I wanted to reset this discussion on how Public Access and related media initiatives would benefit from collaboration in a wide range of areas from development, documentation, training, funding/fundraising, marketing, promotion, business, hosting, sales, and services.
Using LA as an example, I'm wondering if there's some sort of 'regional template' we can create for setting up shop on a regional level. What would it take (people, skills, funds, etc.) to replicate the Open Media model and leverage the legwork already done? What kind of support could/should be provided from the mothership in Denver and what areas do you need help?
Starting tonight with what looks to be a massive meetup, I'll be looking to round up interested individuals and companies in LA. Based on the size, diversity, and nature of 'the industry', I think a successful implementation in LA could provide a great framework to move forward.
Comments
Based on local feedback...
Based on some really good conversations from last nights LA Drupal meet...
As soon as there's a support structure and something solid to propose and promote we are in for a Hollywood success story.
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin
questions on scabaility
This is an exciting conversation to be happening and I am glad it has been brought up again. Even working in the very provincial towns in Massachusetts, there is still much to be gained by developing a regional model. I work in community Access myself and I also took a look at the Denver staffing. This is certainly a very optimistic scenario, but here is what I see:
STAFFING
Each local station could be equipped with full time employees:
Station Director
Director of Community Productions
IT Director
[Educational Channel Director (if applicable)]
[Government Channel Director (if applicable)]
Then there would be regional positions that could serve up to 4-5 of these local stations. These might be a:
Regional Coordinator (an Executive Director for the Station Directors)
Systems Administrator (troubleshooting guru)
Art Director
Software Developer (IT Coordinator Boss)
Development Director
Regional Producers
Regional reporters (possibly)
Business Manager
EDUCATION/TRAINING
Given the geography I think a train the trainers session with a manual that outlined the core concepts of the system would be invaluable. There is no way that a print document would ever be up-to date, that is why the emphasis on concepts of the OMP, a glossary of terms; operating rules and procedures for each center; personnel policies.
On the training end of things, one thing that could be useful would be screencasts. Multilingual screencasts that could be shown on the cable channels. Turn the cable channel into a distance learning vehicle.
MARKETING/PROMOTION
Many Access station suffer from a lack of a cohesive identity. Placing a talented Art Director in this position could provide an entire region with sharp, effective brand identity that both clearly communicates its mission as well as preserves the integrity of the local community.
I'd like to hear about taking hosting to the regional level.
Many gaps here in my thinking - but I felt compelled to add something to the conversation
Kathy Bisbee from CMAP came
Kathy Bisbee from CMAP came up from Gilroy during the Davis implementation and was asking some similar questions about implementation costs, the amount of time an Open Media System would take to maintain, and sharing technical resources between several locations.
I think you are all really onto something.
While the OMS isn't a 'set it and forget it' solution as far a maintenance, it doesn't require a full time employee at each location sitting around waiting for something to go wrong either. Unfortunately, it does require someone with an mix of skills that aren't always easy to come by at the salary PEG can offer. Once an OMS is configured, the person maintaining it is still going to have to know something about all the pieces of the LAMP configuration (linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), networking, large (and ever expanding) RAID/SAN, FFMPEG, codecs, and playback servers. Oh yeah... and Drupal. Anyone running these is going to need to know Drupal fairly well.
I think a good system/network admin and a decent Drupal'er could keep 5 or 6 stations running. Add some support from web savvy station directors, A/V engineers, part time graphic designers, etc and you've got yourself a group who can leverage the OMS to really improve the way PEG serves their communities.
Nice diagram!
This is great Jason,
Re: producer staff: I want to add my two-cents that unless someone is directly providing funds for producers/reporters, those roles should not be included. My opinion is that any energy devoted towards journalism/production is a distraction from our true mission of enabling our community to speak for themselves. I believe we could solve many Public Access finance problems by entirely eliminating their role in content creation, and re-focusing on serving their community's capacity to create their own content. Its like Wikipedia, still with ZERO staff focused on writing or editing content.
We cannot be effective competing with local news outlets who have far more funding. Besides, its just not part of the design of Public Access and I personally think its a misappropriation of funds to let ANY money go towards content creation, unless its part of teaching the community to fish/report for themselves.
That said, I believe there SHOULD be funding set aside specifically for that purpose, and I would love to see the governments or community also supporting more hyper-local, participatory journalism, similar to the Spot.us model. But, without that funding, we're re-directing funds away from the community and investing them in a "content creation" business model that we could never compete in.
Re: Marketing staff: Its also my personal opinion that if we focus on serving the community, the community markets this for us. It may be semantics, but I'd personally be more supportive of a role focused on inclusion or outreach to disengaged communities, and making sure we're closing the digital divide and reaching communities who are currently disengaged. I feel the best way to do this is to "power the edges" and provide incentives for community members to do outreach in those communities, as opposed to having staff do outreach. Free memberships, computer giveaways, free classes can all be used to compensate "early adopters" from targeted communities to get their community more involved.
The more decentralized and distributed our staffing and business model becomes, the more we become a true community organization and the more we are directed by our community's needs, as opposed to our perceptions of those needs. Public Access could be a pioneer in exploring some of these distributed business models.
Whatever your first issue of concern, media had better be your second, because without change in the media, the chances of progress in your primary area are far less likely. http://denveropenmedia.org
I appreciate the distinction you are drawing
Tony,
I very much appreciate the distinction you are drawing between content creation and content enabling. My experience at a small center has certainly taught me that content creation is NOT scalable for staff. Not for the budget and the staff that we can afford to pay. I am trying to wrestle with that experience while at the same time having my current hometown newspaper evaporate overnight.
My frame of reference are communities of 6500 - 12,000 people, and truly imagining them empowered enough, motivated enough to generate the content all by themselves. Without staff being hands on, I need to take a step back and look at this on a 5-10 year trajectory. This puzzle is one that is extending off the Drupal map and hits at the core of access. It may have been a crucial misstep on my part to commit to the Board of Directors their fundamental desire to get community based programming on the air.
Your take on broadening the view of marketing/outreach is also worth serious consideration.
Multiple use cases
Great to see some of the roles laid out - possibly we should create a wiki to serve as a generic template? I'm also very curious to hear about current or potential use cases for this product. Here in LA, it seems like various flavors of OMP could be a film studio, tv station, production house,...probably with little modification a radio station or recording studio? Excited about providing the solution to PEG stations, but I think there's a good deal of additional opportunity.
So what's next? We've talked about replicating not only the Open Media model, but also some of the sessions and events. I've set the table to interface with the Drupal training and collaboration groups. Not only do I think we have a good local team coming together, our Drupal venue host could also benefit from the solution and training.
Definitely ready to amp up the compliment and collaboration!
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin
Some specifics on the opportunity in San Francisco.
On Tuesday, May 19, 2009 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved, on first reading, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s State Video Franchise Holder Ordinance, to set the level of PEG support at 1.15% above the 5% Cable Franchise fee which is about $1.8M per year. The Ordinance will take effect in January 2010. However, these funds can only be used for capital (equipment) unless laws are changed at the Federal and State level to allow them to be used for operations. The Ordinance must be on the agenda for the next full Board of Supervisors’ meeting, as a second reading, but it is expected to pass. The discussion and vote can be seen by clicking the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOtvpScl6dA. Also, Supervisor Mirkarimi announced that Comcast Cable had agreed to provide a one year operational grant for PEG. We are told the amount is $375,000
Its unclear how much of the $1.8million could go to Public Access, but regardless, this situation is better than the one we had in Denver. Over two years, we spent nearly $1million in capital funds to build the facility, which is now maintained with under $200K annually in Capital and zero operating support. If this contract was won by someone like BAVC, Creative Commons, Archive.org, or someone similar, this could be enough money to establish the best public access station in the country, and a new leader in the Open Media Project.
Whatever your first issue of concern, media had better be your second, because without change in the media, the chances of progress in your primary area are far less likely. http://denveropenmedia.org
Important part of the training
Tony - Per our offline conversation, I completely agree that knowing how to translate the information found in these RFPs into a response would be valuable training. Generally speaking, non-developmental activities (proposal writing, fundraising, marketing, and even project management) are largely left out in any
Drupal training/knowledge share and its a barrier a lot of innovation and growth. The new Drupal Kata learning initiative recognizes these shortcomings and will give people real world training by working on projects important to the community.
With the product/profile we're building for the Drupal Dojo incorporating Open Media Features, providing the knowledge on answering these types of RFPs on the community level is entirely relevant. Having said that, I'm open to ideas on how to go about that.
Is this something where you or someone at your organization could be a mentor?
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin
Value of Open Media Product?
Without sounding too naive (too late), I'm not exactly sure what these figures being thrown around would mean to a group (development shop, regional collective, etc.) interested in providing this solution. Obviously, there's a wide range of elements to factor in (such as how media is handled), but seeing 'Bid Value of 480k' makes me think the Open Media product (complete with rich documentation and it's own custom training program) will be a very valuable commodity to business', consultants, providers, producers, and users on a global and community level. As a key component of the product/profile we're building for the Drupal Dojo, there should be a great deal of mutual benefit for the Drupal community, Open Media, and related initiatives in addition to the value of the product.
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin
Self organized classes and workshops
I just came across this post referring to this Drupal based site for self-organized study groups. This could be a good model for the regional, decentralized training and workshops discussed in this thread. Curious to hear some thoughts about this model - http://la.thepublicschool.org/about
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin
Created a few wikis
I created a few wiki pages which may help establish a loose format for both a regional collective and complimentary learning and training programs. It's a wiki, so please don't hesitate to make additions or edit....
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin