In Olympia WA, learning about Olympia community media

I’m at acm-nw, where Trevor Griffey is talking about Olympia Newswire, a community based journalism project

Gloria Tristani speaks in Minneapolis

Here’s a video of comments from former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani at the Alliance for Community Media Conference in Minneapolis in July.   Gloria spoke on spectrum policy, issues before the FCC, and the recent controversy on Ken Burns’ documentary in Latino communities across the U-S:

Protecting Community TV in Illinois

One of the great legislative success stories in the fight to preserve community television happened in Illinois this summer. While a statewide cable franchising bill passed, it only did so with major concessions for local regulation, consumer protection and preservation of PEG benefits. Here’s a video of Illinois Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Satter talking about what happened in Illinois.

For more information about the Illinois bill, go to Keep Us Connected.

Hannah Sassaman at ACM National Conference

After a summer-long hiatus, it’s the return of Scratch Pad!

To get things started off, here’s video of Hannah Sassaman from the Prometheus Radio Project at the Alliance for Community Media national conference in Minneapolis this summer. She’s introduced by Denis Moynahan from Democracy Now!

Nice Article on Community Television and Immigrant Voices

If you haven’t seen it, there’s a nice article from the Associated Press out of San Jose on the how much community television is used by immigrant communities.

J-Lab New Voices Grant

SPNN got some nice news this past week about grant support for a news project we’re developing from the New Voices project of J-Lab. What’s even nicer is other community media and media justice groups (Reclaim the Media, Access SF, Cambridge Community TV) got awards for new projects.

The press release on the awards is here.

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?

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.

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!