The Online News Association is staying true to the times and asking journalists – including freelancers – to help them choose topics for sessions at its annual conference, ONA10, which takes place Oct. 28-30 in Washington D.C. The best part – you don’t need to be an ONA member to have a say.

ONA is the largest professional organization for reporters, editors and other journalists working primarily in digital media, whether on staff for newspapers or magazines or for themselves as freelancers, bloggers or entrepreneurs. Based in Washington D.C., ONA has regional chapters around the country and in recent years has started several international outposts.

The ONA recently asked members to submit proposals for conference sessions. Suggestions poured in, including proposed sessions on teaching writers how to code – and computers how to write – building nonprofit news ventures and thriving as a journalist entrepreneur.

Now the organization’s crowding, asking anyone and everyone interested to vote on which of the 118 proposed topics they’d like to see at the conference. To vote, go to the Session Selector page, and create an account. Each proposed topic comes with a brief explanation, and you can see who the presenters would be. You can give a thumbs up to select as many as you like.

Although it’s still months away, it’s not too early to start thinking about attending ONA 2010. Last year’s conference in San Francisco was a sell out, with guest speakers such as Twitter’s Ev Williams and BlogHer’s Lisa Stone, and close to 750 professional and student journalist in attendance.

For more information on the ONA 2010 conference visit the main registration page. Get conference updates on Twitter at @ONA10 and track conversations at #ONA10.

I’m teaching a class on journalism basics at Digital Journalism Camp here in Portland this Saturday, Aug. 1.

To get ready, I’m asking writers going to the camp, as well as WordCount readers and my crews on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to help me decide what topics to cover in the presentation.

I talk up the benefits of crowdsourcing in other aspects of freelance work, so I figured this is a good opportunity to practice what I preach.

The class is geared to entry-level reporters, writers and bloggers who’d like to learn some tricks of the trade from a old fart veteran. The class could also be helpful to freelancers or citizen journalists who’ve come to writing or blogging from a different career and need a better mastery of the basics, including doing research, finding sources, making corrections and prepping for interviews.

If you’re coming to Digital Journalism Camp, or will be reading the live blogs or tweets from conference sessions, what should I cover? Use this poll to tell me what you’d like to see. Feel free to provide additional feedback using the comments section.

If you can’t make it to the conference and don’t follow the tweets, I’ll be sharing some of my tips and tricks here in coming weeks.

Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:

Help me investigate: Paul Bradshaw on Crowdsourcing Investigative Reporting – Video interview with a U.K. journalist and Online Journalism blogger on how he’s building a platform for crowdsourcing investigative journalism.

5 things Sesame Street can teach you about blogging – Keep it varied, repeat often and have a voice, says Copyblogger’s Sonia Simone.

Phrases that equal no pay – My favorite: “…so there isn’t any pay at the moment, but once we get up and running, we promise to pay.” Oh really – wonder if the electric company will go for that.

Measuring success as a freelancer – Not written specifically for freelance writers, but the lessons apply. Techie blogger Dawn Foster says: “Pick the top three to five items that determine success and focus on those items as the primary…metrics.”

The art of writing status updates – USA Today story on how to write for maximum appeal on Twitter and Facebook.

10 tools to organize your tweeps – Software apps to keep track of you who’re following on Twitter – good for separating sources, friends, editors, etc.