This Thursday I'll be participating in a "collaborative workshop" involving newspaper editors and media lawyers addressing the challenges associated with managing online reader contributions and comments.  The half-day workshop is sponsored by the New England Newspaper Association, New England Press Association, and Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye.  

I am especially excited about this conference because it won't be the usual panel of pontificating lawyers up on a dais (in fact, more than half the panelists are online editors).  Instead, the focus will be on the practical issues news organizations are facing, such moderating "gutter talk," dealing with anonymity, preventing online harassment, and responding to subpoenas.  I'll be giving an overview of the immunity provisions in section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, but I expect the conversation will quickly move to how law, journalistic ethics, and basic civility interact online. 

The conference, which runs from 9:00am to 1:30pm at the Crowne Plaza in Worcester, Massachusetts, costs $25 per person. The registration fee includes a luncheon talk by Josh Benton, founding director of the Nieman Journalism Lab, who will discuss the "changing journalist-audience relationship." If you are interested in attending, please use this registration form.

If you are in the Boston area on Thursday, please consider stopping by.