I’m in New York this week, at Jeff Jarvis’s Networked Journalism summit at the New York Times and Cuny.

It should be an interesting day. While long-term readers will know of my skepticism about the promises for, and debates around, citizen journalism, you’d have to be a fool to say that there’s nothing there; that the notion of having users contribute to the production of news content isn’t one with momentum, and merit.

What I’ve not been sold on, thus far, are the solutions that enable this to take place. Some of the theory still sounds an awful lot like getting the readers to take on the jobs that professional journalists would rather not. Stuff like street-level local reporting, or gathering data, or just getting out and about to understand their communities.

Really, that won’t do. For this to fly, we have to adapt our notions of what is news online, examine with a critical eye what users really want, and think hard about what best they could contribute. We can’t ask readers to fix the failings of professional journalism. Pros can’t expect to pen the big thinkpieces and collect a big cheque each month while the readers are sent off to do the donkey-work for pin money, or worse.

Happily, plenty of the pre-conference reading material makes the point that this won’t do; journalism needs to evolve. In the words of the host, we have to “produce less, gather more”. Given good ideas are thin on the ground, however, we need today to help us find a way forward.

The right people will be in the room, so there’s little excuse. I previously hoped just to sit quietly in the crowd and learn stuff, but Jeff’s roped me in to “play Oprah” with the international panel. I think this means act as host. The line-up of that group - Martin Huber, Robin Hamman, Adrian Monck and Paul Sullivan - includes some inspiring tales, just by itself. Let’s hope I can draw them out in my microphone-waving role, and avoid any chair-throwing rows.

In my favour, the suffocating heat of Monday, when I arrived, has been replaced by pouring rain and temperatures a full 20 degrees lower. I’m feeling much more at home.

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