Transcript PEG’s New Best Friend: Digital Technology

Digital Technology:
PEG’s New Best Friend
Hans Klein
Georgia Institute of Technology
www.IP3.gatech.edu
Conference Session: “The Future is Digital”
With Kari Peterson, Scott Alumbaugh, and Marnie Webb
Alliance for Community Media
2005 Annual Conference
Monterey California
6-9 July 2005
1
Digital Technology
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Community media on steroids”
Even better than television (complementary!)
Power to the people
You already have it
It is cheap –often free!
PEG has an important role to play
2
What Is Digital Technology?
• All media is a digital file
–
–
–
–
–
–
Music
Video
Telephone
Photos
Newspapers
Books
• Broadcasting is the Internet
– Broadband
• Interesting combinations
– Podcasting, peer-to-peer, video blog
3
Push and Pull
• Email
– Comes to you (announcements)
– Allows dialogue (list serves)
– Community-building
• WWW
– On-demand media
– Video on demand
– (and everything else)
4
“Community Media on Steroids”
• Already exists in your community
• Web sites
– Most groups have one
– (Do most have access shows?)
• Email groups
– “thick” social interactions
5
Power to the People
• Unmediated communication
– The dream of community media
• People own means of production
– Computers, cameras
• People have access to distribution
– Personal web pages
– Free list serves
6
The State of the Art:
We are not there yet
• Mature
– Computer ownership rates (high)
– Computer skills (widespread)
– Access to Internet (easy)
– Internet usage rates (high)
• Maturing now
– IP TV
– Video on demand
– Diffusion of broadband
7
PEG as Accelerator
• Digital community media already strong
– But can be enhanced
• Training
– Use of tools
• Technology
– Computers, cameras, servers
8
Templates for
Common Applications
• Email list structure
–
–
–
–
–
Internal discussion
External announce
Building a mailing list
Etiquette
Writing a press release
• Web sites
– Edit, design, archive
• Event archives
– Easy recording, edit, web posting, summary, timeline
9
Digital Inclusion
• Overcome the digital divide
• Market mechanisms doing a lot
• But least wealthy need assistance
• Train activists in digital media
• Make servers available
• Make equipment available
10
Digital Technology is Already There
•
•
•
•
•
•
Internal Email
Web page
Computers
Internet access
Digital cameras and editors?
Staff expertise
11
Complementary
with Existing Technology
• Cable Television
– Live programming
• Call in shows
– High cinematographic quality
• Imported programming
• Web-based
–
–
–
–
Talking head format
Information, not entertainment
City Council Meetings, lectures
Archive past programming
12
Incremental Strategy
• Web classes
• Archives on own web sites
• Template development
• Eventually…
• Equipment switch-over
• Terms of franchise
– broadband
13
Ride the Wave
•
•
•
•
Digital technology is going to happen
PEG can play a role
The time is now
Start an email community
– [email protected]
14
15
Better Than Television
• Not real time
– Viewer need not adapt
• Not one medium but many
– TV, radio, print,
• Community-building
– Forums, groups, discussion, interactivity
• Low cost
– People own the equipment
• Easy to use
– Computer skill base widespread
16