PopTech attendees send a cautionary signal to mainstream news publications
By J.D. Lasica
Online Journalism Review
Late last week, while the Online News Association held its annual conference in New York, a handful of online journalists headed to a different kind of conclave, trekking to a scenic coastal village in Maine for PopTech, the annual gathering of Internet deep thinkers and technology heavy hitters.
In between sessions, I asked some of the participants their views about the state of online journalism, the news sites they frequent, and their digital news habits. (For more on PopTech, see Dan Gillmor’s coverage and related photos.)
If the digerati gathered here represent the leading edge of the Internet Age, reflecting where our wired society may be headed a few years hence, then online news publications have their work cut out. Few of the early adapters in this crowd spend much time at mainstream news sites.
Here are off-the-cuff ruminations about online news from eight PopTech founders, speakers and attendees:
Jaron Lanier
Tech cred: Coined the term “virtual reality.” His company, VPL Research, was the first to introduce immersive virtual reality products. Lead scientist of the National Tele-Immersion Initiative, a coalition of research universities studying applications for Internet2.
Lives: New York, San Francisco Bay Area
Apart from my time driving in my car, the Internet is my only source of news, and it has been for some time. There isn’t any one news site that I would be willing to depend on by itself. I think it’s important to look at the Internet as a whole as a news source, and some sites make up for the others’ failings. I try to find sources from other points of view, from other countries. [Read more…] about Where Net luminaries turn for news