Colin Rhinesmith

I just received an email from the Progressive Communicators Network Boston Region e-list about a great new resource for citizen media folks, available from SourceWatch.

Tools for citizen journalism is great for folks interested getting involved in recording their own stories using new media tools.

Tools for citizen journalism enable people other than traditional mass media professionals to gather, edit and share information through internet and other low-cost publishing systems.”

Great site! Check it out.

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I decided (just now) to develop a project to study how Public Access TV Producers are embracing citizen media tools, like blogging, podcasting, videoblogging, etc., for community empowerment and access to local stories and information. This project will be developed over the coming years and hopefully as part of my graduate program at Emerson.

Another large part of the project will be to track how these folks are using open source technologies, like Drupal, as platforms to connect communities.

I don’t believe there is such a project yet in existence, although admittedly I don’t know (since I just decided this about 5 minutes ago!). This project is inspired by the many, many people - and organizations - who I’ve been fortunate to meet & get to know over the past year. Including, but limited to:

• Jason
• Jason
• Daniell
• Nettrice
• Nicole
• Danielle
• Jay
• Dan
• Steve
• Ben
• Shawn
• MNN
• CCTV
• BNPG
• ACM

I’ve been flapping my mouth about it for several months now, ever since Dan arrived as a Fellow at the Berkman Center. To put my money (well, not really) where my mouth is, I’ve decided to focus my graduate program on this issue - although I haven’t really talked to any of my professors about it yet : )

Part of the project will include a series of audio podcasts (and hopefully video blog posts) with community access producers, leaders and visionaries working in this space. I’ll also be setting up a new blog for the project, soon.

There are a number of reasons why I feel this is a relevant and important project. Soon, I’ll have more info about it and a project outline. But for now, this is my first “official” blog post about it.

I look forward to learning from others with this project, hopefully stumbling on some discoveries, and most importantly sharing it all.

In the meantime, here’s a very interesting post I just found from Rik about some of the recent challenges and opportunities facing this subject, which I hope to further explore with this project.

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As noted, in several articles over the past week, Verizon is raising its rates for DSL subscribers due to the Universal Service Fund being removed. This morning, I received my email:

Dear Valued Verizon Online Customer,

Effective August 14, 2006, Verizon Online will stop charging the FUSF (Federal Universal Ser vice Fund) recovery fee. We will stop being assessed the fee by our DSL network suppliers. Therefore, we will no longer be recovering this fee from our customers. The impact of the FUSF fee is as follows: for customers of Verizon Online with service up to 768Kbps, the fee eliminated is $1.25 a month; for customers of Verizon Online with service up to 1.5 Mbps or 3Mbps, the fee eliminated is $2.83 a month (based on current FUSF surcharge amounts). On your bill that includes charges for August 14, 2006 you will see either a partial FUSF Recovery Fee or no FUSF line item at all, depending on your bill cycle.

Starting August 26, 2006, Verizon Online will begin charging a Supplier Surcharge for all new DSL customers, existing customers with a DSL monthly or bundle package, and existing DSL annual plan customers at the time their current annual plan expires. This surcharge is not a government imposed fee or a tax; however, it is intended to help offset costs we incur from our network supplier in providing Verizon Online DSL service. The Supplier Surcharge will initially be set at $1.20 a month for Verizon Online DSL customers with service up to 768Kbps and $2.70 per month for customers with DSL service at higher speeds.”

At the same time, the Federal Communications Commission has begun its questioning of this new fee.

The companies no longer have to pay a part of their high-speed Internet revenue into the Universal Service Fund (USF), which subsidizes communications services to schools, lower-income households and rural areas, as of August 14. - “FCC questions Verizon, BellSouth Internet fee“, Reuters, August 25, 2006.

To learn more about the Federal Universal Service Fund, read:

“Universal Service Fund” - Federal Communications Commission

“What’s at Stake : Universal Service” - hereusnow.org

For more articles on the DSL rate increase, read:

“BellSouth Drops Surcharge Plans For High-Speed Internet Offering” - Wall Street Journal

“FCC questions Verizon, BellSouth fee swapping” - CNNMoney.com

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There’s lots of change happening. The beginning of the year seems more often like Sept. 1 than Jan. 1. Let me explain:

I’m headed back to school soon. On Sept. 12, I’m starting classes at Emerson College to begin my graduate education. I’ll be staying on at the Berkman Center, moving from Staff Assistant to my new role as “Media Production Coordinator” (a new title-in-progress), heading up podcasting, videoblogging, and other media production efforts for the center. I’ll be focusing my energies on new media distribution technologies as a way to help spread the word about all of the exciting projects and people associated with Berkman Center. I’m really looking forward to it. Should be a lot of fun.

I’m also looking forward to the ACME 2006 Summit October 6-8, in Burlington, VT. As President of the Boston ACME Chapter, I’ve been working with the other members to develop our workshop for the Summit, “Embracing New Teechnologies for Media Education, Justice, and Reform”. We’ll be talking about some of the ways that ACMEBoston has embraced new media tools for media and social change, including blogging, podcasting, videoblogging, and open source technologies like our Drupal-powered ACMEBoston Projects workspace.

I also hope to share our experience working with Creative Commons licensing, which has allowed ACMEBoston to contribute to a culture of sharing and openness. Particularly, as it relates to sharing access to education and media literacy skill building tools. We would not have been able to spread the word about our work in quite the same way, without having taken the time to educate ourselves about Creative Commons and the benefits our fledging organization has been afforded, as a result.

I’ll also be speaking at Bentley College in October, following the ACME Summit. I’ll be sharing stories based on our ACME Summit workshop with students and the Bentley community. I’m looking forward to talking about our work from the past year and how new media technologies have played such a central role in the successes we’ve had.

Because my time at Berkman and Emerson will be busy, I’ve been concerned that I may not have as much time to contribute to my volunteer work in the community with ACMEBoston, CCTV, and Community Change. I hope that I might be able to pass on some of my responsibilites to other ACMEBoston members and contributors to the amazing efforts that this young group has shown over the past year - all on an unpaid, volunteer basis.

It’s been an incredible experience being involved with ACMEBoston and watching it grow. It could not have been possible without the tremendous support from ACME and all the individuals in the Boston area who realized the need for change and the will to make it happen.

I’m looking forward to another amazing year.

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I’ve decided to re-introduce our Drupal open source CMS implemented, ACMEBoston Projects as a way to keep our members connected and participating in-between our monthly meetings.

To learn more about Open Source technology, click here.

This year, ACMEBoston Projects provided members with an opportunity, beyond email, to collaborate, share ideas, and organize for two of our larger events:

1. “Class Dismissed: How TV Frames The Working Class” at UMass Boston

2. May 24th National Day of Out(R)age - Boston rally and press conference at the MA State House.

As we work to develop our ideas for our Fall ACME Summit proposal, “Embracing New Technologies for Media Education, Justice, and Reform”, I think we can use our Drupal site again as a way to provide an easy to use tool to collaborate and develop the project towards its final stage online.

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Becca just posted a terrific summary of yesterday’s DTE hearing in downtown Boston on the ACMEBoston blog.

While Verizon representatives spoke first in a challenge to Massachusetts towns, who they claim have a ‘bureaucratic resistance to change,’ town and city representatives, board of selectpersons members, cable advisory committee volunteers and PEG channel producers and executives from across the state followed with compelling stories to counter Verizon’s proposal.

The franchising negotiation process ‘is not like buying a copier for town hall,’ one speaker remarked. Towns need the ability to hold cable providers accountable to their individual needs, and 90 days is insufficient time to complete all of the work necessary in recognizing what is fair to request of a massive corporation who will be using public rights of way for their own profit. - Can You Hear Us Now, Verizon?

Read the rest of Becca’s post here.

Thank goodness for citizen media, or we’d probably never hear anything about local stories like these.

—-

(Updated August 20, 2006)

I stand corrected. Here are three reports (below) I found on the web about last Wednesday’s hearing. There may be others:

“Regulatory board hears arguments on cable licensing” - SouthCoastToday.com

“Cable OKs not on demand: Once again, Bay State hacking up free enterprise” - BostonHerald.com

“Verizon Cable Plan Decried” - Cape Cod Times

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JD Lasica blogs “View from the Basement” (above):

Susan Kirkpatrick just posted a wonderful collaborative video, featuring footage from more than 35 videobloggers who submitted clips for the final music video. Awesome.

Check it out.

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I just returned from a three-day camping and hiking trip in the Green Mountain National Forest with some friends up from D.C. last week. We stayed at the Chittenden Brook campsite (pictured above). The site was unbelieveably well kept, nice and clean with lots of room between campsites. It was the nicest campsite and hiking that I have ever experienced. The weather was also amazingly beautiful and only rained briefly Thursday evening. We bought a 20 foot tarp that we strung from the trees that protected our cooking and picnic area (pictured below).

I found the site with help from my Foghorn Outdoors New England Camping book. We also stopped at the Ranger Station in Rutland, where we got some advice about Chittenden Brook and that it would be nicer to stay at than Moosalamoo, which was our second choice.

On Friday, we took a trip up Mt. Horrid to check out the Great Cliff (pictured below).

A short hike, just 1.2 miles round trip along the Long Trail North, the view was spectacular. While we had a snack on the cliff we saw a peregrine falcon hovering below us. Truly beautiful.

As we drove out of the forest along Rt. 100, we stopped at Moss Glenn Falls (pictured above) in the early evening to take a look and snap a few photos.

The trip was amazing. It was much needed rest after Wikimania and the Citizen Journalism Unconference last week. It was also a nice break from digital technology.

Only a few hours from Boston, I’m looking forward to going back to the Green Mountain National Forest to camp, hike and explore some more.

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“Lisa Williams presents Placeblogs” by Steve Garfield

The Berkman Center hosted Fellow Dan Gillmor’s Citizen Journalism Unconference today at Harvard Law School.

There was a lot of great discussion about “hyperlocal” blogs featuring stories from people in U.S. communities not covered by the mainstream media. Ethan Zuckerman also gave a great presentation offering a global perspective on understanding the local.

Visit the Unconference wiki for a list of bloggers who covered the event today.

I’ll be posting audio from today’s event up at AudioBerkman tomorrow. I hope to make the video available for download by early next week. I’m leaving for vacation on Wednesday and will not have time to post it before I then. Sorry, about that.

In the meantime, you can check out a couple of nice “moment showings” on Steve Garfield’s video blog here and here. And Doc Searls did an amazing job taking notes all day, which you can find here.

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