Intercollegiate Online News Network (ICONN)

About ICONN

The Intercollegiate Online News Network is a set of individuals, academic programs and professional organizations dedicated connecting student web journalists and campus news websites and to advancing education in web and online journalism.

We want to foster and encourage good journalism and high standards of journalism education through campus news web sites where students are free to learn, experiment, fail and succeed in constructing the future of journalism.

We want to assist faculty and journalism programs as they make the shift in their curricula from heavy or exclusive emphasis on traditional news media to the emerging online environments in which journalism is increasingly being practiced.

We seek to be inclusive and supportive, believing that no individual or group has all the answers or all the good ideas. We believe the future holds great promise and exciting opportunities for all who will embrace it.

Read more about ICONN:

How ICONN began. ICONN began with the idea that every campus should have a news web site where students could learn and practice the basics of web journalism in an environment that encouraged experimentation and creativity. And one of the reasons these web sites did not exist was that the technology to manage a heavily-used, multiple-user site was not readily available. More.
• The initial email calling for the formation of ICONN (10/14/2008)
• The follow-up email outlining plans for the first conference (11/5/2008)

The founders conference. The first gathering of ICONNites took place on January 15-16, 2009 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Students, professionals and professors gathered for two days to exchange ideas about web journalism education, the future of journalism, content management systems and a wide variety of issues, problems and possibilities for our discipline and profession. More.

Ochs, the content management system of the Tennessee Journalist (TNJN.com). Based on the Django open-source framework, Ochs (pronounced "ox") is the content management system developed to operate the Tennessee Journalist. The system was originally created by Johnny Dobbins and Staci Baird and has since been refined by Joseph Agreda. The system is owned by the University of Tennessee and a version is available at no cost to journalism programs and campus news web sites that wish to use it. More.

The news feed. The news feed that appears on the home page and the news feed page of this site shows some of the latest articles from the web sites of ICONN members. Member web sites may use the originally produced content of other member sites without seeking specific permission as long as appropriate and obvious credit is given to the producing site. The feed here exists for the convenience of the members. Web sites that are not members of ICONN do not have permission to use this material.

The ICONN icon. The logo for the Intercollegiate Online News Network was developed Julian Wood, a student at the University of Tennessee and a member of the Tennessee Journalist (TNJN.com) staff. Member web sites are encouraged to use this logo on their sites to announce their membership in this organization. The logo is available in various sizes on this page.