Thursday, April 24, 2008

Injo Discussed in EU parliament

The innovation journalism program is presently working on broadening public understanding of how independent journalism covering innovation can be as important for democracy as traditional political journalism, while at the same time offering a promising new market for the news industry. It is a boot-strapping operation that requires contacts with all types of stakeholders in the innovation economy.

Knowledge4Innovation, headed by Roland Strauss, organized an event in the EU parliament on April 8, bringing together stakeholders in the EU innovation economy including parliamentarians and top level decision makers from the EU commission, such as Angelika Niebler, EU parliament chairwoman of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy; Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for Science and Research, and Odile Quintin, Director General, DG Education and Culture.

I was selected by K4I to read the declaration of the event, and to speak about how independent innovation journalism is the key for bringing together the innovation economy with democratic society, a point that was well understood by many of the politicians in the audience. Potocnik has previously spoken about this.

The program of the event is here, and the list of participants is here. A substantial part of the Brussels innovation policy power players were present. The organisers had not counted with the enormous interest, and were forced to turn down people, as the event could not host more than 150 participants. This is an indication of how 'innovation' is rapidly claiming an increasing mindspace in Brussels.

The K4I news release for the event is here.


Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Yearly Finnish InJo Award to Tarja Halla


Finjo - the Finnish Society for Innovation Journalism - hands out a yearly award for best Innovation Journalism story.

The second Finnish Award of Innovation Journalism was given to Tarja Halla, a reporter for the daily newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus. The story Huomisen lihaa kasvatetaan laboratorioissa (Tomorrow´s meat grows in laboratories) is about the future of the meat production.

Well-known Finnish politician and writer Osmo Soininvaara chose the winner this time. Soininvaara has served as Minister of Health on Social Services (2000-2002), and has a licentiate degree in statistics. In his remarks, he said that “the story started right from the core of the whole issue”, and “the language was clear, statistical figures informative, and general view inspiring”.

All together 50 journalistic stories competed for the award, which is called Innovaatiokide 2008 (Innovation Crystal 2008), and is was accompanied by a cheque of euros 3000. The sponsor of the prize was Finnish high-tech company Vaisala.

Award winning ceremony took place during the Media Fair in Helsinki April 11th.

Finjo: http://www.finjo.fi/
Maaseudun Tulevaisuus: http://www.maaseuduntulevaisuus.fi/
Helsinki Media Conference: http://www.mediapaivat.fi/english/
Vaisala: http://www.vaisala.com/

Saturday, April 05, 2008

InnovationBeat Newsroom


InnovationBeat - the training newsroom for the Innovation Journalism Fellowship Program at Stanford - has been completed for this round. Big thanks to the readers and the newsroom: the Injo Fellows 2008 and the coaches, G. Pascal Zachary and John Markoff!

The fellows published in all 53 stories, and there were a large number of lunch speakers, of which some where portrayed in InnovationBeat, among them Vint Cerf and Doug Engelbart.

I also want to thank Curtis Carlson and SRI International for providing us with a venue. The SRI support has been most important for the program.

Strategic Innovators: InJo as Driver for Economic Growth

The Indian publication "Strategic Innovators" invited me to write an essay on Innovation Journalism as a Driver for Economic Growth.

The published article is available here (Strategic Innovators Vol.1 Issue 3, Feb-Apr 2008; "Innovation Journalism as a Driver for Economic Growth", D.Nordfors p.14-19.)

"Strategic Innovators" is published by The IIPM Think Tank, an independent, India-centric research body, is inspired by Dr. M.K. Chaudhuri's vision of India as an economic powerhouse in the 21st century. The IIPM Think Tank is committed to enhance public awareness of policy issues an economics and management and to engineer solutions that will fulfill the 'Great India Dream'. By publishing the finding of its research, and though the active participation of its senior researchers in the media and policy, it aims to bring new knowledge to the attention of policy makers.