Alliance for Community Media International Conference

ACM National Conference Ryanne Hodson mov | wmv | mpg

Alliance for Community Media International Conference was held in Boston in July, and CCTV staff, in collaboration with staff from Lowell Telecommunications, developed the groundbreaking Emerging Media Track.

Based on the question Where does PEG Access fit into this new media landscape? The Emerging media track was designed to assist access center staff, producers, and municipal regulators and legislators in continuing to fulfill the mission and potential of public access and community media.
The discussion of new technologies was held within the framework of three core concepts:

• The Continued Relevance of the Mission of Public Access
• Access Centers Serving as Trusted Aggregators of Social Media
• Use of Bandwidth in the Public Interest

The conference web site, acmboston.org, grew from a typical site into a dynamic demonstration of the power of new tools in fostering an interactive exchange of information and ideas. Well-known Video Blogger Ryanne Hodson was brought in from California to serve as “Official Conference Blogger;” Ryanne posted interviews with conference attendees on a daily basis. All conference materials from the Emerging Media track were posted on the web site, and participation in the blogs and discussion groups continued well after the conference ended.

As a result of the success of the Emerging Media track, CCTV’s Associate Director Sean Effel was invited to present at the Western States ACM Regional Conference in October.

Beyond Broadcast Conference

Beyond Broadcast John Donovan mov | wmv | mpg

Tapped by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, CCTV pulled out all the stops in May to shoot the proceedings of a very exciting and provocative conference entitled “Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture.” This conference brought together leaders in public broadcasting, social media making, academia, and web development to discuss, debate, and demonstrate the future of public media in cyberspace.

CCTV videotaped all of the first day’s sessions of this 2-day conference, including four panel discussions and a half-dozen individual presenters. Topics ranged from who’s in control of the changes that are coming and what values are behind those controls, to what the public broadcasters are doing and how web media companies are inviting public participation; from viable business models for public media of the future, to how the younger generation is redefining interaction in cyberspace, and the social dimension of online gaming.

It was an eye-opening experience for those of us who’ve been working in public access television all these years, and fortunately, it is available in a permanent form on DVD. Contact us if you would like your own copy.