Category Archives: Citizen Journalism

Foundations’ view on broadband

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Thanks to Blandin Foundation President Jim Hoolihan for pointing me to an essay in the recent Chronicle of Philanthropy by Luis Ubinas, Jim’s counterpart at Ford Foundation. Ford is committing $50-million over the next five years to help ensure that broadband access to the Internet becomes a reality for all citizens and that public-interest values in the online space itself are protected. Ubinas writes, “The effort to ensure universal access to high-speed Internet among all citizens is a critical next step to ensuring that America realizes its great aspiration of equal opportunity for all.” He calls for a broad consensus of government and private partners “willing to stand up for the public good.” I especially like his description of the Internet as a “gateway to democratic participation, economic opportunity, and human expression.” He even calls universal acess to an open Internet “critical to the future of our country.” The good news for all of us who agree, is that Ford’s investment will help bring attention to this message. With the help of our 19 partners and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars, Blandin Foundation is humbled by the opportunity to join Ford Foundation in this important work.

Minnesota Idea Open

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Minnesota Idea Open is mostly a web-based contest for good ideas. It seems as if they will be tackling different issues. They pick an issue, ask Minnesotans to submit solutions, pick a winner. There are prizes to be won for your community and yourself. The first issue: What is your idea for addressing obesity in Minnesota?

You can track (or participate in) the contest through the web site, Facebook page, Twitter or YouTube. The medium is the reason that I’m posting about the project here – although I decided that the connection was tenuous enough to wait for the weekend to post. But I think it’s great to see how the Internet is being used to generate civic discussion and engagement.

Could this idea work offline? Probably, but at a much more local level. The contest opened March 18 and I can see that there are already 40+ submissions and they are 500+ fans on Facebook. Now if I can just think of a way that broadband can address obesity!

Happy Sunshine Week

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It’s going to be a busy week. The National Broadband Plan is expected to be released on Wednesday. (Did they not know that March 17 was St Patrick’s Day?!) The Minnesota broadband bill may make it to the legislative floor this week – although that’s not set in stone and next week may be more likely. And it’s Sunshine Week!

According to the Sunshine Week web site…

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know.

Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of News Editors and is funded primarily by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami.

Though spearheaded by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public’s right to know what its government is doing, and why. Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.

I know that’s kind of long but I wanted to fit in the part about enlightening and empowering people to play an active role in government at all levels – because I think that ties in so closely with one of the basic reasons that the government is and should be interested in broadband. Because as more and more government information is being made available online (sometimes avialble online only), it is important that every citizen have equal access to that information – brodband is the medium. Also broadband can give voice to the citizenry that was previously hard to hear – but only those with broadband have that advantage.

Locally, Sunshine Week will be celebrated on March 16 when the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information awards Reed Anfinson, recipient of the 2010 John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award. (Get details on event.)

Anfinson is publisher and owner of the Swift County Monitor-News, based in Benton, MN. According to the MN COGI web site…

In this role he has published frequent editorials and articles on open government, including articles on the state’s Data Practices Act, open meeting regulations and discussions of the impact of video and digital technology on public access.

The keynote speaker is Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson. He will be speaking on the open approach used in the contentious Senate recount and the impact on the public perception of the outcome. He will also address the Court’s decision to initiative a new test of cameras in the court in Minnesota. I think of the impact The Uptake had on the recount – filming and posting the recount online. It’s just one aspect of the importance of broadband.

FCC blogs & tweets

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The FCC just started their own blog on the National Broadband Initiative. They are also on Twitter. Both are very new but so far they are prolific.

On the blog
I thought their synopsis of a recent workshop was good – though I didn’t attend so I just have to assume it’s accurate. I enjoy the comments as much as the blog itself.

On Twitter
So far it’s more of a broadcast agenda – but I don’t mind that.

We’ll see what becomes of both. The claim is that they’re a step towards transparency. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll learn more than we would otherwise – but I would think we’d learn things more quickly.

A Blogger without Broadband

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Yesterday I drove about an hour north of the Twin Cities to meet up with Jennifer Peterson of Duskwind Farms. Jennifer, her husband Chuck and daughter Ilana (age 1.5) moved to Pine City last June with a goal towards a sustainable lifestyle. (I know Jennifer because she is a Horizons blogger and we met at the Minnesota Voices Online Unconference.)

They have 5 cows, 2 huge rabbits, 7 sheep, 2 donkeys, 5 dogs and a cat. They are about to get 50 hens. They live off the meat, eggs, and produce from the farm. They live in a house that they built themselves; it’s about 300 square foot with some of the best looking hardwood floor I have ever seen. They don’t have indoor plumbing, electricity or consistent cell phone coverage.

Jennifer maintains a blog about their farm to help inform others who might be interested in living a self-sustained life. She has a community of other modern homesteaders that she knows online. As she points out, they have chosen this lifestyle. The lack of plumbing and electricity do not seem to be hardships for them – but the lack of broadband is because it is shutting them out of the information and community that they need.

As it stands now they get online at the local library. It’s a lifeline – but it’s not enough. I’ll let her speak for herself on the video below.

Building capacity for Minnesota Broadband Coalition

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logownameAt the MVO unconference the need for broadband came up – often. There was a blogger there who doesn’t have Internet access at home. She drives 10 miles to the library to get access. As she said, she could get dialup but feels like they ought to pay her to use it.

People recognized the need to make info available for tech lovers and tech-challenged (challenged by access, experience, cost…). People also recognized the need to help bridge the gap with training, improving tools and broadband.

I was thrilled when Jeff Narabrook form Minnesota Council for Nonprofits offered up his topic to talk about building capacity for the Minnesota Broadband Coalition. We talked about the tools we have created for the Coalition (web site, email newsletter, LinkedIn group). We talked about what we wanted from folks: ideas for the Broadband Task Force and ideas for the stimulus funding.

We talked about the need for the Coalition to help people understand why and how broadband does matter to them. The conversations that the Task Force are having (symmetrical speeds anyone?) do not necessarily capture the imagination of your average bear. But stories of how broadband means a better job, how broadband means a way to talk to a grandson in the army … they can capture the imagination.

So we’ve been trying to gather those stories (Got one? please let me know). Now we need to get those to a wider audience. One thought was to create a widget of sort (maybe a logo linked to an RSS feed) to share with folks like the Minnesota Council for Nonprofits to help us spread the word.

I had/have wanted to capture some stories in video – the biggest barrier for me is getting to people to get their stories. So I’m going to throw that out there too in case there’s someone in the field who’s looking for a story idea.

So that’s my lucky take-away and assignment from the conference. I also have a laundry list of tasks for me on more of a professional development level – like learn about Plurk (thanks Chuck Olsen for that) – so I feel like the support for the Minnesota Broadband Coalition is a complete bonus.

But before I do any of that – I’m spending the day in sunny Duluth with my family.

Video from the Unconference

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I was so pleased with the unconference this weekend. I had hoped to do some live blogging and add video – but it turns out when you have a room full of video cameras that it can take hours to upload video. So I’m bringing you everything a day after the fact.

Below are videos from the day. Mostly we went through topics suggested by attendees – assigned table to topics and folks went where they wanted. Then we’ve convene and report back.

I tried to take notes during the first session, so I’ll inlcude that too – just to give you a quick idea of the conversations that were happening.

Notes from First Session:

Table 1: E-Democracy Group Server – folks got a great demo on how the E-Democracy Group Server facilitates local issues forms. It combines email and web-based discussions – or rather offers multiple ways of participating in the discussion.

Table 2: Facebook – a fun hands on session on Facebook.

Table 3: Strategic Use of Tools for Nonprofits Organizations – a discussion of people who use and/or want to use online tools. I heard people ask about a checklist or recipe for success. Does it help to have multiple people involved? It’s important to have a real person with a real voice at the helm.

Table 4: Podcasting – a discussion of how to use tools to facilitate remote meetings and record them. Dim Dim is a tool I heard come up.

Table 5: Creating community web sites – using tools that will help your audience help you with content, such as Google Calendar – but you still have to moderate.

Table 6: Twitter – a good hands-on session on how to add hash tags

Saturday Second Session Topics:

Saturday Second Sessions Summaries:

Continue reading →

Unconference – developing topics for the day

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We all met. Attendees were invited to submit topics for the day. People used post-it notes to vote for the topics that interested them most. I have videos that I hope outline that process:

Getting instructions:

OK this stinking video is coming soon. I have waited long enough and held the other posts. I will add the video when I can.

Learning about the topics:

MVO Unconference Friday night

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It’s Friday night and the Minnesota Voices Online unconference is off to a good start. The reception started at around 4:30 – people trickled in and it was fun to see people who we really only knew via email. The dinner was great. Some of us brought our families. It was a good chance to get to know people.

At 6:30 the work began. The attendees gathered in a room to participate in a spectrogram. The idea is that the facilitator presents a statement such as – Online tools have allowed people to respond and react very quickly, decreasing the time that people have to reflect. This leads to quick reactions and a reduction is thoughtful democracy. Then participants can demonstrate their level of agreement (or extreme disagreement) by placing themselves on a continuum on taped to the floor. Participants are able talk about their options to the group and on video.

I was really impressed with how well the exercise worked. We did this three times with three different questions. There were about a dozen people who were very vocal and everyone else was willing to vote with their feet (placing themselves on the spectrum) and give a few words when asked.

I took video. I have been trying to upload the video for 2 hours – so far goose egg. But I’m hopeful that the video will be available by morning.

I enjoyed talking to folks after the scheduled activity. The folks that I talked about are interested in technology as a tool for community development – but their passion is the community. While they were technology users – they didn’t all have Internet access at home. As they pointed out, generally you only have good internet access (broadband) if you live within 2 miles of a town. If you don’t, you’re going to the library for good access. There was some concern about the digital divide as the online world expands.

Someone mentioned that they were able to expedite DSL access in their community because a neighbor had gone to Qwest to get a petition that they had 160 people sign to express an interest in getting DSL.

I did hear that some people were feeling a little lost because they felt that they didn’t know the technology as well as others. Twitter, wiki, blogs, utterly – it is like a foreign language , but we all learned it at some point and for better or for worse we learn something new everyday . Many of these people have tremendous community organizing skills – many of us could learn from them!

Here are the videos:

Marc Osten explains the spectogram

 New media-driven instant feedback leaves no time to think and that is eroding democracy.

Technology tools distract communities from coming together.

 

Online communities needs a heavy dose of structure to realize their potential.

 Steve Clift talking about online tools for the unconference

No broadband wreaks havoc on the day

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I look at a lot of broadband reports. I hear stories of broadband success and failure. But mostly I have decent (not great) access. So I forget what it’s like not to have decent access.

Ann Higgins sent this kind of quirky comment from a Current listener about how sad she is that the Current Morning Show has moveed online. If you’re not an MN Public Radio listener (or maybe not a morning listener), here’s the scoop. Dale Connelly and Jim Ed Poole have been doing the Morning Show forever. I think they picked up when Garrison Keillor quit mornings. Actually I think Jim Ed (if not both) worked with Keillor. They play a different kind of alternative music. They played the kind of alternative music that your dad likes.

Well Jim Ed retired. Thursday was their last show. So now the show has moved to Heartland Pubic Radio – available online and via HD radio. Here’s a comment from one say rural listener who can’t access the show the way she used to…

Well, I woke up to what I’ve termed “Black Friday” – December 12. I live in rural MN, where HD radio has yet to deliver Radio Heartland and most home-based internet connections are dial-up, so live-streaming music is pretty patchy. I couldn’t help thinking about how much laughter and darn good music I have enjoyed on my 30 mile commute to work. Luckily at work we have high-speed access – I’ve never been so over-joyed to arrive at work! Right away, I tuned in to Dale’s voice and his high quality musical choices. All was set right in my world again – my spirits were lifted, my mind at ease. I could greet my students with a bounce in my step! I’ll do everything I can to support Radio Heartland – thanks for still being there Dale and Mike.

This led to another email from Ann that helped me find Eldo Telecom, a blog in California that covers ‘the shameful travesty of America’s incomplete “last mile” telecommunications infrastructure that leaves millions without broadband access, stranded on the dark side of the digital divide and still connecting to the Internet the same way they did when Bill Clinton was beginning his first term as president and more than a decade after Clinton signed the 1996.” The blogger is a journalist – so it’s well written from a guy in the trenches of broadband neverland.

Medtronic pulls YouTube “ad”

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I always kind of enjoy watching policy catch up with technology.

Fridley-based medical device maker Medtronic Inc. pulled a video Wednesday from YouTube after a Boston-based consumer group charged the video was an advertisement that lacked warnings required by the Food and Drug Administration. You can get the whole story on the Pioneer Press.

The consumer group is The Prescription Project. They are petitioning some medical device folks too. Ironically, you can access the offending videos from their online petition.

Citizen Journalism in Northfield MN

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The Twin Cities Daily Planet recently ran a nice article on the community blogs in Northfield. Northfield has two big blogs LocallyGrownNorthfield.org and Northfield.org, and lots of smaller blogs. Locally Grown highlights those local blogs.

I have known some of the folks in Northfield for a few years. I think they started years ago in a very smart way – the built a web site that worked very specifically with local TV and newspapers to host real-world and virtual events. I think this started 10 or more years ago.

The article does a nice job of talking about how and why it works.

Pine Journal in Cloquet here to stay

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I just read the most heartening article in terms of the future of local media. Wendy Johnson of the Pine Journal writes, “There’s a reason we’re here – the same reason that we hope will keep us here for many years to come.”

According to the article, a recent three-year study by the National Newspaper Association shows that some 86 percent of adults read a local community newspaper each week, up from 83 percent in 2007 and 81 percent in 2005. The author indicates that their local results mirror the national findings.

I have read articles to the contrary – well kind of to the contrary. Really I’ve read articles of a conflict between online and traditional media. I think this article tells a nice story of the marriage between online and traditional media and I think recognizing and building on that marriage is what strengthens the Pine Journal and other papers.

The article explains that you’re never going to see the news of Carlton County on CNN. (I’d add that you hope you never see local news on CNN; that’s never a sign of good news.) Yet the news of Carlton County is important; it’s important to the local community.

I think the following two paragraphs from the article explain why they are doing so well and why it’s important that the local newspaper survives and how supplementing traditional media with online helps the paper to thrive.

While the Pine Journal’s print readership continues to remain basically strong, we have also adapted to the changing times with our Web site, which brings the news of Carlton County to readers on a day-to-day (and, at times, an hour-to-hour) basis.

For example, during the days leading up to Tuesday’s general election, the number of people accessing our Web site essentially doubled, going from a daily average of 1,100 to 2,200 as readers sought our ongoing news reports of local candidates and races.

Minnesota Online Citizen Engagement & Media Projects

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We’re looking for Minnesota bloggers and other online community promoters/creators. If you maintain or know of a Minnesota-focused site, please let us know (or add your site to Delicious and tag it with mnvoices). Also please consider joining our email-based list of folks maintaining these community resources.

Here’s the official description…

The Blandin Foundation (http://www.blandinfoundation.org) and E-Democracy (http://www.e-democracy.org/) have teamed to promote and support Online Citizen Engagement & Media Projects in rural Minnesota. To begin to promote these Minnesota Voices we are compiling a list of rural, citizen-led online projects including blogs, online discussions, YouTube channels, Flickr groups, wikis, and more. You can see a list of the MN Voices resources we have found here: http://delicious.com/tag/mnvoices

Our next step is to try to support the citizens maintaining these tools. To that end, we are creating a citizen media and online engagement community of practice online – in other words, an email-based discussion list where Minnesota Voices can meet and talk about issues that interest them – be it cross-promoting each other’s work, technical assistance, opening the door to collaboration, or simply meeting people with a shared interest in Minnesota-based citizen engagement. You can learn more about the list here: http://e-democracy.org/citizenmedia

So why are we writing to you? Because we would really like to focus on rural voices and many of you are the rural voices. So, if you know of any citizen-based resources we should add to our list, please let us know. Our goal is to be comprehensive and we are happy to hear of new additions. Also, if you maintain a site or know of someone who does and might like to join our Citizen Media Online Group, please feel free to join or invite others to join.

Every attempt will be made to invite owners of the sites we find to join the list – but your help in compiling the list and spreading the word is greatly appreciated.

With a focus on community resources, I thought I’d try to mention one or two a week from the Delicious list, starting with The West Central Blogger: Stories that celebrate and inform West Central Minnesota.

The blog is maintained by the West Central Initiative, a foundation that serves to improve west central Minnesota through funding, programs and technical assistance. I love the focus on the area. Sometimes the stories are personal – not as in embarrassingly voyeuristic, rather they highlight the thoughts or talents of an individual. Other posts focus on area events – upcoming or past. The blog stared last February and appears to have 6-12 posts a month. Some posts interest me because I have an interest in community and economic development; some interest me as a mom.

Twin Cities Media Alliance Forum Oct 4

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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 →