2017 Sessions

Running Sustainable Digital Media Brands

Raju Narisetti, Gizmodo Media Group, Univision Communications, Inc.

Join this Question and Answer session to learn tips from a digital media leader who helped transform the Washington Post and News Corp.’s various brands into top mobile and digital performers.’

The Onion’s Tips for Flourishing in the Mobile/Social World

Joe Fullman, The Onion

Joseph Fullman will discuss how changing mobile consumption patterns and the shift to social video have transformed the economics of digital publishing. The evolution of three strategies (“The Three Ds”) have helped The Onion flourish in this new environment.

Conversations with Robots

Emily Withrow, Quartz Bot Studio

How do you fake being human? Should you? Conversational computing is changing how we interact with machines. It presents new storytelling and audience opportunities for journalists. Emily Withrow will discuss her experimental work with the Quartz Bot Studio, where she writes, designs and builds conversational news experiences for various platforms.

Adventures in mobile and off-platform storytelling

Ashley Codianni, CNN Worldwide

CNN’s Senior Director of Social Media will share cutting-edge examples and lessons learned on a wide range of stories and platforms. You’ll hear about storytelling on messaging apps, the growth native social video, the use of VR and live streaming and innovations in digital field reporting from places like North Korea.

How to work as a mobile journalist

Val Hoeppner, Val Hoeppner Media

Journalists most powerful, and most underutilized, reporting and multimedia tool is their smartphone. With a smartphone we can capture photographs, audio and video. We can create video packages or social media videos. We can record cell phone calls, write stories, translate text and manage social media. In this session we will explore some of the best apps on the market and the skill set necessary to work as a mobile journalist.

 

Mobile Devices and Cultural Institutions

Susan Poulton, Franklin Institute

The Franklin Institute has brought virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence to the museum experience via a native mobile app. Chief Digital Officer Susan Poulton will explain the challenges and opportunities of meeting visitors’ expectations about using mobile phones to create new experiences in place-based destinations.

People Love Apps! (Just not necessarily yours…) 

Aron Pilhofer, Temple University

In this talk, I’ll offer a skeptic’s — borderline heretic’s — view of the assumed value of native apps for most newsrooms. But wait! Aren’t apps more popular than ever? Aren’t all of our most loyal, most engaged readers in the app? And aren’t apps the best reading experience on mobile? The answers to those questions aren’t as clear-cut as you might think.

The science and art of crafting headlines for social/mobile

Kurt Gessler, Chicago Tribune

What prompts an audience’s first interaction with your story, video or podcast? It might be the brand that first catches someone’s eye. Or the author. After all, you’re pretty cool. Maybe it’s a compelling visual. All certainly play a role. But as the display space gets smaller, you’ll find it impossible to ignore the impact of words, regardless of platform or media type. The headline is one of the most effective ways of promoting your content. It often means life or death. Yet most writers, editors and producers aren’t spending enough time exploring the science — and the art — of crafting engaging digital headlines for mobile and social.

You Are There: telling stories with immersive technologies, including 360, VR, AR and fully-body haptic interaction

Dan Pacheco, Syracuse University

 

Transdisciplinary Education: What is it? How does it work?

Megan Elliott, University of Nebraska Lincoln

You can’t be successful in mobile media knowing just one discipline. Join this practical discussion about what to study to prepare for a life of projects that will cross disciplines.

Trends in mobile adoption with Pew Research Center

Aaron Smith, Pew Research Center

Just how many (and which) Americans are smartphone owners? How are they using their mobile devices to engage with news and navigate the always-on information environment? Aaron Smith discusses the latest trends in mobile adoption, usage and attitudes from Pew Research Center surveys.   

Mobile news app platforms for your small newsroom

Christopher Guess, Reynolds Journalism Institute

Christopher will introduce and discuss his open-sourced mobile news app platform for small and medium sized news organizations. ‘Push’ is designed specifically for organization without to time or funding to build their own custom mobile app, while still offering a full host of features including offline caching, push notification, analytics and embedded video players.

Drone Journalism

Matt Waite, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Learn how to enhance your stories with the perspective that only an unmanned aerial vehicle can provide. Get detailed information about how to get started using a drone for your journalism.

Reaching Latinos through mobile-first visuals

Almudena Toral, Univision News Digital

Learn how Univision reaches a shifting demographic in two languages using visual formats tailored to mobile media. The discussion will include photojournalism, documentaries, social video, first-person animations, virtual reality, infographics and design for digital specials. 

Lessons from Billy Penn, The Incline and Denverite

Jim Brady, Spirited Media

Creating an easy, friendly mobile experience

Trick or treat: What works and what doesn’t in mobile technology?

Judd Slivka, University of Missouri

Mobile technology continues to advance at a fast pace. We’ll review what software works for what level and present a range of hardware options to create high-quality content from the field.

 

Demonstrations

 

1) Virtual Reality Archeological Tour with RIVEEL3D

http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu/realworld-software/riveel-3d

Credits: The Cyprus Institute, Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Center, Department of Antiquities, Nicosia Municipality, Donna J Cox, Kenton Guadron McHenry, Bob Patterson, AJ Christensen, Stuart Levy and Colter Wehmeier (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, AVL)

2) Data Visualization for Outreach, Education and Entertainment:  Advanced Visualization Laboratory

http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu/

Credits: Donna J Cox, Kalina Borkiewicz, Jeff Carpenter, AJ Christensen, Stuart Levy and Robert Patterson

3) Critical Technology Studies Lab

Credits: Ben Grosser, Jodi Byrd

4) Clowder: A Research Data Management System

https://clowder.ncsa.illinois.edu/

Credits: Luigi Marini, Rob Kooper, Indira Gutierrez, Max Burnette, Yan Zhao, Todd Nicholson, Constantinos Sophocleous, Sandeep Satheesan, Michal Ondrejcek, Kenton McHenry  (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Innovative Software and Data Analysis)

5) Interactive Multi-Media Ecologies 

https://vimeo.com/183365408

Credits: Michael Junokas and Greg Kohlburn

6) Using Wearable Sensors and Affective Diaries to Document How Violence Affects Public Life and Public Health

Credits: Ruby Mendenhall, Kiel Gilleade, Christy Lleras, Malaika McKee, Subhashini Srinivasan, Margaret Browne Huntt, Meggan Lee, Liudmila Sergeevna Mainzer, Shaowen Wang, Jacob Reed, David Bush and Tonika Johnson