The Online News Association has announced the panel descriptions for this year 2005 ONA Conference and OJA Awards Banquet Oct. 28-29 in New York.

This year's panels feature sessions on blogging, working with your print newsroom, a look at what's happening with online media outside the US, participatory journalism (we'll even create our own wiki while the panel takes place) and how to measure the effectiveness of your site.

This year also sees the continuation (and, in one case, the return) of our more popular panels. We'll look at what happening with Web law, and how it's affecting online journalism. And thanks to popular demand, we're bringing back our 'Best of the Best,' panel, which highlights the work of the nominees for the Online Journalism Awards.

After Katrina: How the Web helped deliver the news
The nation turned to the Web after Hurricane Katrina to find the latest news, as it has during other recent disasters. But the storm also swept away the physical foundations of many of the usual sources of that news - print, TV and Web. This panel will explore what Gulf Coast organizations did to keep the news flowing online; the range of publications, and their authors, that emerged; the type of news and information demanded by the public from the Web in the storm's wake, and what lasting impact Katrina will have on the world of online journalism.

Journalism 2010: Who's leading the way?: Will journalism be as relevant at the end of this decade as it was in 1910? If information is power, the answer must be yes. But will journalists be the innovators or the commodity? Spend 90 minutes with four well-known Web leaders who are creating or making use of journalism in new and different ways. Through their eyes you may glimpse where you fit in in the rapidly changing news landscape to come.

Broaden your bandwidth: Top international Web journalism. An eye-opening look at what digital journalists are accomplishing around the world. Panelists from groundbreaking international newsrooms will discuss audience-generated content, news aggregation and design. Because they hail from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, these presenters will provide fresh perspectives on the role of digital journalism in a session designed to spark lively debate and a robust exchange of ideas.

Blogging: Your ‘how-to’ guide. Just because you have the tools to blog doesn't mean you can do it well. Media outlets are rolling out blogs faster than Hollywood rolled out reality TV, and they're discovering that it's not as easy as it looks to capture an audience. That's because many of them don't have a content plan, or they're simply taking writers from other platforms and turning them loose on the Web. You must truly engage the audience in interactivity, write in a different style and make your blog a "one-stop info shop" that aggregates niche news in one place. A panel of blog veterans will help you figure out how to blog too.

Working with your newsroom: Changing your attitude so you can change theirs. You wrote off your legacy newsroom years ago when it was obvious "they don't get it," and went in search of fresh content. If you still haven't found it, turn around, look at what you left behind. They're not just "getting it" – they're doing it. In this non-traditional session format, find out what happens when we match up skeptical online pioneers (you) with offline newsroom guests who have been busy proving they know how to do digital. Find out what it took to open the eyes of these graphic artists who do Flash, reporters who are podcasting, and newsroom visionaries who have changed their structures and workflow to meet the future head-on. Even if you work for a pure-play dot-com, this session will give you practical ways to persuade people to get with your program.

What’s still new in new media? Over a third of Americans say their preferred method of getting the news is the Web, so some suggest that the phrase ‘new media’ no longer describes the news on the Web. Is this the end of new media? No. It’s just that the ‘new’ in new media has changed. More and more people are turning to alternative delivery methods for the news, such as RSS, SMS, podcasting, wikis and blogs. This non-traditional session format will break out into four mini-sessions, and create a live wiki at the same time. Experts in new news distribution technologies will provide the download you need to get up and running in the new new media.

Which numbers to crunch? Web analytics and you. How do you measure the effectiveness of your Web site? What kind of research do you need to make your site even more effective? This session, co-sponsored with the NAA's New Media Federation, will help you determine what the word ‘effective’ means to your audience, editorial staff, your advertiser, marketer and management. A panel of analytics experts will explain how to look at the numbers and then compile and prioritize your ideas and definitions into a take-home document you can use to help determine how to make your site even more successful.

The latest from your legal team. A moderated discussion with the industry's top lawyers, hosted by Jon Hart of Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, who wrote the book on Internet law. Among the hot topics: With increasing attention to blogging and other user-created content, we'll discuss a Web site's liability for third-party postings. The Supreme Court's decision in the Grokster file-sharing case, the most important technology-related case in 20 years, has implications for every site that provides access to any technology that can be used for infringing, as well as lawful, non-infringing purposes. Jurisdiction remains a troubling topic - where can a publisher be required to defend its work, and which country's laws prevail, when content can go anywhere at the click of a mouse? The settlement in the National Writers' Union suit against online publishers will also be of interest. And contextual advertising, adware and spyware are under scrutiny by the US Congress, state legislatures, and the courts. We'll discuss the latest developments and provide guidance on your real-world legal questions too.

Participatory journalism – is it your site or theirs? Blogs, phlogs, wikis, Web casts, podcasts, ‘reply’ links and online forums are a boon to your audience, turbo-charging their interactive capabilities and giving birth to an entirely new field: ‘grassroots journalism.’ But these tools bring new, nettlesome challenges. In this session, panelists who have rolled out these leading-edge forms of two-way reporting give you the scoop on their use and potential misuse. They’ll help you decide how practical citizen journalism is for you.

Create great visual journalism. Broadband is spreading like a prairie fire, and online news audiences are turning into rich media consumers hungry for visual storytelling. Who is doing great multimedia and photojournalism? How can you take advantage of the new bandwidth to increase the impact of your news content? Find out how some of the best visual storytellers in online news are re-imagining news in vivid new ways, and compare notes on what works best in your newsroom.

Meet the best of the best. Have you ever found yourself at an awards banquet wishing you'd had more time to browse through the finalists' work BEFORE you witnessed one of them win? Now you can! Visit our Best of the Best mini-panels to review the finalists' entries one-on-one – and ask the people behind all that fine work how they did it. Throughout the weekend, finalists in each OJA category will discuss their work in 25-minute sessions scheduled around the conference's formal breakout panels, so you can drop by when you want, for real-world advice and inspiration. Finalists in the General Excellence in Online Journalism category will discuss their work with you at a 90-minute Saturday session.

You can find more details, or register for the conference, here.