it.

Leonard Witt is the executive director of the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. Its mission is to find ways to ensure that high quality, ethically journalism has an enduring place in our democracy.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 was a good day for our Juvenile Justice Information Exchange — JJIE.org reporter Ryan Schill, for Kennesaw State University and for me. Wednesday, Schill became a graduate of Kennesaw State and editor John Fleming published Schill’s story the Straight Dope on Fake Dope. It’s a well written and researched story, and right after we posted it, Youth Today a national newspaper asked to reprint it. Of course, we said yes.

For me it was a special day because last semester Schill was in my Advance Media Writing class. I quickly noticed that Schill has that special talent of being able to do research, get out on the street to do the reporting and then put it all together in a well written story. I asked him to start writing for us here at the JJIE.org and he has produced under the tutelage of editor Fleming.

Ryan Schill

It is wonderful to see students excel, and this has been a good semester. I taught our Journalism and Citizen Media capstone course for graduating seniors. They focused on Marietta, Ga. My students did fantastic work producing both videos and an online magazine. Take a look at Marietta in Motion. Unlike students in the past, today’s journalism students must have a range of abilities and these students do.

So congratulations to my capstone students and to all of Wednesday’s Department of Communication graduates and, of course, to Schill, who just signed a contract to do more writing for us. It was, indeed, a good day for Kennesaw State University and for the JJIE.org.

Watch the video, it is indeed the precursor to Kristof’s Sunday column, which he was obviously forming in his mind at the time of the interview. Did I help a little? Maybe, watch and you decide.

Sure enough, it was a piece by Henry Blodget at Silicon Valley Insider entitled Our Plan To Fix The New York Times . It was posted in January, 2009, more than two years ago.

It contained three steps.

1. Cut costs 40% by 2010.
2. Continue to raise print subscription prices
3. Explore charging an online subscription fee

Read the whole article. It sounds very close to what has been happening at the New York Times. Interesting how smart this blogging world is.

The most unique job in journalism today:

We’re looking for a high energy journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit to run the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE.org). This established online news operation is getting local and national attention for strong reporting about children and the law. The person we hire must be self motivated and determined to succeed, with a solid work ethic and great news judgment. You will work with a small team to gather news and information from a niche beat, report compelling stories in multi-media formats, and edit the work of other writers. Be ready to roll up your sleeves and network with news sources, attend events and conferences, and break original stories. This experimental journalism project has potential to expand and we need the right person to lead the way. Writing samples will be required.

You can apply for the job here, look for the heading Communication Professional III.

It really is a great job and this experiment in niche journalism is growing rapidly. We now have 10,000 unique visitors a month, with about 1,000 page views a day. Interested in helping it grow more and expand beyond Georgia, then apply now.

The New York Times writes:

Few Americans have heard of Mr. Sharp. But for decades, his practical writings on nonviolent revolution — most notably “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” a 93-page guide to toppling autocrats, available for download in 24 languages — have inspired dissidents around the world, including in Burma, Bosnia, Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia and Egypt.

The BBC writes:

This is Dr Gene Sharp the man now credited with the strategy behind the toppling of the Egyptian government.

Gene Sharp is the world’s foremost expert on non-violent revolution. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages, his books slipped across borders and hidden from secret policemen all over the world.

Me, I am going to read the handbook this weekend. I do believe I can think of a few items right here in my home state of Georgia that might demand a bit of nonviolent resistance. More later.

Here are more of Gene Sharp’s writings.

Here are the slide shows of some of the Power Point presentations. Watch for more content coming up soon. If you attended and want to use a photo for your blog or newsletter, feel free.

Thanks to everyone from our staff to the more than 25 presenters to the 300 plus attendees for making it a wonderful 1.5 days of learning, sharing and networking. See you next year at SoCon12.

Although it is too late for this year, be sure to watch for next year’s SoCon12. Those of you who have registered, see you soon.

For us the project will be part of our Center for Sustainable Journalism’s Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE.org) initiative. I really love this idea and do hope it moves on to Round 3. Since it is public, please give the SchoolHouse Witness Project a look right here. Also while there, if you like what you see, please give it a good rating. That too would be nice.