Learn how to use these interactive media tools and more at the SF-IM Summit at USF March 5.
The University of San
Francisco harnessed its connections to Silicon Valley and the Bay Area’s unmatched
social media industry to host the San Francisco Interactive Media Summit – aimed at introducing students, faculty, journalists, and public relations
officers to a new breed of social media.
Rather than using social media to “throw sheep” at each
other on Facebook, summit organizers introduced attendees to social
media tools that contribute to the public good, said Ed Lenert, adjunct media
studies professor, who is co-organizing the event with Michael Robertson,
associate professor of media studies.
SF-IM Summit attendees learned from social media
developers and practitioners about how to create their own iPhone apps, scour
and summarize large amounts of text briefly and succinctly, and create interactive
timelines using video and photos, just for starters.
“Our students and faculty might not even know it, but
they’re at the center of the new social media universe,” Lenert said. “We want
them to be able to capitalize on that opportunity to be able to promote the
public good in their careers.”
Free to current USF students and faculty, the conference’s
scheduled presenters included Kwan Booth on how
Oakland Local uses social media to make journalism a two-way dialogue, Kevin Kunze, a USF student, on how to fund
a feature film on Kickstarter, and Alicia Upano on how Not in Our Schools uses social media to
counter hate and create tolerance in schools and other public institutions.
The daylong summit, organized by the USF media
studies department, was 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. March 5.
