I am going to leave the Tampa Bay, Florida after a lot of incredibly good meetings mostly in St. Petersburg.
Wikipedia, an amazing noprofit organization. On Friday, I met with Sandy Ordoñez, Director of communications of the Wikimedia Foundation. I learned a lot from her about this amazing noprofit organization that runs the famous wikipedia website. Think about that: they only have 12 employees and they raise every year around 1.5 million dollars thanks to 25$ average donations from a lot of individuals. How can they do that? Because they have a very universal idea (knowledge must be free and available to all) and they involve volounteers in every step they do. "Every single press release we do", explains Sandy, "we have to share it with a 50-people community of invited and trusted members of Wikipedia". A lot of ideas for cafebabel.com! "But it is not easy. You have to find the right balance between building consensus and making decisions".
The entry of Wikimedia Foundation 100 sq-meters office with a map showing all the images of wikipedia. The Foundation will move up to San Francisco in January 2008. In the Bay Area is also located Wikia, the for profit company wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, has founded.
Left: fundraising strategy. Wikipedia has just launched its new campaign. Right: postcards from fans all around the world.
St. Petersburg Times, when good journalism goes local. I met with Bill Duryea (in the photo, left with a cafebabelsugar in the hand), a national editor who spent a lot of time explaining me everything about one of America's most celebrated local newspaper (see a story from the NYT). Their business model is more and more diversified. They launched a free press tabloid for young people plus a magazine targeted on healthy women and their contents are just so good because they provide a freshly local perspective to both Floridian, national but also international news.
Poynter Institute, wanna-be journalists, go there! The Poynter is very prestigious and well-known institute providing trainings for journalists but also many intriguing researches (see this study about readers' eye). I met with Bill Mitchell, editor of the Poynter on-line and Howard Finberg, editor of newu.org. The first website provides interesting conversations and analysis about journalism but also job offers in media world. The latter provides incredible on-line trainings to be a good journalist today. It's free and very very useful.
A bad news? Tomorrow morning I'll wake up at 5.
The good news? I have two. Tonight I've been invited to Giusy's house. She hosted me (as a true Sicilian who has lived in Naples) with her American boyfriend, Chris, offering me after the dinner hot chocolate milk + the cult "abbracci" biscuits (see the picture by Chris). The other good news? Tomorrow I fly to New York City for the last stop of my US trip. I am very tired but so happy to live this amazing adventure and also to share it with you all. Wish me good luck and if you have good tips for NYC... go for it!
Adriano