LINKS ALL BOARD MEMBERS SHOULD HAVE

The Community Media Review
The official publication of the Alliance for Community Media
Now available on-line:
http://communitymediareview.org/

The Alliance for Community Media
http://www.alliancecm.org/

Mapping Access
http://www.mappingaccess.com/

Pegasys - Enid, Oklahoma
Our closest public-access television facility
http://www.pegasys.org/

And if you didnt' know already, Pegasys faces a real crisis. You can learn more about it at:
http://www.roguetv.org/News.asp?NewsID=13

I'll add a few more when time allows.

COMPLEMENTARY CURRENCIES AND COMMUNITY ACCESS TELEVISION:
A WORK IN PROGRESS

What follows is the expansion of an idea I began to develop while attending the Alliance conference. Please, keep in mind this is just the skeleton of an idea; an expansion of inspiration, if you will.

I was deeply impressed with the presentations of Bernard Leitaer, the Belgian economist who helped create the Euro and visited Salina recently. His ideas of complementary community currency are already realized in cities and towns in the United States and elsewhere. They are not mere hypothetical situations, or economic counterfactuals, they are being implemented today.

His examples of using these kinds of currencies bubbled and stewed inside my head for a few months. It wasn't until I began to think seriously about fostering substantial programming on Community Access, that his ideas began to seem very relevant to our situation.

Here are a few thoughts I've managed to herd into some sort of sense:

Community Access as an Agent for Economic Development:
Utilizing Complementary Currencies with Community Media Centered Projects

Complementary Currency Unit:
Community Media Credit (CMC)

Value of Exchange:
One CMC = $5.00 USD = One Hour Volunteer Labor

Participating Agencies:
Not-For-Profit Organizations:

For-Profit Businesses:

Relationships of Trade:
Individual to Non-Profits:
Volunteers work to create media projects which highlight the work and mission and community communication needs of local non-profit organizations. In return, they are granted a chit of credit good for the exchange of services from local businesses and non-profit organizations. This comes in addition to the participation in the Heartland SHARE program.

Individuals to Businesses:
Individuals are able to redeem the CMC as cash in return for goods and services from local businesses. Caps on usage and time limits may be enforced in order to encourage the distribution and circulation of the CMC’s.

Businesses to Access:
Businesses are able to redeem CMC’s at Community Access for sponsorships and proofs of in-kind donations in return for generous underwriting production credits.

Businesses to Non-Profits:
Businesses are credited for in-kind contributions to local organizations and recognize a potential tax benefit.

Individuals to Access:
Volunteers are able to redeem CMC’s at Community Access in return for merchandise and production material discounts, as well as discounts on memberships.

Businesses to Media;
Businesses are able to redeem CMC’s at local media outlets same as cash in return for advertising charges.

This is what I've managed to compile so far...and I encourage your feedback, thoughts and ideas as well. The use of such complementary currencies is a perfect tool to encourage the investment of volunteer hours and effort into the creation of targeted content of direct benefit to the community. It rewards volunteers, businesses, and non-profits equally, and results in the generation of a currency that is encouraged to be spent, rather than hoarded.
Let me know what you think...

KEYNOTE LUNCHEON
Speaker:
Shelly Palmer
Author of "Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV"
Host, "Media 3.0 with Shelly Palmer" on PBS

This was the most engaging and dynamic keynote speaker I've seen at an Alliance conference. But the message he had to deliver might have been a bit uncomfortable for some in the crowd.

Palmer began by insisting that we in the public-access industry are in the profession of advanced media creation. Our model is the most flexible and dynamic, allowing us the freedom to innovate and explore various production and distribution techniques that the mainstream media has been hesitant to adopt. He says we need to embrace that profession, rather than shy away from it.

October 12, 2005 is a date of great significance to the media community. That was the day, "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" were offered for download as part of the iTunes Music Store. This sparked the arrival of the IP model of consumer-targeted media distribution, and it will not ever go away. It may change, but it will never go away.

He also warned the audience about six particular media buzzwords which should be examined more closely:

1. Mobile Video
Palmer says this term describes nothing more than a parlor trick, rather than a paradigm shift. Clipcasts and Streamcasts are the only distribution models currently available, and should not be seen as a replacement of conventional television.

2. IPTV - Internet Protocol TeleVision
So far, this transport model which uses the internet to transmit video and audio date is for the most part only found in closed systems, known as CDN's (Closed Distribution Networks). While showing some promise as the dominant form of broadband video and audio distribution, the jury is still out on how the media industry will handle how the end-user receives this type of signal.

3. Broadband Video
IP Video, which uses the public internet (as opposed to the closed systems of IPTV) is the most democratic form of data transmission. While bandwidth restricts quality and quantity to some degree, anyone can send and receive almost any kind of data signal.

4. Podcasting
RSS is the single most important term any access staff person, director, or board member will ever encounter. This allows for directed content distribution, consumer control of content, and audience building and tracking potential all with one service. Distributors control content, subscribers control selection, and producers can view statistics on audience numbers and build in interaction.

5. Mesh Networks
This is related to bit-torrent technology, in which one file in a client-server node is connected to two or more other computers which host the same file. This makes blindingly fast downloads possible over broadband connections, without putting too much stress on a single server unit. This is the technology many are looking at as the way around bandwidth problems in the distribution of large media files.

6. Net Neutrality
Shelly questioned whether fighting for Net Neutrality was a battle which could be won. If the current business model stays in place in the media and ISP business, then it certainly seems as if extra charges for differing levels of service may become the norm for the internet.

On-demand video services will NOT replace television until bandwidth concerns can be addressed. Instead the current broadcast model and on-demand models will work together to co-exist. This means one important, overriding principle must be accepted by Access stations:

Access is NOT in the television business. Access is in the CONTENT business. The medium should NOT be the primary focus of concern for access centers. Social Networking and Collaborative Filtering are areas which need to be embraced and actively encouraged at access centers...or else the role of access nationwide will be diminished, and ultimately erased.

This was a rousing call to action, and to some a disturbing glimpse at the future. When Palmer finished, I was on my feet along with several others giving him our applause. But most of the room merely clapped politely...many with some puzzled looks on their faces. From the vantage point of the balcony alone, one could tell easily who GOT the message...and who didn't. Most of those who did get the message were those under the age of 35.

Not to diminish the follow-up speaker at all...but Jack Stanley simply didn't have the same impactful message as Palmer.
Stanley instead talked about his work as an audio archivist, using the same recording technology as Thomas Edison - wax cylinders.
What was interesting to note, is that those original wax cylinders have been the most sturdy and dependable storage mediums for audio information. Since they're not magnetic, they can't be erased by any EM signals or bursts. Since they're not optical data, they don't suffer the same degradation from lasing technology that CD's and DVD's suffer.
The only thing you had to worry about, he joked, was that they might melt on a very hot summer day.

I also found it interesting that he brought up a very telling point about media savvy. The word "Hello" does not appear in any dictionary until after the invention of the telephone.
Alexander Graham Bell was firm on his insistence that the greeting used when answering the telephone was a hearrty, "Hoy, Hoy!"
Edison, who in his heart despised Bell, lobbied for the greeting "Hello!".
Edison won that fight, and how we greet one another, and answer the telephone today have become one and the same. An interesting observation about how pervasive the impact of new communications technology can be on our societies.

After that, I drank a cup of coffee, and dashed off to the last of the workshop sessions - Mapping and Utlilizing Community Resources.

PAUL GREEN COMMENTARY ON THE ACCESS VIDEOBLOG
Check out my big ol' brain at:

feed://feeds.feedburner.com/ACMVlog

I'll be signing autographs later for a small donation...

WORKSHOP SESSION SIX
MAPPING AND UTILIZING COMMUNITY RESOURCES

Moderator:
Rika Welsh, Community Media Consultant

Presenters:
Richard Turner, Montgomery Community Television
Andrew Afflerbach, Columbia Telecommunications Corp.
Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN
Robin Chase, Boston Mayoral Wireless Taskforce/Meadow Networks

Community Broadband Initiatives
Andrew Afflerbach

There is a digital divide in communities across the nation, and corporate solutions are not capable of responding to community needs - only those of their shareholders.
Facilities need to add mobile components, and satellite facilities to ensure their communities have true access to content distribution systems.
IP based technologies should be used whenever and wherever possible - open source models cut the need for costly IP support, maintenence and content creation services.
Bandwidth must be increased through the creation of neighborhood networks, net neutrality legislation, and municipal broadband services.
Visibility for content schedules and content itself must be increased in program guides and search engines.

Changes on the Horizon for Content Distribution and Consumption
Sascha Meinrath

Wireless broadband access is becoming the overriding medium for communication and content distribution.
The next decade will feature a revolution in how media is distributed, consumed and created.
Content will be targeted to people and social networks rather than geographically.
ISP's are feeling increasingly threatened by community broadband technology...and are therefore building networks that serve their billable moments in terms of broadband access, rather than serving community needs, individuals or person-to-person communication.

Municipal Broadband
Robin Chase

Boston is currently examining its community IP needs, and may soon recommend a municipal broadband authority be established.
Benefits would include an immediate increase in the availability of services to everyone in the community.
Rates would be fixed, and not subject to inflation through the use of artificial scarcity.

New Wireless Distribution Benefits
Richard Turner

Creating content for wireless distribution is not very different from any other method of content creation.
The final step is transmitting your content over wireless broadband systems, for use in traditional computing settings or through portable devices.
Demonstrated creating, uploading and distributing video content through a wireless modem connected to a portable video server and viewed using his son's Play Station Portable unit.

This was one of the more politically charged workshop sessions, especially for those proponents of community broadband services. Some incredibly thought-provoking material was presented, especially concerning the staggering amount of "dark fiber" the telecoms and cable industries are keeping dormant in order to create an environment of artifcial scarcity.
The problem of bandwidth is a persistent bugaboo, though. The requirements of uncompressed video are enormous - but there is hope.
The continued creation of bit-torrent like distribution services, which utilize a cloud of servers to hold and distribute fractions of content over a broad base of network systems could very well be the key in helping make bandwidth usage much less harsh. Advances in improving the efficiency of data transmission could also help.

Most of us who had a least a basic understanding of the technology agreed that content distribution was approaching a universal IP model. We also agreed that terestrial cable distribution was going to be around for a good, long while, too. The important thing was moving our centers to a position that allows us to take advantage of these new promising technologies, many of them not costly, and IP-based.

WORKSHOP SESSION FIVE
(Re)Build Your Own Cutting Edge Media Website

Moderator:
Sean Effel, Cambridge Community Television

Speakers:
Moshe Weitzman, Drupal project
Briana Martino, Simmons College
Ravi Jain, Boston Artist, Producer of "Drivetime" Videoblog

All the speakers agreed the future of content distribution will become centered on the internet. The promulgation of broadband technology is at approximately the same stage of development as early corporate CATV systems, and will only grow more capable and sophisticated with time.

There is a difference between Actual Communities and Virtual Communities, but the two can be merged by Access centers that bring together local community content producers and use their centers as physical social networks so volunteers can pool their resources and expertise to work on common projects.

For instance, a television producer may team up with a blogger or podcaster to create content that would be distributed both through the local cable channel as a television show, and on the internet as a series of blog entries, photo-slideshows, or video clips.

Some communities are involved in "Community Mapping Projects" where the access center invites volunteers to gather for a weekend, and begin "mapping" their local communities and favorite spots in order to create an interactive digital map of their town, complete with text information, photographs and video clips. This alone opens the door for funding from economic development monies, especially if businesses, restaurants and shopping locations can be mapped.

DRUPAL
Moshe Weitzman

This was perhaps the most impressive part of the presentation, and one that has firmly convinced me that our station needs to adopt the Drupal content management system as soon as possiible.

Drupal is an open-source server piece of software that allows web page creation and updates in an amazingly simple and convenient way. Imagine no longer depending on Dreamweaver, Front Page, or FTP programs to update information on a web site. Imagine anyone on the staff being given their own areas of web space to develop and update on a regular basis. It's a blindingly fast and simple way of making an access center's web presence more effective and content-rich. A built-in content aggregator pulls in media updates from outside sources AND features a very robust security scheme.
NASA uses Drupal for its web pages...and perhaps best of all...it's FREE.

Take this a step further, and you can empower individual producers to create and maintain their own blog spaces on the access server, with the aggregator sending fresh updates each time a volunteer producer adds new content or entries to his or her space. By centralizing the access center as a place where emerging media producers can congregate physically, and supplying volunteers with the tools to create, update and promote their own content, Access could take an incredibly bold and innovative step into the future.

In addition, Access could becom the true center for non-profit based web content and communication, freeing local organizations from the burden of paying for committed IT supprt and services. Something the creators of the original Salnet had in mind all along.

Grooming Volunteer Producers to Use Emerging Technologies
Briana Martino

Access centers need to take advantage of Social Computing - where people are creating a social dynamic both on-line and off-line around content creation. This was hinted at by fostering partnerships between tech-savvy internet users, and more traditional television producers. It also creates a cafe-style atmosphere where people can cluster in groups and learn about and share the content creation experience.

Portable devices are becoming more commonly accepted as outlets for media distribution and consumption. Cell phones that download music, iPods and other MP3 players, and portable DVD players and laptops are slowly becoming more commonplace in our society. Being able to create community-oriented content for these devices will make sure that distribution stays current.

Training and Services must become very individualized, catering to separate needs and interests of volunteers. Less emphasis should be placed on group training, more on individual training, but groups should be formed around project-based activities. The above-mentioned community mapping project would be an excellent example.

Collaboration is critical. Volunteers must network and invest common time in completing those project-based activities. This forms the core of a collaborative model of content creation for an access center.

Blogging and Blog Creation
Ravi Jain

The "Drivetime" video blog is creaated entirely in Jain's car. He interviews guests while on his morning commute, picking them up and dropping them off along the way.
He stresses the necessity for teaching producers about the internal consistency of any production, whether it is a blog, television show, or podcast.
The benefits of IP based communication is the increase in interactivity between the producer and the audience. Feedback is more immediate and direct, and can lead to a greater chance for interaction between producers and audience members.

Content hosting is available in many forms from many different services, some of them free, some of them not. I have a list of some which are all free that I will be publishing soon.

By far the most encouraging and exciting of the conference tracks. I felt this one workshop session made the entire conference worthwhile.

WORKSHOP SESSION THREE/FOUR
DIGITAL CONTENT DISTRIBUTION FOR THE PRODUCER/ACCESS CENTER

This is the part of the conference where things started to get really interesting. As discussion moved away from policy and its related implications, people began to learn some pretty startling things about the state of technological innovation and its impact on community communications.

Session Three: Digital Content Distribution for the Producer

Moderator:
Jay Dedman, Node 101/Fireant.tv

Speakers:
Ann Theis, Manhattan Neighborhood Network

Aaron Valdez, Public Access Television, Iowa City

Shawn Van Every, Interative Telecommunications Program, NYU

Jacob Redding, Manhattan Neighborhood Network

This was perhaps the most exciting and beneficial workshop of the entire conference, so far. It addressed the myriad possibilities which can now be used to deliver information and foster dialogue inside communities, and between them.

Let's begin with blogging. The fact that you're reading this...and that some of you have engaged in conversation and communication by posting replies...is evidence that this internet-based form of a bulletin-board is an effective tool for speech. Using nothing more than simple text (since my videocamera was damaged during the trip), we're exchanging information and talking about ideas and concepts. It's not that difficult to add pictures to the mix, either. Depending on yor blogging service or software, it's nothing more complicated than a drag-and-drop operation. If a volunteer can use Final Cut Pro in only the most rudimentary way...they could still be a successful blogger.

Take that to another level with podcasting. Sit in front of your computer...or just find a tape-recorder and sit somewhere else...find a friend and have a conversation. Or just talk to yourself. It doesn't matter. As long as you have a way of recording yourself, and then digitizing that audio, you have the foundations for a podcast. Just a shade more complex than creating a blog, podcasting allows for producers to not only offer an audio component to their web interactions, but they can begin syndicating that content to an audience. By creating a simple RSS feed*, volunteers can offer their thoughts to the universe-at-large, and see what comes back. Jump up another level of complexity, and you can begin to offer not just text, still images and audio, but video content as well.

There are a number of exciting services which offer to host short-form video content for free. Networking volunteer producers with those resources is how a small, but growing, number of Access centers are getting volunteers connected and communicating in the digital age.

Especially in places in Iowa City, volunteers at the local access station are being gathered together to work on net-based mapping projects which highlight their communities. Acting alone, but working together, they spread out and cover their neighborhoods, posting content that enriches and celebrates their hometown.

Simply learning about the alternatives that are available for volunteers to exploit was extremely exciting.

Workshop Session Four:
Digital Content Distribution for the Access Center

Moderator:
Jason Daniels, Lowell Telecommunications Group

Speakers:
Jesse Lerman, Princeton Server Group
Donna Liu, University Channel/Princeton University

This was a bit heavier and sadly, a bit more pedantic than the previous meeting. Since next to no one in the audience had any familiarity with the technical processes behind this process, the workshop was a sort of very basic training. What it boiled down to are the following two choices:

1. Host material yourself, on your own server using your own bandwidth.

OR

2. Purchase hosting services from someone else.

Those are the two main options...but there is a third alternative, which involves some home-brewed peer-to-peer filesharing software. This application is called "Digital Bicycle", and is used to facilitate the rapid sharing of massive video files between access centers. I believe (I'll need to check to be sure) that this is one example of an open-source piece of software development which is free of charge to use.

The use of distributed file-sharing in a peer-to-peer environment using bit-torrent-style tools is pretty interesting, but may be just beyond the comfortable technical grasp of our Access facility. Unless there's a culture of computer users that our center can engage in a meaningful way, that is...hmmmmm.

This morning, I learn about (re)designing websites to be cutting-edge presences on the web, take in the keynote luncheon speakers, and then (time willing) hit the last of the confernce tracks before rushing off to the airport to catch my flight back home.

I may or may not get a chance to update this blog today...so please forgive me if you don't see anything new for a while.




*I didn't want the post to be too technical, but RSS feeds aren't just for audio and video information, they're for ANY kind of updated information on a website. That can include new text announcements, new pictures...whatever. Your aggregator will check for xml updates on a regular basis, and download the approrpiate content when it's found.