Gcmc-meet

Citizen media collaborative targets comprehensive calendar

as first project; explores opportunities for collaboration, funding

ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT/LIST OF ATTENDEES

Reported by Bill Densmore
please use "edit" tab above to add or modify references about which you have first hand knowledge, or to add updating or superceding information. After editing click on "save" tab at bottom of page.

WILLIAMSTOWN -- In what was billed as a brainstorming session, citizens seeking to improve local news coverage and community information exchange targetted creation of an online database-driven events calendar as their first project and explored ideas about group collaboration and funding.

The 75-minute meeting held Wed., Aug. 2, 2006, at the Williamstown Public Library, drew 17 potential"citizen journalists" and was organized by a group of conveners that included a former chamber of commerce adminstrator, local newspaper reporter and onetime co-publisher of The [Williamstown] Advocate regional newsweekly, Bill Densmore. Densmore, who now heads the Media Giraffe Project at UMass Amherst, described the group as the Greylock Citizen/Media Collaborative (GCMC).

Attendees included representatives of two low-power FM stations -- WCFM at Williams College and WJJW at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, a candidate for state senate, two former Williamstown selectmen and a member of the Mount Greylock Regional School District board. Co-conveners included the co-publisher of the Hill Country Observer monthly.

Also attending was Christine Stuart, a former reporter for the Manchester, Conn., Journal Inquirer, and now owner-publisher of the website CTNewsJunkie.com, a source for Connecticut political coverage. Stuart was invited to the meeting by Densmore, who asked her to discuss her role as a web-only journalist.

Several attendees expressed dissatisfaction with the media serving the Williamstown area, saying no one publication now provides reliable notice of planned efforts or reporting of news. A sense of community is needed, and the local press isn't providing it, said Ann Skinner, a former selectman and president of the Williamstown League of Women Voters. When she moved to Williamstown several years ago, said Julianna Haubrich, she found The Advocate weekly a one-stop source for what's happening. It no longer is that, she said.

Discussion centered on what a few attendees described as a lack of a comprehensive community-events calendar as a possible first effort. Haubrich, who volunteers for Images Cinema, said the non-profit film house has begun developing an events calendar on its website and in its monthly member publication. It was suggested that the a way be found to automate public submissions to the calendar so that it could be come a central, web-based resource.

These points were also made:

• Deb Dane, director of WilliNet, Williamstown's public-access cable service, suggested WilliNet may be ready to start broadening its mission to include providing assistance to citizens doing other forms of media besides just video product for cable telecast.

• Bill Densmore observed that both the Knight Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation might be sources of seed founding for a Greylock region citi-journalism effort.

• Elizabeth Kodela probed Densmore for a sense of how much money might be needed to get a meaningful information-gathering effort going to support a web-based resource such as GreylockNews.COM.

GreylockNews.org available as address

Densmore said he had reserved the Internet domain GreylockNews.org, with the thought that he would like to see a non-profit citizen group take over the "GreylockNews" brand and web concept and expand it into a community run and supported resource. Densmore said a key issue would be figuring out how to train and inspire volunteers and sustain their efforts over the long term.

Anne Skinner said she would broach at an upcoming meeting of the League of Women Voters the potential for league volunteers helping with such an effort.

Linda Carman said that in her experience, elderly and lower-income residents of the the region are not likely to be "on the Internet" and that it might be important to envision GreylockNews.org as more than a web resource. There was some discussion about the possibility of aligning with an existing print publication, such as the Hill Country Observer monthly, to provide information services to those who aren't regularly on the web.

Using radio resources

Both Harris Elder, an emeritus English professor at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who is faculty advisor to the campus radio station (WJJW), and Krystle Barhaghi, a Williams College student representing WCFM (Williams College radio), said the stations might be open to providing air time for citizen-originated program. There was discussion about the ease with which audio "MP3" files can now be recorded and submitted to a radio station for broadcast.

Densmore wondered: Could an effort be launched under which citizen could telephone a number, record an oral report or announcement to a web page, and have either WCFM or WJJW click to those MP3 files at pre-announced times, screen and play them to a community radio audience? How easily might citizens submit so called "podcasts" for this purpose, asked Densmore? He noted this is done in San Francisco already.

Three-tiered approach

Wendy Penner suggested a three-tiered approach to web information, using simple blogging software such as Typepad or Blogger. Densmore elaborated on Penner's ideas and suggested:

1. A blog which carries relative unfiltered news releases and source documents. As an example, he cited The "orange blog" section of GreylockNews.COM.

1. A blog which carries material which is edited and filed by regular citizen journalists or correspondents, and makes some effort to follow some classic journalistic principles. As an example, he cited The main GreylockNews.com blog site. The blog also allows "comments" to be posted to the "stories" written by the regular correspondents.

1. Another userful resource might be a calendaring service which would allow registered and authorized users to submit calendar listings and which would be sortable by date, by type of event and by sponsoring organizations or individuals. (Can anyone add a link to a resource like this?

I found this online but don't know if it is any good- [1] wp

1. Finally, Densmore showed the free website Flickr, which allows anyone to upload and organized photographs for public viewing. As an example of what is possible with Flickr, Densmore linked to a set of photographs of the Williamstown Fourth of July parade.

Next steps -- September meeting

The following next steps were planned:

• Densmore said he would write notes of the meeting and email them to those attending and others who expressed interest. He said he would call another meeting in September.
• Haubrich was going to explore how a calendaring collaboration might work
• Skinner was going to talk to LWV colleagues.
• Deb Dane tentatively was going to explore what WilliNet might do.