1 Digital Technology: PEG’s New Best Friend Hans Klein Georgia Institute of Technology 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

2 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

3 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

4 Push and Pull –Comes to you (announcements) –Allows dialogue (list serves) –Community-building WWW –On-demand media –Video on demand –(and everything else)

5 “Community Media on Steroids” Already exists in your community Web sites –Most groups have one –(Do most have access shows?) groups –“thick” social interactions

6 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

7 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

8 PEG as Accelerator Digital community media already strong –But can be enhanced Training –Use of tools Technology –Computers, cameras, servers

9 Templates for Common Applications 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

10 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

11 Digital Technology is Already There Internal Web page Computers Internet access Digital cameras and editors? Staff expertise

12 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

13 Incremental Strategy Web classes Archives on own web sites Template development Eventually… Equipment switch-over Terms of franchise –broadband

14 Ride the Wave Digital technology is going to happen PEG can play a role The time is now Start an community

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16 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