I was bored yesterday so I made a new iTunes playlist of the BEST Canadian artists and my favourite songs from each of them. Unfortunately not all the artists are on iTunes, so I couldn’t publish it. Instead, I’m going to type it out for y’all, with links to everyone. If you are looking for some great music, check these guys out. SuzeMuse’s Superfantastic All-Canadian Playlist My Moon My Man – Feist Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure – The Weakerthans Weighty Ghost – Wintersleep Your House (acoustic version) – Alanis Morissette Tango Shoes – Bif Naked A Day in the Life – David Usher The Chemical Worker’s Song (Process Man) – Great Big Sea These Eyes – The Guess Who A Case of You – Joni Mitchell Closing Time – Leonard Cohen Resurrection – Moist Innocent – Our Lady Peace Almost Love At First Sight – Pete Webb Cry – The Philosopher Kings It Doesn’t Really Matter – Platinum Blonde 1962 – Ron Hynes Hard Bargain – Ron Sexsmith Just Over This Mountain – Skydiggers The Rest of My Life – Sloan Sweet City Woman – The Stampeders Long Way Down – Swollen Members To Be An Angel – Uncle Seth Sugarcane – Wide Mouth Mason
Bringing Community TV online
Over the past week or so I’ve been writing about my experiences in community television over the years and some of the striking similarities that social media has to the original days of community television. As a result of my articles, I have met Colin Rhinesmith, who is the Community Media Coordinator at Cambridge Community Television in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Colin was kind enough to post about my articles and we have struck up an interesting conversation about what his group is doing to involve their members not only in producing television for traditional broadcast but also for the Internet. I have to say that the existence of these community channels in the U.S. has been a bit of a new discovery for me. I was aware of public access TV but thought that it was mostly about PBS and its affiliates. We live in a bit of a broadcasting bubble here in Canada, and though we get lots of American TV stations up here, we don’t get much more than specialty networks and network affiliate stations. We certainly don’t get to see the great content being produced at the community level. For those of you who don’t know much about public access or community television in the U.S., here’s what I’ve learned thanks to Colin. It’s similar to the model we have in Canada, whereby the cable companies contribute a certain amount of their revenues towards equipment, staffing, licensing and day-to-day operations. What’s different is how it is implemented. Though some of these stations (some 3,000 across the U.S.) are simply run and staffed by the cable companies (like in Canada), and some of these stations are very independent from the cable companies, running as non-profit organizations that have members who pay fees (like CCTV). There are also government access centres run by municipalities, and educational access centres run by colleges and schools. I find these independent stations like CCTV most interesting. To become a member, you pay a yearly fee and, you get to take inexpensive workshops (ranges from about $20 to $50 depending on the level and length) and then produce your own television programs. It’s simliar to a video co-op, except you get to put your stuff on the air! It’s true community access, and from what I’ve seen the programming is great. CCTV is doing some remarkable things. First, their web site is created in Drupal and it’s terrific. In addition to all of the regular information about how to become a member, programming and workshop schedules, members can have their own blogs where they can post their thoughts and link to their shows online, and groups where like-minded members can share ideas, brainstorm or make announcements. These guys are really taking community TV to the next level. Members are encouraged to participate on many different levels and they do. There has been some talk about the relevance of true community access television, with the advent of YouTube and other video services going online. If anyone can now make a video and post it for the world to see, why do community TV stations even need to exist any longer? The reason is simple. It’s about community. It’s about people physically coming together and producing valuable content, and the relationships that are formed when people are in this kind of environment. You can’t get that by hitting “Submit” on your YouTube page. I think the Internet is going to be an extremely valuable outlet for those community television stations who choose to embrace its potential. By taking the power of community and sending it out to the world, everyone stands to benefit. Now, we not only have the power of being able to bring the community to the world…we have the possibility of linking these communities to make something even greater.
Online Media: Community TV Comes Full Circle – Part III
In my last post on this topic, I talked about how I ended up with my first media job, working as a producer in community television. In this post I will conclude with how online media and social networking have become the new public access media. Community television in 1990 was a very different beast than it is today. Back then, it was all about public access. Anyone in the community who had an idea for a show could pitch it to the station. If the station agreed to air it, then that community person, with no television experience whatsoever, got to produce it. As staff producers, we were there to show them the ropes, guide them through the process and help them to get a decent show on the air. We produced a lot of shows every week. At one time I was in charge of 7 shows at the same time – albeit they were not all weekly shows, but covered a vast array of subject matter – music, arts, culture, and call in shows. What strikes me is that this type of content production environment is not unlike what many people are doing online these days. If I wanted to, I could use these different online tools to create “shows”, and present my different stories in different ways. On Flickr, I could post the story of what I did on my last vacation. On YouTube, a story about a short film I’ve made (ok the example provided is my brother’s YouTube page, but you get the idea). I could create a page Facebook, to share my family’s story. On my WordPress blog, I can tell my professional life story. And through my Squidoo lens, I’m telling a story about my family of pets. In a sense, I am back to producing many shows again. I’m telling stories to an engaged audience and they are joining me in the conversation. Community television, in the old days, was not about creating the next “Lost” or “Anderson Cooper 360“. Most of the time it was just about getting something on the air that was interesting to the audience. They used to call community TV “two people and a rubber plant” television, because we didn’t have a lot of money for fancy sets (but an abundance of fake plants!). We did have interesting people who had something to say. Kind of like a video blog, except with three cameras, more lighting and a crew of volunteers working behind the scenes. We had proof that this format worked, because people would call us and tell us what they liked or didn’t like about the show. I recall a show we did at Skyline Cable, called “Around the House”. Ren Molnar, Ottawa’s preeminent home renovation expert, would sit in a chair for an hour and take calls from weary homeowners whose furnace was on the fritz or whose roof was leaking, and tell them how to fix it up. The show was so popular, we had to have a volunteer start manning the phones an hour before show time. People were continuously disappointed when they couldn’t get on the air. Another show that I produced, called “Soundtrack”, was like MySpace on TV. Each week we would profile what was going on in the local music scene. It was hosted by Janet Eastman, at the time a local radio personality, and Roch Parisien, Ottawa’s premiere musicologist (at the time the guy had over 12,000 albums in his record collection). We would bring local bands into the studio to talk, play and promote their upcoming shows. We’d go out to local music venues like Barrymore’s and Zaphod Beeblebrox and interview whoever was in town. Some of the people I got to meet and interview include Barenaked Ladies, Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos, The Sweet, and my personal favourite, Davy Jones from the Monkees. Not to mention, Tom Green and his first rap band Organized Rhyme were pretty much a staple on the show. How’s that for my first job out of college? Anyway, the show was immensely popular and Roch and Janet couldn’t walk down the street without being recognized. Not bad for a show that, again, was produced almost entirely by volunteers (and the wonderful, fabulous local musicians, record company reps and bar owners in town). My point is, what we were doing back then, long before the Internet became popular, is what social media is doing now. We were making good content that spoke to a specific audience and involving people from the community in the conversation. These days, community television has moved in a different direction from the “two people and a rubber plant”days. The abundance of television specialty networks has forced the cable companies (who run community TV stations) to abandon the old thinking about public access and move towards competing with the local television market. In my opinion, it may have not been the best decision. Sure, they still work with volunteer crews and on-air talent. But the story has changed. Community TV in 2008 is people telling other people’s stories, not their own stories. They are just like the other TV media. And to me, that’s not nearly as interesting. I guess that’s why I’ve made the shift to online media, because people’s own stories continue to unfold here. The Internet has created a new form of public access through social networking and online media. The community has found a new place to live.
Squidoo and Hey Monkey-Brain
I’m enjoying discovering innovative ways people are tacking social media. Here are two tools I’ve come across that are breaking some ground and making me think. Ok so maybe I’m a bit behind the times but I’ve been playing with Squidoo today. It’s kind of a neat way to show off stuff you know about. I posted a profile about one topic I’m quite the expert at, multi-pet households. Check it out! It’s a work in progress…but you’ll get the idea. But what’s even more fun is their spin-off site called Hey Monkey Brain. You can argue with anyone about anything! An interesting way to expand the social network. Go in and get arguing! Contribute to an ongoing argument or state an opinion and start your own.
Online Media: Community TV Comes Full Circle – Part II
In my last post, I talked about how I first got involved in community television. When I was 15, we moved away from Masset. My experience with Masset-Haida TV had inspired me. At that young age I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I graduated high school in June of 1988 and that September I was off to college, enrolled in the Television Broadcasting program. At just 17, I couldn’t wait to get started living my dream of being a television producer. At the time I imagined myself working my way up the ranks at a local TV station, then moving on to network television. I had a particular fondness for news at that time, so I had visions of producing or directing network newscasts, or working for CNN. In 1990 I graduated from the TV Broadcasting program, and my parents and I moved to Ottawa. I was certain that I could get a job at one of the TV stations in town! I knew everything about TV production, of course, and was ready to make my mark. Of course I very quickly came to the stark realization that TV is a hard business to break into. They didn’t really hire people just out of school. I had to figure out how to get some experience. Then one day I was on my way to the bank or something, and driving down St. Laurent Boulevard, I spotted a sign. “Skyline Cablevision”. I recalled seeing some sort of TV programming affiliated with Skyline Cablevision one night a couple of weeks earlier. Then it clicked. They have a TV station in there! I sucked up all my courage (I was a very shy girl back then) and turned into the parking lot. I walked in the front door and at that moment my life changed. The nice lady at the front desk (who later became a dear friend) was kind enough to take me on a tour of the station. She told me that the place ran mostly with volunteers, who did everything from camera to sound to lighting, directing and producing (did she say “producing”???). Needless to say I was fired up. I signed up as a volunteer and man, I was there every day. I did camera, editing, audio, directing, and gained a ton of experience. The programs were in some ways similar to the shows we did back at MHTV. They were community-focused, and targeted to niche audiences. There was a community news program called “City 22”, an arts program called “The Scene”, and a program that would eventually have a significant impact on my life called “Soundtrack”, about the local music scene. There were multicultural programs for the Greek, Japanese, Polish, Italian, and Dutch communities. There were call in programs about politics, movies, home improvement and more. Viewers were encouraged to participate in the conversation by calling in, or leaving a message on the viewer response line. It was a true social network. People from the community, all volunteers, produced the programs from the ground up. They wrote the content, booked the guests and got the show on the air with the help of volunteer crews. It was an amazing place. A few months after I started volunteering, a job opportunity presented itself. At barely 20 years old, I was hired by Skyline Cablevision to be a Staff Producer, one of 5 paid producers who were hired to manage the productions and the volunteer crews. I had 7 different shows to produce. I was the youngest person on staff, I was in charge of building a community of people, developing their skills to produce good quality programming delivered to targeted audiences, and engaging people in an interactive way (something that mainstream TV networks did not do very well back then). It was social media delivered via television! In my next post I will be talking further about how community television changed over the 7 years I spent in it.
Online Media: Community TV Comes Full Circle – Part I
Chris Brogan wrote an interesting post the other day that has really got me thinking. His thought about how to make it in this burgeoning world of online media: ” …it’s people who are figuring out the triangle, delivering something of quality, and are connecting targeted content to interested audiences.” Hmmm. Sounds to me like Community Television to me. Over the next few blog posts I shall endeavour to explain. Community Television. Public Access TV. Cable Access Programming. I’ve been involved in community television since I was about 10 years old. More than 27 years. It started in the small town in which I grew up called Masset, on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). My Dad, along with some other townspeople, helped start a small (VERY small) community television station using some old leftover TV equipment. They hooked up a couple of cameras, an A/B switch, stuck a microphone on a table and went on the air. Kids from the community (me and my brother included) read community announcements. This community-based TV station was called Masset-Haida Television (MHTV) and it still exists today, last I heard, on Channel 13. Go to www.mhtv.ca. . See the blue station logo? That is the very logo my Dad designed back in 1979! Our little TV channel covered everything that was happening around town. On Canada Day, my mom played roving reporter, my dad played cameraman and I helped carry equipment as we roamed around town catching all the festivities. When the Annual Miss Masset pageant took place, we were there, carrying it live for all the town residents to see. And every year at the end of November, we held a telethon, where this small town of just 1800 people would go on the air for 21 hours and raise over $25,000 each year for the Timmy’s Christmas Telethon. $25,000 was a lot of money in 1980. My family was there for the very first telethon, held I think around 1980 or 81. My Mom worked in the accounting office. My Dad was the Director for the TV show. I was the number board girl, hanging white cardboard numbers on nails stuck in a piece of painted plywood. My brother was one of the on-air hosts. There was entertainment, and lots of it. Magicians, high school bands, clowns, comedians, we had it all. And every year the Haida dancers would come, at least 50 Haida men, women and children, and fill the community hall with their beautiful button blankets and incredible sounds and rhythms. Anyone who knows anything about Haida Gwaii knows that was something pretty special. There were three phone operators taking donations, usually prominent people from the community, like the Mayor, the Fire Chief, and the RCMP constable. The old rotary phones they used would “rrrrrring” in the middle of the performances, but nobody cared. It meant people were tuning in, and it meant they were giving. It was the ultimate in small town TV. It was no Jerry Lewis Telethon, but it was technically pretty darn good. But the most important thing? The whole town tuned in. And the whole town gave. It was interesting content delivered to a targeted audience (all those parents, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends of all those performers!) Back in 1980, we had the triangle figured out. My family has long since moved on, but the people of Masset are still doing that telethon every year. 27 years and going strong, and hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for a great cause. I think Jerry Lewis would be impressed. In part II of Online Media: Community TV Comes Full Circle, I’ll talk about my 7 years working for a community cable station and how the evolution of online media continues to bring me back to those roots.
Oh, Canada! My snowy, blustery Canada!
It is said that Canada is the only country that measures distance in the number of hours it takes to drive there. It’s true! From Ottawa, Toronto is 5 hours away, Sudbury is 6 hours away, Montreal is 2 hours away…and so on. Does this mean that in the winter, Toronto is further away? Because, I guarantee that on a day like today, it would take at least 7 or 8 hours to drive to Toronto. Canadians like to complain about the weather. In the Canadian winter, there’s not much else to do, and can you blame us? Wind chill, blowing snow, freezing rain, ice pellets, flash freeze, snow, heavy at times….and sometimes, all in the same day! It’s like some kind of sick meteorological joke. It’s usually around the end of January that I start to contemplate all of the other places I’d like to live…where there is no winter. And there are plenty of them! Turks and Caicos…Bermuda….California….Florida….heck, I’d take any place right about now where I don’t have to shovel, scrape, or slide around just to get out of my house in the morning. I have to admit. I hate living in Canada in the winter. But for some reason I stick around. So why do I stay in Canada, if, for 4 months of the year I find it intolerable? I will tell you why. It’s home. I don’t know what it would be like to live anywhere else. The only other country I’ve ever been to is the U.S. It is a great, fun, exciting, wonderful country to visit. Some of the best people I’ve ever met are American. Unfortunately, I can’t get over George Bush and no public healthcare plan, so I’m not sure I could live there long term. Canada has a lot of heart. We brave the cold, blustery, ridiculous winters because we know that it means spring is just around the corner. We put up with our politicians breaking their promises, because we know that we have a lot of privileges that other countries don’t have. The fact that I can walk into a doctor’s office or hospital if I’m ill and not have to worry about getting dinged with thousands of dollars in medical bills gives me a peace of mind that warms my cold winter chills. We aren’t taxed to death because of it, and our doctors still make lots of money. We have control over our guns, and that means I can feel safer. Sure, bad things still happen in our country. But I’m not looking over my shoulder every minute of the day, that’s for sure. I have traveled to every corner of Canada in my lifetime, and I’ve experienced such a wide variety of cultures and traditions, from dancing and feasting with the Haida on the West Coast to dancing and feasting with the Newfoundlanders down East. Two different cultures, but remarkably similar ways of life. Living off the land and the ocean, cherishing family and friends, working hard to make a good life, being grateful for our freedoms. These are some core values that we all share as Canadians, and it makes me proud to live here. Sure, the weather is crappy. Really, really crappy. But now you know why I choose to make Canada my home, and why I probably always will. Well, except for that condo I’m going to buy in Turks and Caicos when I’m rich, where I’ll be able to spend my winters.
Internet 101 – Chapter 2
Okay so you’ve all had a chance to practice clicking on links, have read a few blogs, and even Googled a bit, right? Keep practicing, it gets easier each time you do it. I had a question from one of my readers about navigation. The problem was there was no “Home” button on the web page. So there was no obvious way to get back to the “Home” page of the site. Here’s the problem – not all websites are created equal. Just like in life, there are many routes that can be taken to get “Home”. If no “Home” button exists, and you want to get back to the main page of the site, try clicking on the Logo or Title of the site, usually located on the top part of the page. This is usually set up to be a quick way to get back to the home page. Another option to try is to click the “Back” button in your browser…the left-pointing arrow on your Browser’s toolbar. However, this does not always work, depending on how the site is set up. As you get more used to navigating within web sites, you will find it easier, rest assured. Now for today’s definition: Bookmark: A bookmark is a useful feature of your web browser that allows you to save a link into a list for future reference. If you are using the Internet Explorer browser, a bookmark is also known as a “Favourite”. Let’s say that I am Googling away, looking for web sites about knitting. I click on a link for www.KnittingHelp.com, and realize this is the website I have been looking for. It has everything I would ever want about knitting, from lessons to patterns. I want to make sure that I can find this web site again, without having to Google it all over again, then try to remember the exact name of the site, etc. So I create a bookmark (or Favourite). I’ve posted a short video here which may be helpful, but here are the step by step instructions below. To create a bookmark (Favourite) using the Internet Explorer browser: Browse to the web site www.KnittingHelp.com. Select “Favourites” from the browser menu bar. Select “Add to Favourites” A small window will pop up, asking you to confirm that this is the bookmark you wish to create Click OK on the small window. Your bookmark will be created. Click on the Favourites menu again. You will see your newly created bookmark, and will be able to click that bookmark to visit that site any time. To create a bookmark using the Firefox browser: Browse to the web site www.KnittingHelp.com. Select “Bookmarks” from the browser menu bar. Select “Bookmark this Page” A small window will pop up, asking you to confirm that this is the bookmark you wish to create. Click OK on the small window. Your bookmark will be created. Click on the Bookmarks menu again. You will see your newly created bookmark, and will be able to click that bookmark to visit that site any time. Like anything new, practice makes perfect…so practice making a bunch of bookmarks till it becomes second nature. You’ll never lose track of your favourite web sites again! Happy surfing…
Internet 101
My Mom’s best friend just got on the Internet. Yup, she’s got herself a computer, a dial up connection and a web browser. I think its fantastic! My parents, who have been Internet-savvy seniors for the past few years (mostly because both their technology-professional kids made them!) helped her to get set up and showed her the ropes. She’s pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing, and I think that’s great! This is a whole new world for her to explore. The problem is, there is SO much information out there. Computers are almost a different language, and one that many of us in the under-40 set take for granted. After all, they’ve been with us most of our working life. For anyone under 25, they probably don’t remember NOT using a computer. And anyone under 10? Well they never knew life BEFORE the Internet! Now, consider someone over the age of 60, getting online for the very first time. Blogs, feeds, Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Flickr…huh? So I want to do something for my Mom’s friend, and anyone else out there who is trying to navigate this Interweb thing. Here’s my “Beginner’s Guide to the Internet”, Chapter 1. Until one understands the lingo of the Web, they will be lost. So let’s start with some definitions. Hyperlink: Commonly referred to as a “link”, usually colored or underlined text, a picture or a button that you can click on to access another web page, or video, or sound. Links are the foundation of the Internet, and to this day the most fundamental and powerful thing about it. It’s the ability to connect information to other information. Surfing: Using a web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Firefox) to look at web site content. Search Engine: A web site that allows you to search for other web sites, using keywords. The most popular search engine is Google. The Runner up is Yahoo. Googling: When you want to find something on the Internet, like “Crocheting Patterns”, or “Beef Stew Recipes”, you go to Google and type in these keywords in the Search box. This action is referred to as “Googling”. Blog: A personal diary online. What you are reading, right now, is my blog. I can post new stories, links, and share information whenever I want. People can subscribe to my blog so they can get updates whenever I write a new entry. They can also write comments on the entries they see in my blog. Blog is derived from the word “Web Log”. You can find lots of interesting blogs and even make your own blog at www.wordpress.com or www.blogger.com. Post: Blog entries or comments are referred to as “Posts”. Instant Messaging: Also known as IM or Chat. Using an Instant Messaging program such as Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger you can chit chat with friends who have an account on one of these tools. Setting this up requires installing a bit of software and setting up an account, more on this in a later post. Well that’s it for starters. I’m not out to overwhelm anyone. This is the basic set of information one needs to get up and running, to be able to search for content, and contribute to conversations, two of the key features of the Internet. Surf on, my friends….surf on!
Productivity Experiment
I have a new experiment. Starting tonight, I’ve done the following things: Unsubscribed from all unnecessary email subscriptions. Consolidated all of my email accounts into Thunderbird. Turned OFF the automatic download and notification feature. Disabled the Gmail “You have mail!” icon in my web browser. Eliminated all unnecessary icons on my Blackberry. Turned my Blackberry to “Phone only” so it only notifies me if there is a call. Put myself on a media ” diet”. 1 hour of entertainment -only TV a day, no newspapers, only the headlines on the front page, no magazines. No blogs that aren’t directly related to the work I am doing at the time. Deleted any email in my inbox that is irrelevant (which, it turns out, is most of them). Made a to-do list for tomorrow that has only two items on it that MUST get accomplished. Okay so I didn’t come up with this idea myself. Yesterday I spent my iTunes gift card from Santa on the audiobook version of “The Four Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss. These are but some of his recommendations for eliminating the information overload in your life so you can focus on what is really important to your business in fewer hours per week, so you can get back to living your life. It’s a strange concept for the 9 to 5 culture to grasp. Of course there is more to it that just getting rid of your info-clutter, but you’ll have to read the book to learn more about that. I’m not here to pitch his book. So does this mean I’m going to disconnect from the world? Of course not. I’m just going to connect to it on my terms. Instead of getting emails AS SOON as they hit my inbox, I’m going to only check it a few times a day and deal with them then. Timothy Ferriss checks his ONCE A WEEK! I’m not quite ready to go to that extreme just yet. I’m cutting back gradually. Like quitting a bad habit. As for my cell phone, it will still be on, and anyone who may need to reach me urgently knows who they are and they can always call me. And those email subscriptions I never have time to read? Gone-za! The media diet is a tough one. I’m a news junkie, and today was not a good day to go cold turkey. The shocking assassination of Bhutto is everywhere, and it’s all I can do not to surf the news sites, flip back and forth between CNN and CBC, and go into blog overdose. Timothy Ferriss gets his news from the front page headlines, and by asking people about what’s going on (and, I suspect, provoking some interesting conversations in the process). I proved this theory with today’s big headline, as my friend Caroline was the one who informed me about the assassination story. See, didn’t even have to flick on the tube! My to-do lists are usually about 20 items long. Now they have to be 2 items long. ACK! But you know what, it is forcing me to only look at what is really, critically important. And the rest, well most of the time it’s just busy work. My experiment will eventually turn into a habit, or at least that’s what I’m hoping. My goal is to be way less busy, but WAY more productive. My only question now is, what am I going to do with all this free time?