Tactical Media Group at UMass Boston

MBTA problems for commuter rail, continued

2009-04-04T09:31:00.002-04:00

there is an online survey at manager@easypaydaycash.com (form number 05357). They are trying to get an idea of how many people use the trains on the weekends. If you don't want to see the service go away completely, PLEASE fill out the survey and share it with everyone you know.

Best,
Yvonne

PLEASE help in the fight "against" the MBTA...

2009-03-30T15:24:00.001-04:00

We can't let them get away with taking their troubles out on their consumers. PLEASE write to them and/or call them - we can't let this service keep getting worse and more expensive:

from them to me in response to me asking them how they could possibly consider taking away weekend commuter rail service:

"I have read your email regarding the possible service cuts in the commuter rail service.

The announcement and press release about an increase in MBTA fares along with a possible reduction in evening and weekend service on the commuter rail are options that are being discussed by senior managers at the MBTA and the Office of Transportation. It has been well publicized that the MBTA currently has a 160million dollar deficit going into next year which it needs to reduce.

I suspect that there will be an opportunity for passengers and residents to attend public meetings regarding these proposals. Past experience has shown that any such meetings are normally posted on the MBTA website beforehand. www.mbta.com

Thank you for your comments; please be assured that I have forwarded your concerns to the MBTA for consideration.

Sincerely,

Linda Dillon
MBCR Customer Service Manager"

A Must Read

2009-03-25T16:04:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody,

Check this story out.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/new-tech-could-make-consoles-obsolete/1299562

Aaron Stenton

"Facebook Owns You"

2009-02-18T10:40:00.001-05:00

Does Facebook, now with more than 175 million users worldwide, have a content death wish? Perhaps.

Just read its newest terms of service. What you'll find is that all content posted at Facebook belongs to, well, Facebook. But it's worse than that. New phrasing makes clear that, even if you leave Facebook, your rights don't leave with you. Quoting:

The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other. [Emphasis added.]

To be fair, Facebook officially is asking only for a "non-exclusive license" to your creations hosted at its site. I can understand that. Facebook isn't a publication and posting original writing there shouldn't result in royalty checks.

Claiming permanent dominion is another matter entirely. This move would position Facebook as a content owner a la New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), Washington Post (NYSE: WPO), or Gannett (NYSE: GCI), rather than as a service provider a la Twitter, which doesn't claim content rights. That's, at best, insipid.

Think about it. If, like News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace, Facebook's business is advertising, and advertisers are only interested in reachable audiences, former Facebookers are irrelevant to its business.

Even Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), another ad-driven business that specifies similar terms in its usage policy, recognizes limits to its rights to content. "This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services," the policy reads.

Facebook, for its part, responded with a blog post from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Quoting:

When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created -- one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear. In reality, we wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want. [Emphasis added.]

OK, but I'm not sure that's the point. What is? I should own my content, Facebook, not you. When I'm gone, my content should come with me. So archive if you must, but don't claim rights to distribute and profit from the archive -- it isn't yours to profit from.

More Foolishness about Facebook:

Don't get too down. There's at least one reason to like Facebook more today.

MySpace is so yesterday.

Is Facebook polling for dollars?

Do you use Second Life?

2009-02-07T18:22:00.000-05:00

"We are looking for Second Life users who are 18 years of age or older and
living in the Boston area to participate in a study aimed at understanding
how people create their avatars.

Eligible participants will be asked to come to the Psychology Department
at Harvard University for 2-3 hours to complete an interview about their
avatar and answer a number of questions about their moods, habits, and
behaviors.

Participants will be paid $40 for their involvement in this confidential
study.

To learn more, please email Stephanie at sgironde@wjh.harvard.edu"

Want a/need a TV Converter Box coupon?

2009-01-17T15:33:00.002-05:00

My mother sent this to me and I am going to post it everywhere: "I have an extra TV Converter Box coupon. I heard that the government ran out and many people will have to pay full price for a box.

The coupon is worth $40. It is illegal for me to sell it. I'd rather give it away for free than to see it go to waste. Someone on Ebay is selling "information" on how to get a coupon. Pretty clever but I decided it wasn't worth it. This is the government they're f**king with.

Do you know anyone who needs one? It's only for people who use an antenna for their TV....

googlemail2003@yahoo.com"

Thanks for your time (btw - feel free to share this post with anyone you think it might help)! -Yvonne

Multiple Sclerosis MySpace Link

2009-01-16T17:22:00.000-05:00

If you have Multiple Sclerosis and/or know & care about someone who does, PLEASE join our group (The MS Angels) at Xhttp://www.myspace.com/ms_news_channel

Thank you SO much for your tme!

Video- YouTube Tutorial as citizen media tool

2008-12-14T01:04:00.001-05:00

A Portal to Media Literacy

2008-12-13T23:35:00.000-05:00

Free Wi-Fi Plan

2008-12-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

Just thought this would be of some interest.

Thanks,

Aaron Stenton

It seems that some Democrats and the Bush administration have finally found something to agree on: opposition to the FCC’s free Wi-Fi plan. On December 18, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote on a proposal that would auction off the AWS-3 wireless spectrum that becomes available in February 2009 after television stations go all digital. The winner of the spectrum would be required to use part of it for a national, ad-supported free wireless Internet service. The free Wi-Fi would have to be implemented within a few years of winning the auction and requires the company to construct filters that protect minors from adult content.

To Read more go to : http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081212/tc_pcworld/fccsfreewifiplanwillitfly

2008-12-03T15:46:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! I saw this site on a show on G4 and just wanted to share:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/
One True Media - "Somebody's going to look like a creative genius in a few minutes (hint: it's you). It's just so simple to mix your video and photos with our fresh, stylish effects to create wow-worthy Video Montages."

Best,
Yvonne

HTML

2008-11-27T09:35:00.000-05:00

html Codes Tutorial to help understand HTML and Webdesign. enjoy
1st Tutorial
2nd Tutorial
3rd Tutorial

Speaking out for Net Neutrality...

2008-11-26T20:03:00.000-05:00

Got this at my yahoo account today and wanted to share:

Dear Friend,

Big phone and cable companies are trying to get rid of Net Neutrality, the fundamental principle that prevents them from discriminating against your favorite Web sites and services.

Unless we speak out to our members of Congress, they could move to allow large telephone and cable companies to control what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

Visit the URL below to learn more about what's at stake and send a loud message directly to Congress:

https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?id=162
To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?s_oo=BiMcpwV7HGJluXEzviVUQQ..&id=162
If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.

New Google Video/Voice Chat Feature

2008-11-13T10:53:00.002-05:00

Hi all! Just saw that Google now offers a video/voice chat feature. Go to http://www.google.com/mail/help/videochat/learnmore.html for more information if you are interested. (NOTE: when I made this URL into a hyperlink it doesn't work but it should if you copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your browser. Feel free to contact me if this doesn't work for you).

Best,
Yvonne

Vyew meeting dates (11/08 to 12/08)

2008-11-06T21:12:00.000-05:00

Future dates for meeting in Vyew...

11/14/08, 11/21/08 and 12/05/08 at 8pm in Vyew

My 1st website

2008-11-06T20:18:00.001-05:00

http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/~Sara%20Hamadane/acote.html

Agenda for November 6, 2008 Conference Call

2008-11-06T16:29:00.001-05:00

Agenda for November 6, 2008 Conference Call

Link to Tactical Syllabus: http://fredjohnson.mwg.org/?page_id=21

Tactical Media Wiki: http://tacticalmedia.wikispaces.com/

• Chair/call facilitator?

• Additions to agenda?

• General discussion, clarifications, and feedback on the Web/Internet class

• Reminder Web/Internet class meetings next week:
November 10th, 12th, 17th and 19th?

• (3)Future on-line gatherings: Tutorials and Reports [Jay Cleary]

• Discussions of other on-line venues

• Setting dates for future meetings
http://tacticalmedia.wikispaces.com/Calendar

Discussion of assignments – Identifying Reporters
Reporters will use the capabilities of the on-line web tools chosen to make the reports.

Assignment #1
Two members of the group make a presentation discussing our work with Community Media and comparing and contrasting elements of the report.

The Council of Europe has recently released a study of community media that treats it as a “Third Sector”. The report, titled, Promoting Social Cohesion: The Role of Community Media, by Peter Lewis, can be downloaded as a PDF at this address:
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/media/MC-S-MD/H-Inf(2008)013_en.pdf

Assignment #2
Two members of the group make a report on the potential of new citizen and activist on-line media tools for strategic communications purposes.

___________________________________________________________

Current Assignments

Primary competencies:
Media and Community Building, Communications Policy and Developing a Media Strategy.

Below are the activities I would like participants to undertake for Tactical Media. They are an updating of the criteria in the Tactical project outline.

• Actively engage in the social networking experiments undertaken by Tactical Media

• A community based media project

• Research and writing

• Engagement with the on-line presences of Tactical Media

Theory work [all papers are a minimum of 5 double spaced pages]:

• One paper defining and discussing Community Media, key references the text Community Media and What’s Going on in Community Media, and other references that you identify and choose to use.

• One paper on Communications Policy that picks out and issues [net neutrality for example] and discusses it while placing it within an outline of the process of communication policy formation at the local, state and federal level. Key references will be identified, starting with the Benton Communications Policy headlines.

• One paper exploring some aspect of citizen media, citizen engagement, activist media strategic communications and use of media for empowerment.

• One strategic communications outline and plan for one of your projects.

What you have to do to demonstrate these competencies.
• Prepare and share the short definitions listed in this syllabus
• Complete the research assignments and make them available on and the Tactical Media blog.
• Participate in the on-line discussions and activities.
• Contribute to the on-line experiments and projects that fit your competencies.
• Actively use the Tactical Media Blog.

Security Alert

2008-10-20T23:35:00.000-04:00

'Experimental' security fix is malware, Microsoft says: Scammers are sending out phoney emails
that claim to include critical Windows security alerts, Microsoft warned last Monday. The fake alerts
describe themselves as part of a new "experimental private version of an update for all Microsoft
Windows OS users," Microsoft said in a note on the scam, posted Monday. [13 October 2008;
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=009117078&in
tsrc=hm_list

Just wanted to pass this along to you all.

Thanks,

Aaron Stenton

short definitions % Media terms

2008-10-12T12:01:00.001-04:00

Community Media: Community Media is inherent to community issues and dedicated to community building by allowing community members to find solutions to problems encountered within and create opportunities to develop and prosper the community. Community Media has for a purpose creating ties between different members of the community through communication and community reaching by using Public Access TV and radio station and Internet.

Participatory Media: Participatory media is an active social Media that allows people to create and consume media. The Revolution of Media put in place accessible technologies and platforms that allowed users to step little further and not limit them to receive but to also participate in delivering messages.

Citizen Media: Citizen Media is Media produced by private non professional journalist citizens. It uses different forms of Media Production like Blogs, Vlogs, Pod casts, Wikis, forums, Participatory video etc and distributed via Public Access TV and Radio Stations, Internet.

Citizen’s Media: Citizen’s Media is when Media content is created and controlled by citizens. Citizen’s Media allow people to control and voice their opinions and help communities getting together. Content isn’t subject to editing and mostly emotionally driven. Citizen’s media is broader, open, and produced at low cost.

Development Media: Development Media is information and knowledge brought by Media, aiming at developing a critical thinking and encouraging the use of technology to enable independents Media to reach, empower and engage people in matter that affects them to establish a democratic society.

Democratic Media: Democratic Media drives its origin from the fact that the coverage of Media to important issues is bias and the lack of an open none influenced Media. Because Media plays a crucial role in shaping people’s opinion, it can influence their decisions, and favors a group of people over another. Democratic Media has for purpose bringing Democracy to people by promoting an open access to a diverse media sources allowing citizens to make informed decisions.

FCC open meeting Oct, 2008

2008-10-12T11:25:00.000-04:00

FCC Open Meeting (Oct)
Open meeting scheduled for Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Nashville, Tennessee.

Any Opinions on This Matter?

2008-10-04T20:54:00.000-04:00

Not sure if everybody has seen this yet or not, but those of you who use their Umass Student Email, should have received this. If not, I have posted it here for everybody to see.

Aaron Stenton

MEMORANDUM

To: The University Community

From: Chancellor J. Keith Motley

Date: October 3, 2008
Subject: Fiscal Challenges

As many of you may have learned from the media over the past weeks, Massachusetts is facing serious fiscal challenges due to a softening economy and slowing revenue collections, which have fallen well short of state budget projections. As a university that receives substantial funding from the state, the University of Massachusetts Boston will be required to share in the solution to this difficult fiscal problem.

This morning I met with my leadership team to begin the discussion about how we as a university community can best prepare for and address the looming funding cuts, and next week I will meet with University of Massachusetts President Jack Wilson to discuss system-wide concerns and possible courses of action. These discussions will continue in the coming weeks as we receive additional information from Governor Deval Patrick’s administration and learn more about its planned course of action.

As we move forward, I will provide you with regular updates, and we will engage the entire campus community in an open and fair process toward finding solutions. I want you to know that throughout this fiscal challenge, we will not compromise excellence and will remain determined to keep the University of Massachusetts Boston on its trajectory of progress. I am very optimistic that with your help – faculty, staff, and students – we will succeed.

CPCS Academic Calendar- Fall 08

2008-09-27T10:18:00.001-04:00

Academic Calendar
College of Public and Community Service
Fall 2008
Everything you need to know about CPCS from Reistration to completing Competencies

Technology convergence brings value to the product (T-Mobile G1)

2008-09-24T10:26:00.002-04:00

Google's first Android phone(HTC Dream) goes on sale in the U.S. on T-Qnetwork on October 22. The G1 features a touch-screen interface, a qWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, a music player, and support for third-party applications. The selling prices for T-Mobile G1 is going to be $179 with a two-year service contract.

No Local Election Coverage

2008-07-14T20:11:00.000-04:00

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080713-no-local-election-coverage-on-tv-no-problem-says-fcc.html

Thank You Jason!

Aaron Stenton

Administration Caves in to the DeFacto CPCS Governance - Opinion

2008-06-01T14:14:00.001-04:00

Administration Caves in to the DeFacto CPCS Governance - Opinion

Aaron Stenton

Media and Community Building

2008-05-29T21:01:00.000-04:00

Community building can be defined as any local action taken by local individuals to build their community and provide opportunity for people to exercise their rights granted by the constitution. The powerful influence of Media on people and technological convergence help empower communities and reach social goals, engage citizens in contributing in public policy and shaping democracy.
Educated citizens are essential to a functioning democracy; they can actively question corporate power and mobilize resource to help establish social justice and fairness by engaging citizens in building a healthy society through the influence of Media.
For citizens to be engaged in democracy, they need to be critical thinkers, self expressive so that they can understand and contribute to public discourse and make informed decisions to the issues, opinions and ideas which matter most to them.
Community media help community members communicate, learn, create, connect together and share information. The purpose of Media and community building is to:
• Tell, share and preserve the community stories
• Better understand the community differences
• Discuss the community challenges and develop solutions
• Encourage and exercise the free exchange of ideas
• Practice inclusiveness and empowerment
• Promote and enable social change
• Build collaborations and partnerships in pursuit of a better community.
Media and communication technologies have contributed to building healthy, dynamic communities. Some of the tools that can be used in the service of community building are the following:
• Independent local Journalism that fully informs the community and acts as a watchdog to protects citizens from distorted news and provides a professional journalism.
• Newspapers, television and radio stations, local broadcast channels operated by multiple, diverse, and independent owners that compete vigorously and employ a diverse workforce.
• Radio and television programming produced by independent creators that is original, challenging, controversial, and diverse.
• Programming, stories, and speech produced by communities and citizens.
• Internet service provided by multiple, independent providers who compete vigorously and offer access to the entire Internet over a broadband connection, with freedom to attach within the home any legal device to the net connection and run any legal application.
• Public broadcasting insulated from political and commercial interests that is well-funded and especially serves communities underserved by privately-owned broadcasters.
• Regulatory policies emphasizing media education and citizen empowerment, not government censorship, as the best ways to avoid unwanted content.
• Media That Use The Public's Airwaves To Serve The Public Interest
Digital convergences extend human abilities and shrink space, it allows every user to connect anywhere, anytime and be able to have access to adapted and high quality content and communication services in a safe an accessible environment. Digital convergence empowers communities by allowing them to become active users, communicate and share information easily.
In the constant search of improving the quality of life and economic growth, technological convergence has served in developing and increasing effectiveness of communication, radically changing the way of doing business (online business), human interaction and social life (blogs, wiki, online dating, 2nd life, facebook, myspace). Indeed technology creates and develops new ways of communication; different ways of social interaction giving citizens power to become producers and contribute to establish democracy. Access to information is becoming easier than ever, because media plays a crucial role in shaping up various types of development in society: in changing opinions and actions. Through Media convergence, communities are able to empower citizens by using various technologies to inform and share information and building a better community.
Media also can help communities facing cultural exclusion, low-literacy, language barriers and/or disability by mobilization and education of community members and engage them in intervening to improve their lives by making services and education available to citizens by utilizing local newspapers, local broadcast, local website and emails and reaching out to citizens to advice them and provide local help, to educate them and allow them to express their voices and communicate their worries as a community.
To summarize, when building communities through media, active media citizens need not to control the message, deliver content with integrity, honesty and transparency, allow participation and share information to build value for the community and that by knowing the community dominant needs and providing solution to their problems, inspiring citizens and keeping them motivated and engaged.

Survey For Wikispace Video

2008-05-18T19:44:00.000-04:00

Hi Everybody,

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey that I created that goes along with my strategic communications plan.

Thanks,

Click Here to take survey

Aaron Stenton

NEW Petition wording: PLEASE comment

2008-05-10T23:51:00.001-04:00

How do people like the wording on this?:

"To: ALL UMass Students and members of the general public:

We are signing to show our support for UMass Boston's College of Public and Community Service & our Major/Concentration in Community Media & Technology.

It is integral that CPCS remain a part of UMass Boston. The Community Media and Technology Program should be reinstated as well. Many of us chose to attend UMass Boston because of the CMT program. It is a crucial program and deserves much more support than the previous administration allowed.

Speaking as a CMT student: we are the future for technology. CMT needs to be expanded to allow those who are interested and who have the ability to have the opportunity to display our talents and skills as well as the capability of all form of Media & Technology.

Sincerely,..."

SecondLife on Television!!!

2008-05-10T22:05:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, I just wanted to pass along that Secondlife will be on television Thursday May 15th, at 8pm. (The day after our last meeting of the semester) Check out the link below for more details. http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/molotovalva/index.html Maybe somebody can record this? It would be pretty interesting to have it some how recorded and then posted on our blog or Wiki page. Any ideas? Aaron Stenton

Memorandum

2008-05-04T18:01:00.000-04:00

What is everybody's opinion on the Memorandum for CPCS that was sent out a couple weeks ago?

I think it's an issue we should go over in class. We should go into deeper thoughts about this letter that was mailed out CPCS students. We should even possibly survey students in CPCS, to see if they received this letter and to see what their opinions are about it.

I will try to post a better image of this letter later on at some point.

Document on Graphics Facility by Yvonne Decelis

2008-04-30T22:01:00.001-04:00

This is a document I (gradually) wrote for a graphics facility I set up (and maintained and trained on) at HMS.

WQGFOverview

Tactical Media Meeting April 30th 2008

2008-04-30T21:44:00.001-04:00

Due to an illness of a friend of Fred Johnson's, Fred was unable to attend tonight's meeting.

Although, some of the meeting still went on, and was interactive through the use of Secondlife.

Jay showed me a few basics of how to use Secondlife. I have been unable to access it on my personal laptop as it does not have the graphical power to do so. This meeting was beneficial as a intro to using Secondlife.

Attendance: Aaron, Jay, Sarah, Yvonne.

We all were on Secondlife. Jay, Sarah & myself were in the actual Taylor center on separate computers accessing the Secondlife program. Yvonne was not in the Taylor center, but was on-line in the Tactical Media center on Secondlife. It was pretty cool to interact with her using the program.

I also brought in a hand out that I was going to pass out to everybody regarding our Tactical Media Myspace.com. Jay & Sarah were the only one's that did receive this hand out. Please ask me next Wednesday, May 7th to give you one.

Hopefully next meeting everybody will be able to log on to Secondlife so we all can experiment with it a little more so we can plan future meeting times as the semester is coming to a end.

Aaron Stenton

Poster File Preparation info by Yvonne Decelis

2008-04-30T19:58:00.000-04:00

Poster File Preparation Info

This is a document containing the slides I ran for a brown bag seminar I did at Harvard Medical School from 2004 to 2006 on preparing files for poster printing.

-Yvonne Decelis

SAVE CPCS AND CMT petition

2008-04-28T17:58:00.000-04:00

I have created a petition on this site for people to use:

SAVE CMT AND CPCS

Saving CPCS & Community Media & Technology

2008-04-27T01:02:00.000-04:00

Who is in favor of creating an on-line petition? Who will take the lead on this? I feel it will be a great idea to go forth with creating one in order for our voices to be heard here at Umass Boston to show support for CPCS & our Major, or Minor, or Concentration in Community Media & Technology.

We are the future for technology, and without our input, it will be negative for those who are interested in our college's program. It needs to be expanded to allow those who are interested to get the opportunity to show off their talents and skills in Media & Technology.

So I ask of you all, who will take the step in starting this revolution to save our College & Program?

http://www.petitiononline.com/

Let 2008 be the year for CPCS & Community Media & Technology

Aaron Stenton

LogMeIn Information

2008-04-24T16:30:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! Just wanted to throw a note up on the blog since I mentioned the web site LinkedIn at last night's workshop.

From what I've seen, Linked in is an online way of networking with professionals...

You can look into it (and, if you want, join for free) at www.LinkedIn.com

Best,
Yvonne

Wednesday, April 23rd Notes

2008-04-23T20:18:00.000-04:00

Tactical Media Notes for April 23rd, 2008. Note Taker: Aaron Stenton A revised Tactical Media sheet was handed out. Please email or see Fred directly for a sheet if you were not at the meeting to receive one. Everybody needs to decide what projects and presentations that they will be doing to earn our competencies. Please Email or meet with Fred to discuss what you will be doing or have done already. In addition,See Fred for a Outline form and a Tactical Media 2008: Potential Projects form.If you do not already have these.As the semester is coming to an end, we are preparing to be a leanring community that doesn’t meet all the time, but instead, we are trying to meet on-line and communicate on the status of works that are taking place. The Workshops that have taken place already are for people to learn from and to go forth to begin with there own project(S). Please notify Fred if you are unable to access SecondLife. We all need a alais on SecondLife as soon as possible. If you are unsure how to do this, go to www.secondlife.com or contact Jay. Next Week: Myspace. Aaron will be bringing in direction of where Myspace should be going for Tactical Media. Did I miss anything? If so, feel free to add onto this posting. Thanks Everyone.

Using The Tactical Media Wikispace

2008-04-19T12:49:00.004-04:00

Hey Everybody.

Here is a project that I have been working on. I hope you may find some use out of it if you are unfamiliar with the basics of using & navigating the Tactical Media Wiki Page. I felt it was something that was needed in order to expand some of the uses of our media tools to those who are not aware of what can be done, with little or no money at all. It takes creation, time, and effort to establish something that can prove a point or show by example and demonstration.

I also feel that this is a great way for those of you that are new to Tactical Media to understand how to use the Wiki Page. At the end of my presentation, it will automatically bring you to the Main Page of Tactical Media Wiki. To view a better version of this, you can check it out on the actual Wiki Page as I created a separate page for it under the Table Of Contents labeled as "Using This Wikispace"

Aaron Stenton

Dreamweaver Class info and 4/23/08 TIME CHANGE

2008-04-18T11:22:00.000-04:00

Hey folks! I don't believe we are starting at 4 on the 23rd - think it will be 5:30 sans workshop, fyi. I am putting this on the blog for now but it needs to go onto the Wikispace as well. I have no idea when I'll get around to doing this but, for now:

Couple of updates: wanted to give you these URLs I went over at the workshop by request:

http://www.tinyurl.com (makes URL addresses much shorter and is free to use)

Sizzling Jalfrezi (HTML by example) for everything you could want to know on html code:
http://vzone.virgin.net/sizzling.jalfrezi/iniframe.htm

Lastly (to answer questions I couldn't answer on the 16th):

(From http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=xml&seqNum=217):

What's the difference between XML and HTML?

Last updated Jan 1, 2004.

On the surface, XML and HTML look similar. Both use tags (such as
or ) and attributes (such as
align="left" or type="personal") to add information to the content. In
fact, a carefully prepared HTML document can double as an XML
document. The difference is that HTML is a well-defined set of
elements and attributes. For example, the following is a well-formed
XML document, but because it only uses tags that are defined in HTML,
it's also an HTML document:
Message of the Day

On the other hand, HTML has somewhat looser rules than XML, so some
HTML documents are not well-formed XML documents. (See the next
section.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is php? (from
http://forums.hostrocket.com/archive/index.php/t-3109.html):
HP is a scripting language you can use on your "html" pages. Using the
"php" extension on a file tells the server to look for php code in the
file. So, if you want to use php, you have to have it end in .php (or
a few other options). If you have no php code on the page there is no
need to use .php on that page, but it doesn't really hurt anything if
you do. Only possible thing I can think of is that the server might
take a little more work because it's looking for something that's not
there. :)

Tactical Media Workshop Schedule

2008-04-09T13:21:00.000-04:00

The following workshops will be held from 5:00pm - 7:00pm

04/09/08

Photoshop + Adobe ImageReady Presented by Yvonne and Trey (2 hrs)

04/16/08

Adobe Dreamweaver Presented by Trey (2 hrs) **Class will start @ 4:00 pm by request

04/23/08

Flash Presented by Trey (2 hrs) ** Class will start @ 4:00 pm by request

Please remember to establish an identity on Second Life (www.secondlife.com)

-Trey

Build a Website

2008-04-06T22:33:00.001-04:00

How to create a web site?

In Case you haven't Been On The Wiki Page

2008-04-04T10:29:00.000-04:00

Here is the link to our Tactical Media Calendar.

http://www.my.calendars.net/tacticalmedia

Info from Adobe & one of "my" pages...

2008-03-28T11:47:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I apologize for being so inactive in our group recently. I was dismissed from one job and broke the thumb of my left hand (I'm left handed) so Im a bit under at the moment.

A website I work on is viewable at http://www.ebcne.org

I have also done a very small amount of work on this one:
http://www.masscta.org

Also: I got this from Adobe and wanted to share:
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:38:10 -0500
From: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Reply-To: Adobe-487759-4571387z@adobesystems.com
Subject: You're Invited: April Web Design Events
To: ydecelis@ebcne.org

ADOBE EVENTS

THIS MONTH'S LINE-UP FOR WEB PROFESSIONALS

April

----------------------------------------------

Stay on Top of Web Design Techniques and Technologies
If you are attending any of our live events, please stop by our booth and
learn more about our many solution and product offerings. Expand your
Adobe(R) Dreamweaver(R) and Adobe Flash(R) skills with one of our many
OnDemand web seminars. With all of these options, you're sure to get the
information you need to take your work to the next level.

----------------------------------------------

Learn on location

Adobe and MAXON Present the Power Integration Tour
Tuesday, April 1–Thursday, April 3, 2008
Montreal and Toronto, Canada
Enjoy increased speed and efficiency in your motion graphics pipeline
with Adobe's CS3 Production Suite and MAXON's 3D application, CINEMA
4D. To learn more, please visit http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHcTEPnvclWvvW

Photoshop(R) World
Wednesday, April 2–Friday, April 4, 2008
Orange County Convention Center – South
Orlando, FL
Photoshop World is the largest Adobe(R) Photoshop training event in
the world. Visit Adobe in Booth 201 to get an insider's view of the latest
products and the most-up-to-date tips and tricks. To learn more, please visit
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHcnEPnvclWvvv

NAB 2008
Monday, April 14–Thursday, April 17, 2008
Las Vegas Convention Center
Las Vegas, NV
The NAB Show(TM) is the place to be for anyone who employs video and
audio to communicate, educate, and entertain. Visit Adobe in Booth SL
3220 to check out the newest products and get a sneak peek of things
to come! To learn more, please visit http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHccEPnvclWvvl

HOW Design Conference 2008
Sunday, May 18–Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, MA
The HOW Design Conference is the single most inspirational, informative
conference for graphic designers. Visit Adobe in Booth 311 and learn how
Adobe(R) Creative Suite(R) software can equip you to craft your best
creative work more easily and efficiently than ever before. To learn more,
please visit http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHcJEPnvclWvvP

----------------------------------------------

Learn on your time

Dreamweaver CSS Boot Camp (for beginners)
Come learn the basics of properly and semantically marking up your
content, while styling it with CSS. Stephanie Sullivan, author of the
CSS layouts included with Dreamweaver CS3, will give you a solid
understanding of CSS basics. To learn more, please visit
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHclEPnvclWvvn

Innovating the Adobe(R) Flash(R) CS3/Flex(R) Workflow
How can Flash and Flex live side by side in your Flash-centric workflow?
Learn how to get the best of both worlds and use Flex 3 to code your
Flash-based projects. To learn more, please visit
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHclEPnvclWvvn

Architecting a Website in Flash CS3 - Create a site in Flash
So you've created Flash graphics but are unsure how to set up an
entire site in Flash? In this session, Paul Trani, an Adobe Certified
Expert, will show you how to build a site in Flash using different
methods and the benefit of each. To learn more, please visit
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHclEPnvclWvvn

Advanced Dreamweaver Design
Use the new CSS starter pages in Dreamweaver CS3 and take using
CSS to the next level. To learn more, please visit
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHclEPnvclWvvn

----------------------------------------------

What's in Store

Special offer on Adobe Soundbooth CS3
Get Adobe(R) Soundbooth(R) CS3 at
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHcvEPnvclWvvq
for US$99 with the purchase of a full or upgrade version of Adobe
Creative Suite(R) 3 Web Premium at
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHcWEPnvclWvWH
or Web Standard at
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHcqEPnvclWvWc
or Adobe Flash(R) CS3 Professional at
http://direct.adobe.com/r?xJPllqcEWHJHEPnvclWvvl.
Built for creative professionals and integrated with Flash,
Adobe Soundbooth CS3 software delivers tools for quick and
easy audio editing, cleanup, sound design, and music creation.

This special offer is valid from March 3, 2008, through September 28, 2008.

--------------------------------------------

Adobe, Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, Flash, Flex, Photoshop, and
Soundbooth are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe
Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Networking & On-line Media Tools

2008-03-21T09:26:00.000-04:00

Hi Everybody,

I am just letting you all know that on our Wiki Page, there is a section on it in regards to on-line media tools such as YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, and Bebo. Last semester we were trying to distinguish which ones worked the best depending on the need for the tool. This brings me to why I am posting this on the blog. I will be filling in the blanks on this section over the weekend so we can all see the actual stats on the usage/ability of each media tool & the convince it may or may not provide for networking and other media related concerns. Make sure to check it out after the weekend is over. Thanks.

Aaron Stenton

Basic Digital Literacy Workshop

2008-03-18T10:54:00.000-04:00

I have to "bump" this up a week. How does April 2, 2008 work for everyone?

Yvonne Decelis
YvonneDecelis@gmail.om

Software

2008-03-14T14:27:00.000-04:00

Hey Everybody.

I just wanted to pass a link along to you all of a place that sells video, audio, etc softwares for us Media makers.

www.academicsuperstore.com

Wednesday Night March 12th

2008-03-12T17:36:00.000-04:00

Note Taker: Aaron Stenton

Subjects for the night: Imovie
Community Media Definitions
Different kinds of Alternative Media
Final Cut Pro

Fred passed out a booklet titled" What's going on in Community Media" If you did not receieve a copy, please see Fred, or a student in the class to copy it.

Fred Stated, "Community Media is a form of Alternative Media" Community Media is NOT Commercial Media. "Come to your own Conclusions"

Key Idea: "If you have a commercial media model, people are paid by a commercial enterprise to make media that will sell other things"

"You should get paid for your work"

Fred would like everybody to create their own definition of "Community Media".

Community Media is about local places. It's about not confusing it with media on-line. It deals with a specific location and or place. It can be mainstream. **There needs to be local control.**

Local Networks: Channel 4, 5, 6, News Stations. Do the products advertised during commercials appeal to us? Check it out. Leave some feedback on the blog about it.

Clear Channel can be sold as a commodity. We have no control over what changes can occur that can affect us.

Power operates differently. There is always a way to get more work out of you in the cheapest possible way. With technology on the rise, it is taking over our jobs, our social beings...etc...

More time and money is needed for Community Media.

Information in a diversity area is great. Although the Media needs to be expanded.

Community Ownership & Control- BNN is a example of this. There are not very open to just "Media Makers".

***Ways of Analyzing a Community Atmosphere***
How is the Media Governed?
Look how it meets criteria?
Does it offer training?
Where does the money come from?
Are there ways managing the money through governance?
How open are they to public in-put?
What is their editorial policy?

These are just a few questions you must ask and wonder about a organization.

**Some independent-media makers are not committed.***Pretend Media.

Community Media is a Process

There was no time for Imovie during Wednesday Night's meeting.

Media Policy 101:

3 distinctions:

1. Policy by which a country city, or state looks at how people get media in their homes and into their individual life's.

2. Communication Policy broken down to Broadcasting, telecommunications, & Cable.

3. All the policies around #2 are a kind of transportation through wires. How this type of media has impact on our community.

FreePress. Activist Tools. Has a media policy that you can download in a PDF file.

Please take a look at the following websites and read them over briefly:

http://www.freepress.net/content/tools

http://www.freepress.net/guide

Also take a look at public interest on the Wiki/Blog.

****The existence of community media is based on Policy. There needs to be policy in place in order to proceed. It needs to have a focus. Community media is created through policy.****

MIT and Final Cut Pro

2008-03-12T17:14:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I was at work this morning and, when I checked out the MIT web page, I found this article which I thought you all might find of interest:

http://www.campusmoviefest.com/events/boston/mit.html

Communications Policy

2008-03-11T09:34:00.000-04:00

Hey Everybody.

Just thought that I would share this link with all of you. It's a good reading. Check it out.

http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v59/no2/8-Napoli.pdf

Aaron Stenton

2008-03-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to provide my blog page here if anyone wants to review it:

http://yvonnesmscommunity.blogspot.com/

-YDC (Yvonne)

Tactical Media_03/05/08

2008-03-05T22:43:00.011-05:00

TACTICAL MEDIA
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
5-7 pm
Taylor Center

Agenda

I. Competencies negotiation
II. Workshop Schedule Planning
III. Roundtable discussion

Attendance

Fred
Yvonne
Sara
Trey
Aaron
Rene
Jay

Fred handed out a sheet that has an outlines of how to get the 3 competencies in Tactical Media.

Fred pulled up the tactical Media Web Blog and started talking about how we can complete the 3 competencies:

1- Media and Community Building
2- Communication Policy
3- Developing a Media Strategy
*** (And possible negotiation of an additional production Competency) ***

Rene talked about his MBTA community activity trying to improve the bus service (There is a podcast on NPR about the subject) he also mentioned that they are going to have a press conference at the transportation Building in Boston Tomorrow (March 6th)
Rene talked about the possibility of burning the podcast in CD’s and distributing them, and subject moved to whether this would be a violation to copyrights.
Fred talked about Copyrights how they are a bundle of rights that can be negotiated. Fred also talked about trade mark and patent as other forms of IP rights (Intellectual property).

Fred clarified the major points that were listed in the sheet he distributed at the beginning of the class; gave us few minutes to go over it and asked us if it’s clear to all of us. Affirmative response from the group.

He talked about how he’s interested in us knowing how communication policy are made and he talked about the link.

He moved talking about Media and community building and how Media is empowering citizens.

He gave us the options to either choose writing a research paper or do the research in form of production (audio, video, web…) about a subject that we are interested in as long as it would fit the criteria.

We had a round table discussing availabilities for students’ volunteering in leading the teaching of certain classes and we came the following workshop schedule planning:

03/12/08

Fred will talk about the theory of political policy and community media
Rene will be provide training on iMovie (½ hr)
Final Cut Pro will also be discussed (45 minutes)

March 15 to 23 (Saturday to Sunday) Spring Vacation

03/26/08

Basic Digital Literacy Presented by Yvonne

04/02/08

Online Media Sharing and pod-casting Presented by Peter Neudel

04/09/08

Photoshop + Adobe ImageReady Presented by Yvonne and Trey (2 hrs)

04/16/08

Adobe Dreamweaver Presented by Trey (2 hrs) **Class will start @ 4:00 pm

04/23/08

Flash Presented by Trey (2 hrs) ** Class will start @ 4:00 pm

Next Note Taker: Aaron

Minutes from Tactical Media 2-27-2008

2008-03-04T14:32:00.000-05:00

Attendance: Yvonne, Aaron, Peter, Celeste, Jay, Joanne, Fred, Sara and Rene.

Fred went over the syllabus and let everyone knows how to accesses them and what it need to be done.

Rene asked if we are going to maintain the same format that the group had last semester (sharing the facilitation and have somebody taking notes) we decided to think about it and Rene decided to take notes for this time.

Jay explained about “second life” and how we can get involve on it. The service is free and everyone with a profile or avatar can buy or sale stuff. He will find out what we can use for free.

Aaron will put the link to Tactical Media on face book and my space.

We discussed about the necessity of scheduling different workshops between March 12th and April 30th. The last day of class is May 14th

The workshops are:

- Video Production
2 sessions

- Video Editing
Multiple sessions

- Online media sharing and pod-casting
1 session (Peter will do this one)
April 2nd

- Wed design

- Basic digital literacy
1 session (Yvonne)
March 26th

Fred mention that anyone who wants to get the competency on wed design, should start working on the project and keep track of everything.

REMEMBER to show up next session (Wednesday March 5th) because we need to setup dates for the workshops.

Next Note Taker: SARA

Another Wiki

2008-02-29T09:52:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone,

This may be of some interest and an additional tool to get Tactical Media and the CMT Program out there. Check it out.

http://students.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Aaron S.

Is the T on track?

2008-02-28T12:44:00.000-05:00

Hi guys,

Remember last night I mentioned to you all about NPR’s report on the MBTA? Well, here is the link to the program and remember to listen it at 1:00pm Friday 29th on 90.9 fm.

http://www.radioboston.org/

Rene E.

Tactical Media Myspace Page

2008-02-27T18:13:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

Here is the link to the Tactical Media Myspace Page. If you have a page of your own, feel free to add the Tactical Media Myspace as a Friend.

http://www.myspace.com/tacticalmedia

Connecting the Globe: Good [but limited]Policy Outline

2008-02-27T16:37:00.000-05:00

For everyone working on telecom policy papers or just entering the discussion on communication policy, please download a digital version of this paper for your desktop

http://www.fcc.gov/connectglobe/

Thanks
Fred

Spring 08 Tactical Project Information

2008-02-27T15:07:00.001-05:00

Here are syllabus and learning activities for those currently active in the project.

http://fredjohnson.mwg.org/?page_id=66

The password is on the Tactical Media list serv --- check your email

Here is the download link for the Community Media Study:

http://www.benton.org/node/6172

Thanks

Fred

Strategic Communication Plan

2008-02-22T15:18:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

This is the webpage where you can get the strategic communication plan. You can go to “resources” and then click on tutorials, good luck.

http://www.spinproject.org/

R.

Net_2

2008-02-20T22:29:00.000-05:00

The Net_1

2008-02-20T22:08:00.002-05:00

Different type of connections

2008-02-20T21:08:00.000-05:00

We were talking today about types of connection so I'm posting these defintions about the different types of connection hoping it would some how help.

Type of Internet Connection

Dial-up connections: Modem, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), X.25Connect to a corporate network or the Internet by using dial-up access.

Local area connections: Ethernet, Token Ring, cable modem, digital subscriber line (DSL), Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), IP over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), IrDA, wireless, wide area network (WAN) technologies (T1, Frame Relay)Typical corporate user.

Virtual private network (VPN) connections: VPNs, over Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) or Layer Two Transfer Protocol (L2TP), to corporate networks or the Internet. Connect securely to a corporate network over an existing connection to the Internet.

Direct connections: Serial cabling, infrared link, DirectParallel cable Synchronize information between a handheld Windows CE computer and a desktop computer.

Incoming connections: Dial-up, VPN, or direct connections. Allow other computers to dial into this computer.

Zeitgeist

2007-12-12T18:21:00.000-05:00

http://cpcscmt.blogspot.com/

New post on analyzing media blog about the movie Zeitgeist

Recap of Thursday Evening Meeting

2007-11-16T16:17:00.000-05:00

Note Taker: Aaron S.

Facilitator: Cisco

Announcements: Now is the time to be thinking about next semester and what you have done or need to work on. No more enrollment will be taking place in Community Media next semester.

For those in the documentary class, there will be no meeting next week due to it falling on the day before Thanksgiving..

1. Agenda: Watch video, and listen to Crystal’s outline of her project.

Add Aaron S to the tactical media email list.

Updates: N/A

Projects: Crystals Outline & Jose's Video

2. Highlights of Crystals Outline: Crystal is trying to grasp how to put good information together for the community. She wants to connect why policy is important and for those not to take things for granted and to keeping things alive.

Newsletters and fund raising's are ways to communicate with the community.

PEG Access- Public Access TV, also called cable access, community access, community tv, and peg.

Community media vs mass media= local, community building tool, engages citizens to become producers vs just consumers of media. Activism, free-or low-cost and powerful

Fred- "Digital storytelling is a practice. Almost a brand these days. Any idiot can tell a story digitally these days. Have people come in and record through mp3 and then combine onto a CD. Come up with some evaluation on what would or would not work".

Fred-"We need to check out the wiki more".

Distribution v.s. practice. Number of distribution options.

PCN-Progressive communicators network- Good source to check out.

3. Jose’s Film: Welcome to Boston Massachusetts. Allston is losing residents. More students are moving in. Rents are high. Community planning and organizing

Jose- Made the video for organizations to improve funding for housing. The benefits for the community.

Fred- "As a director, you need to have the camera close."

Fred-"Learning Exercise, Strategic piece". If he was director, he would want it shorter.

Audio is 68% communication. Read in a book, Fred stated.

Peter: 11/29-peter will be doing a podcast. Aaron B will be doing the uploading portion.

December 6^th, Jason may be doing the 2^nd section of the second life presentation.

Wanted--- community media maker profiles

2007-11-14T14:53:00.000-05:00

Howdy,
I am in the process of researching Boston based community media makers. I have some folks in mind, but would love to hear from you. Is there anyone whom you have worked with that you would like to recognize in the primer? Thoughts?
Crystal

Crystal's Outline

2007-11-01T20:14:00.000-04:00

Content Focus Areas
Print
Audio
Video—BNN, trainings
Resources
• PEG
• Home video

Practices
• Web streaming (vlog, video sharing, uploading, embedding)
• Participatory (use of video for onsite playback)
• Digital stories
• Low-end video conferencing

Web– Collaborative Media
Regulations & Policy
Community Media Makers
Timeline?
Volunteers
Existing resources to tap into

2007-10-23T22:59:00.000-04:00

Meeting Minutes October 18, 2007

2007-10-18T20:40:00.000-04:00

We had visitors from the Town of Harvard with us today along with a documentary film maker from Canada.

Keith, Jackie and Tim are from Harvard. Keith and Jackie are volunteer community media makers and Tim is an elected selectman. They do not have a physical space to house a community access center, but they were able to obtain equipment and some money through their franchise agreement. They would like to take their community media efforts to the next level and are looking for help defining what that next level is and how to get there.

Cathy Edwards worked for a community television station in Canada and is working on a documentary about community media around the world and how it helps build and strengthen community. She spoke about her travels around the world and how community media was being used in some developing countries. We saw a segment that was shot in Fiji. Because of political unrest and racial issues between the Indian and Native populations, community media has become an important tool in educating each group about the other. Its being used to build community. The call in shows are popular, where locals can call in and express an opinion on a topic. Cathy filmed some of our class and interviewed members afterwards.

Cathy aslo spoke about the Challenge for Change program in Canada, how it started and how useful it was for conflict resolution.

Aaron is soliciting help with organizing the Wiki. If you have any documents out there please make sure there is sufficient introduction to them. We are looking to make the Wiki more user friendly so any ideas about organizing it should be discussed in class next week. Jay is suggesting that we organize the links on the left into a more general yet focused table of contents. The table of contents can link to an index for that subject. The p0int is that every document out there doesn't have to link from the table of contents.

We discussed the Technology Grids again. We need to firm up the attributes we want to compare and analyze. The idea is that we can use the grids as part of primer to help non-profits understand the potential use of these technologies.

Tactical Media Minutes 10-11-2007

2007-10-15T09:20:00.000-04:00

Tactical Media Minutes 10-11-2007
Taken By: Denae P.

Attendance:
Aaron Bagelman
Cisco
Crystal
Denae
Peter
Rene
Sam

Agenda:
Announcements
Project Discussions
Organization of the Wiki

1. Announcements

Cisco-Friday November 2nd U-Mass Boston Dinner thrown by Casa Latina 7:00 November 2nd -Campus Center Ballroom $5.00 donation, music, local bands (performers) Cisco did a video for them and they want him to do it again.

Sam-Sent out an E-mail to Tactical Media about it. Sam has a show at the Middle East tomorrow @ 10:30 PM (Friday October 12, 2007) $10.00 for 20 minutes (5 songs)

Rene-Alternative for community & Environment annual meeting 6:00 PM Dudley Sq 2181 Washington Street in Roxbury. October 24th. They also do tours around Dudley to visit sites that used to be contaminated but are not being revamped. You can E-mail Rene.

Fred-
* The documentary class will be using the camera for the next 4 Wednesdays. (They will be on hold and people will not be able to use them).

The classes are going to be camera training classes: camera, lighting, white balancing etc. The rest of the semester will be final cut pro. Anyone can attend. Wednesday nights from 7:00-9:30PM.

* Next class we are having a Canadian filmmaker Kathy Edwards. She is going to talk to us about Community Media (Show footage) She is also going to tape us working next week. We will also be talking a bit about the considerations concerning Myspace, Second Life etc. Make sure to review Jay’s grids and enter your comments etc. Our discussion might also end up in her documentary. Think about how it relates to community.

* Next Week Jason Pramus is doing an update on the current issues and trends and opportunities in community media. He is also going to talk about the social and political implications of these tools. Happening October 25th.
Aaron Stenton-Did put up a Myspace shell for Tactical Media & Sam put up one for Facebook.
#1. How to use them in class
#2. How to use them for your projects & or community building

2. Project Annoucements (Ideas) / Questions
Aaron- (Wiki Discussion) Aaron is doing the organization of the Wiki. He could use help please. Fred and Cisco will be assisting him.
These are the suggestions from last semester for the Wiki:
* Our photos to link to blog (Who are we?)
* Link to Tactical Media blog
* Introductory blurbs
* Table of contents with order changed
* Reorganize the policy stuff
Fred, Cisco, and Aaron plan to meet next Thursday during class in order to discuss these matters. Kathy could possibly tape pieces of the discussion for her documentary.

Crystal-Wants to know if we need to re-register for Benton. Fred said that we should all be getting them. Fred says that you need to Fwd him at least one E-mail that you get from Kevin Tagline in order to get the compentency for the class.

Cisco-Is in the process of working with Casa Latino to work on the Latino Studies website.

Peter-His fathers photo exhibit at the Boston Arts Academy (174 Ipswich Street 174) went very well.

Aaron is going to start to figure out what blurbs he needs to organize the sections on the Wiki.

3. Freds Agenda:
Communications Policy Project-Taping
Aaron Bagelman is going to be taping some policy people but needs help with filming. They are going to be taping Reebee talking about intellectual property. Reebee will also be doing this in our class as well. If you are interested in getting a social research compentency, this can be arranged. You could also use this in place of a presentation. If you are interested in doing this contact Aaron or Fred.

Communications Policy Project-Phone survey research
You will be making phone calls to people regarding communication policy. This is not cold calling.

Primer (Guide) on useful new organizing technology-
Jay’s grids are a start
We need to assess who is interested in helping Crystal on it. We also need to figure out if this needs to be an entire class project. It would be useful thinking for all of us to do. A guide for community leaders-activists, how to organize your newsletters, to how to write a PSA, how to write a press-release. Sam volunteered to help. Fred suggests looking at things that are already created so that you don’t re-create the wheel.

Crystal will develop an outline to see what areas people can help with. We are going to take into effect the time lines-projects that other people are doing so that not everyone would need to do the same amount of work.
Everyone will work on it.

We are looking for a collaborative media coordinator to set up two sessions on what: Possibly second life.

Digitizing things up onto the Internet. Blip TV, You Tube etc. Possibly a podcasting session.

Peter is volunteering to do it.

Crystal wants to know whats going on in the world (media wise) possibly on a weekly basis.

Discussion around the quality of youtube some programs vs. other programs. Some people get the footage directly.

Fred wants a pretty intensive session getting information back on different compression options-putting things online etc. Aaron will do the digitizing session for us. Any day besides November 8th.

The overall topic is uploading, downloading, and being strategic with online video.* What will the night look like?
* Aaron doing refreshing-helping on uploading video
Software options-Different kinds of media players, what options do we have for dong this?
* What is the politically progressive versions of YouTube, are their non-profit versions?
* Are their some that are better than others.
* What sharing site do you want to use? What are the details between all of them?
* What terms are important?
* What programs can assist us?
* What educational-technical level do you need to have? (Terminology and language).
* Cisco will explain how to get things onto podcasts.
Aaron will bring in a 30 second clip of video for us to upload.
Youtube, BlipTV has a Tactical Media Account too
November 15th is when this workshop is happening.
You HAVE to be at the December 13th class.
Scheduling Reebee for November 1st.

Notes: October 4'th

2007-10-05T17:06:00.000-04:00

Hope to get schedule organized and straightened out.

October 25'th Jason is coming in and doing an update on social media. Current issues and debates of social media.

We need to set a date when we will make a decision about tactical media expanding into the following things :
1. Second Life
2. Myspace
3. Facebook

We need to decided what we are going to do with Second Life, Myspace, and Facebook. Contact Aaron or Sam if you are interested in helping.

Technology matrix is to help new students understand some of the basics of the group. It is up on the wiki and open to changes.

Make fred find notes on wiki for changes, and determine date to get ideas for finishing changes.

Discuss podcasting, is it possible for our group to have a podcast?

Fred wants us to set two times when we are going to get policy updates from people. There also needs to be another time when we have some discussion about what we think policy is. What are the most important policy issues this semester.

Fred thinks intellectual property is increasingly important, fred wants Reebee Garofalo to come talk about IP, (Copy right, patents) need to talk to him and set a date.

Jay wants to Audit editing sweet and is looking for input from anyone who is interested in helping.

Tactical Media Minutes 9/27/2007

2007-10-03T15:03:00.000-04:00

Hello, I am going to post the minutes for the first time for the Fall 2007. Also, going to try to do my best that can in posting these minutes. This are the minutes for September 27, 2007.

Housekeeping

• What is the plan for the Tactical media for the Fall. Making the list for notes taking and facilitator on the wiki site.

• Fred- mentioned about different projects about collaboration media work and making sure you do your presentation. Fred talked about last semester. Talk about communication policy.

• Crystal talked about her project with the community, she wants to learn how to do a news letter. Building an e-news letter for her project and if the class should help build one and post the news latter online.

• Daniel ask what is going on with the Wi-Fi problem in the Boston. What is the City doing about the wi-fi. Fred mentioned that there is new type of wireless system that ia more powerful has longer range than Wi-Fi that is called WiMax.

• Aaron is going to work on the wiki for more improvement.

• Peter, Father has a photo gallery event on, October 10th at Newbury St the Class is going on field trip to the event. This event is a communication event for class.

Project

The tactical media class is trying to design a myspace page or facebook so we could use it for class. Also there was a discussion in how to defined what are myspace, facebook, youtube and many more social communication network that are in the web. The class is setting up a grid or matrix to define this social communication network and place this grid on the wiki space. All this is just an idea in how to make definitions for social communication network web sites. The tactical media group only has three week to come up with a brief definition for communication grid.

Tactical Media Group use of Technology

2007-10-02T23:56:00.000-04:00

The nature of the Tactical Media Group guarantees a constant turnover of its members. My tenure in the group introduced me to a number of new concepts and technologies that I would like to share. We studied telecommunication policy and learned to blog. We learned about collaborative media and Wiki. We learned how to upload video to a web server and embed it into either our Blog or Wiki. Have you ever heard of social networking or My Space? What about Web 2.0? Free media tools on the web make it easy for any organization, no matter how small or obscure, to have a presence on the internet. The Tactical Media Group has used these tools to share information and should continue to explore these technologies and their potential use. The following are tools used for participation in the Tactical Media Group.

Blog

Definition (Wikipedia)

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) or sexual topics (Adult blog), and are part of a wider network of social media.

Tactical Media Group’s use of Blog

The tactical media group blog provides an outlet for commentary regarding media and technology policy. Its entries are chronological and usually archived monthly. The blog also provides current updates on projects and meetings. The guidelines for use are general in the hopes that members will contribute more regularly.

Current Blog Address: http://www.tacticalmedia.blogspot.com/

Wiki

Definition (Wikipedia)

A wiki is a medium which can be edited by anyone with access to it, and provides an easy method for linking from one page to another. Wikis are typically collaborative websites, though there are now also single-user offline implementations. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work".One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.

Tactical Media Group’s use of Wiki

The Tactical Media Group Wiki is a repository for the group’s research and collaborative work. Where the blog provides a chronological venue for current affairs and commentary, the Wiki allows the group to work collaboratively on a “database” of information that promotes awareness and understanding of media and technology policy. Although you can search the Wiki, the information here should be grouped and indexed appropriately to allow for easy browsing. The main navigation bar is always visible and should act as a table of contents. When there are multiple pieces of work that fall under a broader category, the broader category should be found in the table of contents with a link to a page that lists and links to the individual pieces of work.

Current Wiki Address: http://tacticalmedia.wikispaces.com/

Video Sharing

Definition (Wikipedia)

A video hosting service, also said a video sharing service allows individuals to upload video clips to an Internet website. The video host will then store the video on its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view that video. Because many users do not have personal web space, either as a paid service, or through an ISP offering, video hosting services are becoming increasingly popular, especially with the explosion in popularity of blogs, forums, and other interactive pages. The website, mainly used as the video hosting service, is usually said the video sharing website (see List of video sharing websites).

The mass market for camera phones has increased the supply of user-generated video. Traditional methods of personal video distribution, such as making a DVD to show to friends at home, are unsuited to the low resolution and high volume of camera phone clips. In contrast, current broadband Internet connections are well suited to serving the quality of video shot on mobile phones. Most people do not own web servers, and this has created demand for user-generated video content hosting, which the likes of YouTube are catering to.

Tactical Media Group’s use of Video Sharing

The Tactical Media Group uses video sharing servers to host its member’s video work. Members are encouraged to share their work on our blog. Although there are multiple free services to choose from, they have different attributes worth considering. Allowable video size and time are the most obvious considerations, but license to distribute and/or modify your work as defined by the terms of use is a consideration that is not as obvious to casual user.

RSS

Definition (Wikipedia)

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel", contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.

RSS content can be read using software called a "feed reader" or an "aggregator." The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.

The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:

· Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

· RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)

· Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)

Tactical Media Group’s use of RSS

The Tactical Media Group has explored the use of RSS to help its members keep up to date about media and technology issues along with updates to the group blog and wiki. Each member of the group is encouraged to use RSS as an effective way to keep abreast information important to the group.

Social Bookmark

Definition (Wikipedia)

Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, organize, share and search bookmarks of web pages. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, but depending on the service's features, may be saved privately, shared only with specific people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of publicness and privateness. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, via a search engine, or even randomly.

Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.

Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.

As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features.^[1]

Tactical Media Group’s use of Delicious

The Tactical Media Group has explored the use of social bookmark technology to help its members seek out popular content related to the interests of the group. Members of the group are encouraged to use a Social Bookmark service like Delicious as an effective way to connect with information that is popular to other people with like interests.

ZEITGEIST, The Movie (It really makes you think)

2007-08-29T22:21:00.000-04:00

This was such an interesting movie that really makes you think about the world as a whole and how the media comes into play (It's a full length movie so you need to set aside about 2 hours to watch it).

-Denae-

Notes from Video Storytelling Workshop (Peter's Dad)

2007-05-11T22:43:00.000-04:00

Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to include the notes that Peter's Dad provided us with during his Video Storytelling Workshop. It was VERY informative. He entitled the notes "Thoughts for Luke" because Luke was a man that he worked with in the past and these were the suggestions that he provided him with in order to help him create a great film.

After Peter's Dad's notes I also included some of my own notes that I kept during the session. Hopefully they are helpful.
-Denae-

Thoughts for Luke
4/20/07

1. Basic themes are far more important than the embellished assumptions people place in their films
2. Look for themes that express universal, eternal meanings. Look for archetypes and Platonic forms
3. A filmmaker has to get out of his/her own way by removing clutter: stay simple
4. The most common mistake people make at the beginning of the editing process is that they stop thinking about what they are trying to say. Don’t assume anything. Make yourself examine what you are trying to say every time you approach the film
5. Take the time to sit with your footage and do absolutely nothing but absorb it
6. What characters want is the driving force in a story
7. Thinking about the meaning of the whole film is a lot harder than knowing how to use equipment or software programs
8. Know that all heroes are flawed. Look for the flaws, because that is what makes the characters interesting. That is the window through which we can see ourselves
9. Taking criticism: truly commit to listening to others. But listen to your own heart too. If someone’s criticism doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. But don’t reject criticism if you feel the slightest bit of defensiveness. If you are defensive, there’s probably something to the criticism. Positive criticism is like a fresh flower. It will only last so long. Negative criticism can help you, but it has to come with good intentions
10. If you are floundering, go back to thinking about basic themes again
11. No matter what, stay humble
12. If you don’t tell the story properly, it doesn’t matter how good the film looks or sounds
13. Always put the requirements of telling the story above all other considerations. Favorite shots and hurt feeling when scenes hit the editing room floor are the sad trials of the business

Denae's Random Notes:

Before Filming:
• Why do I want to do this film?
• What do I want to get across?
• Where is my passion in this?
• What do the characters (The people I'm filming) want? Money? Love? Truth?
• What is the theme? (A loss of fathers love etc.)
• What does this mean?

When Filming:
• Orient the viewer
• Meet the people in your film-Establish a bond between the viewer and the people
• Never have too many characters-It’s hard for the viewer and audience to follow
• Introduce the idea (What is rowing etc)
• Establish some suspense about it
• Establishing a sense of time is important
• Real time: Is connected to the emotional state of the viewer (To see the slight gestures of people etc.)
• You can’t do emotional suspense without real time
• If you want feeling you need real time.
• Fundamental hook is that the viewer is interested in the outcome
• Don’t be complex
• You never want to loose your viewer
• Keep it clear
• Keep it simple
• Give the audience what they want
• Cut out things that don’t tell the story no matter how hard that may be
• Actions often speak louder than words
• It’s less powerful to hear about things via storytelling but to see it is much stronger
• It’s not machinery that is going to make the film-don’t loose your focus

When all else fails go back to the question,"WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY???"

Viet-Aid Occupational Health Project

2007-05-02T15:20:00.001-04:00

Viet-Aid is an organization located in Dorchester Massachusetts whose stated mission is to build a strong Vietnamese American community and a vibrant Fields Corner neighborhood, through Community building and civic engagement, Affordable housing and commercial development, Business and job development, and High quality childcare.

In 2002, Viet-AID partnered with the Dorchester Occupational Health Initiative and researchers from UMass Lowell to begin addressing Vietnamese workers’ health in two sectors: hardwood floor refinishing and nail salons. These two sectors employ a high concentration of Vietnamese workers. Although these jobs and businesses offer lucrative sources of income, they also expose workers to indoor environmental health risks. Conventional products used on a day-to-day basis often contain high levels of dangerous chemicals and toxins. A recent community health survey conducted by UMass Lowell and Viet-AID reported preliminary results of workers in these industries who experienced a broad range of health complaints that could be traced to chemicals used at their jobs.

The Occupational Health Project addresses workers’ health issues through a comprehensive strategy that focuses on research, planning, prevention, intervention, public education, and public policy. They also include community members, workers, and owners in the planning and development process. The project is moving forward by identifying and testing alternative products that are environmentally friendly, safe, and less toxic to workers and owners. Partners in the project are developing and recommending policies and regulations to protect hardwood floor finishers as well as a community education campaign and training curriculum to increase public awareness.

In 2006 I got involved by volunteering as a videographer for the project. I have produced two on-site nail salon interviews, an interview in the home of a consumer that chose to have her floors refinished with water based products instead of oil based products and a training session for floor finishers on how to use water based products instead of oil based products.

Both of the nail salon interviews were used by the Boston Neighborhood Network Cable station as part of a Vietnamese series concerning health issues in nail salons. The series consisted of in studio interviews that integrated my on site interviews to compliment the topic of discussion.

The Natural Nail Salon Video appeared on the Boston Neighborhood Network January 31, 2007. Language was one of the most difficult challenges for me with this project. Not being able to speak or understand Vietnamese made direction and editing little difficult. The other difficulty was shooting the interview while the business was open and serving customers. There was limited room to setup and no possibility for setup that would completely be out of the way for the on going business. Because of this multiple takes were necessary which again made the language barrier more difficult during the editing process.

The Victoria's Nail Salon video appeared on the Boston Neighborhood Network on March 28, 2007. I had the same challenges in terms of language and the logistics of recording around an open business. There was also a time constraint with time for one take of the interview and little else.

Tactical Media Minutes 4/25

2007-04-30T22:17:00.000-04:00

Aaron, Sam, and Steve presented a workshop on social media with a demonstration on how to upload a video file onto the tactical wiki which of course can be uploaded to your blog as well, hence the term, vlog.

sam started with an intro to the history of blogging and gave some examples of blog search sites
technorati
feedster
these are probably the two most popular but there are many

Steve briefly spoke about video compression which is rather complicated in theory but most of the editing programs and digital cameras have default settings that are ok, however you may want to compress larger files. go here for more info

Aaron led the hands on portion of the workshop which we all hope was useful to those of you that were there. thanks for attending!

Tactical Minutes April 18th

2007-04-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

Sorry this is so late in going up on the blog. I'm overwhelmed with school work and my kids. Makes everything so hard to get done. Anyway here are the minutes from our meetin in which Crystal presented on Community Media models.

Housekeeping
-please sigh up for note taking and facilitation on the tactical wiki or at least volunteer to do it at the beginning of meeting.
-there will be some additional workshops thanks to peter; his brother and father will be leading workshops on Final Cut and digital storytelling. keep your eyes posted to our list for announcements.
-fill in the project grid that fred has passed around so that your projects and plans are made known
-jose's presentation is coming up. be sure to get the handout he prepared as it is quite informative

Agenda
Collaborative Media Project Update
Discussion on Virginia Tech media coverage
Crystal's presentation

Va Tech
-you all know the story so I won't repeat it here. we did have a detailed discussion on the event in terms of its relevance to interactive/collaborative media. jason led the way with lots of interesting analysis. the main points we made as a group were the lack of salient media coverage, how the student media at Va Tech did such a superior job at reporting the event
check out this website for more on this horrific episode
this website is also indicative of the community media innovation going on in blacksburg

Collaborative Media Project
Well the social media workshop already has taken place as I am getting this up on the blog late. I hope all of you that were there found it interesting. We are in the process of putting community media definition up on Wikipedia and will let everyone know when that is done. Should be in the next week! stay tuned
for more on vlogging go here

Crystal's Presentation on Community Media Models
Crystal Galvin gave a wonderful presentation on the different models of community media based on her experience as someone working in community radio in west virginia.
she used power point to present her content.I will try to get the power point file from her and get it up on the tactical wiki as it will be a much better guide to her presentation than my textual description.
some important points that came up in the course of her talk include:
-community radio in the US is typically low power radio
PEG Access is also known as cable access and is protected by first amendment editorial policy meaning that contributions cannot be censured
-a good example of PEG Access in boston is BNN
the board is appointed by Mayor Menino and as in most cased of cable access there is a interplay with city politics
-another important point about PEG Access is that it is held to standards above mainstream media and often times leads to unjustified criticism of content and censorship diatribes
the main focus of the presentation was on editorial policy and the red tape that is found in community media models which is somewhat ironic given the supposed principles. nonetheless community media in its various forms serves a critical democratic function and the possibilities have not yet been realized to their fullest extent. thank you Crystal!!

Final Cut Pro Workshop - Thursday May 3, 2007 RSVP

2007-04-27T18:39:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone,
Peter's brother has officially confirmed the Final Cut Pro workshop for Thursday. This will be taking place

Date: THIS Thursday May 3, 2007
Time: 7:00 PM.
Location: Taylor Center U-Mass Boston

We are trying to get as many computers with Final Cut Pro as possible, so if you happen to have a laptop that has it (Doesn't matter what version) please bring it.

We are also trying to get a head count so we are requesting that people RSVP if interested. You can RSVP to me @ Madonna19@aol.com. Thank you very much for your time. Take Care.

-Denae-

Rashomon On Steroids: Virginia Tech Massacre Shows Power of Collaborative Media

2007-04-16T16:36:00.000-04:00

If anything shows the awesome power of collaborative media technology, it is events like today's massacre at Virginia Tech. As a gunman executed students in a dorm room and in nearby classrooms, other VT students sent out frantic email and chatroom messages to their hometown news outlets all over the world--all while locked in their rooms. Meanwhile, a campus area news blog (Planet Blacksburg) bested all the world's mainstream news media in their on-the-spot coverage of the crisis.

Like the famed movie, Rashomon, by director Akira Kurasawa, collaborative media technology allows a vast audience to see the same crime from multiple points of view--and to draw our own conclusions about what has happened. But this is "Rashomon on steroids," one could say, since we are now not just getting 4 perspectives, but hundreds and hundreds of perspectives. All at once. Higgledy-piggledy. Does this make us a more informed populace? Does it add wisdom to the policy decisions that will inevitably get made in reaction to the crime? Probably not. Does it give us more information? Definitely. Does it give us better information? Maybe, though no corpses will be revived by use of digital communications. But maybe more minds will be changed about the proper response to this kind of tragedy. Only time will tell.

This incident makes me think of many things, but one thought kept sticking in my head as I read coverage from around the world. . .this kind of thing happens in Occupied Iraq and other global hotspots every single day. Yet such incidents don't usually get the kind of rightfully outraged coverage that a similar mass killing in the U.S. is accorded. More's the pity.

Anyhow, my thoughts are with the victims and their families. And I think it's critical that the U.S. think of ways to stop this kind of senseless slaughter from happening again in the future. It's just not acceptable that one lone nut--who it will probably turn out got jilted by a girlfriend or felt picked on by other students or had parents that forced him to get As his whole life until he finally snapped--gets to extrovert his probably inevitable suicide to such an extent that he takes over 30 innocent people with him.

Update: This report features the actual sound of the gunshots in the classroom building captured on video by a student with a cellphone. Very hard to sit through.

Update 2: Virginia Tech students have created "Hokies United" groups on the social networking site, Facebook, which they can join to show their friends and loved ones that they survived the massacre. If you have a Facebook account, you can see the groups here (this group actually lists some of the name of known dead) and here.

Update 3: The instant message trail of a student trapped in a nearby classroom during the incident can be found here.

2007-04-11T21:04:00.000-04:00

Tactical Media Class Notes
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Facilitator-Steve
Note Taker-Denae

Agenda:
• Peter-Video Editing & Digital Storytelling Workshops
• Collaborative Media
• Check in on projects
• Denae’s Presentation

• Everyone in class should make sure to SIGN UP FOR WIKI for upcoming classes (Note taker and facilitator)

• The class should also fill in Fred’s form about what projects, presentations, and planning group you are involved in.

Peter:
He’s going to talk more with the video production group because his father who is an independent filmmaker is willing to do a workshop next Thursday or Thursday (etc) on Digital Storytelling.
All his father needs is a hookup for his computer
His brother wants to teach a video-editing workshop about final cut pro
Peter is going to talk to his brother first to get more details
His brother is using the most recent version of Final Cut 5.1
His brother knows all of the Final Cut series though
The power Mac may not be able to run 5.1 anymore
It might be good if he brings in his own laptop.
They are both very excited (Peters Dad and brother).
Since the Camera Usage workshop did not cover lighting- Fred would like to get that piece in. Can be a Tuesday or a Thursday.
In terms of Peter’s family lets take advantage of them (time wise) and whatever time works for them, lets just get it on the books ASAP.

Collaborative Media:
Is there a problem?
Jay says he has been doing the background work
They normally meet at 5:30 on Thursdays
Steve and Sam not familiar with vlogging. They are not clear about how to do it.
Getting stuff up on the wiki needs to happen.
Is that vlog the only thing they have to do?
NEEDS a definition of community media up stat.
Steve has been doing it during his free time.
Someone from community media needs to put out a proposed definition
If there is no response to it consider it an approval.
In terms of presentation-the audience was clarified last week.
People need to be able to do video.
Sam didn’t know if they were necessary since a lot of people already know a lot about it.
Steve put an outline up about vlogging
Collaborative media should be collaborative!
Collaborative Media started with 7 and is now down to 3.
Fred does not care if it is boring he just needs it done.

Project Check In:
Sam has an idea but not sure if it is community media
Sam wanted to videotape himself doing a performance and then get reactions from the Boston based community.
Sam will get someone else to video tape it.
If other people want to help out that would be great.
Sam wants to knock out his project to get it over with.
Peter was hoping to get some sort of gathering of hip-hop artists and then film them as well.
Peter’s brother is building a website and they wanted to include info about community, info about open mics, community events, and build it using Photoshop.
On the April 20th there is an event called the “Legend of Style” in the South End on Tremont St. A bunch of graffiti artists are showing their work. So Sisco is filming it. It’s from 8PM-12:00 AM. $15-20 to get in. For more info go to: http://www.legendsofstyle.net/site/index.php
You can put it up on a video vlog
He did one that was 8 minutes long.
You can only put up a certain amount online usually 10 minutes.
Steve-Is thinking about going to Newton on Friday to the legislation for dummy’s conference.
And then maybe do a 10-minute presentation on it.
Anyone interested can hitch a ride with Fred,
Steve wants to do his presentation about the Lawrence Farmers Market (That his wife runs)
Fred is biased towards visual art, but please consider other forms of media. CD’s and audio projects, written etc.
Don’t let Fred’s obsession make you think that you HAVE to do video.
It’s so easy to edit audio.
You could make an audio CD
Or a website for someone.

Denae’s Presentation:
The entire thing will be posted via the Wiki online to use as a reference.
http://tacticalmedia.wikispaces.com/

2007-04-08T22:15:00.000-04:00

VIDEO PRODUCTION MINUTES – Tuesday April 3, 2007
ATTENDANCE: Angela, Denae, Jay & Jose 5:30-7:00 PM.

CAMERA USEAGE WORKSHOP DETAILS:
During our second video production meeting we initially discussed the Camera Usage Workshop details.

Our first scheduled date was cancelled due to the availability of members of the class (This date was originally scheduled for today). The workshop WILL be taking place on Thursday April 5, 2007 from 5:30-7:30 PM.

Angela then made a poster in order to encourage attendance to the workshop. We plan to hang these up today (To get the word out before Thursday).

TALENT SURVEY DISCUSSION:

We then went on to discuss the talent survey, and found that the majority of our talented classmates are available Thursdays at 6:30 PM. We are hoping to organize our workshops as well as Video Production Meetings around this time. In particular we are hoping to rope in Peter, Aaron, and Sam for the Video Editing workshop.

Jay plans to send an E-mail to Peter, Aaron, and Sam inviting them to our next meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday April 12, 2007 at 6:30 PM. Anyone else that is interested in assisting with this is also welcome!

WHAT COMES FIRST DIGITAL STORY TELLING OR EDITING?:

We then went on to have a discussion about what order we should present our workshops. Does it make more sense to present “Digital Story Telling” first or “Video Editing”? We are hoping to run this idea by Fred during class tomorrow. We also think that Peter might be helpful in this area since he showed talent in both Digital Storytelling AND Editing. Once we figure this out we will be able to proceed with planning for the next workshop.

CONCRETE TO DO LIST:

We then went over some “to do” areas that we expect we be re-occurring with all of our workshops. Because we know that we are short on time (and have two more workshops to present) we created a list of the “Usual To Do’s” which includes a timeline-due date. These areas include:

Find Workshop Instructor
Reserve Room for Workshop
Make List of Equipment
Reserve Equipments
Decide Date and Time
Promotion of Workshop
Workshop Handouts
Print Flyers
Outreach

Jose plans to create a word document of these items which we hope to use for our future meetings.

If you would like to add something or have any questions, feel free to post them via the group list serve.

REMINDER: Our next meeting is taking place on Thursday April 12, 2007 at 6:30 PM!

2007-04-05T22:03:00.000-04:00

Test Vlog Post

2007-04-05T14:27:00.000-04:00

Here is a vlog as an example for Steve's group, and others, to view so that you can have a concept on how one person enjoyed doing their vlog. This vlog uses downloadable videos, because the creator didn't want to have all of them load on the same screen at once (YouTube style).

Read: This vlog is complete if you'd like to know more about why the files are downloadable and not YouTube style streaming files.

Cheers! -Sequoia aka. Exsosus

2007-03-31T22:17:00.000-04:00

Collaborative Media Group Update

The Collaborative Media Group met this Thursday March 29 to regather and move ahead with our planned workshop. We discussed a workshop focusing on blogs, wikis, and social media; however, Fred has since suggested that the workshop be a demonstration on setting up a VLOG which will include digitizing a video clip and uploading on to a blog such as eblogger.
The workshop will mention in passing the social media as a whole but will be more precise in terms of allowing us to experience a tangible method of new media interactivity.
We are working on a flyer for the workshop and a tentative date has been set which we will confirm soon.
In addition to the workshop, we are in the process of finalizing our community media definition to be entered into Wikipedia. A rough draft is in the works as I write and a final draft should be up soon. We will keep you posted.

2007-03-31T21:12:00.000-04:00

Tactical Media Minutes March 28, 2007

Notes=Steve; Facilitator=Angela

Agenda
-Video Production Update
-Collaborative Media Group Update
-Strategic Media Planning and Campaigning Presentation

Video Production Update
-Workshops are planned for April 3rd and 5th (this coming week) @ 5:30pm on both evenings.
-Prof. Johnson will be leading the workshops on Basic Camera skills
-please respond to Jay Cleary via Meeting Wizard which was sent out on the list to specify if you will be attending either workshop. You may have to first send him your e-mail so that you can be invited through Meeting Wizard.

Collaborative Media Update
-community media entry for Wikipedia is actively in the making.
-workshop on social media with emphasis on VLOG demonstration is in the works for later in April (confirmed date to come)

Strategic Media Planning and Campaigning Presentation (Angela and Jean Donohue)
-check out these two websites if you have yet to do so
Active Voice: http://activevoice.net
Media Working Group/Gender Chip: http://www.mwg.org

Major points of Strategic Planning that Angela elaborated upon
-Goals and Objectives
-Target Audience
-relevance to the community
-determines planning to a large degree
-messages, materials, and activities are important to establish here
-Communication/Distribution Partners
-outsource specialized skills
-network/disseminate product
-Coalition Partners
-funding partners
-source partners
-crucial to planning goals
-Evaluation Plans
-measure results and data
-civic engagement aspect
-Create a Timeline
-delegation of responsibility
-important to show budgetary constraints and cost efficiency
-Staffing/Management
-roles and responsibilities
-Create a Budget
-critical to commit strategic plan to paper to have a visual tool to refer to
for many reasons
-some great websites that Angela used as visuals to contextualize strategic planning

-Brave New Films: http://www.bravenewfilms.org/
from their site: "A pioneer in 21st century activism, Brave New Films are the centerpieces for guerilla campaigns designed to break through noisy news cycles. Utilizing the latest technologies, unique distribution strategies, and a growing network of dedicated volunteer field producers, we are producing entertaining and engaging films, blogs, television shows, and short videos while building the essential distribution infrastructure needed for long-term social change."

Brave New Theaters: http://bravenewtheaters.com
this sister site focuses on their interactive distribution infrastructure - find screenings, host screenings, rate and share film reviews, etc.
The films (click here and scroll down for current titles, there's a bunch) address a range of social and political issues --global warming, walmart working conditions, heroin addiction, immigrants rights movement-building, war profiteering in Iraq, black voter disenfranchisement, 9/11 journalism, Katrina relief, homelessness among young veterans, and more... and most are connected to a grassroots distribution and action campaign -- here's a list of some of the many nonprofits, churches, unions, schools and community groups who are involved.

The Ground Truth: http://www.TheGroundTruth.net
(about young vets and GIs speaking out about their experiences going to -- and coming back from -- Iraq)

Iraq for Sale -- The War Profiteers: http://IraqforSale.org/
(about US corporations and the dangers/exploitation faced by civilian contractors in Iraq)

Sir! No Sir! http://www.SirNoSir.com
(about the GI resistance movement to the Vietnam War, including a lot about the alternative media created by returning vets and GIs to connect to one another, campuses and the peace movement -- was produced last spring and has become a resource for this generation's growing movement of Iraq Veterans Against the War -- includes a nifty flash film that connects the movie's historical content with contemporary anti-war campaigns and issues around military recruitment of youth)

-terms to note
-paid media=media that you create and publish
-earned media=the buzz and reaction (positive or negative) around the media that
you created

(after Angela presented a handout was distributed entitled Developing a Media/Technology Strategy (be sure to get one)

The Gender Chip Project-Jean Donohue
-you can learn all about this project on the website listed above. Here are some other important tidbits that Jean Donohue described
-a documentary often takes on a life of its own and blazes its own path in terms
of its focus and target audience.
-distribution of a documentary is often linked to groups like Active Voice which
create a dilemma for the film maker as far as artistic independence is
concerned.
-foudations are often more inclined to fund a distribution organization
than an independent documentary film maker.
-Active Voice defines itself as a "community engagement organization but is more and more becoming like a production house getting in the middle of artist and distribution.

-check out this link
Eyes on the Prize
this documentary is the antithesis of artistic control!
Thank you Jean and Angela for a wonderful presentation of interesting material!!

2007-03-29T22:22:00.000-04:00

VIDEO PRODUCTION MINUTES – Tuesday March 27, 2007
ATTENDANCE: Angela, Denae, Jay & Jose 5:30-7:30 PM.

During our first video production meeting we initially discussed housekeeping matters (“Note taker”, “To Do List Keeper” and “Equipment Reserver”. As the meeting went on we also realized that we would need a “Talent Survey.” The individual assignments are as follows:
Note Taker- Denae
To Do List- Jose
Equipment Reserver- Jay
Talent Survey- Angela

We went on to discuss the various video production related projects and tasks that need to be accomplished in a timely manner. These include:

WORKSHOPS:
A series of workshops that will be organized by the Video Production Group and presented by members of the Video Production Group, classmates in the Tactical Media Workshop, and outside guest speakers. Please keep in mind that if you have any skills in the categories below please let us know because we are looking for presenters AND YOU GET A CLASS PRESENTATION OUT OF THE WAY!
The specific workshops that we will be covering include:
*Camera Usage, *Editing, & *Digital Storytelling

All three of these projects are currently in the process of being developed but during this specific meeting we focused our energies into the “Camera Usage Workshop.”

THE CAMERA USEAGE WORKSHOP: will be presented twice by Professor Fred Johnson and will last approximately 2 hours.
Areas covered: Intro to Sony camera, how to frame a shot, lighting, and sound.
Tentative Dates: (Waiting for confirmation by E-mail) are: Tuesday April 3rd and Thursday April 5th.
Tentative Location: The Taylor Center (Also waiting for confirmation by E-mail)
Tentative Times: Range between 5:30 and 9:30 PM. We have a four-hour window blocked off and Jay has sent out a “Meeting Wizard Request” in order to see what times work best for people. If you have not received an invitation yet E-mail him at: Jay@cleary4.com

My advice would be to reserve Tuesday and Thursday evening (If possible) and to wait to get a confirmation from us as soon as the information becomes available.

Here is the list that has been submitted for the camera equipment
* Cameras (all 3)
* Tripods (2)
* Lighting Kit
* Hand held microphone (2)
* Cables for hand held microphones
* Lav Microphone
* Boom Microphone and pole
* Monitor and cables (camera to monitor connection)

We have three tentative dates scheduled for our next meeting (It all depends on the workshop confirmation) we will ALSO post our meeting time as it becomes available.

If you would like to add something or have any questions, feel free to post them via the group list serve.

2007-03-13T22:20:00.000-04:00

A note on the direction of the Tactical Media Group

I've read the last couple of posts with some concern, and thought I would comment on the issue of where the TMG "class" is going.

First of all, as has been pointed out with some regularity, TMG is not a class in the classic sense. It is a "project based learning group" run by Prof. Fred Johnson with some help from me. In the parlance of the College of Public and Community Service, this means that the Community Media and Technology department uses TMG to bring together everyone that needs at least one of three or four competancies on offer in such a way that everyone gets those competancies by the end of 1-4 semesters in the group.

We do this in 3 ways: 1) people do individual projects, 2) people do collective projects, and 3) people attend weekly TMG meetings where there is a mixture of discussion, lecture and presentation on issues relevant to media and telecommunication studies in the early 21st century.

Assignments are generated for TMG in 3 ways as well: 1) individual projects are usually longer-term assignments, 2) collective projects are medium-to-long term assignments, 3) weekly TMG meetings generate some short-term assignments, too, although not every week for every person.

In TMG, we expect you to get a good feel for the state-of-the-art in media and telecommunications technology and policy by the end of your stay with us. We expect you to complete your individual and collective projects. If you are a Community Media and Technology major you will also probably complete your Capstone while with us. We also expect you to pick up some skills that you may not have had a chance to develop in the past--like the ability to run small group meetings, talk in front of a group, read/watch/listen to a wider array of media on a more regular basis, and use collaborative media technology to express your ideas on the web.

We hope that you will emerge from your experience as an engaged and informed media user. . .and producer--although there is only limited stress on production since other classes are periodically available in video and multimedia production. Media is a huge field, and it is understandable that students might feel overwhelmed or confused about where TMG is "going" from time-to-time.

But as one of the previous posters has discovered, TMG goes where each student takes it to some extent. There is an assumption that students in TMG have some interest in the media; so we try to make it possible to pursue that interest within a fairly loose framework.

I would also direct your attention to the statement of purpose on the right-hand side of this blog that was written in TMG in 2005. It says: "The Tactical Media Group was formed in Fall 2005 to promote awareness and understanding of media and technology policy. We will engage area communities through educational initiatives in that arena with an eye towards fostering social activism and using media and technology to help bridge the digital divide."

So there is also the aspiration that people in TMG will create projects and develop skills that will help improve area communities through the use of current media technology--and that you all might get actively involved in the big media policy fights that are in the process of changing the media and telecom landscape in the U.S. and beyond for the next 2 decades.

Still, if people are confused about where they fit in with TMG that's totally fine. Just set up an appointment to talk to Fred, and work out any problems with him. You can also ask me and other classmates question on our listserv--or even here on the blog as people have been doing.

Otherwise, be sure to come to group and project meetings, and try to do your assignments on time. Spend time thinking about what you'd like to do with the technology we expose you to, and how it might be useful in your community.

Everything should become clear over time. And if it doesn't keep engaging the group until it does.

That's it for now. . .

--Jason

2007-03-13T08:52:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, I would also like to say thank you to all of you for the conversation after class last week. i was unable to post when i got home and due to construction in the office couldn't do it there either. but anyhow I wanted to comment that i feel lost in the class i don't know what directions we are going in or what we are suppose to produce for work. OK we did the reading and some what discussed it. now we are going to create workshops based on what again? Can anyone explain this to me? I know the collaborative media is going to work on the wiki and create a workshop that i am clear on, what i am not clear is what we are going to present and how detailed or basic should the presentations be. If anyone has the answers please post it or email :D
thanks see you tomorrow.
ML

2007-03-10T18:49:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are not in the Analyzing Media class, I added some interesting videos from the Media Education Foundation to my personal Tactical Media Blog. Make sure to check em out.
-Denae-

2007-03-08T11:30:00.001-05:00

Thanks everyone for the convo following the video last night. It helped me put some of my anxiety about the direction of the class to rest. I've since decided that I need to become more proactive about my own involvement/participation/interest in TMG. So here I am baring my soul to you on our lovely blog. I must admit, I actually hate "blogging"...probably because I talk so damn much.

On a lighter note, I am very interested in helping design the Community Media Models presentation. I believe Jose was willing to help as well. Any other takers?

Also, if you have a minute please post your reactions to last night's video presentation. I must admit it took me awhile to get into it, but by the end it was pretty good. Thoughts?

Crystal

2007-03-05T16:44:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,
Apologies for the delay. Here are the notes from the Wednesday 2/28 TMG session.

Agenda
Beyond Broadcast Feedback -- Jason
Project Presentation Discussion & Overview -- Fred
Community Media --- Fred
Questions, Comments, Discussion-- ALL
Other-- ALL

Beyond Broadcast-- Jason is interested in creating oportunities for some of the presenters, including Tad Hirsch, Leo Bird, and Adam Holt to attend a TMG session or learn more about TMG.

Individual Projects
Folks were encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas about their individual projetcs.

Sequoia-- Working on an Oral History project
Sam-- Interested in working with UMB Sports and creating a Hip-Hop Forum in late April at UMB.

Danae-- Would like to develop a short video for the non-profit she works for

Peter-- Creating a web site that will feature videos on a variety of social justice topics etc.

Jose-- Working with ABCD to outreachto the Latino community regarding Home buying classes

Community Media

For Rennie's version refer to page 4 of the book.

Fred-- "Community media is non-commercial media created in communities that provides a forum for participation and it content and organization are both participatory and democratic."

Key Issues
Community-- virtual vs. geographic
Who is in the community?

Models of community media
Web based indipendent, radio, Cable Access, electronic community, newspapers

historically community media helped build a wall between marketing & commercialism (ie. marketing decisions based on a Board of Directors social values (ch. 4 Rennie)

Goal-- To provide access

CH. 2 "Access & Free Speech" notes & Discussion

PEG Cable Access--usually have an open policy on editorial decisions
Community radio has a stronger editorial decision

3 Questions to ask regarding Community media
1. How is it governed?
2. Where is the funding coming from?
3. What are its editorial policies?

Communitiarianism vs. Liberalism (pg. 25 Rennie)
Liberal = capatilist/post 1800/ modern/ individualist
Communitarian= pre-capitalist/ pre 1800/ pre-modern/ collectivist/ fmaily, clan, viallge level (ie. "it takes a village..."

Read pgs 25-29
Reactionary communitarianism is a double edge sword

Questions, Comments, Discussion
Fred-- Make a presentation on community media models.
***Critical Q's are as important as the concepts

Most important Q's
1. How to control a media environment?
2. How are policies created?

We need a national media policy!

2007-03-01T23:43:00.000-05:00

What's up with that

This has nothing to do with tactical media but I feel like I must bring it up anyway, why do some of the Crystal Transport drivers drive exactly 5.7 mph going to and coming from the train station. It's like they know your late and are determined to make you even more so. Would I be rude to yell from the back "It's the one on the right Grampa", or would that be over stepping my boundaries as a passenger? Just a question what do you guys think?

2007-03-01T20:24:00.001-05:00

Notes Collaborative Media

1st Collaborative Media meeting -- 3/1/07

Set date for workshop
Reserve space for workshop (probably Taylor Center)
Consider audience for workshop

NOTES meeting March 1, 2007 -530-630pm

Meeting will be every week from 530-630pm
Next meeting Thursday March 8 Taylor Center
Decided on two workshops : Dates for workshops will be

Tuesday April 10, 530to ?- tentatively
Wednesday April 11, 2:00 to 4pm tentatively

Aaron: will email/call/stop by Peter's office to reserve space for workshops and report back next March 8
Audience we are aiming for so far are students both UMB and other universities/institutions; plus faculty and staff. with little or no understanding about blogs+wiki's

Fred: Thoughts about the workshop topics : What do you as students need or want?

SIDE NOTE : Reminder can work on independent projects and bounce ideas off of each other in the collaberative media meetings.

Task for next week: work on finding definitions of Collaborative Media from various sites and post on tacticalmedia.wikispaces.com/collaberative media with your name in BOLD

Jason recommended to check out cmedia.xwiki.com for examples

2007-02-22T00:07:00.000-05:00

Tactical Media Group Minutes 2/21/07 (taken by Jay)

Syllabus is updated with more schedule information on Fred’s blog. Please review.

http://fredjohnson.mwg.org/telecom/?page_id=25

Presentation requirements were discussed. Everyone is required to do a presentation to the group. Volunteers are needed for the list below with the tentative dates; more will be forth coming.

Policy Summary (3/7/07?)
Strategic Planning and Campaigning (3/14/07?)
Policy Update (4/4/07?)
Community Media Models; Public vs. Community (4/11/07?)
Policy Update (4/25/07?)

Project Requirements were discussed. Everyone is required to do an individual project and participate in a collaborative project with other group members. We will continue to discuss project opportunities and people are encouraged to bring their ideas forward. Three collaborative projects that are currently being discussed are below with interested participants tentatively identified.

Collaborative Media Project. First meeting Thursday March 1, 2007 5:00 – 7:00.

Aaron
Maria Luisa
Sam
Steve
Cisco

Video Production Workshops

Angela
Maria Luisa
Yanno
Sam
Peter
Denai
Joseph
Aaron
Jay

Alliance for Community Media Activist Project

Fred is looking for volunteers for this project. Phone surveys, Research and dissemination of findings to rally support. Project will attempt dispel misrepresentation competition on cable pricing. The project will advocate for community control over franchise agreements and right of way issues.

Video Uploading and Blogging Workshops

Provide workshops for uploading video to internet services like youtube and bliptv.

We would like to schedule some screenings throughout the semester. Anyone who as video projects to share is encouraged to schedule a viewing. Videos five minutes or so can be viewed during our regular meeting time otherwise we could schedule a special viewing and optional invite the public. Looking for topics relevant to the media topics we’ll be discussing this semester.

2/28/07 - Turn it on, Tune it in, Take it over

FYI – There is a media conference at MIT this Saturday 2/24/07 (Beyond Broadcast). Jason is going and anyone interested should speak with him.

Remember about reading assignments. We will continue to discuss the reading in the coming weeks. Read the intro and first two chapters. Consider key concepts and any questions you have.

2007-02-21T21:34:00.000-05:00

Class Minutes February 7, 2007

(Taken by Jay)

Housekeeping

Introductions

Everyone had an opportunity to introduce themselves. Welcome to all new Tactical Media Group Members.

Facilitator and Note Taker

Jay took notes tonight and will coordinate a signup list for future meetings.

Steve facilitated tonights meeting

Seqouia will take notes next week and Aaron will facilitate next weeks meeting.

Handout

Fred gave a handout for discussion topics

Fred’s Blog

http://fredjohnson.mwg.org/telecom/

Web2.0 and Collaborative Media

Jason led a discussion and presented information about web2.0 and collaborative media. Topics included the following.

Efficient use of technology and online communications
History of communication = Mass media (Movies, TV, Radio) = More ability to communicate

= Internet (Web1.0) = More people, advanced technology

= Web2.0 = More interactive, new ways for community building, new ways for social networking, advanced technology including open source

Technology used to receive information of interest. How to configure your Firefox browser and RSS feeds (Help/customization/themes and extensions/mozilla updates).
Technology used to organize your information on the web and connect with others that have like interests. http://del.icio.us/

Reading Assignment

Read introduction and first two chapters of assigned book. Link to book on Fred’s Blog/syllabus

Brief Discussion about Workshops and Projects

We discuss further next week and start scheduling. Fred discussed the requirements of individual projects and expectations of people getting involved outside of the Wednesday night meeting.

2007-02-09T09:33:00.000-05:00

2007-02-02T01:17:00.000-05:00

2006-12-08T21:12:00.000-05:00

Along with the Aliance for Community Media, I would encourage everyone to notify the FCC and speak out about their attempt to circumvent congress!

Four Steps to Being Heard

Below are the actions which we would ask that you take by 5 PM EST Wednesday, December 13th. We hope that you will take all of the actions, but understand fully how busy you may be. Therefore, we have listed the actions in order of importance and effect.

Step 1

Call each of the FCC commission offices using the attached script as-is or modified as needed.

Step 2

File your official record of the call(s). This is called “Notice of ex parte meeting” and goes into the official record. Web address is listed in instructions below.

Step 3

With one click, you can email your ex parte letter and comments to the FCC and Congress using our auto-mailer linked to the Alliance home page www.alliancecm.org.

Step 4

Fax a copy of the same ex-parte letter to your three Congress members.

[Note: The multiple exposures to our message are intentional.]

The attached support materials have all of the text and instructions you need. However, if there is anything unclear to you, please feel free to email or call any of the following Public Policy members:

Alan Bushong alan@cctvsalem.org 503.588.2288

Anthony Riddle raiseeveryvoice@yahoo.com 202.393.2650

Carl Kucharski carl@pcmtv.org 503.528.2244

Cor Wilson cwilson@ctv15.org 651.482.1261

Rob Brading rbrading@mctv.org

Rob McCausland rghm@verizon.net

Sean McLaughlin seanm707@yahoo.com

Sue Buske sue@buskegroup.com 916.441.6277

Tony Vigue ctam@usa.net 207.767.7615

Step 1: Call the FCC

[Estimated Time: 2 minutes per call]

We want large numbers of short calls. You are not asked to be experts, merely to weigh in on the matter of video franchising and PEG. This will likely take less than two minutes. When you call, you will likely be referred to voicemail. Whether you get voicemail or are graced with a real conversation, the script is the basically the same. This is a formal process, so it is okay to read from a script. Feel free to make it fit your needs. It’s your call. They have to listen.

Hello, my name is [Name]. I am [Title/Relationship] for [Organization or Community] located in [City and State].

I am calling about MB 05-311 on video franchising. The following are our concerns:

We unite with Alliance for Community Media members in calling for competition without destruction of local, community controlled media.

1) The proposed rule eliminates incentive for providers to negotiate in good faith. If the city and the provider do not come to agreement in 90 days, the new provider can proceed without agreement. They can then make billions of dollars in our public land without considering local needs.

3) The proposed rule reduces the support for PEG, institutional networks and other in-kind services from that allowed by current Federal law. It is in direct contradiction to language written by the telephone companies and already passed in key states. This reduction would eliminate a valued community resource with no demonstrated effect on either price or competition.

4) The changes being proposed are dramatic and over-step the FCC’s authority. We believe that such changes to the law should be made by Congress, not the FCC. These changes will slow competition by confusing the legal framework. Changes to the law should be decided by law-makers, not the FCC.

I can be reached at [Phone or Email]. Thank you for your consideration.

###

Commissioner	Media Aide	Phone Number
MacDowell	Christina Pauze (paw-ZAY)	202-418-0144
Tate	Chris Robbins	202-418-2500
Chairman Martin	Heather Dixon	202-418-1000
Adelstein	Rudy Brioche (bree-o-SHAY)	202-418-2300
Copps	Bruce Gottlieb	202-418-2000

Step 2: Filing an Official Call Record (Ex Parte)

[Estimated Time: 5 Minutes]

1) Cut and paste the letter below into a blank Word, WordPerfect or PDF document. It may be completely blank or may be electronic stationery. Save.

2) Fill in and edit as appropriate.

3) Go to the filing page: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi

4) Fill out the cover sheet information, including:

a. #1: fill in “05-311”

b. #11: do check box

c. #12: pull menu down to “notice”

5) In the green section, type “ex parte notice” for file description.

6) In the green section, use “Browse” button to attach your letter file.

7) In the green section, use pull down menu to identify letter format.

8) Hit Send. [Note: Correspondence is appropriately addressed to “Secretary” Dortch.]

9) Done!

###

[Date]

Ex Parte

Ms. Marilyn Dortch, Secretary

Federal Communications Commission

445 12^th Street, S.W.

Washington, DC 20554

Re: Implementation of Section 621(a)(1) of the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 as amended by the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, MB Docket No. 05-311

Dear Ms. Dortch,

This notice is to record our ex parte meeting(s) with [FCC Commissioners or staff names]. We stated our concerns [directly via phone or via voicemail] on [date(s)]. Our comments are summarized as follows:

We unite with Alliance for Community Media members in calling for competition without destruction of local, community controlled media.

1) The proposed rule eliminates incentive for providers to negotiate in good faith. If the city and the provider do not come to agreement within 90 days, the provider can proceed without an agreement. They can then make billions of dollars using our public land without considering local needs. This framework would be unreasonable.

2) The proposed rule lacks a remedy for geographic discrimination. Public, Education and Government Access, or PEG, are tools to engage our local communities in democracy. Democratic participation should be for all, not based on a company business rule. The public-right-of-way is owned by all in our community, not just those in an area lucky enough to be served. We believe that inevitable market imbalances must be anticipated by the FCC, as they were by Congress, and that any rule-making must provide these three elements:

A) A standard for identifying imbalances in service.

B) A party responsible for identifying the imbalance—logically, the municipality.

C) A means for prevention or remedy of the imbalance.

3) The proposed rule reduces the support for PEG or other community media services from what is allowed by current Federal law. We believe this is an arbitrary reduction which will hurt our communities. It is in direct contradiction to language authored by telephone companies and already passed in key states such as California and Texas. This reduction would eliminate a valued community resource with no demonstrated effect on either subscriber price or level of competition.

4) The changes being proposed to the law are dramatic. We believe that such changes to the law should be made by Congress, not the FCC. These changes will slow competition by confusing the legal framework. Such changes should be decided by law-makers, not the courts. The FCC should not usurp Congressional authority.

We look forward to working with the FCC to establish a process which supports both competition and community fairness. Please contact us if you have questions or comments.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Title and/or Affiliation]

[Street Address]

[City, State Zip]

[Phone]

[Email Address]

CC: Christina Pauze

Chris Robbins

Heather Dixon

Rudy Brioche

Bruce Gottlieb

My Congressional Delegation

Step 3: Email copies to your Congressional delegation.

[Estimated time: 2 Minutes]

With one click, you should email your ex-parte letter or other comments to the FCC and Congress using our auto mailer at:

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/ACM/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6173.

This direct link is also posted on the Alliance home page.

All you have to do is cut and paste your letter from Step 2 above into our easy auto-mailer. It will go automatically to your Senators and Representative.

Step 4: Fax a copy of the same letter to your Congress delegation.

[Estimated time: 5 Minutes]

Fax a copy of the same ex-parte letter to your three Congress members. A physical document in the office is more powerful than email alone.

The current fax numbers will follow on separate email and will be posted on Alliance website, thereafter. We will issue a similar document for the new, 110^th Congress when available.

[Note: The multiple exposures to our message are intentional.]

2006-11-21T08:30:00.000-05:00

Dear Tactical Media People,

Here are the notes from our November 16th meeting:

Charlotte says: Update on projects is tonights discussion.
Fred says: Discussion of announcements involving due dates, and questions:
1.Do we need to make any corrections for this class (issues anyone)?
2.Why aren't we focusing on national policies at all?
3.Steve says: When are the screenings going to happen? Matt L.'s Screening is happening December 14th. Everyone needs to meet here at 5:30 PM.
Other screenings maybe in the next semester.

Updates:

Jay has a ready color-printed flier for the Video Workshop date and events.

Pam says: The dates and times and the room are reserved for the Video Workshop.

Party: People are talking about having our social party at the Double-Tree Guest Suites near Umass Boston.

Due Dates IMPORTANT so in everything is in bold:

Note: First, sign up on the Tactical Media Wiki! Jason will help you out with this.

Post the definitions that we've been talking about (on the handouts sheet) by: December 7th, 2006.
Fred wants to see everyone's definitions of the terms (everyone's individual definition of each term) on the Tactical Media Wiki.
Jonell is going to have information up on the Tactical Media Wiki in a seperate category from the terms, by: November 30th, 2006.
Everyone should make corrections, arguments, or additions of each others submissions. These should not be made in the same place as the Dec. 7th definitions, they should be commented on in a separate place on the Wiki which the Wiki group will create for all of us. AND everyone, together, should come up with a definition of what Community Media means and post that on a separate place on the Wiki by: December 14th, 2006.
Read Chapters 1 and 2 in the book and put up 3 critical questions that you have from the reading on the Tactical Media Wiki by: Next class, November 30th, 2006 please.

Enrollment (registration for classes) opens on November 27th , 2006. You need to register by January 1st, 2007 to avoid the late fee. On January 18th, classes will be canceled that don't have enough students that are enrolled in them.

2006-11-10T23:27:00.000-05:00

Tactical Media Minutes for November 9, 2006
Notes: Steve
Facilitator: Charlotte

AGENDA
1)Housekeeping
2)Group project report
3)Discussion on election and its implications for communications policy

HOUSEKEEPING
-Please see Jay for notes/facilitation sign-up to ensure that we have folks filling the two roles for the remainder of the semester.
-Reality check: next week we will take 20-30 minutes to assess where we stand both collectively and individually given that the semester is winding down.
-Reminder: CMT students have priority use of the video/editing room. It is a good idea to familiarize oneself with its resources.
http://www.cmt-vmr.blogspot.com/
>Sign-up to use the room for extended time periods and check out equipment with Peter Adams. There will be a potential competency available for conducting and documenting a full video/editing room inventory (see Fred).
-Be sure to read the first two chapters of the class text Community Media: A Global Perspective by Ellie Rennie. This is a prelude to the Media and Community Building Competency.

GROUP PROJECT REPORTS
-Collaborative Media/Wiki Group
>little to report as things are moving slowly
>basic introduction to the wiki is complete and more substantive instruction will commence next week.
-Video Production Group
>Dates: November 30 and December 7 are solid. Hours are 3pm to 5pm.
>the Taylor Center is reserved for the event.
>insertion in the Mass Media calender is in process as well as the flyer promoting the event.
>Jay will have a to-do list up on the blog.
-Screening
>Matt Landry and co. will be presenting a documentary on citizen journalism on December 14 in the Taylor Center from 630-730pm. Please specify if anone has issue with extended time slot that Matt requested. The documentary is only 14 minutes long and will be followed by a Q&A period.
-Future Project
>all in the Tactical Media Group will be required to do an independent project that Fred will detail next week in terms of possibilities.
>here is on option(to be done preferrably this semester by up to 2 students).
>>Research who the new communications policy leaders are, post-election, at both the state and federal levels. Then discuss the potential shift in policy. Fred and Jason will lend support. Jonell has expressed interest. If anyone else is interested they should speak with Fred.
ELECTION AND IMPLICATIONS
-we had an open dialogue on election results and what the various thoughts were. If you haven't done so, read Jason's op-ed in the Mass Media entitled, Thoughts on Election Day.
-Here are some of the topics flying around the Taylor Center during our interchange of opinions.
>Whose right? Whose left?
>>Don't be too quick in categorizing Democrats as the keepers of the progressive faith. Some indeed are, while others may offer up some surprises.
>The failure of Question #2
>>fusion voting, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fusion
>>list voting, http://www.fairvote.org/pr/whatis.htm
>>the inherent kink in the american electoral process(in addition to slander campaigns and voter intimidation and psychotic state differentiated voting processes) is the barrier to initiating a party. The parliamentary system significantly differs in that parties are easier to start and are represented in accordance to the respective percentage of votes won.
>The Progressive Era, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era
>What do voters consider important when voting for a particular candidate?
>>issues possibly, however, personality and looks are crucial factors that often transcend issues.
>Why did Deval win?
>>did he play it safe?
>>did he stay away from from "heavy" issues and intuit the weakness of Healey both on issues as well as aesthetics?
>The Kennedy/Nixon Debate of 1960, http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/kennedy-nixon/kennedy-nixon.htm
>The new role of federal legislation
>>policy changes may be forthcoming as different appointees present different perspectives on the issues at hand(ex. Stevens Bill)
>>federal legislation may in fact transform itself towards a more favorable climate in terms of the public interest and thus therfore change the strategy of those involved in media activism.

2006-11-10T16:25:00.000-05:00

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