There was (the beginning of) an excellent discussion today on the future of public access TV at the Beyond Broadcast conference @ MIT. During one of the afternoon working groups, Dan Gillmor (Center for Citizen Media/Berkman Center) and Jason Crow (Cambridge Community Television) lead the conversation to “discuss the nature and future of public access in a broadband age.”

Danielle took excellent notes which are available on the Beyond Broadcast wiki. Here are some of the highlights (from Danielle):

“What is the goal? What do we want PEG access to look like? What should it do in the Internet age? How can we get there?

1. Follow Denver Open Media’s 6 point plan (all digital content, web-accessible, rating & categorization, licensing, bandwidth, close digital divide (access) )

2. Conquer the current lack of communication and organization as a nationwide movement

3. Do development and fundraising [online community media, project management, $$$]

4. Training and media education

—create a media toolkit for Public Access (based on Worcester model)”

On the wiki, you can also find a list of participants and a link to the original proposition from Dan Gillmor – “phasing out public access TV and replace it with something more attuned to the digital age”.

While it was great to be there with Dan and many folks from the PEG community (who are doing some innovative things with new technologies), I think there was definitely a missed opportunity for the group to come together and find common ground with which to move PEG forward in a digital age.

I would have liked to see more ideas upon which possibly a PEG Internet model could be established. Meaning, what might it look like? Where might its funding sources come from (if not from cable providers)? How might PEG Internet Centers differ from PEG TV Centers? What would this all really look like, feel like, and smell like?

Perhaps this was just the beginning of a much larger conversation, but I look forward to hearing more from folks both within and outside access who are taking a much broader look at opportunities for PEG access to not only exist, but connect, collaborate and participate in an Internet age.

Thanks to Dan for sparking the conversation and to the rest of the group for their contributions. I look forward to participating in further discussions on this topic.

After having survived a 72 hour work week in preparation for our Berkman Center co-sponsored conference this weekend at Harvard Law School, Beyond Broadcast 2006 was a great success! Over 300 attendees from across the country and abroad were in attendance to discuss the future of participatory media beyond traditional broadcasting. The conference was made possible through an exciting collaboration of organizers and sponsors including:

• The Berkman Center for Internet & Society
• Public Radio Exchange
• Center for Social Media
• NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program
• The Project for Open Source Media
• Center for Citizen Media

I was honored to be part of such a great group of organizers, including Jake Shapiro, Steve Schultze, Susie Lindsay, Tim Halle, Shawn Van Every, Dan Gillmor, and Pat Aufderheide. It was a extraordinary opportunity to be among some wonderful people doing amazing work in the areas of participatory media, culture, and society.

During the two days (May 12 & 13), commerical, public, and community broadcasters rubbed shoulders bloggers, podcasters, and videobloggers to discuss and debate the role of public media in a digital media landscape. One where MySpace, YouTube, Ourmedia, and Internet Archive (to name a few) are changing the way people participate with media and communicate with one another in a global society.

A number of the conference organizers blogged the Day 1 sessions at the Beyond Broadcast blog:

* Pat Aufderheide blogged the opening keynote with Pete Boyle from Duke Law School on the policy and legal questions facing open media in a participatory culture.

* Center for Social Media‘s Jessica Duda blogged Panel I, “What the Broadcasters are doing” (Check out the Center’s new website).

* Center for Social Media‘s Barbara Abrash blogged Deborah Scranton’s “The War Tapes” High Order Bit.

For a full list of other sessions and high order bits blogged, visit Beyond Broadcast and follow the left column titled “Read” and follow the the link on the bottom to previous posts. I’ll have to spend some time here myself!

I spent most of my time during the conference (when not worried about the audio, video, and wi-fi not working) uploading some amazing interviews conducted by my co-worker Amanda Michel and Daniel Krawcyk of Digital Bicycle and POSM, during both days of the conference. Visit AudioBerkman to download the podcasts of their conversations with Nolan Bowie, John Lester, Jamie Biggar, Jay Dedman and others. Thank you Amanda and Daniel!

I did find some time to snap a few photos and capture part of Charlie Nesson’s closing remarks on Day 1.

Click here to watch the mini-video.

I’ve been running around like a crazy person at the Berkman Center this week, working with so many great people on all the final details for the Beyond Broadcast conference taking place at the Harvard Law School, this Friday and Saturday.

Jeff did an amazing job working overtime on the poster design (pictured here on the left) and putting together the program book for the conference. Thanks, Jeff!

I printed the name tags for the conference this evening and I was blown away by all of the amazing people coming to the conference.

The schedule for the conference is here and if you’re not able to make it (registration closed today) there are still many ways to participate in the conference. The video webstream will go live on Friday morning at 8:30 and the link will be made available at the conference website. There is also a question tool there to use to add your thoughts and vote on questions from others. If you find interesting links related to the conference topics, tag your del.icio.us links with beyondbroadcast and they’ll show up on the front page of the site.

There’s a room in Second Life, a virtual Ames Courtroom (the room where the conference is being held at Harvard Law School) that will also be webstreaming the conference.

So, if you can’t make it. Join us online and check back after the conference for audio, video, and more multimedia from the conference.

On the Beyond Broadacast Blog, the organizers are looking for input from you about which tracks you’d like to see for Day Two of the conference. Dean Jansen writes

“On day two, the conference will shift gears, from traditional panels and speakers, to highly participatory working groups. Each group is oriented around a topic, and we want attendees to help us choose these themes. The themes are highly flexible; if someone dreams up an interesting topic after listening to the panelists on the first day, that idea can still be integrated into a group. However, getting an early start on evolving and discussing topics is going to make room for everyone to begin deciding what they want to bring to their working group. We have already planned a few groups with topics, such as: “Policy Advocacy,” “Sustainability,” and “Fostering Interaction Between Participants.”