Divination

I don't know what the future holds for me personally. There are no guarantees whatsoever that when the lockout is over that I will be going back. I am, as I've said, a casual and had no guarantees at the best of times.

I think though that once all of this will over, it will be one of the scariest and most exciting times in CBC history, certainly recent history. The CBC is going to have to come back better and stronger than ever. It's staffers are going to have to be creative and inventive and someone is going to have to figure out how, and why blogs, podcasts, streaming media and other low/no cost technology have helped in making the lockout one of the highest rated and most talked about events in recent CBC history.

To this end, Tod Maffin is organizing a meet up at Casey's on Front Street in Toronto this Thursday to discuss technology and the future of the CBC and such topics as

Should our shows have their own blog?
Should hosts directly post on them?
How do we interactively dialogue with our audience (i.e. not talkback)
Should reporters blog in the field?
Should we be using information from external blogs on air?
How do we journalistically verify photos sent from cameraphones?

I think all of this is interesting and worth discussing, and I have some other ideas as well, I think that non journalists and non hosts have a role to play in all of this as well, but before Thursday I would like to hear from as many people as possible. If you can't be there on Thursday but have some ideas about these topics, please send them along and I'll bring your comments with me.

Feel free to use the comments section of this blog or contact me at contact@justinbeach.com.

P.S. If there are typos in here, and it seems shorter than it needs to be please accept my apologies - I have an accidental disagreement with some glass and the bandages on my hand are negatively impacting my typing skills.

-J