So I came to the Twin Cities Media Alliance Forum sponosred by the Twin Cities Daily Planet mostly for myself and for a range of projects. Not so much with a Blandin hat on – but as I sat here I thought that some readers might be interested in the topics discuseed – mostly readers in rural areas who are using broadband to encourage citizen participation.

I’m terrible about guessing attendance but I’d say there are maybe 100 people here and more than half have computers of some sort. Half of us are Twittering as we watch. We check the speakers facts on Google as they talk; they know we will because if there were sitting they’d do it too.

So it’s fun to see the impact of broadband on community activists and storytellers (that’s the general attendee demographic) at a conference. And then it’s been fun hear about the impact of the Internet (and to some degree broadband) has had on community activists, storyteller, and media.

One fun, broadband-based project is The UpTake. They give cameras (or use video applications of cell phones) to citizen journalists and upload the video in real time. They came about for the RNC but the reach and focus has expanded. So the volunteers tape news as it happens and viewers can see it as it happens. (I knew about The UpTake – but didn’t get the real time aspect of it before today; they also archive video.)

Here are my notes from the morning… Continue reading →