About

What exactly is an “unconference”?

The unconference is made up of sessions that are submitted by you, the attendees. The sessions take place on Saturday during the times as other regularly scheduled sessions. We’re here to fill the gaps that ONA may have missed, whether they be a panel that wasn’t submitted in time for the conference or a place to discuss ideas that you didn’t have until you arrived in Boston. We’re topical, we’re flexible and we exist because of you.

And yes, we are asking you to skip Saturday sessions to go to one of ours. But they’re really yours! Therefore, you should come.

So you’ve done this before?

Yes. This will be our third year doing these sessions. Last year, we talked foursquare with the National Post, had the State Department explain their program about sending journalists abroad to teach others about journalism, and turned the weekly #wjchat into a face-to-face discussion. We do it all.

How does it work?

This year, we’re opening up the submission for panels 10 days before the conference starts. Submit ideas on this Tumblr, through Twitter or by email. We’ll take your ideas and post them on this page, along with a short description of what you’re proposing. You have until 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 22 to submit your ideas. We will then open up voting online through 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23. We’ll tally the votes and announce the unconference sessions at 5 p.m. that day. The sessions will be held on Saturday in a prepared location.

What do I have to do?

Submit your ideas on time and remind your fellow ONA attendees to vote! Following our hashtag on Twitter, #ONAuncon. And if you have any questions, shoot them our way.

If you are going to make a suggestion for an unconference session, we ask that you take responsibility for hosting the session, show up on time and assign a note taker who can send us session details/outcomes we will post on Tumblr. You don’t have to have a fancy presentation, nor do you have to do all the talking. Simply show up, share your idea and let the discussion happen. If you DO need material, such as poster paper or markers, be sure to let us know.

So, wait. Who are you?

Glad you asked! We are Team Unconference, made up of three volunteers who really, really love online journalism. Want to know more? Well…

Jessica Binsch (@j_nb)

Jessica is a digital journalist passionate about finding new ways to tell stories. She helped shape the investigative project Global Warning and has produced a range of multimedia stories. A native German, she currently works as a web editor at ABC7 in Washington, D.C. Driven by endless curiosity and trained at the Medill School of Journalism, she shares her discoveries on tumblr and her blog.

Jessica Estepa (@jmestepa)

Jessica is a news junkie and social media butterfly. She works for Roll Call in Washington, D.C., where she juggles writing features on the Capitol and its surrounding neighborhood, working on the production side of the paper and managing the paper’s social media. She’s a native Nevadan and a graduate of the Reynolds School of Journalism. Previously, she worked for the Reno Gazette-Journal, Greenspun Media Group, the Online Nevada Encyclopedia and Insight Magazine.

Annie Shreffler (@annieshreff)

Annie has done crowdsource reporting for WGBH Lab and WNYC Public Radio’s The Brian Lehrer Show and authored Crowdsourcing: A Fieldguide from WNYC. Her work has appeared on WNYC.org, Huffington Post, Gannet Journal News, Norwood News, Open Media Boston, PBS.org, WGBHLab.org, WORLDCOMPASS.org and the Knight Foundation News Blog. She writes about new media and other matters on her blog, Just the Facts.