I spoke with Mara Altman of the Village Voice today. She’s doing a piece on “public access television and it’s relevancy in the age of YouTube”. She found me through my blog post, “YouTube = Public Access?“. We talked a bit about my graduate thesis project and some of the questions I’m looking for answers to (including the questions above) with the help from folks in access.

I told her that YouTube can be viewed as complimentary to, but should not viewed as a replacement for, Public Access TV. I said that you can’t find YouTube centers across the country that provide opportunities (found at most Public Access TV centers) for people to gain the necessary skills, tools, and knowledge to create and share stories through media about stuff happening in their communities. I said that while some cable subscribers may not like the programming on their public access channels, it should be considered within the context of local Educational and Government content, as well. PEG provides one of the few forums left on TV where people can find local news and information that is both relevant to their community and created by the public, not by commercial outlets.

I also told her about some of the innovative things happening in public access TV, including geotagging/geovlogging projects like Zip Docs at CCTV and Map Iowa City at PATV. I mentioned that while many access centers are realizing that they need to get up to speed with new Internet distribution technologies, the Alliance for Community Media has a new website using WordPress for its content management system.

We also talked a bit about how current state and federal legislation threatens funding for public access TV and local control of our public-rights-of-way (not to mention the issue of redlining). I asked her if she’d heard about saveaccess.org (which she had) and said if she wants to find people who oppose PEG TV, all she needs to do is pick up the phone and call any one of the many astroturf groups (see “Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing” Common Cause Report PDF) that are popping up across the country.

She was very nice and helpful in recommending the folks at Bronxnet to speak to for my thesis project. I look forward to learning more about them and their access center.

I don’t know when her story for the Village Voice will come out, but I look forward to reading it to see what others had to say on this topic.

CCTV recently received a grant from the Institute of Interactive Journalism for a project to “embed” citizen journalists in communities across Cambridge. Here’s the deal:

“Five segments, one from each of the city’s zip codes, will be produced each month, highlighting news and events from across the city. Segments from each neighborhood will be edited into one 30-minute program that will be cablecast on CCTV’s Channel 9, streamed live on CCTV’s web site, and made available for on-demand viewing and download. Segments will also be incorporated into CCTV’s web-based Cambridge Media Map.”

I’ve created a page on the wiki to explore the relationship between citizen journalism projects like this one happening at CCTV and citizen journalists writing for Placeblogs. I’m looking forward to diving into this topic more fully for my thesis. An entire chapter could easily be devoted to the subject. Here are some of the questions I’ve put together so far:

• What are the differences between citizen journalism initiatives in PEG access TV, like CCTV’s Neighbor to Neighbor project, and Placeblogs?

• What are the issues/advantages/challenges confronting citizen journalists working at PEG access centers v. citizen journalists writing for placeblogs?

• How can ongoing citizen journalism projects at PEG access centers gain greater visibility and acceptance from the broader online citizen journalism community?

If you are a placeblogger, a citizen journalist at a PEG access center, or someone who is interested in these topics and would like to contribute to this collaborative graduate thesis project, please visit the wiki to add your thoughts or share your comments here on this blog.

I’ve created a new page on the wiki, titled “YouTube = Public Access?” to investigate the online narratives surrounding the YouTube/PEG TV debate.

There’s a lot to parse here. On the one hand, local authorities are claiming that YouTube eliminates the need for public access TV. On the other, networked activity is contributing to the mis-understanding between the two.

How does the YouTube viewing public understand PEG TV (see Public Access Guy)? What are the implications of sharing public access TV programming on YouTube or other video sharing sites? How can PEG TV stay relevant on the web next to “user-generated content“?

And as Rik points out

“Activist groups pushing for greater government support for access to the public airwaves need to be alarmed by and prepared for arguments like these. Because as YouTube, vlogging and podcasting become more and more a part of everyday life, groups arguing that the public need their own programming on traditional television and radio are going to have to show why the internet is not the answer. Or at least not the full answer.”

The advertisement above (at least the top half of it) is from a 1972 issue of Radical Software. Jason Daniels posted a link there on the thesis wiki. He thought there might be some good links here for investigating the early days of PEG access TV. He could not have been more correct.

For the purposes of this project, I found the bottom half of the ad (which is available for download) to be most relevant in understanding how the early days of access might be relevant to today’s transition. Here’s a (blown up) version of the bottom half of the ad:

And 7) (most importantly) says “To explore possibilities of integrating various media in communications to create flexible, broad-based public access information system.” Bingo!

I look forward to spending a lot more time exploring the resources available at Radical Software.

Thanks, Jason.

Denver Open Media produced this excellent video that talks about why public access TV is important and it’s potential within a networked culture. Here’s the blip.tv description

“This is a draft of Deproduction’s promotional video for Denver’s new Public Access TV station, Denver Open Media. This is a draft version for review and feedback purposes only, not for distribution. If you want a free copy of the final video, in higher resolution via web or DVD, contact Deproduction or visit denveropenmedia.org.”

Thanks to Ben for the pointer.

So, the wiki’s up and running. There’s some really nice participation on the site so far. Even if you’ve never edited a wiki before, I would recommend checking it out (particularly those in public access, hint, hint). You’ll have to email me though to get access to the site.

I’m still bummed that we can’t seem to figure out how to change our passwords, yet. But the good folks at Emerson’s ITG are looking into this. I don’t think they’ve really ever done anything like this before. Meaning, I believe this is the first time that a wiki has been used for outside-of-Emerson collaboration. But, I could be wrong (which is pretty much always the case).

Unfortunately, you need a user account even to see past the front page. But, I should probably look into this little barrier as well. If anyone else has any thoughts please let me know.

So, for those who can’t see what people have been contributing, I’ll give a brief summary of what people have been up to:

Jason Daniels added to the Background Resources section, including Dee Dee Halleck’s book, Hand-Held Visions: The Impossible Possibilities of Community Media which I really look forward to reading.

Ben Sheldon’s contributed a bunch of great resources, questions, and topics to consider in thinking about this transition from PEG TV to PEG on the web. Under Local v. Global, he asked “How can local/narrowcast content be viewed as relevant in a massmarket/broadcast environment?” In another extremely relevant tid-bit to the project, Ben asks

“A major topic of interest is how this relates to the greater technology needs of the community and how Access centers are uniquely centered to provide broad technology support. As a direct application of this is community mapping projects, which while they need not be high tech (East Somerville Community Mapping Project (http://island94.org/node/22) Access centers could be a natural facilitator for other community organizations or projects.”

Danielle’s mentioned she’s also got some goodies for the wiki. And I look forward to hearing Jason Crow’s feedback on his experience “vlogumenting” citizen journalism.

As for me, I’ll be shifting gears a bit to dig a bit deeper at how the early days of access (founding tenets) are still extremely relevant not only in the context of cable tv, but in the context of the whatever the media access needs for local communities will be in the future. If you have any idea about any of this, please consider sharing it here or on the wiki.

I’m thinking about some of the major themes surrounding the transition from PEG access TV to PEG access on the Internet. I’ve listed (or rather brain-dumped) a number of, what I see as, relevant topics related to the project on the thesis wiki.

I’ve separated the research areas between “micro” and “macro” topics. The macro topics are obviously broad areas for investigation and the micro topics are specific examples of new media production and distribution technologies being adopted by a number of PEG access centers across the U.S.

If you would like to help organize, offer potential research topics and share your knowledge for this project please visit the wiki and dig in.

What started here as a blog to discuss technological developments and innovation in PEG Access TV is now transitioning towards my M.A. thesis project at Emerson College to further explore these and other issues. While the project is not set to “officially” begin until the Fall 2007, I’m working on a number of things in the meantime, including gathering relevant background information.

More importantly, I’ve gotten the thumbs up to make this thesis project as collaborative as possible = excellent. In other words: if you currently work or have worked at the intersection of PEG Access TV and new media technologies please consider participating in this collaborative research project.

Ways To Participate:

1. Wiki: The fine folks at Emerson’s Instructional Technology Group set me up with a wiki for my thesis. Please help build it!
2. Blog: This blog is soon moving to cmediachange.net, where I hope to blog more regularly beginning as soon as it’s up (hopefully later this week). If you are interested in blogging for the site, please email me @ colin_rhinesmith (AT) emerson (DOT) edu.
3. Del.icio.us: tag your bookmarks with cmediachange.
4. Flickr: tag your photos with cmediachange.
5. Propose your own ways to participate on the wiki or here on this blog.

(In related news) In early March, Felicia Sullivan (Organizers’ Collaborative) was kind enough to speak with me for a Community Media in Transition podcast. I haven’t had much time to work on the video, but I’m hoping to post the audio and video very soon (by tomorrow).

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who has participated in this blog or who has linked here. Through this site, I have seen real enthusiasm and excitement around this topic. I hope this next phase will be another opportunity to contribute to the larger conversation about the unique and vital role of PEG access TV and the communities they serve.