From Tony Shawcross, Executive Director at Open Media Foundation:

“Please help distribute widely!

The Open Media Foundation invites Public Access partners to join us in applying for a Second-Round BTOP Sustainable Broadband Adoption proposal. With the deadline for the second and final round of BTOP grants approaching on March 15th, OMF was disappointed to learn just last week that, despite getting past the Due-Diligence phase of the first round, our proposal was not selected for funding. While the late rejection has left us with a short window of opportunity to re-apply, the process has been very informative and educational in revising the proposal for a second try.

The vision of the project involves updating Public Access TV stations into integrated on-line institutions that serve as a gateway for disadvantaged communities to begin creating multimedia content for the web and encouraging sustainable broadband adoption among communities with historically low broadband use. Participating stations will receive support in implementing the Open Media Project tools which, among other things, automate the process of posting all video content on-line. The Open Media Foundation will provide the development, integration, and if necessary, equipment required to implement the features of the Open Media Project (as outlined at http://openmediaproject.org/features)

Participating Stations will be asked to support early adopters in their local “disconnected communities” (neighborhoods with low broadband penetration rates) to produce content that conveys the relevance of broadband in their lives. Free Speech TV will produce a national TV series for both DishNetwork and DirecTV featuring samples from the participating stations. As with our first round application, we also plan to partner with the ACM to support a full-time staff evaluation expert, documenting best-practices in sustainable broadband adoption among member stations and developing a knowledge-base with search-able content on a wide range of related issues.

Because the window is so tight, interested parties have only one-week to complete the new application form at openmediaproject.org Keep in mind that completion of the application, and participation in the proposal does not guarantee funding, nor does it legally bind your station to any agreement. ?The application is required to be considered for participation in the grant, but it is not until the grant is awarded and a subsequent contract is signed by your ED and Board that your organization would be legally bound to any agreements.

Feel free to contact me or Maria(at)openmediafoundation(dot)org with any questions.”

Tony Shawcross
Executive Director
Open Media Foundation
700 Kalamath St
Denver, CO 80204
720-222-0160 x200
tony(at)openmediafoundation(dot)org

Last night, I had a dream.

In this dream, I spoke with a friend who works in public radio. I told him that people from PEG access TV and Public Broadcasting need to find ways to collaborate in the digital age. He agreed.

When I woke up this morning, I realized my dream could be a reality and posed the following on Twitter:

I’m interested in helping to bridge the #pegtv & #pubmedia divide. I think we may need each other. Who’s with me?

This idea was later re-Tweeted by folks from both PEG access TV and Public Broadcasting. I was pleased to see that others shared this interest. However, if we are going to bridge this public media divide then we’ll need to begin by addressing the reasons why this divide exists. Here is my hunch about a few of the reasons why:

• Public Broadcasters don’t take Public access TV seriously
• PEG access TV advocates believe Public Broadcasting does not truly represent the public

We could talk for hours about the reasons for this public media divide. But, it’s critical now, more than ever, for PEG access TV and Public Broadcasting to explore new opportunities for collaboration. Why?

• PEG access TV lacks the public awareness enjoyed by Public Broadcasting
• Public Broadcasters need access to local residents who benefit from PEG access TV services
• Most importantly, both PEG access TV and Public Broadcasting are becoming less relevant as viewers AND producers move to the Internet

As the FCC begins to investigate the Future of Media, it is important for public media, including PEG access TV and Public Broadcasting, to explore opportunities for collaboration.

It’s time to start the conversation.

(Photo above by Robert Levesque available on Flickr under a Creative Commons license)

From the Alliance for Community Media:

The Alliance for Community Media is sponsoring a 90-minute webinar on Citizen Journalism, Tuesday, March 2nd at 1 PM EST for the irresistibly low member cost of $10. Sign up today and pass this on to others who would benefit.

A number of community media centers are participating in exciting new collaborations with local organizations, neighborhood activists, schools, and media outlets to create online, hyperlocal, citizen-journalism sites.

Learn how citizen-journalism projects have been set up by Cambridge Community TV and Grand Rapids Community Media Center. Get an overview of 56 different projects nationwide that have been funded by J-Lab, The Institute for Interactive Journalism. Hear an editor’s point of view when it comes to generating credible and competent content from local residents for the Twin Cities Daily Planet.  Pose questions to our four distinguished panelists to understand the rewards and challenges of these innovative projects that are using digital technologies to generate civic awareness and participation even as traditional journalism institutions are facing their greatest challenges to sustainability.

Registration Information:

Webinar: Tuesday, March 2nd, 1 PM EST
Cost:  ACM Members:  $10 / Non-members: $15
Registration link:  http://alliancecm.org/civicrm/event/info?id=16&reset=1

After registration, you will receive a URL, a telephone number, and an access code for participation.

This webinar and others to follow in the coming months are made possible by a grant to the ACM from the Surdna Foundation.  In addition to the webinars, Surdna has supported the creation of the Community Media 2.0 blog site, featuring interviews with PEG practitioners discussing their best practices.

Panelist information:

Laurie Cirivello is Executive Director of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center, where she leads a staff team providing services in public access cable, community radio, and nonprofit IT support and web development. GRCMC received a grant from the Knight Foundation and the Grand Rapids Community Foundation to launch an online citizen journalism outlet called “The Rapidian.”

Laurie has been an executive director of PEG operations since 1993 and has assumed numerous leadership roles within the Alliance for Community Media.

Colin Rhinesmith is Community Media Coordinator at Cambridge Community Television (CCTV) in Cambridge, MA. Previously, Colin was Digital Media Producer for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where he produced audio & video podcasts for MediaBerkman and the Citizen Media Law Project.

At CCTV, Colin manages the NeighborMedia program and other community media and technology projects. He also teaches many of CCTV’s web media courses. Colin wrote his Master’s Thesis on the intersection of PEG Access Television and the Social Web. Colin’s blog can be found at http://colinrhinesmith.com.

Jan Schaffer, former Business Editor and a Pulitzer Prize winner for The Philadelphia Inquirer, is executive director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism and one of the nation’s leading thinkers in the journalism reform movement.

She left daily journalism in 1994 to lead pioneering journalism initiatives in the areas of civic journalism, interactive and participatory journalism and citizen media ventures.

J-Lab is a center of American University’s School of Communication. She launched J-Lab in 2002 to help newsrooms use innovative computer technologies to engage people in important public issues. The center now spotlights new forms of digital storytelling on www.J-Lab.org. It rewards innovative practices through the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. It funds cutting-edge citizen media start-ups through its New Voices project. It built web tutorials on how to launch and manage community news sites (www.J-Learning.org). It collects information on community, citizen and original journalism projects with the Knight Citizen News Network and it raises awareness of women in media in a partnership with McCormick Foundation through the New Media Women Entrepreneurs project.

J-Lab is the successor to the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, a $14 million project which Schaffer previously led. The center helped to fund more than 120 pilot projects that developed new reporting techniques to engage people better in public life.

Mary Turck is the editor of the TC Daily Planet, a title that encompasses tasks ranging from reporting on legislative hearings to bringing snacks for citizen journalist and community media partner meetings. Mary is the former editor of the award-winning Connection to the Americas and AMERICAS.org. She is also a recovering attorney and the author of many books for young people (and a few for adults), mostly focusing on historical and social issues.

She currently teaches workshops on citizen journalism and immigration. Mary lives in St. Paul with her husband, their two daughters and two dogs. Mary’s blog is called Keeping the Faith.

Elliot Margolies, the Moderator, was Executive Director at media centers in Palo Alto and Cupertino, California.  He has a background in documentary and news production and a masters degree in broadcast journalism.

The national media reform organization, Free Press is asking community media makers to participate in a survey about the opportunities and challenges facing the field in a changing media landscape.

About the survey, Free Press writes:

This survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. We intend to produce and publicize a report that may include quotations from your responses. You have the option to indicate whether we may use your name and the name of your organization in connection with your survey responses. Thank you for taking the time to share this valuable information about your work.

The survey results will help Free Press create future public media campaign efforts. They will also share the results with survey participants who choose to include their names.

Please take a moment to respond to the survey: http://www.freepress.net/communitymedia/survey

Inspired by last October’s Knight Commission report, “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age,” the Federal Communications Commission launched a new review last week, entitled The Future of Media to examine and report on the information needs of local communities.

The FCC’s public notice, released on January 21 (.Doc), announcing the initiative explains:

The objective of this review is to assess whether all Americans have access to vibrant, diverse sources of news and information that will enable them to enrich their lives, their communities and our democracy.

The FCC is encouraging public comments and suggestions, by March 8, 2010, on various aspects of the media landscape, including changes within Noncommercial and Public Media. In question 27, the FCC asks a number of pertinent questions related to the state of Public, Educational and Government Access Television:

With regard to cable television, local franchising authorities can require a cable operator to provide channel capacity for Public, Education and Government (PEG) channels and some facilities and funding for such channels. Are these channels being used as effectively as possible for the provision of useful news and information to communities? How has the role of PEG channels changed over time, and how could their effectiveness be improved? Does statewide franchising change the number and composition of PEG channels? Does it serve to promote the intended benefits from PEG channels or undermine them? Are there other ways to provide for the benefits from PEG channels in the digital age? How should operators of PEG channels work with noncommercial television and radio licensees, as well as with other non-profit media entities?

The FCC is also looking for answers to the following questions about the state of Media In Your Community:

Tell us about your community and its media. Do you have a newspaper? Local TV news stations? Great websites? Anything else? What works well? What works poorly? How have things changed over time? What information do you wish you could get but can’t?

The Future of Media website at Reboot.FCC.Gov also provides visitors with the opportunity to vote on ideas that have already been submitted.

To learn more about the FCC’s Future of Media, visit the project’s mission on their website.

At 9:15 this morning, there was a steady flow of traffic to our polling place at the Hardy Elementary School in Arlington. There was no line at the registration tables, but morning commuters did continue to file into the building.

For Arlington residents in search of their polling places, the Town of Arlington’s website has 2010 election information to help you get out to vote.

Andy Metzger at The Arlington Advocate has compiled a list of election resources and places to discuss the election for Voters of Arlington.

At 10:30 AM, the traffic appeared to remain steady as cars filled up the elementary school parking lot (pictured above).

For those interested in learning more about today’s election, the Boston Globe has set up a page on their website to track the The 2010 Massachusetts Senate Race.

(Photo above by Colin Rhinesmith available under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 license)

Recently, I’ve been thinking about community media tools, the physical places where they are used, and the process by which community media organizations, to quote Bob Devine, help to “bring private citizens into public life.”

In his 2000 presentation at the Alliance for Community Media conference in Tuscon, Arizona, Bob Devine began with this statement:

“For many years I’ve insisted that one of the key roles that public access organizations play in their communities involves the process of bringing private citizens into public life and engaging them in active roles of citizenship within those communities.”

I couldn’t agree more.  I see it happen everyday.

How do I mean?

Take for example the passerby outside the community media center who decides to enter the facility for the first time.  She introduces herself to the community media center staff member and says, “Hi. I pass by your facility everyday, and I want to learn more about what happens in here.”  She begins her journey from private citizen into public life.

She learns that she can become a community media center member at a reduced cost by volunteering her time as an intern in the community media center’s public access computer lab.  She takes a volunteer position helping seniors gain skills using computers and the Internet.  She becomes more engaged in the community through her involvement as a volunteer.

When the community media organization calls upon local residents to participate in a community needs assessment focus group she shows up to contribute her ideas to the conversation.  She tells the focus group leader (drawing from her experience working with seniors in the public access computer lab) how community media makes the community stronger and how the community media center plays an important role in this process.  Her comments are included in a report used by the local government to assess the community media center’s future in the local community.  It is at this point that she has become actively engaged in the community’s civic life.

The community media organization – the place not the tools – played an important role in bringing this private citizen into public life.

This is not to say that the volunteer wasn’t already engaged in the community.  I cannot say, because I don’t know.

I am simply providing evidence from my experience to support Bob Devine’s statement that community media organizations play an important role in helping residents to become more engaged in civic life.

(image above from contentandcarrier)

—
References

Devine, Robert H. “Access and Community Building.” Brief Summary of a Presentation given at the Alliance for Community Media National Conference. Tucson, Arizona, 2000. Programmers. Washington, D.C. July 26.

On Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s website, there is a list of ways for citizens to use media to stay informed and involved in civic affairs. As the screen capture above shows, the Governor recommends that residents use YouTube AND Public Access Television as tools for civic engagement.

For more on the discourse surrounding YouTube v. Public Access Television, visit my archived posts at Community Media in Transition.

The future of commercial media is local and online. All signs seem to point in that direction. While the Internet continues to wreak havoc on newspapers, local TV appears to be next in line.

What will this mean for the future of local media?

In a recent article in MediaPost by Diane Mermigas, entitled “Sagan: TV Survival Means Hyper-Local Online Video,” Akamai CEO, Paul Sagan tells Mermigas:

“The broadcast network model is crumbling, so the only thing left is for TV stations to use their strong local identity and connections to become a 24/7 online video news and information hub for all things local. The Internet is the only source of growth.”

As newspapers and TV stations shift to increase monetization of local media, local residents should consider a number of key issues:

#1. What stories will be presented?

Will residents be inundated by more fires, crime, and “if it bleeds, it leads” coverage? Or, will the future of local media look more like community radio and television, where the voices, concerns, and hopes of residents are presented to other community members to enhance civic life?

#2. What opportunity will residents have to shape their local media landscape?

In communities that still have Public, Educational and Government Access Television, residents are often provided the opportunity to tell their local officials what they want in their local media system through the video franchising process.  For example, see this video about the cable license renewal process from Cambridge Community Television (where I work).

However, the shift from local to state video franchising, in recent years, has created fewer opportunities for residents to influence their local media landscape.

#3. What will this mean for residents without Broadband access?

Local officials should work to ensure that low-income residents, seniors, and people with disabilities have equal access to hyper-local news and information via broadband Internet.

As commercial media shift their focus to the local, local residents should get involved to determine what they want from their local media system.

(Photo above by kalleboo available on Flickr under a Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 license)

Updated November 30, 2009

Over at Broadband.gov, the Federal Communications Commission is accepting ideas from the public to help them create a national broadband strategy. More information about the National Broadband Plan can be found on the Benton Foundation’s website.

Implementing a national broadband plan is going to require formidable resources – and physical locations – where broadband services can be offered to those in need. My hope is that community media and technology centers, as trusted community institutions, will play an essential role in this process.

I submitted this idea to Broadband.gov last month. Here’s what I wrote:

Cities and towns need support to help residents gain skills in computers and broadband technology. Community media and technology centers, including public libraries and other community institutions, provide digital and media training to residents using computers and the Internet.

As the recently released report from the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy explains, “People need relevant and credible information to be free and self-governing.” Therefore, any national broadband strategy must include funding and support for community media and technology centers to help residents acquire technology skills and engage in civic life.

It doesn’t look like the website is still accepting votes. But if you’d like to leave a comment in support, please visit Broadband.gov. Thank you.