And we're off!!!!!!

We're not even done with the first full day and it has already been an eye-opening experience at the Online and Multimedia Reporting Seminar.

Mark Briggs from The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. got us started and he made some key points including the fact that the "audience is data obese but information starved."

Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute and author of 'Al's Morning Meeting' gave the group an arsenal of sites to use as far as searching for information. The days of just using Yahoo search or Google will be a distant memory once I get back to the newsroom. And the old adage of "Don't believe everything you see or hear" in a newspaper, TV newscast or even a magazine's cover really came to light.

It's always good to hear and see the well-respected John Seigenthaler talk about any topic as he did during lunch about his battle with Wikipedia.

Amy Eisman (pictured) from American University later brought up solid points on what makes a good Web package and the types of trends which will interest readers and keep them coming back for more.

There's already a plate full of information at my domain and I have to make room for the week's remainder.

-- Jonathan Babalola, Noblesville (Ind.) Daily Times