Intercollegiate Online News Network (ICONN) - Initial email Nov. 5, 2008

Follow-up email about ICONN (Nov. 5, 2008)

This was the follow-up email that was sent to interested persons about the formation of the Intercollegiate Online News Network by Jim Stovall from the University of Tennessee on Nov. 5, 2008. It was preceded by an initial email three weeks earlier.

Colleagues,

The list below constitutes those who have responded to my call for founding members of the Intercollegiate Online News Network (ICONN).

Campus members

Georgia (Mark Johnson)

George Mason (Steve Klein)

Marist (Lyn Lepre)

Utah State (Mike Sweeney)

Red and Black (Harry Montevideo)

Speakeasy - Ohio U (Jill Mapes)

U Mass - Amherst (Steve Fox)

U Southern Cal public radio (Alex Shaffert)

Tampa (Charles McKenzie)

Norfolk State (Steven Opfer)

Florida Southern (Beth Bradford, Mike Trice)

Castleton State (David Blow)

U Baltimore (Daniel Flanagan)

Buena Vista (Jamii Claiborne)

Florida International (Rick Martinez)

Vanderbilt (Robyn Hyden)

Rutgers (Dan Bracaglia)

Harding (Jim Miller)

Dominican (Laurie Volkmann)

Doane (David Swartzlander)

Tennessee (Jim Stovall)

Professional affiliates

Maroon Ventures (Bob Benz)

UWire (Ben French)

LucasFilms (Staci Baird)

Scripps (Katie Granju)

CollegeRoadTrip (Andrew Bouldin)

Daytona Beach News Journal (Michelle Ferrier)

Publish2 (Scott Karp)

TBO.com (Johnny Dobbins)

UPIU.com (Nicholas Chiaia, Sonya Eberly)

Our next step is to gather together to give some shape, substance and direction to the organization. I would like to do that on Thursday and Friday, January 15 and 16, 2009, in Knoxville.

I hope that all of you will be able to attend. As an incentive, we (the School of Journalism and Electronic Media) will be able to provide you with a hotel room free of charge for two nights during that time. We will also provide several meals for you while you are here. We are able to do this through a grant from the E.W. Scripps Foundation. We may also be able to absorb some of the travel costs, particularly for those who have to come from long distances and for those whose organizations have constricted travel budgets. Please let me know what your needs are.

During the day and a half that we are together, I would like for us to do the following:

Have an open discussion about ICONN and its goals and the needs of its members.
Form a board of directors to write bylaws and make policies.
Learn about Ochs, the content management system developed by the University of Tennessee and available to members.
Hear from professional organizations such as UPIU.com, Helium.com, UWire.com and Publish2.com about what they might offer to members.

That's just a start. I need to hear from you about what you would like to do at this meeting.

There will be additional details coming forth about this meeting, of course, but I need to hear from you as soon as possible about the likelihood of your being able to attend.

Jim Stovall

See the initial email that was sent Oct. 14, 2008