Hello! My name is Nicole Belanger, the new Community Media & Technology Coordinator at CCTV.

I will be facilitating the computerCENTRAL and NeighborMedia programs, continuing CCTV's work building community through access to media tools here in Cambridge. I am thrilled and honored to be here collaborating with the talented community producers, staff, and community members who make CCTV thrive.

This blog will serve as a place to highlight some of CCTV's work and programs. I hope it can also be a place for conversations about community media and technology innovation. Can't wait to chat, share ideas, and hear from you.

CCTV is looking for an organized, reliable, and friendly individual with media production experience to help oversee computerCENTRAL, CCTV's computer lab during our Edit Help hours for CCTV Access Members with Open Production Contracts.

A sincere interest in helping people use computers is required, as is sensitivity to the needs and concerns of those new to media production software. Must feel comfortable working with a non-profit organization with a diverse constituency.

Details & Benefits:
* Work 3 hours per week for up to 4 months
* Receive free membership to CCTV
* Take free classes for the duration of the internship
* Production opportunities available
* College credit possible
* Network with the local video production community
* Get valuable teaching experience

Available Shift:
* Thursday (Edit Help) - 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Qualifications: read more...

Photo: Kids met puppets in person at the Tanglewood Marionettes show in Dana Park July 26. This toddler helped the snake charmer adjust his embouchure.

“Oooooh!”

Spectators gasped as the big flower flipped over and turned into a dancer in a blue gown. Johann Strauss’s “Blue Danube” played, and a courtly gentleman took the dancer's hand. A red butterfly hovered discreetly over the pair; they circled the stage and waltzed off into space.

The magical dance was part of “The Fairy Circus,” presented by puppeteer Peter Schaefer and his Tanglewood Marionettes on July 26 at Dana Park in Cambridgeport. The show drew a sizeable crowd on this bright, breezy Monday—285 people, according to a head count by Julie Madden, Director of Community Arts for the Cambridge Arts Council (http://www.cambridgema.gov/CAC/Community/summer.cfm). This was the seventh event to be presented this month in the Council's "Summer in the City" series. read more...

This artist poses by her quilt during Cambridge Open Studios 2010

DEAR TWIGHLIGHT
Sum perfect five am, an lo birds a’twerping,
hollering for food, behold the Lord
loving the sun awake with song
(as I scream my free inside)

A tall, decades old doze awakens in me
and still
tree of poets, my ears seek you always
artists' ‘scape, your colors,family black intonate me

I have too feigned for art-light, your gift is
my private peek at brilliant spark of God

sparkle, shine,

may I grab onto your windswept
features, nibble the gift He gave you,

share with others
while I still
have
a chance

© Toni Bee
July 25, 2010

Colin Rhinesmith, CCTV’s Community Media and Technology Manager, read a farewell card from members of NeighborMedia at the group’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, July 21. A ceremonial cake was presented by blogger SB (Siobhan Bredin).

Rhinesmith leaves CCTV at the end of July to enter a Ph.D. program in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The station’s new Community Technology Coordinator, Nicole Belanger, will work with the NeighborMedia program, he said.

Rhinesmith reported on the 2010 Conference of the Alliance for Community Media held in Pittsburgh earlier this month. He was a presenter at the conference and will continue to be involved in ACM’s citizen journalism initiatives.