Tell us about ClickZ and your role there as Senior Editor.

I’m essentially a daily news reporter covering the online ad industry for ClickZ News. I focus specifically on regulatory and legislative efforts affecting the industry, in addition to digital political and advocacy campaigns. I’ve been covering the online ad industry for around 10 years now, and ClickZ is 14 years old.

You’ve been covering the developments of online privacy bills in Congress. How do you think legislation such as a Do Not Track bill would impact business practices?

I think it already is affecting legitimate businesses in the space, at least in terms of the industry finally coming together to launch a wide-reaching self-regulatory initiative. Through the Digital Ad Alliance program, online advertisers are at least becoming accustomed to incorporating more notice and transparency and consumer opt-out choice in their targeted display campaigns. Still, what legislation could do is give the FTC more power to enforce more stringent rules around notice, transparency, and opt-out, be that through a prescribed do-not-track type mechanism, or something else. Also, there’s a key difference between what the DAA has enabled and what the FTC and much of the legislation is pushing for; that is, the ability to opt out from ad tracking as well as targeting.

The final legislation will also most likely affect mobile marketers, specifically when it comes to location-based tracking. For instance, it could limit the ability for marketers to track locations of minors.

What are some obstacles to a Do Not Track bill or similar legislation passing How is the advertising/marketing industry reacting to some of these proposals?

It seems to me the biggest obstacle to comprehensive privacy legislation (which could include a do not track type requirement) is that federal legislators have other arguably more important issues at hand. There have been several House and Senate hearings in the past couple years about data privacy and security, but to me, the discussions have all seemed very preliminary. Plus, lawmakers will be increasingly focused on the 2012 elections as the months roll on. If they think sponsoring or supporting such a law will help their own campaigns or their party’s election results, they’d probably be more likely to put forth efforts towards getting something passed. However, there’s no question that in this year alone the privacy bill pile-on indicates that we’re closer than ever to actual federal legislation being passed. Keep in mind I’m not a Capitol Hill insider!

How is public media different than other media outlets?

There are two core differences between public media and the rest of the media enterprise.  The first is that we were founded and funded as a free universal public service for the American public; our content and services are open for everyone to enjoy.  Our job as a media enterprise is to improve the lives of Americans and promote a strong, civil society.  (For more on public media’s mission see http://cpb.org/aboutpb/).  The second difference is that we are not structured as an integrated media network. Public media is made up of over 800 small local businesses (stations) that reach every state, town and community in America. That is our core strength, but also a challenge in the evolving media ecosystem.

In what ways are public media outlets using digital technology to enhance their stories for viewers, listeners, and readers?

The use of digital media is an extension of public media’s mission, so stations and producers are looking for ways to not only publish content to all platforms for the convenience of the user, but also use technology to deepen the value of the story.  Off-hand I would point to NPR’s Robert Benincasa, who utilizes his journalism skills, an editorial eye and a strong team to produce high quality news stories from data and visualizations.  His work on the unintended acceleration of Toyota cars, the mining disaster in West Virginia and the US electrical grid system are wonderful ways in which digital media extended and enhanced hard news.

Another innovator in the radio/digital space is Brian Lehrer of WNYC, who has created crowd-sourcing gold with his Uncommon Economic Indicators that asked listeners to notice and then catalogue with photos, videos, audio any indications of the economic downturn in their neighborhoods.  He then used this content to inform and construct his on-air content.  This is just one of many innovative broadcast/digital programs coming out of WNYC and other public media stations.  (WNYC even wrote a great crowd-sourcing guide!)

On the television side I am particularly enamored of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and their work in digital media.  They ran a very successful alternative-reality online game called World Without Oil, which proposed a severe, permanent oil crisis and asked “players” to help describe how they would cope with the week-to-week events announced in the game.  They also have been building a new video platform that will enable live online community screenings that then drive deeper discussion and engagement around the films they show.

However, the most exciting thing that has happened recently has been Andy Carvin’s coverage of the youth movements across the Middle East. As the Senior Social Media Strategist at NPR, Andy used Twitter, Facebook, Storify and other online tools to live curate a reliable stream of information and news about what was happening on the ground. Andy is a rock star and a visionary of what digital media means in the news space.

However, the most exciting thing that has happened recently has been Andy Carvin’s coverage of the youth-movements across the Middle East.  As the Senior Social Media Strategist at NPR, Andy used Twitter, Facebook, Storify and other online tools to live curate a reliable stream of information and news about what was happening on the ground.  Andy is a rock star and a visionary of what digital media means in the news space.

How has today’s technology presented new challenges for public media?

To be frank, public media is not capitalized nor organized to take full advantage of emerging connective technologies. We have a reliable, strong broadcast infrastructure that provides free, universal service to every American. However, we are not funded to the appropriate level to build the same strength in the digital media space.  While digital media infrastructure is less expensive to build, operate and maintain, it is not free. In an ideal world we would identify increased and sustained funding to enable publishers, producers and stations to increase their use of digital media, as well as have access to increased, skilled staffing.

In a past presentation, you outlined the Public Media Platform, an API that brings together all the public media content. Tell us about that and how you think it will change the way we consume public media.

Just imagine an opportunity to pick up your favorite tablet as you sitting on the train going to work.  You open your Public Media Magazine application that then prompts you with “where do you want to go today?”  Since you have a deep and abiding interest in the issues of globalization and human rights that Magazine auto updates with the best of public media content on this subject: news headlines from NPR, clips from the latest ITVS film, a discussion on the Tavis Smiley Show, archived content about women’s issues and the best local stories from across the country.  That will be helpful, but also very, very cool.

Dubbed “What the Kids Are Doing,” the event featured the 23 year-old Raven, founder and editor of SheGeeks.net, 18 year-old entrepreneur Daniel Brusilovsky, and the fresh-out-of-college co-founders of event recommendation engine GetSpontaneous Jake Kring and Mack Kolarich. Each of these speakers reinforced and elaborated upon Raven’s concept of innovation, focusing more on how the Millennial generation uses technology rather than what product might be the next big thing. Event moderator Shireen Mitchell, though admitting she could no longer call herself a “kid,” led an animated panel discussion with Raven and Brusilovsky.

Mitchell began by asking about the event’s central theme – What are kids doing with today’s technology? Brusilovsky, a strategist at the Washington, DC-based data visualization firm JESS3 and the founder and CEO of Teens in Tech Labs, emphasized that mobile technology is already ubiquitous among youth today and will be even more prevalent in the future. He noted that mobile apps are both easy to develop and distribute, and that there are a growing number of resources available to help aspiring young entrepreneurs create this technology. Teens in Tech Labs, for example, recently began an incubator program that will assist young people in developing their ideas from concept to reality and provide practical advice on how to run a business.

Raven wishes more young people were aware of resources like these. Both she and Brusilovsky agreed that America should do more to educate its youth on today’s technology. Raven said she wants a culture that encourages innovation, one in which work is not the same burden as it was to her parents’ generation. She views her work mentoring young people who are new to the tech scene as a step towards that goal, and Brusilovsky shares her sense of responsibility.

“People give others 1,000 reasons not to jump off a cliff,” Brusilovsky said. “I give them 1,001 reasons to jump off a cliff and grow some wings in midair.”

The event moderator Mitchell, known on the web as “Digital Sista,” also works to encourage innovation among young people. One of her most recent projects, “The Unusual Suspects,” promotes the idea that innovation can come from anyone, anywhere, including today’s youth. Following the discussion with Raven and Brusilovsky, she introduced GetSpontaneous co-founders Kring and Kolarich as a couple of “Unusual Suspects,” who would give the audience a tangible idea of “What the Kids Are Doing.”

GetSpontaneous, Kring and Kolarich explained, is basically a Pandora for events. Like the music recommendation engine, the goal of this DC-based startup is to provide you with suggestions based on your interests. With GetSpontaneous, however, the categories are not limited to your music tastes. Instead, the platform helps you “unlock your neighborhood” by showing events near your location that you would actually enjoy attending.

If you indicate that you like soccer, for example, GetSpontaneous will show you pick-up soccer games in your city. If you love hip-hop, GetSpontaneous will let you know when your favorite artists are coming to town and where they’re playing. Kring and Kolarich hope that their platform will get people off line and in to their communities. They plan to officially launch the site this month.

The next Media Future Now event – “Journalism Through Digital Storytelling” – will be held on Tuesday, March 22 at the New America Foundation. For more information, click here.

Media Future Now: Tell us a little bit about your position with JESS3. What do you do there?

Daniel: I work as a Strategist at JESS3, working both on client strategy, as well as internal strategy, and corporate development. JESS3 is a creative interactive agency that specializes in visual storytelling.

Media Future Now: What distinguishes Teens in Tech from other blogs? Is it just that the content is generated by young people for young people? Something more?

Daniel: First of all, TeensinTech.com is just 1/3 of what Teens in Tech Labs is. We have three main parts; editorial, conferences/events, and our incubator. With TeensinTech.com, we try to bring light to young entrepreneurs, and their startups, because there really aren’t any publications dedicated to covering young entrepreneurs. Also, our content is written by a group of writers who are all teens, which makes the content more interesting.

Media Future Now: How has your generation utilized today’s technology – either for business, communication or both?

Daniel: My generation has really taken advantage of mobile phones the best, in my opinion. If you look at a typical teenager these days, they’re equipped with one device with them at all times, and that’s a mobile phone. Some carry an iPod if they don’t have an iPhone, but most teens today either use an iPhone or a BlackBerry. The Apple App Store has made it possible to get applications in front of millions of people, and I think that’s been a key to the iPhone’s success.

Media Future Now: Sorry, but we have to ask. How did you become an entrepreneur at such a young age? Have you been that kid scheming up business ideas since first grade?

Daniel: I’ve always been fascinated by technology, and especially the Internet. At one point, when I was 13, I just started producing content, and the rest is history.

Media Future Now: How did you come up with the idea for GetSpontaneous?

Mack: The first spark occurred when I saw a cluttered happy hour schedule at a crowded bar in August. I realized that while just about every bar has a happy hour, there is no easy way to find out where the nearest happy hour is right now. You could go to Yelp or Foursquare, search for nearby bars, and then patiently read through descriptions of each, searching for mentions of a happy hour. But who has time for that? I realized that this problem extends far beyond bars: there’s no way to find out what’s going on around you, right now, that you’ll actually be interested in.

So I reached out to Jake (we’d been working together on some previous startup concepts).

Jake loves concerts (especially hip hop shows), and coincidentally he’d recently missed a performance by Black Thought. Not because he didn’t have the time or money (tickets were only 10 bucks), but because he didn’t know the show was happening (until it had already happened).

Jake needed a way to unlock his neighborhood at any time, and see what was going on five streets over from his current location.  As Jake and I talked more and more about this problem, our solution started to take shape. It revolved around events. Most things we do for fun are events – happy hours are recurring events, a flashmob is an impromptu event, an intramural dodgeball game is a planned event.  We wanted to build a platform that discovers and sorts events in your neighborhood, and puts them on your smartphone.  As our idea took shape, Jake and I became more and more excited, to the point where we couldn’t fall asleep.  It’s been GetSpontaneous from there.

Media Future Now: How is GetSpontaneous distinct from other location-based services?

Jake: There are a lot of startups vying for a piece of the location-based pie. Each has taken a unique approach. Here’s what makes GetSpontaneous distinct:

Our ideal event is small (really small). We hope to act as a platform for poetry slams and happy hours, pickup soccer games and community service projects. We call these “Micro-Events.”

Similarly, we aim to build a social graph that maps fleeting relationships, which we call “Micro-Networks.” For example, that guy at the Roots concert last night, while not necessarily your ‘friend’ in a Facebook sense, likely shares some interests with you. And if he’s attending a forum on Masculinity in Hip Hop, maybe you’d be interested in attending, too.

We’re an aggregator. That means we’re datasource agnostic. Sure, we’d love every mom and pop shop across the country to be posting events on our platform, but we know that’s a long term goal. In the short term we’ll integrate with other APIs. We’ll collect parties from Eventbrite, concerts from StubHub, coupons from Groupon, and meetings from Meetup. We’ll consolidate them all, and order them by level of potential interest to you.

This leads me to my final point: we’re personalized. Our goal is to show you events that you’ll be interested in. Every time you “Follow a Tag,” or “Drop In” to an event, we update your personal algorithm. So if you drop in to a professional soccer game today, we’ll show you a soccer skills workshop tomorrow.

Media Future Now: On your website, you propose a few possible business models. Have you gotten a better sense of what might be the best way to generate revenue?

Jake: I am a data-nerd. I love data. My dream is to map the movement and energy of people across a city in real-time. With that said, I think usage of personal data has gotten really out of hand. All too often, people sign up for a social network and provide personal data with the expectation of it being used in one way, only to find out that it has been used in a very different way. Our goal is to be abundantly explicit about the use of personal data.

Our fundamental belief, when it comes to data, is that business and consumer incentives are in fact aligned. So this cat and mouse game, in which businesses steal data from consumers to target them for the purposes of advertising, is not just irresponsible, it’s inefficient. Consumers want to know about events near them that relate to their personal interests, and businesses want to reach relevant consumers. We aim to be the conduit through which this data flows.

So GetSpontaneous’ main source of income will be the sale of anonymous data for micropayments. If a coffee shop holds an open-mic night, odds are they’ll be willing to pay 99 cents for a report on the interests and demographics of people who showed up. Obviously none of these reports would include usernames or email addresses, but detailed anonymous insight is almost as valuable (and doesn’t compromise anyone’s privacy). Large corporations make executive decisions based on interest and demographic data every day. But that system is opaque (and I can guarantee it’s not anonymous). Isn’t it time small businesses have access to the same tools that corporate america does?

Our next event – What the Kids are Doing – is on Thursday, February 17 from 12:15-1:45 p.m. Find out more by visiting our “Upcoming Events” page.