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.
