Video is becoming nearly as ubiquitous as text on the web. Web tools for uploading and sharing video are free and easy to use, but still the vast majority of content producers don’t really understand how to communicate effectively in the video medium. It turns out communicating well with video is just as complex as communicating well with language, and teaching those skills to the uninitiated can be daunting. This panel is designed to help those who already have a decent mastery of video production teach those skills to others. It’s a how-to-how-to, if you will.

We obviously encourage you to vote for Bill’s proposal. You have to register at the site in order to vote, but it’s quick and painless and you won’t get spammed or anything for doing it.

But Bill isn’t the only one pitching a community media-related panel. Software developer and community media activist, Kevin Reynen, who is himself proposing a panel on the Open Media Project, has identified several community media-related proposals in the this year’s list (of more than 2,300 panel proposals!). Here’s Kevin’s list; please vote for these panels and help get community media on the south-by radar!

Panels being proposed by PEG center staffers:
channelAustin Open Media Project: Giving Community Control of Television
VCAM – Shooting Noobs: Teaching Video to the Video Illiterate
BAVC – Sexy Dirty Data: Making Your Metrics Matter
BAVC – Virtually Augmented 3.0 Reality: New Tools for Filmmakers

Other Public Media related sessions:
Offline America, Why We Have A Digital Divide – Rural librarian and Internet folk hero, Jessamyn West (a Vermonter!)
Open Wide: New Models for Public Media – Jacquie Jones from the National Black Programming Consortium has a much more inclusive view of Public Media 2.0
Wordpress 3.0: The TV Series Publishing Platform – It’s not Drupal, but it is open source
Cost-Collaboration: Professionals, Policy & Open-Information Practices Eric Steuer from Creative Commons has helped explain Creative Commons licensing at channelAustin and BAVC.
Our Media: Building An API For Public Media – Nothing wrong with API’s and standards that are truly open. Not sure if this one is, but at least leaves the door open for folks outside the CPB by including “NPR, PBS and others are thinking even bigger.”

General Television and VOD sessions:
YouTube vs. the Telly: Changing Viewing Habits
Taking The Onion’s Web Series to Television
500 People in Your Living Room: Emerging SocialTV
It’s Not Tv, It’s Social Tv
Second Screen: TV Meets The Web Backchannel
This is Our Generation: WeOwnTV Sierra Leone

Other sessions that could have something to do with open, public media:
Too Small, Too Open: Correcting Wikipedia’s Local Failure
Journalism Collaborations: Recreating News for the Digital Age
Content Is No Longer King: Curation Is King!
The Rebirth of Radio Thanks to Social Media

Thanks for your vote!

- Citizen Journalism & Social Media
- Community Media Center Management, HR & Board Development
- Fundraising & Collaborations
- Engineering, Broadband, Network management & Related Issues
- Media & Telecom Policy
- Community Engagement, Training & Marketing/Outreach

Our good friend Colin Rhinesmith from CCTV in Cambridge Massachusetts has been charged with leading the Citizen Journalism and Social Media track and I was lucky enough to have been asked to present on the “Using Social Media to Serve the PEG Community and NonProfit Organizations” panel on July 9th. I will be joining Colin, Lee Webster the iYouth Director at channelAustin and Jason Daniels the Executive Director at ECAT in North Easton, MA to discuss the way our centers utilize social networking to inform our communities and strengthen our alliances with NonProfit Organizations.

We were each asked to develop a short presentation on how our own social media strategies have proven to be successful. I have chosen to focus on how VCAM has used social networking in an attempt to build an online identity that is faithful to the values and spirit in our mission. The following are some of the bullet points that I have started putting together for the panel discussion:

Social networking is sharing culture:
- Social media, unlike the “dreaded” newsletter, we don’t have to think of everything to share with our audience.
- We frequently share news items (blog posts, tweets, photos, video – any content shared via social networking) from sources that aren’t directly related to our organization but are related to the spirit and values of our mission. Net neutrality, rural broadband, copyright and creative commons, media access, fair use, free speech etc.
- It is all part of illustrating a larger context and sharing the greater culture around our organization.
- Sharing is key: The power of the retweet or “share” functions: sharing content that originated outside oour center (news from a partner nonprofit org partner for example) = speed skating relay (i.e. teamwork, partnerships)
- By sharing information that others in our social media network have created, we are helping push information further and to more people than the originator of the content could do alone.
- Not only are we indicating to our own network of followers that we value the information we are retweeting, we’re also telling the creator of the content that we appreciate what they have to offer and are willing to help their cause.
- Why do nonprofits come to VCAM? A fundamental principle of ours: We’re here to help others get important information out to their community. Social media is an extension of that commitment.

Strategy around content created by our staff:
- We try to distribute all of our own news throughout our network, link to blog posts and newsletter (constant contact) via Twitter and Facebook, Tweet “round-ups” on the blog etc.
- Redundancy is OK in fact has proven quite useful for us.
- If we shoot a short PSA we’re going to put it on our channel, upload it to blip.tv & YouTube > embed the video in our blog > link to the blog post via Twitter > and share a link to the blogpost on our FB wall.
- Cast a wide net.

Direct benefits of developing our network:
- It has enabled us to offer more effective social media workshops to our nonprofit partners.
- More and more people are listing our social media network as how they heard about our organization and/or know about our workshops.
- Through discussions with many of our members we are noticing a growing familiarity with the larger context of community media (i.e. legislation and policy, challenges associated with evolving technology in relation to our funding structure, why advocacy is essential etc.) and many people have credited our Facebook page and Twitter feed for keeping up to date with important issues facing PEG.

Tips:

- These are things that have worked for VCAM and every center is different..so listen to your community, find out what tools they are using and shape your social media strategy around where they are interacting.
- When developing your social media network remember the phrase “Redundancy is a plus….consistency is a must”
- Lastly, for those folks just starting to develop their social media network and online identity: There are thousands of social media experts out there – feel free to ignore them all. (Just have fun with it)

I hope to update this blog post as the list develops……

Note: Post was updated on 7/9/10 in preperation for panel discussion.