New Media Evangelist Dan Gillmor to Speak in Vermont

Dan Gillmor, author of We The Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People, is coming to Vermont this Saturday. He'll be at the 30th anniversary celebration for the Center for Rural Studies, on a panel about communicating with rural communities.

Dan spent 25 years as a journalist in the newspaper business (including several years here in Vermont) before leaving the biz to focus on developing "citizen media." He's currently running the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, a new project of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

I interviewed Dan back in 2006, prior to a talk he gave in Montpelier. Here's an excerpt, describing his departure from the San Jose Mercury News:

When he departed in 2004 to become a citizen media evangelist, news junkies took note. In a letter to his editor, Vindu Goel, Gillmor said he was sorry to go. "Something powerful is happening," he wrote. "It's in the early stages and I have a chance to help figure this out... I hate the idea of leaving. But I'd hate not trying this even more."

Goel praised Gillmor in an announcement about his departure: "Dan has a rare gift among journalists: foresight," he wrote. "He can see what's going to be important long before other people, and he tells readers why they should pay attention."

See Gillmor — with panelists Chris Braithwaite of the Barton Chronicle, Dick Drysdale of the Herald of Randolph, Lauren-Glenn Davitian of Ch. 17, and Jim Leddy of Vermont Agricultural College Board — on Saturday, October 4, from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Mount Mansfield Room in UVM's Davis Center.

Thanks, Michael, for the tip!