If there's one idea that's stuck in my head after the Future of Journalism conference at Harvard's Shorenstein Center, it's the notion of elitism.

Elitism is high political insult these days, if you believe what you hear from the babbleonians on cable TV's "news" channels. Various anti-Obama forces are painting him as elitist. Personally I'd much rather have a smart self-made elitist as president than an American aristocrat who's as dumb as a bucket of hair. Does that make me an elitist? Is elitism such a bad thing?

At dinner the other night in Cambridge several of my Mizzou buds were gushing about Flock, the "social browser" built on the Firefox platform. I played around with Flock in a very early state when one of the Drupal developers got me a pass to the private test, but I had pretty much forgotten about it.

Bob Cox has written a clear dissection of the AP vs. Cadenhead uproar that everyone should read carefully. It's not the case of Evil Giant versus the Blogosphere that some of the more hysterical responses have assumed. More like bumbling giant versus bumbling aggregator.

I don't "liveblog" very well, but at this week's "The Future of Journalism" conference at the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard University, I will be posting a few items today and tomorrow. I'm on a "citizen journalism" panel in the afternoon.

The first session focused on "working journalists and the changing news environment" included some provocative thoughts, particularly from Carl Sessions Stepp of the University of Maryland and Phil Meyer of the University of North Carolina.

The official Old Media party line, among the few remaining true luddites not yet laid off by their newspaper employers, is that New Media is a cesspool of misinformation while print is a rock of traditional credibility.

But the progress of the crackpot story about China drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba -- repeated by no less than Vice President Dick Cheney -- should knock a few holes in that argument.

Forget about the world record. Just download and install Firefox 3 today and take a moment to celebrate the significance of open Web standards and diversity of platforms.

David Kurtz, who writes for Josh Marshall's great political blog Talking Points Memo, is at the International Press Institute congress in Belgrade and observes that the angst being felt by American newspapers isn't being felt everywhere: