Colin Rhinesmith

I’m really looking forward to presenting at the Grassroots Use of Technology conference at UMass Lowell next weekend with a few of my fellow Boston Action Tank cohorts, Marie Celestin, Aliza Dichter, Denise Moorehead, and Ada Robinson. Here’s a description of our panel, entitled “Strategies for Shaping the Media/Tech Future: Policy, Funding & Organizing“:

The media/communications environment is rapidly changing. Who will control the networks and tools that social justice activists use? How can we work pro-actively for media & technology systems to better serve our communities? The purpose of this workshop is to generate strategic thinking about how we can improve the media/communications system and to share some strategy-building tools. We will talk about the types of policies, technologies and economics that can create a better media future, and we will strategize ways to win and protect what we need and want. This workshop will build on the goals generated in the prior session “Organizing the Organic Internet,” where participants will collaboratively write an Internet Justice Bill of Rights. (The sessions are designed to work together, and also independently. We welcome you to join us whether or not you attend both sessions.) This workshop is presented by members of the Boston Action Tank– a new, experimental “think tank” of people who work at the community level using media & technology. We are aiming to have conversations, do research and analysis, and form a sort of strategy lab for projects that can help build the media movement. We’ve created this workshop to help us learn from you, and to help you position your current work in a long-term strategic framework.

Read more or register online at Grassroots Use of Technology 2008.

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I just finished a two-session blogging class last night at CCTV. It was a small class of three, but the size allowed us to really dive into topics that participants were most curious about. We started last week’s class with an overview of why someone might blog. I focused on blogging as a conversation to point out the fact that blog posts are really just the start of what can be extended conversations.

Most participants were interested in learning how to upload pictures to their blog. There was also interest in videoblogging and podcasting, which we covered in last night’s class. During the first class, everyone created a blog using Blogger.com. But after a week of using their Blogger blogs, they were interested in trying out Wordpress.com. Participants liked using Wordpress much better. They felt that it was easier to navigate and the theme options were much better.

So, I set up a Wordpress.com blog along with the class. It is a great tool for highlighting a number of easy ways to use text, photos, video, and audio on your blog. We also spent a good deal of time reviewing wordpress widgets and other layout options.

It was a great class and a lot of fun. I’m teaching a class on Web 2.0 next Monday, which I’m also really looking forward to.

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On Monday, February 25 the Berkman Center for Internet & Society is hosting a one-day FCC Hearing on the future of broadband network management practices.

Panelists include a wide range of legal scholars, telecom executives and technical specialists including David L. Cohen, Executive Vice President of Comcast; Eric Klinker, Chief Technology Officer of BitTorrent; Marvin Ammori, General Counsel for Free Press; and Berkman Faculty Director Yochai Benkler.

The schedule for the day is online at the Berkman Center Events & Webcasts blog. Free Press has set-up a page with more information - including info on how the public can submit their own video-testimonies to the FCC during the event - at Save The Internet.com.

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“Intake workers Selma and Delores describe the project to one of our applicants.” Photo from Cambridge Community Television

Yesterday’s orientation at Cambridge Community Television for our [bridging the] digital divide program was a great success. Over 30 applicants came to CCTV to learn more about the program and sign up for basic computer training.

As part of the program, participants will receive a free refurbished computer (either PC or Mac) and a wireless Internet access node. During the training, participants will learn how to connect to the City’s wireless network using their wireless node, or transmitter. Through participants’ involvement in the program they will also be helping to strengthen the wireless network for their neighbors closest to them. To learn more about the City’s wireless network involved in this program, visit Cambridge Public Internet Initiative.

Yesterday’s orientation began with coffee and snacks for intake workers with whom I met to review the following intake process that took place throughout the day:

1. Intake workers reviewed the program with participants.

2. Participants wrote down their goals and what they hoped to achieve during the program.

3. Participants filled out a computer skills assessment in order to be placed in the appropriate computer trainings.

4. Participants signed a contract that explained our commitment and their commitment to the program.

5. Intake workers filled out a training registration form with participants.

The process went very smoothly throughout the day. After participants met with intake workers, Matt Landry (Cambridge Educational Access) and I signed up participants for computer trainings set to begin next weekend. The day was a great opportunity to meet with and welcome participants in the program. It was also a lot of fun.

The participants I met with seemed genuinely excited and appreciative to be involved in the program, which has been over a year in planning with many different parties involved across the City of Cambridge. It’s exciting to see the program finally in action.

To learn more about the program and to follow along with its progress, visit the digital divide group at Cambridge Community Television.

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Well, this blog’s back from break to share the exciting news that our course video from last semester, “Re-Imagining Boston City Hall Plaza Using Second Life,” just made it onto the front page at Boston.com under the “Your Videos” section. The exposure has generated over 2,500 views of the video on YouTube so far. And there’s some good discussion about how people feel about the real life Boston City Hall Plaza and using virtual worlds, like Second Life, to re-imagine our public spaces.

Watch the video and join the discussion.

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I had an amazing first week at my new job as Community Media Coordinator at Cambridge Community Television. I should say up front that I’ll probably be blogging a lot about my job here because there’s so many exciting things happening. But to be clear, I am not getting paid by CCTV to write about my job on this blog. Rather, I am getting paid to blog here. And that’s where where I will be providing updates regularly.

In my new role, among other responsibilities, I am the project manager for an initiative that we’re working on with the City of Cambridge to provide refurbished computers and training for residents at one of the city’s public housing developments. Residents who participate in this pilot program will receive a desktop computer for their home that will be used to connect to the city’s wireless network. To read more background on the project, as well as ongoing developments visit the Digital Divide group on CCTV’s website.

I’m also working with the amazing volunteers who intern and provide technical support to residents in CCTV’s computer lab, computerCENTRAL. I also look forward to providing regular updates on the computerCENTRAL blog, where you can watch videos with CCTV’s “Computer for Seniors” participant Marie Caso and local artist RamRam Abdellah.

It’s also CCTV’s 20th anniversary and there are many celebrations planned throughout the city and throughout the year. So stay tuned to our channels if you’re a Cambridge resident and/or on the website.

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QuickTime Video

Earlier today on a snowy afternoon in downtown Boston, students, faculty, staff, members of the Mayor of Boston’s Office and others convened at Emerson College to watch a deed and virtual key to Boston Island in the virtual world Second Life presented to the City of Boston. The video above features footage from the event, including a presentation by Gene Koo, Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School to Bill Oates, Chief Information Officer for the City of Boston.

During the event, Emerson College Professor Eric Gordon said the event today was a celebration “to launch the work we’ve been doing in Second Life called Hub2 with the City of Boston and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.” Hub2 is a project “using Second Life to stir up ideas about our shared spaces. To build together and do something about the spaces that we share now.”

Gordon also said the purpose of Hub2 was “not to leave our bodies behind but to use virtual worlds to harness the physical world. This is a launching pad for doing more work in the future to change the way that we think about civic engagement.”

Bill Oates, the Chief Information Officer for the City of Boston said the project “Tried to carve out a piece of us to think about innovation, as technology evolves.” And he asked, “How can we utilize technology to engage better with the citizenry? We don’t know where this is going to lead.”

Oates said this project is a “great way to think about using new technologies” for

(1) Working with institutions in the areas
(2) Workforce development, and
(3) Socializing our youth into these technologies to think about how they can become better engaged.

You can read more about the event today, from the press release at Hub2.

RUNTIME: 00:01:49, SIZE: 320×240, 20MB, .MOV, H.264 codec

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I’m editing our group final video project for Hub2 in preparation for our meeting with the Boston Mayor’s Office next Thursday (see press release). The video is a mashup of Creative Commons licensed Flickr photos of Boston City Hall Plaza with video captured from our group’s Collaboration space on Boston Island in Second Life. I hope to have something to share with our group tomorrow. If I get the thumbs up, I hope to share it here, as well.

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I’m beginning my final paper for my directed study on issues related to open access to educational materials and copyright law. Here’s my working abstract:

In recent years, open access repositories have become increasingly popular tools for teaching and learning in the digital age. But copyright law remains a serious obstacle to these types of open sharing models. Further, it has created a culture of confusion and fear of legal backlash among educators and the institutions to which they belong. The result has led many to believe that locking down educational materials behind walled-gardens is the best path forward. This paper reviews recent educational and technological efforts towards overcoming these barriers. The author provides a literature review on the issues relevant to this heated debate between how to balance the rights of copyright holders with those who seek to use copyrighted materials for teaching and learning in the digital age.

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