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.

1. Web Analytics -- How do you measure the effectiveness of your Web site? What kind of research do you need to make your site even more effective? During the session we'll find out what the word "effective" means to your audience, editorial staff, your advertiser, marketer and management. At the end of the session we'll compile your ideas and definitions and prioritize them to help you determine how to make your site even more successful.

2. Working without a Net -- Ethics and Issues in Personal Publishing. Chances are, everyone in online news has had that uncomfortable feeling: Is this story (often, breaking news) going to be sufficiently fact-checked, sourced, organized – and copy edited before we post it? You've probably felt you were working without a safety net. As the online landscape evolves, we can all expect to host more user-generated content, and our future viewers may expect high standards of credibility and accuracy for that content. How can we ensure standards of accuracy that live up to our audience’s and our profession’s expectations? Also up for discussion: The ethical and rights issues surrounding user-submitted photos and text; the standards for linking to others' news reports and blogs; and, not least of all, how to find the time to monitor all this great new content.

3. Working with your newsroom -- Changing your attitude so you can change theirs. You wrote off the 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. Watch what happens when we match up some skeptical online pioneers (you) with some newsroom types who DID hear us way back when, and have been busy proving it -- from graphic artists who learned Flash to reporters who are podcasting to newsrooms that have changed their structures and workflow to meet the future head-on. Even if you are a pure-play site, this might open your eyes to some new sources of content and new ways of operating.

4. Blogging 'how to' -- Just because you can blog doesn't mean you should. As many media outlets are getting into blogging, 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 print writers and turning them loose on the Web. You must truly engage the audience in interactivity, and/or make the blog a "one-stop info shop" that aggregates niche news in one place, making it easier for readers. There are a few good examples, from Spokane, Greensboro, Seattle and elsewhere. And there are lots and lots of bad examples.

5. International: Broadening the Bandwidth. A practical and eye-opening look at what digital journalists are doing around the world, this panel will feature speakers from international news sites who will share the details of their successful innovation in digital news gathering, production and dissemination. Panelists from these ground-breaking newsrooms will discuss what they are doing to report news, not just process it, by embracing audience-generated content from blogs to podcasting. From a variety of cultures and backgrounds, these presenters will provide fresh perspectives on the changing role of the digital journalist, which should spark lively debate and a robust exchange of ideas.

6. Defining Online Journalism. Don't stammer for an answer the next time someone asks "what exactly do you do?" Audience members will work together in this session to craft a wiki -- in real time -- that defines the skills and methods we use to create online journalism. And that wiki will live online after the conference has ended.

7. What's still new in New Media? The Web as a news delivery vehicle is now more than a decade old. With more than a third of Americans saying their preferred method for getting news is the Internet, the phrase "new media" no longer seems to describe online news. Today, new technologies such as RSS, podcasting, e-mail, SMS and more have replaced the Web as the "new" in new media. And in a bit of irony, the Web's content management systems that were built to overcome the shortcoming of newspaper publishing systems have become the new legacy systems that can slow the adoption of new technologies and delivery vehicles. This session looks at both the technical and pragmatic implications of these new technologies. Just exactly what is RSS or SMS and how can you adopt them in your organization? And in adopting them, what does it mean for how you write headlines or structure stories?

8. Participatory journalism -- what's that all about? Blogs, phlogs, wikis, Web casts, podcasts, "reply" links and online forums are boons to interactive and grassroots journalism, but they bring new, nettlesome challenges. In this session, journalists using these leading-edge forms of two-way reporting check in on their use and potential misuse as well as their practicality. Panel attendees will have to work hard to leave without at least one new idea to try out.

9. The latest from legal. 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.

10. Best of the Best. Have you ever found yourself at an ONA awards ceremony 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 to ask the people behind all that fine work how they did it. These 25-minute sessions are scheduled around the conference's formal sessions, so you can drop by when you want for a little real-world advice and inspiration.

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