Does this guy Sleep?

Oh my god. I am tired and need some B vitamin after reading Colin Rhinesmith’s blog.

It’s a great compendium of “stuff” surrounding digital culture, law, participatory culture, media arts, and just as importantly, community television.

Oh, and he’s a graduate student working part-time. I remember now. He doesn’t sleep.

How do we clone this guy?

Citizen Media meets Citizen Media

Here’s a mention of community radio station KAXE in Grand Rapids MN working with some of the people involved with citizen empowerment on the web in Minnesota. I don’t know Griff Wigley that well, but he’s sort of a friend of a friend and has been involved with MN e-Democracy. Nice to see, especially because KAXE has such a great tradition of giving citizens a voice in their community.

How to Cook a Mancini’s Steak

Serving Our Troops, a local volunteer group in Saint Paul, has been leading a support effort for troops and Minnesota National Guard stationed overseas in Kosovo and Iraq the last three years. The latest effort will ship over 11,000 steak dinners from the Saint Paul steakhouse Mancini’s to troops in Iraq in April. Then families in Minnesota will join their loved ones via video teleconference for a family meal together. It’s a great community project.

My thanks to John Marshall for asking SPNN to be a part of this project.

Community Radio Conferences

Turn about is fair play…Several good radio conferences taking place….

WWOZ is a great station, preserving and honoring the culture at the heart of a great community….They will be hosting the National Federation of Community Broadcasters Conference in New Orleans, April 11-14.

Another community radio gathering is taking place in Madison, WI in July (hmmm…looks like Madison is some kind of hotbed).   WORT is hosting the 11th Grassroots Radio Conference, July 27-30.    I’ll be at ACM National so I’ll miss out on the Madison action.

Maybe someone could coordinate something so we can all get together, say in 2008, 2009 or 2010?

MN Testimony on Statewide Video Franchising

There’s a really nice summary of Friday’s testimony in the MN House on statewide franchising on The Blandin Foundation Broadband blog.  Blandin has been a leader in the philanthropic community in Minnesota in trying to make broadband availability a top state priority.

If you want the video link to see the testimony, go here.

All Things Access

Hey, here’s our standing access production in Saint Paul, All Things Access.   Other episodes are at our website.   Enjoy!

Spring and Summer Events with ACM

Five Alliance for Community Media related conferences are on my calendar right now…I just need to figure out how to take advantage of my frequent flier miles.

First is the ACM-Northeast Region Spring Conference in late April, hosted by the New Hampshire Coalition for Community Media in Bedford, NH. Dot Grover and the NHCCM have been doing a great job organizing people in the Granite State (did I get that right?), and the Northeast is a hotbed of organizing activity with great work happening in just about every state.

That same weekend is the ACM-Northwest Conference, ENGAGE, ENLIGHTEN, EMPOWER: MAKE OUR MEDIA MATTER” in Olympia, WA.    The Conference will feature the Best of the Northwest video festival.

Soon after that is the WAPC Spring Conference in Madison, WI the weekend of May 4-5. I have a fond place in my heart for my brothers and sisters in Wisconsin. They have built a solid base of PEG centers supporting professional and political education work in the past decade. ACM-Midwest will be co-sponsoring the conference. Meet me for beer on the Terrace.

Then June rolls around, and ACM MidAtlantic holds their Thinking Outside the Box Conference, June 8 & 9 in Edison, NJ. Jersey Access Group is playing host, and again have a great track record of building a statewide professional education group for community access television.

And of course everyone is invited to Twin Cities for the Alliance’s National Conference July 25-28 at the Minneapolis Marriott City Center. The conference will have a special youth producer registration rate, a media camp for children, a Drupal boot camp, a video screening by the Twin Cities Youth Media Network, the Hometown Awards ceremonies at the Walker Art Center, and an evening celebration on the banks of the Mississippi River by historic Saint Anthony Falls. It promises to be a great gathering of community media practitioners from around the U-S! If you want more information about what to do in Minneapolis, go here.

I am still trying to figure out if there will be a Chair’s Polka Party here. Stay tuned.

Et tu, Liz?

If you ever needed a justification for community control of content in radio, here it is:

As a remedy for the corrupt oligopoly practice known as “payola,” four broadcast conglomerates are giving away 8400 “free” half-hours on their radio stations to independent musicians and record labels.

Notice that the practice of pay-for-play won’t be stopped.  Radio stations will only now have to report their monetary reimbursements from industry.

Further 8400 “free” half-hours is equivalent to a little less than a year’s programming on one community radio station.    Why can’t the big four set up an independent endowment to ensure community control of the airwaves instead?

Payola explains some of the molding of audience behavior in the music industry.   There are lots of places to track the fight and get involved.  I guess I can now use it as a rationalization for the popularity of JLo and Jessica Simpson.  But my heart sinks at the news of Liz Phair being mentioned in the same breath as part of this corruption investigation.    Was my interest in Exile in Guyville just bought and sold by some industry hack?  Et tu, Liz?