Update: The Team in Transit project won sixth place in the national Heart Journalism Awards multimedia team reporting competition.

Team in Transit: From Truck Stops to Tailgates is one of the first reports of its kind to be completed by students at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. It is the result of the work of 13 of my students in JOU4946: Applied Online Journalism, enrolled in the Fall 2011 semester.

Initially conceived by Center for Media Innovation + Research executive director David Carlson, we began work on the project together shortly after I was hired in the summer of 2011. Dave and I, working with officials at the University Athletic Association, received the green light for the project just two weeks before the start of the semester and we quickly scrambled to find top-notched, advanced students to work on it.

We reported live from the Oct. 2011 away game in Auburn, Ala. and launched the final report on Thanksgiving weekend.

Visit the site: Team in Transit

Promo video by Steve Johnson and Matt Riva, students on the Team in Transit staff.

From my annual review:

This year has been a year of building the ecosystems for future success of the 21st Century News Lab and collaborative, multidisciplinary
digital projects.

I developed and delivered a new immersive, student-driven, project-based multimedia reporting course twice that created two new niche sites and a possible content vertical for the CJC and DMP (teamintransit.com and stateofwater.org, respectively).

I spent (and am spending) a considerable amount of my administrative time assisting the Division of Multimedia Properties with digital strategy. I am helping them transition from a one-platform mentality to embrace a multiplatform strategy. We have re-platformed two of the DMP’s flagship brands, WUFT and WRUF-AM, to an open-source and easier-to-use content management system, and are developing plans to bring the remaining stations into that ecosystem.

We are building a new media brand around the weather operations, one that I am advocating we think of as a truly multimedia brand, not a TV operation with radio and Web tacked on.

And we are developing new strategies in mobile and monetization of the digital properties.

This time has already paid off WUFT.org has received at least two awards this year for Best Website in the Florida AP contest and Edward R. Murrow Awards from the RTDNA.

I also coached a student to a fifth place finish in the Multimedia Features category of the Hearst Competition.

I have also been heavily involved in the planning for the new Integrated News Facility (including successful lobbying to not call it the Convergence Newsroom, which is an antiquated term-of-art that has connotations of failure). I am working closely with the TV and radio news directors to help chart a path to the new world of living together in one newsroom and how that will operate.

The Professional Master’s program has my fingerprints all over it. Although I joined the process toward the end of its conceptualization and worked closely with Cory Armstrong and Johanna Cleary, I designed the Journalists’ Bootcamp curriculum, successfully advocated for the inclusion of a newsroom experience (students will spend at least 35 hours/week one of their final semesters in the INF) and a course on media product management and entrepreneurial skills.

I am also spending considerable time trying to build ties across the departments and break down operational silos. I joined the AHA! CoLab task force and successfully lobbied the vision of that space to move beyond creating a space for just the advertising and public relations departments to a vision that includes all the students and faculty in the college. You could say I’m “conspiring” with folks such as Ann Christiano as we identify ways to bring the disciplines together in ways that make sense, such as a master class on topics (e.g. water) or a master class in narrative storytelling (which we’re targeting for Spring ’13).

I am also a cheerleader for programs such as Amy Zerba’s “What if News” Challenge and the AdDash contest to design the identity of the AHA! CoLab, advocating for open access and entrepreneurial spirit. These type of programs will be essential and integral to the 21CNL in the years to come.

I’ve said to numerous people since my arrival, that the 21CNL is not just a physical space, but a state of being an ethos that fosters nimble experimentation and execution, and isn’t confined to just one room.

At the end of June, I joined the faculty of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. They brought me on board as director of the 21st Century News Laboratory and a lecturer. I’ll also be working closely with the Center for Media Innovation and Research.

I’m looking forward to the things coming up for this gig and the school. In the next 12 months we’ll:

• Finish design, start construction and open a brand-new converged newsroom. This two-story renovation/addition of the building will have nearly 20,000 square-feet of new and renovated space. We’re hoping to be in for the start of Fall ’12 semster. Going to be an awesome space (although it makes me wish I took a class in reading construction documents, as this is my second major construction project in three years)
• Redevelop and launch of a new WUFT.org, the online home for the public radio and television stations. I’m expecting us to build a robust local news ecosystem around this site. A lot of potential, and going to be a major focus of mine in the coming semester.
• With any hope, launch of a professional master’s degree.

Oh, and it looks like my first course will be an in-depth, multimedia capstone experience. My students will follow what it takes to move a major SEC for home and away games. Fun, fun…

It’s neglected. Be Warned.

The identity mark (seen below) was designed as a play off of the concepts of a prism and almost completely converged Venn diagram to symbolize the different groups (educators and professionals), as well as the different media types, coming together to form a strong whole. We went through a few designs of the logo, but settled on this and the modern serif text as the best option. So far, a positive response.