Dan Gillmor on Entrepreneurial Journalism

Dan Gillmor's been challenging the "conventional wisdom" of journalism in online media for about as long as there have been journalists in online media. I spoke with him over the phone last week about his latest initiative, the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, at Arizona State University.

"It's all very new," Gillmor said of the program, which began with a grants from the Knight and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundations last year.

"The really simple goal that I have, and that the school has," Gillmor said, "is to help the students understand the value of, for lack of a better expression, inventing their own jobs."

"The career ladder that people of my generation aspired to is in almost all cases is just not going to be available to them," Gillmor said. "But that should only be scary to people of my generation. If I were a 20-to-22-year-old right now, and contemplating the future of media, I would ecstatic at the possibilities."

Of course, possibilities for success travel with the possibility of failure. And that might not appeal to those looking for a more stable career path.

"It's not for people who are afraid to take risks, but I am hoping to help people understand that taking risks, especially when you are young, is a great thing," Gillmor said. "The tools of media creation are widely available, more powerful every year and less expensive every year, that is systematically driving down the cost of trying stuff to zero, with the only cost, serious cost, being your time."

Ultimately, the center will provide students with both instruction and technical support, with the aim of enabling students to develop their own working prototypes, along with the ability to potentially sell them, to venture capitalists, investors and/or advertisers.

So what should interested journalism students, or potential mid-career entrepreneurs, do if they want to get involved?

"Call me," Gillmor said. "Or send me an e-mail. We'll see what's possible."

Here is a recording of my conversation with Dan Gillmor (might take a moment to load):

Robert Niles also can be found at http://www.themeparkinsider.com