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Digital Technology:PEG’s New Best Friend

Hans KleinGeorgia Institute of Technology

www.IP3.gatech.edu

Conference Session: “The Future is Digital”With Kari Peterson, Scott Alumbaugh, and Marnie Webb

Alliance for Community Media2005 Annual Conference

Monterey California6-9 July 2005

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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

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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

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Push and Pull

• Email– Comes to you (announcements)– Allows dialogue (list serves)– Community-building

• WWW– On-demand media– Video on demand– (and everything else)

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“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

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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

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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

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PEG as Accelerator

• Digital community media already strong– But can be enhanced

• Training– Use of tools

• Technology– Computers, cameras, servers

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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

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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

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Digital Technology is Already There

• Internal Email

• Web page

• Computers

• Internet access

• Digital cameras and editors?

• Staff expertise

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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

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Incremental Strategy

• Web classes• Archives on own web sites• Template development

• Eventually…

• Equipment switch-over• Terms of franchise

– broadband

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Ride the Wave

• Digital technology is going to happen

• PEG can play a role

• The time is now

• Start an email community– PEG-digital@yahoogroups.com

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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