"Bring expertise back in the room, this is a serious session"

Calcutt, Beckett, and Keen, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Live blogging: Media Futures Conference 2008. Promising introduction/ call for action from Claire Fox, Director of the Institute of Ideas. Debate: What is the media for today?

Andrew Keen: The media people, like you, must emancipate themselves from humility. Journalists no longer are the 19th century force for education, and if they don't change themselves the world will end up educating and informing itself from whatever else is out there (e.g. Facebook).

Later edit: The social media bubble is bursting out as we speak... Senior users are leaving Facebook... Facebook is a farce... Myspace failed...

Charlie Beckett: By being more connected, by encouraging the process of being social, the journalists are drawing attention back to what they do and why it's valuable. Also, there's business to make in involving citizens in journalism, which proves the model works.

Andrew Calcutt: Keywords—capture, question, challenge, consequence, conditions. More people know more about the world in order to have more impact on it. Two new concepts ruling our time: democratic objectivity and human-history-making subjectivity.

In hindsight, I'd rewrite this post's title: Bring expertise back in the room, this is a robbery.