Dorian Benkoil – Digital Media Consultant/Columnist/Teeming Media

Posted on 04. Oct, 2007 by David Cohn in Uncategorized

your work in networked/citizen/collaborative journalism.
Oversaw blog network, and affiliated discussion boards. Consult to clients on social media, and have written about it, and produced it.

What are your goals?
To learn a lot — the mindset of others, the state of play in the space and especially — where I may be able to add the most value — the possible economic models.

Notable achievements?
Two SPJ awards for breaking news coverage. Other journalistic awards. MBA.

Lesson you’ve learned (including mistakes you’ve made)
Too many to mention. Most of the mistakes I find most important are in either a) declaring something I thought I “knew” when the reality was different or turned out to be so (perhaps a corollary of the fact that journalistic skepticism is not always useful, especially for an entrepreneurial mindset) and b) leading staff in a way that didn’t achieve needed results. I now understand much better how to strategize, lead a team, etc.

Are you getting revenue for this? How?
Not unless someone wants to hire me after meeting me there. I may make money from it if I write a paid column — which is likely.

What’s next? What do you need to get to the next level?
Access to people with technical skills who are excited about ideas and projects and willing to work collaboratively.

Anyone you’d like to talk with, learn from, or work with at the summit
Well, I’m already connected with many of the folks on the list, but ones I don’t know and would like to meet or connect better because I’ve admired their work include:

Dave Winer – Scripting News
Ariana Huffington – HuffingtonPost
Bill Densmore – Media Giraffe
Steve Safran – LostRemote