One moment I was getting my numbers read by a novice numerologist and having a few words with someone who worked at CNN, and the next I was listening to robust debate on the possible future of journalism and media at Memphis Commercial Appeal Editor Chris Peck's home.

Co-facilitator Peggy Holman (in that lovely purple scarf above), fills the 'Samoan Circle' with its first occupants, Leonard Witt, Geneva Overholser, and Chris Peck.

[W]e used a "Samoan Circle" - a conversation among the whole witnessed by all as people flowed in and out of four chairs in the center of the packed living room.  Heated at times, this opening exploration of what is emerging in the new media landscape set the stage for opening the space the next day to explore:

"Given we are all in this together, what's possible now?"

But the circle didn't spring to life until sundown...

Earlier that day, Bill Densmore, director of The Media Giraffe Project at UMass Amherst, (shown with Peggy Kuhr) got things rolling after introductions.

The goal was to continue talks begun by the principals five years ago, and have  participants (as the brochure states) "come away with a new sense of commitment to their work as journalists and community connectors."

According to Holman, JTM participants represented:

• 40% print
  
• 20% broadcast
  
• 20% new media
  
• 15% educators
  
• 10% media reformers
  
• 10% other
  
• 75% hailing from the mainstream media

JTM organizers also paired us up even before our bags were packed, asking us to conduct phone interviews with one another and then share our notes. The beauty of the exercise was in partnering traditional journalists and educators with media reformers or citizen journalists.

(My interview was with Pam McAllister-Johnson, noted for being the first Black female publisher of a general circulation newspaper in the United States, the Ithaca [N.Y.] Journal. She is currently director of the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University.)

David Zeeck (with Overholser), the executive editor and senior vice president of the Tacoma News Tribune, sets the scene as we head to Memphis:

This is the city where inventors developed the modern self-service supermarket (Piggly Wiggly), the drive-in restaurant (Fortune's), the franchise motel (Holiday Inn) and overnight shipping (Fed-Ex), and, not least, perfected the blues (W.C. Handy).

Last week I met here with about 30 others - professors, editors, new-media producers, bloggers and "citizen journalists" - to see if we could continue to invent journalism.

After the opening session, we head over to The Cotton Museum.

The museum was a visually stunning and creative place...

...an historic backdrop to what is still today the home of the largest cash cotton exchange in the world.

Our group received a special welcome by Free Press' Robert McChesney and John Nichols.

Then we made our way to our dinner engagement.

Told by her husband, Chris Peck, to expect first 20, then 30, then 40 strangers, Kate Duignan welcomes Steve Yelvington (below) with what must surely be her trademark smile and the finest of southern hospitality.

Great food and good wine...

...fine company and fine minds.

We arrive full Samoan Circle.

The exchange was heated at times, yet jovial and thought-provoking.

Questions tackled:

• How does an army of digital camera-wielding citizens effect the newsroom? Should it effect the newsroom? 'The newsroom has left the building...' Think Saddam Hussein hanging, London bombings, Tsunami coverage, Rodney King footage. (Do editors need to hire as many photo journalists? Is there any role for editorial judgement in today's 'record everything' free-for-all?)

• Has 'journalism' become a dirty word? (Does it imply something old, something institutional? With so many institutions in trouble across-the-board, what does that mean for the work of reporting the news?

• How best can we best embrace the power of collective intelligence ? (How can you best make use of what people already know or are already doing rather than trying to get them to read what we tell them to read or do what we want them to do?)

• Can the mainstream media change from within? Can it change unhealthy structures that it has had for decades? (The question can be turned on its head somewhat: Will the traditional news arms be doing revolutionary reporting in the future?)

• How are today's sources different than those used in the past? (Are citizen contributors tapped only for information, or are they turning around and doing the traditional interview work done solely by reporters in the past? Should they ever be 'cut into' the work of journalism, or just tapped for info?)

• What motivates the citizen journalist to do their work? (Many of them do their work for free. Why? Why is specialized -- niche -- media becoming more rampant? Is it because more citizens are finding that their needs are not being met?)

• What can be done to fix the elephant in the room: modern media's economic model? (Does the fact that a handful of corporations control the nation's -- and world's -- media help or hinder a consumer's ability to sort through accumulating data to gain meaning out of the news?)

Above, David Zeeck, Neil Ralston, Bill Densmore, Karen Magnuson, Michael Fancher, and Michael Caputo discuss Minnesota Public Radio's public insight journalism, a database of 20,000 listeners who've made themselves available as background sources to better inform the station's news reporting. (I first heard about PIJ when I participated as a member of ePluribus Media on creator Michael Skoler's panel on the project last summer.)

Happy guests Farley Peters, Beth Lawton, and Aldon Hynes...

...and Esther Thorson and Margaret Duffy by candlelight.

A great evening of hearty laughter and debate.

Day two coming soon...