Where does the news come from?

Or the more succinct point, what is the cultural logic of globalized news? Over the past few weeks, I have contemplated my research topics for this semester. Ultimately and ideally, they would be linked, so they could fit into my dissertation. And of course, because I finish my coursework in the fall, I should probably begin thinking about my dissertation topic.

A number of things interest me, which makes choosing just one a really difficult endeavor. My interest in international studies has expanded to include most everything that falls under the umbrella of globalization, particularly news. In the past, researchers carefully scrutinized the flows of information, as well they should. The flow of information was (perhaps still is)asymetrical, and embedded inevitably in the information disseminated from, let's say, the United States, resides our cultural logic. Within each word, within the organization of news stories, the artwork, encapsulated within a news story and its package exists an ordering process that seeks to impose upon the world a perspective of how to experience, how to know, and how to describe phenomena.

To examine these flows, cultural imperialism presented a way to dismantle these flows, and illustrate their possible problems. The primary concern that I can derive from the "cultural imperialism thesis", as John Tomlinson calls it, resides in how this cultural logic - as it becomes globalized through the one-way flow of information - might change or impede upon the local culture. Of course as Tomlinson indicates, and scholars like Kraidy and Pieterse illustrate, the cultural imperialism thesis does not do the resilience and flexibility of culture justice. My concern here is of course: what is American, and what is global?

These two words in particular have concerned me as I read through the literature about globalization and media, especially as the descriptors, global and Americanized. It seems at some point those ideas affiliated with "Westernized" began to morph into "Americanized". While I bring my own understanding of "Americanized" news, I still feel a bit hazy on what is meant. If we mean that Americanized news exist in news items that are constructed as commodities, then I'm not sure what to call Reuters' products other than Britianized news. Likewise, if we mean that Americanized news are news items that belong to an American model of providing information necessary for facilitating political participation, again, I'm not sure what we can consider other news products from non-U.S. countries that might hold similar views. The Kosovo case illustrates the differences between the United States and European countries; they have their own conceptions of free speech, uses of news media, and philosophies concerning the role of media in society.

Additionally, I am equally perplexed by the idea of "global", especially when the term is paired with "news". I'm sure the idea of "global" media products are the focus of a number of countries; however, I think Reuters and the Associated Press are my primary concern. Both state they are companies that provide news and information on a global level. So what do they mean by that? If Associated Press is an American organization, then can it be global? Or can we discount its base of operation? And what are global news items? Can I infer from AP's claim of existing as "the essential global news network" that a news organization anywhere can know almost everything that transpires all the time? Likewise, Reuters is a British company that claims to be a "global information company". Can I infer that Reuters can procure and disseminate information from all points of the globe?

There are many finer nuances in these ideas. When we define news, what exactly do we mean? What news values are used to determine the selection of news? Who decides in local news organizations what routines must be followed? What ownership structure exists in areas of Africa, where the news media might be relatively new compared to the European or Euro-American news media? I hope to tackle each of these in turn, probing what is meant by both these words. It occurs to me that many outside the United States might have just as skewed an idea of the U.S. as we have of their countries. Because I am an American, a journalist, and a scholar, I can't help but ask these questions, especially when I know the complexities, nuances, and textures of Euro-American culture are never properly represented in media. While the media might provide us a picture, it is completely flat; it lacks the social context of place.

Take for example this picture:


Of course, not everyone in the U.S. has access to this type of food. In fact, I found food items in the East that are dramatically different from the Midwest or Southwest. Even while we have a sense of the "imagined community" as Anderson suggests, we lack the social context from the local. We have misconceptions and biases about one another, just as perhaps Bengalis might have about other Indians, or those from Mexico might have about other Latin Americans. So my question to the world would be: What is an American? Ultimately you must search your mind for what elements and ideas came together to form your conception in the first place.

Especially if the original cultural item is removed from its context:

Good news from North Philly...

As this semester flies by and I soldier on, attempting to keep up with the reading as well as everything occurring globally, I received a bit of news this morning. A couple of weeks ago I applied for the Temple Writing Academy, which provides a variety of classes for high school students from North Philadelphia.

For those who are not well-acquainted with this area, North Philly exists as a monument to the cracks in both the capitalist and democratic systems. When I first drove through this area - on my first trip to Philly - I cried. I could never imagine growing up in a place of crumbling concrete, that seems untouched by recent development and ignored by policy makers. While I cringe at thinking myself a great "white" savior, I am happy at the opportunity to meet these young people, to hear their narratives, and to come together with them to learn. It promises so many opportunities.

I have not thought at depth about the curriculum, but I did pitch a global literature class. I have been reading "Graceland" by Chris Abani, and I had the great fortune to speak with educators like Juan Devis last summer as a part of the Media Literacy Lab's research into educators' uses of copyrighted materials. I will more than likely contact these gentlemen, to ask their opinion - other books to read. I think these young people will no doubt understand the colonial and postcolonial human traps and the consequences that have grown from these.

I am estatic, and I welcome suggestions...

Kosovo Declaration of Independence

Here is the Declaration of Independence, taken directly from the website for the Assembly of Kosovo. Click here to learn more. I will respond to the press coverage of this in the next couple of days. It's not every day that a territory posts its declaration on the internet, or is it?

Kosovo Declaration of Independence

Convened in an extraordinary meeting on February 17, 2008, in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo,

Answering the call of the people to build a society that honours human dignity and affirms the pride and purpose of its citizens,

Committed to confront the painful legacy of the recent past in a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness,

Dedicated to protecting, promoting and honoring the diversity of our people,

Reaffirming our wish to become fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic family of democracies,

Observing that Kosovo is a special case arising from Yugoslavia's non-consensual breakup and is not a precedent for any other situation,

Recalling the years of strife and violence in Kosovo, that disturbed the conscience of all civilised people,

Grateful that in 1999 the world intervened, thereby removing Belgrade's governance over Kosovo and placing Kosovo under United Nations interim administration,

Proud that Kosovo has since developed functional, multi-ethnic institutions of democracy that express freely the will of our citizens,

Recalling the years of internationally-sponsored negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina over the question of our future political status,

Regretting that no mutually-acceptable status outcome was possible, in spite of the good-faith engagement of our leaders,

Confirming that the recommendations of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari provide Kosovo with a comprehensive framework for its future development and are in line with the highest European standards of human rights and good governance,

Determined to see our status resolved in order to give our people clarity about their future, move beyond the conflicts of the past and realise the full democratic potential of our society,

Honouring all the men and women who made great sacrifices to build a better future for Kosovo,

1. We, the democratically-elected leaders of our people, hereby declare Kosovo to be an independent and sovereign state. This declaration reflects the will of our people and it is in full accordance with the recommendations of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari and his Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement.

2. We declare Kosovo to be a democratic, secular and multi-ethnic republic, guided by the principles of non-discrimination and equal protection under the law. We shall protect and promote the rights of all communities in Kosovo and create the conditions necessary for their effective participation in political and decision-making processes.

3. We accept fully the obligations for Kosovo contained in the Ahtisaari Plan, and welcome the framework it proposes to guide Kosovo in the years ahead. We shall implement in full those obligations including through priority adoption of the legislation included in its Annex XII, particularly those that protect and promote the rights of communities and their members.

4. We shall adopt as soon as possible a Constitution that enshrines our commitment to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all our citizens, particularly as defined by the European Convention on Human Rights. The Constitution shall incorporate all relevant principles of the Ahtisaari Plan and be adopted through a democratic and deliberative process.

5. We welcome the international community's continued support of our democratic development through international presences established in Kosovo on the basis of UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999). We invite and welcome an international civilian presence to supervise our implementation of the Ahtisaari Plan, and a European Union-led rule of law mission. We also invite and welcome the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to retain the leadership role of the international military presence in Kosovo and to implement responsibilities assigned to it under UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and the Ahtisaari Plan, until such time as Kosovo institutions are capable of assuming these responsibilities. We shall cooperate fully with these presences to ensure Kosovo's future peace, prosperity and stability.

6. For reasons of culture, geography and history, we believe our future lies with the European family. We therefore declare our intention to take all steps necessary to facilitate full membership in the European Union as soon as feasible and implement the reforms required for European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

7. We express our deep gratitude to the United Nations for the work it has done to help us recover and rebuild from war and build institutions of democracy. We are committed to working constructively with the United Nations as it continues its work in the period ahead.

8. With independence comes the duty of responsible membership in the international community. We accept fully this duty and shall abide by the principles of the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, other acts of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the international legal obligations and principles of international comity that mark the relations among states. Kosovo shall have its international borders as set forth in Annex VIII of the Ahtisaari Plan, and shall fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all our neighbors. Kosovo shall also refrain from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.

9. We hereby undertake the international obligations of Kosovo, including those concluded on our behalf by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and treaty and other obligations of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to which we are bound as a former constituent part, including the Vienna Conventions on diplomatic and consular relations. We shall cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. We intend to seek membership in international organisations, in which Kosovo shall seek to contribute to the pursuit of international peace and stability.

10. Kosovo declares its commitment to peace and stability in our region of southeast Europe. Our independence brings to an end the process of Yugoslavia's violent dissolution. While this process has been a painful one, we shall work tirelessly to contribute to a reconciliation that would allow southeast Europe to move beyond the conflicts of our past and forge new links of regional cooperation. We shall therefore work together with our neighbours to advance a common European future.

11. We express, in particular, our desire to establish good relations with all our neighbours, including the Republic of Serbia with whom we have deep historical, commercial and social ties that we seek to develop further in the near future. We shall continue our efforts to contribute to relations of friendship and cooperation with the Republic of Serbia, while promoting reconciliation among our people.

12. We hereby affirm, clearly, specifically, and irrevocably, that Kosovo shall be legally bound to comply with the provisions contained in this Declaration, including, especially, the obligations for it under the Ahtisaari Plan. In all of these matters, we shall act consistent with principles of international law and resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations, including resolution 1244 (1999). We declare publicly that all states are entitled to rely upon this declaration, and appeal to them to extend to us their support and friendship.

The political economy of rock, paper, scissors

Sometimes it occurs to me, though it is reinforced time and again in my readings, how we take for granted certain parts of our culture. What often seems self-evident is something overlooked, especially when the cultural artifact is so widely known. Nothing is so apparent than what we learn as children, such as stories or games. Rock, paper, scissors is but one example.

I'm not sure why I assumed most everybody would know about the game. It was a pervasive part of my childhood, cropping up when incredibly important decisions were needed or when consensus could not be reached. As a child, my neighborhood friends and I were prone to adventurous explorations, which sometimes required picking the kid who would wander into and check out what we perceived as dangerous territory. The deciding force behind who went first - the process that made it legitimate - was typically rock, paper, scissors.

And most Americans with whom I come into contact know this game. Hence my surprise when my friend from India acted with bewilderment when I suggested jokingly we should use a game of rock, paper, scissors to settle a decision over our reading for class. As we split up our Manuel Castells reading for our Globalized Media class, I hopped on "Geopolitics and the State"; my friend ended up with "Bolivia and Democracy," a reading she seemed unhappy about. Upon my suggestion, she politely conceded - as she is always apt to do - that she would accept the reading that she received.

However, one of our peers and I, in sensing her confusion over the game, decided to explain the rules. We went round and round for about five to ten minutes before she politely said she had it, with a slight impatient huff and a wave of her hand signaling that she felt the game absurd. Why is the paper better than the rock? Heck, I don't know.

So I began to think about it. Why is it that my friend who has been in United States for some time lacked knowledge about this game? Even more, what did the game say about Americans? The political economy aspect of this game occurred to me as I read through the readings for my classes this week; however, the search for information is always a good place to begin.

I am quite sure if I had an overabundance of leisure time, I would devote that time to more constructive endeavors and not rock, paper, scissors. However, I will say as I entered the term into the Google engine and clicked "search", almost a million web pages came up. I went through several, and found several explanations of the game. I even found the website for the World Society of RPS, a factoid that I probably could have lived without. I also found our symbolic representations of our symbolic representations enlightening and amusing. For example, check out this graphic explanation of the rules from corkinthewater:




Or this beer commercial:


You can visit this website for more information.

I can imagine one would feel a bit of cultural vertigo from experiencing the game without a context by which to understand it. And in rethinking my knowledge of the game, as well as its meaning, I wondered how it related to the perplexing problems arising from decision making and resource distribution. It occurred to me those who possessed the better resources came out on top, and coming out on top depends on choosing the resource that bests your opponent.

The political economy of the game hit me as I perused the pages of my reading. Most of our globalization and international communication theory has dealt with the growth and decline of American media around the world, as well as the idea that capitalism was the engine behind the globalization phenomena. These two ideas - the spread of communications, particularly communications technology and content, and the spread of capitalism - are fused and expounded by Benedict Anderson in his argument about the development of nationalism. It was, argues Anderson, the spread of print capitalism that broke the hold of religious power and facilitated the growth of state mechanisms. Essentially the power of knowledge helped loose the chains of cognitive bondage, and began to place power into the hands of more people.

If I could re-imagine the game within the current media logic, the concept of scissors would include so much more than simply banned books or censorship. Once unpacked, it would also signify our cut-and-paste, fast-paced misinformation society. For the ability to evade and twist reality seems now much more potent than ever before. At some point we should come to understand that the one resource mightier than any weapon is the power of knowledge, especially coupled by the power of imagination. The one exception resides in the power to keep our fellow man ignorant.

And with that, I will leave you with this YouTube video by uphillbothways as an amusing sidebar:

The reaction to the reflection

School started about two weeks ago, and of course, I haven't necessarily made good on my promise to blog more frequently. My bad. I have a great deal to read, and as I wrote in my most recent post, I chose to try some of the Web 2.0 tools with my students.

Google documents, presumably singular when one refers to the online tool, is awesome. I can tell when my students submit their work, they can upload from Word, and they can work with one another on the same document while they are all logged in. I began the semester by asking them to sign up for Gmail, to access the documents. Being undergraduate students, they rarely do as asked at the beginning of the semester. This is the honeymoon period, when an educator must approach students with a compassionate, loving smackdown.

48 students, several mislabeled documents, and three assignments. One word: Clusterfuck.

However, I managed to work through it, and still maintain a bit of sanity. For I know when they come out on the other side of this situation, my students will have taken away much more than simply persuasive writing or public speaking. They will understand, hopefully, how they work in certain group settings, how they adapt to technology that they are unfamiliar with, and how to use these tools to collaborate within their chosen profession. Specifically, though, I wanted to provide them with an alternative way to think about social networking and collaboration, namely tools that exist outside of the Facebook/Myspace universe.

For the first couple weeks, I sent them out to work on specific things. I had them sign up for a Gmail account; I had them use documents that I set up for them; I had them work on assignments that required them to open and save documents. It's misleading sometimes to think that American students should be technologically proficient. While the numbers indicate a large proportion of Americans are wired, there still exists a digital divide; this fact makes implementing technology in the classroom risky. In fact, at a recent conference many made sure to reinforce this idea; some were even disparaging. While I took heed at the warnings, I have proceeded. Few students have complained of difficulty, and given that one of the classes is in a computer lab, I have no reservations about what I have asked of them.

On Wednesday, I finally decided to have the students collaborate online. I have split my persuasive writing class into groups for in-class activities. They have worked to come up with an issue for in-class group work, through brainstorming and blogging. After some deliberation, they reached consensus; after some inquiry about where they stood, I felt it a good time to push them ahead. I asked them to go over what they had discussed with their groups, open their group documents, and write their own impressions about their groups' issues.

After answering the usual I'm-confused-whattya-mean questions, they jumped in. And then they freaked out. They seemed to feel a number of emotions as they realized they were in the same document with their peers. Some were excited, some were a bit confused, and some just thought it was creepy. It was almost like watching a child who realizes the image in the mirror is its reflection. So after their emoting crescendoed - brought about by the picture of a fuzzy kitten placed no doubt by one of their more technology proficient peers - I put my hands up and said, "HANDS OFF THE KEYBOARDS!"

Both the typing and the noise began to subside, and I once again revisited the purpose of the exercise. That seemed to center most of them. We had other problems. Some students couldn't find the document, a couple had not signed up for Gmail, and some had difficulty working with the documents. Once they calmed down, they managed to get through the exercise.

My own classes have had a rocky start, too. I'm not sure I'll receive graduate credit for one of my classes, and I'm trying to figure out my employment situation in the summer. I'm also searching for research project topics. I haven't heard anything about the graduate forum that I submitted to, so I have a feeling that won't pan out. But I hope to submit my case study on Kosovo to AEJMC as a student paper. Again, I would simply like feedback that will enable me to proceed with the project.

Overall it will all fall into place; until it does, I feel same the vertigo that I see in my students. Will it work? How will it work? WHEN will it work? How do I fit into this? In the end, the world is created by those brave enough to seek and present their answers to these questions. When we challenge ourselves to answer, then we possibly come close to touching a dream of freedom, perhaps the one true freedom each of us possesses: the freedom to imagine the world as it could be.

whew! what a semester!

it took me a while to blog. this past semester was difficult. i took nine hours and taught two classes. i will do the same thing in the spring. but busting butt now means finishing course work by next fall. i'm anxious to get to the PhD.

for those of you who have perused my blog, it should be evident that i've been interested in kosovo. it actually became the focal point of my fall semester projects. in my development communications class, i worked on what i hope is a good start to a case study exploring how the regulatory and legislative framework promulgated by the UN mission in kosovo facilitated what has become Kosovar Albanians' opportunity to create their own media. this exploration was remarkable for many reasons. first, many of these documents - at least created by Kosovo's provisional government - are available online. second, in flipping through each of the documents, spread out across my floor by date or by agency or some other descriptor that i used in my haphazard filing system, i saw the creation of what many in the tiny province hope will be a country. i make no predictions about what will happen, only to reiterate what i put forth when i spoke with my poli sci professor. i don't think serbia will let the province go easily. and i don't think kosovo will stay easily. this tiny patch of earth should be kept in mind because it signifies an even larger tension between the united states and russia. sometimes i think following some of these events and speculating on what could happen is actually much more fun than watching television.

speaking of television: i'm almost finished with neil postman's "amusing ourselves to death." i highly recommend it.

my second project - for my international relations class - also focused on kosovo. but i took a much different angle. some have indicated that the un took steps in kosovo and east timor that it hadn't taken previously. while it had helped governments rebuild - for instance in cambodia - it didn't actually take over governance as it had in kosovo and east timor. because i think that the american news media help us organize our understanding of the world, i felt a change in un action such as this should be studied, especially how it appeared in the american news media. i struggled with the project to a certain degree. i was in a political science class, and their research methods vary from those used in media research. in the end, i came up with a framing analysis. i would divulge more, but i plan to submit the project to a symposium. i will write more about how it turns out. i am excited about the project, as i really like framing as a theoretical tool. while it isn't all-encompassing, i challenge researchers to find a theoretical tool that is. but i think it offers ways of exploring phenomena that sometimes cannot be explored in other ways.

school is about a week away, and i'm still working diligently with preparing for the courses that i will teach. i hope to contact michael wesch who teaches at kansas state university. he has used some of these web 2.0 tools in remarkable ways, and i'm interested in using these tools not only in the classroom but in my research, as well. i would be interested to hear from journalists globally about different issues, especially information flows; i hope some of these tools could facilitate that. i know few probably consider information flows a viable research consideration any more but i think it's especially pertinent now.

this semester, i'm taking a geography course that will focus on development in the third world, an international news communications course, and media globalization course. i'm really excited about what i will learn and even more excited what research questions i will discover. is anybody else wondering about how we evaluate information now? a brief vignette to illustrate a point before i close down for the evening.

my aunt, whom i love dearly, came to visit twice while i was at home - my original home is oklahoma, my diasporal home is phl - and we gathered around the kitchen table as we talked. my father, mother, aunt, cousin, and i warmly talked about the world and its state of affairs. on her second visit, because each visit she came with different cousins, she made the comment that she didn't know what had happened to the world. the value of human life everywhere seemed to be in decline. and i'm not sure if i said this aloud or only thought this, but it occurred that when she grew up she didn't have the rapid flow of violent images that she probably sees today, nor was the symbolic environment of her youth shaped the way it is today. i made the point, though i think it was lost on my more conservative elders, that we now have access to other sources of information; when i say other sources, i mean of course sources of information from other nations. i wonder how we would evaluate this information. probably, given my company, with skepticism. many studies indicate the flow of images and news content into the united states show "the other" as an exotic place, a violent, unwieldy place that exists in stark contrast to our comfortable, american lives. in other studies, political content is often painted with a nationalistic brush despite which side of the political continuum the news media may reside. what happens when we have access to news sources from beyond our national borders? how do we evaluate that information? would my aunt's world seem so violent? maybe. maybe not. i've lived in philly for the better part of a year and a half, and i have yet to see a drive-by despite the persistent news items in local media about the violence that pervades the city.

Notes from Video, Education, and Open Content

Below are my notes from the Video, Education, and Open Content Conference in New York. I posted these on my MySpace blog, but I wanted easier access to the links, both for myself and my students. I will continue to update the links, as I've found at least a half dozen more. This is an exciting time in education and the world. We have unprecedented access to technology, and as we try to get a handle, we must attempt to broaden that access to all. Just think about people who cannot afford to go to school having access to course materials from MIT and Yale University. If today's primary mantra is freedom = the ability to consume, then access to cultural heritage worldwide and the ability to recreate can greatly enhance that freedom, taking us through terrain never before seen. Equalizing access should be a top concern in education, always balancing the creator's rights with those of the users. Once you visit some of these links, you'll understand why I'm so excited about these possibilities.

Video, Education and Open Content: Best Practices
Production, Distribution, Technology and the Law
May 22-23, 2007

Opening Remarks

Frank Moretti's information can be found at the above link, as his name kept eating everybody else's code. Don't ask me; I'm not a programmer.

Cathy Casserly,William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Program Officer in Education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The goal of the foundation is to equalize access to knowledge and improve teaching and learning. Today's students are on separate but parallel tracks: what they are doing in classrooms and what they are doing in their daily lives.

Peter B. Kaufman, Intelligent Television, CCNMTL, President and CEO of Intelligent Television and Associate Director of the Columbia University Center for New Media Teaching and Learning.
Atlas Media: new division of theatrical documentaries.
Open Culture
1. Demand for online video has exploded.
2. Opportunities to produce have exploded.
3. Access is undeniable. Moving images archives are being digitized.
4. Portability: access anywhere.
5. Laws and economics are changing.

Video and education – new worlds...Appreciating the new role of video in education
Peter Brantley, Digital Library Federation, Executive Director of the Digital Library Federation.
Challenges that video pose for digital libraries
Digital libraries act as repositories. Libraries have been about physical things, basically offline (not on network). They have been passive. Libraries purchased and licensed objects, and people go to the library to use these objects. But now people make own media; access is assured. Dramatic changes in library: cafe at Berkeley with students' engaging in collaborative work. Music and sound not things like books. How can library be active? Video is didactic: it allows for exchange.

Murray Weston, British Universities Film and Video Council, Director of the British Universities Film and Video Council.
The council promotes production, study and use of moving images and sound in U.K. universities through subscriptions. You must be a registered student. How are moving pictures used in education? He provided this list:
1. As instrument: illustration – visual aid;
2. For enrichment: affective domain;
3. For reference as primary or secondary record: use in historical research and scholarship/ for cultural reference;
4. As scientific device: as scientific record
5. As a creative medium: communicate, inform, etc.
Its status in scholarship is underdeveloped in many respects. Importance of context and provenance are of concern as well as access questions. Metadata is king (not always content). Ask questions like: what do most teachers/students want? We need funds to set up and maintain. There should be collaboration of owners, formal reviews, agreements, sharing licenses: ultimately we should seek international harmonization and clarification.

Paul Gerhardt, BBC Creative Archive, Executive Director of the BBC Creative Archive.
BBC conducted project for 18-months, and gained 100,000 registered users. Purposes included education, national history, etc., and content areas included fact and news areas. The archive was restrained with entertainment because a complex set of issues. BBC is heavily regulated (overregulated). It conducted a public value test, which lasted 6-9 months. It was an exhaustive study to discern the value to people and market impact. In a post-broadcast world funding compounds these challenges. The BBC is committed to making content and access more open, but doing this is a huge challenge. It created a digital curriculum, multimedia based on school curriculum. Due to a complaint filed by EU, the BBC pulled plug. The first phase includes share license, and it is still continuing to archive.

Keynote address...Remarks from a recovered archivist and filmmaker, Prelinger Archives and Internet Archive, Rick Prelinger, writer, archivist, filmmaker, is founder of the Prelinger Archives, co-founder of the Prelinger Library, and Board President of the Internet Archive
Best practices include the following:
1. Leverage of existing resources. buy out of rights bundled in educational media.
2. Segmentation
3. Openness: not one-shot deal but on a continuum. There is a broad spectrum of interactions in education, and open earth content should include not just access but production. People need the freedom to remix: to get their hands on object and play. We need to share, to network experience with others. Interoperability rests upon openness, and we should default to open to share materials as freely as the law allows.
4. Moratorium: to declare a moratorium on closure and complex copyright laws. Points of departure: bridging production, archive and education. Archives: gone retail, unprecedented response from new users. Sites like YouTube have raised public's expectations, and it's hard to see how institutions can meet them. Repurposing material is cheaper than making new material, especially with entertainment. When producing content, we should default to openness, not encumber form the start. We should work on exclusivity: distribution channels should allow for openness.

Production – university best practices...A review of several among many innovative university productions
John Frankfurt and Mark Phillipson, CCNMTL, Phillipson is Coordinator of Teaching, Learning, and Library Services at the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. Frankfurt is Educational Technologist at the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University.
Havel – The Havel exhibit was unusual for center; it was events driven as opposed to content driven. It includes interviews that viewers can watch by chapters. The center negotiated with CNN to use raw footage, allowed to take hours of footage and cut to fit content of the site. The site includes different types of interviews: archives, production, and donated footage. Much of the content was gathered under open, but there are mixed resources from library. Falls into the Digital Bridges Initiative: Havel remains in website but some day will be in repository, share and harvested. It is a RSS website. It involves the recontextualization of video. Videos were collected, and users can add to their notebook. The chapter goes into notebook. You must register to use the site. (I've been trying to figure this site out for two days; I'll let you know how it comes out).

Diana E. E. Kleiner, Yale OER VLP, and Paul Lawrence, CMI2, Kleiner is Dunham Professor of History of Art and Classics at Yale University and Director of Yale's Open Educational Resources Video Lecture Project.
Yale's OER project was funded by the Hewlett Foundation, and will be available through Open CourseWares by Fall 2007. It involves:
1. Video to make available certain number of courses
2. Faculty recruitment that are willing to share intellectual property
3. IP/Collections
4. Full arts and sciences curriculum
5. Innovation
The project is a confluence of content and medium, and fits with Yale's objectives for globalization overall. Video is optimum vehicle for presentation. Initially it will involve seven courses but will expand in the future. The overall goal is a open classroom worldwide free. The project hopes to capture:
1. The person: video will feature professor and unique pedagological approach;
2. A place: video allows open live classroom and ability to share information;
3. The learning process itself: widespread audit, accessing information, and is about gradual intellectual revolution;
4. A creative remix: go beyond auditing, picking and choosing what to view; its
focus is on content. The project optimizes the element of choice, building curriculum. Courses might pose problems depending on securing rights to use.

Scott Shunk, Visualizing Cultures, MIT, Project Director of Visualizing Cultures at MIT.
The site provides a functional platform for the content through examination of historical record through images. John Dowers, professor at MIT, wanted a way to distribute the content as well as a way to wrap text around images to add value to content and his work. The project is digital image scholarship: content (cultural institution), scholars and knowledge to contextualize content in order to allow access to materials. The content now focuses on Japan. It provides content that is broken into units. The core exhibit is text that uses embedded images. These are presented in visual narratives: themes from text, illustrated like a graphic novel. When you provide no context, it becomes difficult to navigate the content. It is a means to add levels of context and have open, free and available; it is also meant to empower with added level of relevance. Moreover, users can create their own productions. It is a scholarly context around visual imagery that enables users to create own pathways into content.

Mike Cubit, MediaVision, Case Western, Director of MediaVision at Case Western Reserve University.
MediaVision allows web delivery of lecture content and other forms of content. The expectations of students are high, and his department uses students as leverage when comes to tackling adoption by faculty. Examples of MediaVision's content include Telesurgery, Wireless Mesh Project, Red (an orchestra), and Second Life. You can view these at Case.TV. There's a searchable archive with fully indexed and tagged and tagged content. While students mostly use video, they do not use audio often. Most students indicated they use video to clarify concepts.

Production – producer best practices...Exemplary educational productions from outside the academy
Margaret Drain, WGBH, Vice President of National Programming at WGBH.
We shall Remain
Car of the Future
Teachers Domain
Adoption
Above are examples of projects using technology for education. These programs include NOVA, American Perspectives, and others. Each program has digital platform. We Shall Remain provides a Native American perspective: WGBH gave cell phones to Native Americans. They are looking for five strong stories about the struggle to survive. They did this for two reasons: it is increasing participation, and they are attempting to bridge the digital divide. They partnered with museum in Arizona. They provided a Nokia camera phones worth about $750-800, and they trained in narrative storytelling. Car of the Future is a way to help today's drivers. The web is used for open production. They put production content online and encouraged feedback. This brings the audience into the process of production. NOVA is the site most used, and it is critical to reach people. Most is open content, but some is not. It is difficult to get carte blanche for mash up, etc. Teachers Domain involves segmenting archival material: 1,000 clips or resources. Some of the content can be downloaded and remix; it provides four levels of usage. The Adoption project is not funded. They should find out this coming week. Its production actually begins online, but then ends up on television. They will provide three families with cameras who will record each week as they go through the stages of adoption.

Thomas Lucas, Thomas Lucas Productions, director and producer and President of Thomas Lucas Productions.
Lucas is an independent producer. He primarily works with scientific data. He creates simulation alongside of theory and data collection. Others from different places can access data and collaborate.

Curtis Wong, Microsoft, Principal Researcher and Manager of the Microsoft Next Media Research Group.
Wong is working to create deeper understanding by providing layered stories, contexts, and information. The narrative provides the story; the context enables the users to explore their interests. One example he provided was the Codex Lester: DiVinci liked organic metaphors. So the graphic included a tree, with a number of other smaller graphics. Microsoft is not thinking about new media, but rather the next media as well as interactive television. Links to examples are below.
Commanding Heights
The Age of AIDS.

Distribution – platforms and technologies – best practices more...Distribution options and best practices for educational video
Obie Greenberg, Google/YouTube
Obadiah T. Greenberg, now at YouTube, helped to launch UC Berkeley's iTunes service.
What is YouTube doing in education? YouTube has reached a critical mass for audiences. To keep up with demand and provide services to students, UC-Berkeley launched its own site on Google Video on September 26, 2006. They include courses, events, sports, etc. YouTube is the host site. YouTube accounts offer branding opportunities. Branded channel includes a watch page. For example, NBA is treated as a user. Play list with sequence of videos is provided. Also, there are communities. with sub channels. Border is an image map.

Stacey Seltzer, Joost, Senior VP of Content Strategy, Acquisition and Operations for Joost.
Joost offers peer-to-peer interaction with television content. It is currently in beta form and only available to friends. It enables people to move information around the internet and file sharing. It is third generation technology that has been optimized and offered to public over the Internet. It deals primarily with closed content, offering a streaming experience. A series of platform widgets enable users to interact with content and share content. Metadata enables users to organize and provide more information about content. It is a channel driven system.

Donna Liu, University Channel/Princeton University, Founder and Executive Director of the University Channel Project at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
University Channel is an attempt to lower barriers of production and distribution. It is essentially a blog that offers a series of lectures. It distributes to television stations for rebroadcast, and its primary goal is to get the content out.

Ben Hubbard, University of California – Berkeley, Special Events & Video Services Manager at the University of California – Berkeley's Educational Technology Center.
UC-Berkeley distributes webcasts and podcasts of lecture materials and other content. They have partnerships with Google and Apple. Sakai Webcast Systems. Keep eyes on building frameworks.

Archiving – best practices more...Accessing educational video archives
Karen Colbron, WGBH, OpenVault, Manager, Media Library and Archives, Digital Access Management Initiative, WGBH.
Open Vault uses emerging technology to archive and provide a framework for access to rich media material. It brings content from New Television Workshop, Say Brother, and The Ten O'Clock News with grant funds in order to link across content to facilitate access. This website allows functionality; users can scroll over item and the title appears in top left. The site provides a description of the item as well as a notes feature. Users can send the URL to share information. The page also has a feature that is similar to Netflix, by showing items of similar interest. When browsing the archives, users can browse five levels deep. (Not all of the clips are available, though many of these clips are listed).

Jane Johnson, Library of Congress MIC Project, Library of Congress MIC Project Manager.
The MIC provides a tool for discovery. It is a database that provides a layer of functionality. The repository provides a platform for collaboration. AMIA collaborates with the Library of Congress and is funded in large part by the National Science Foundation. A major component to the MIC is a union catalogue, which brings together images from participating archives allowing users to search different archives nationwide. It pulls up moving images. It is an attempt to address what Johnson called a crisis in film preservation. They conducted a feasibility study to explore the integration of databases and discover access policies. They hope eventually to hold the rights to metadata and are currently exploring different metadata strategies.

Andrea Kalas, British Film Institute, Head of Preservation at the British Film Institute National Archive.
This archive enables the preservation and public access to moving images that played role in history and provides different voices. It is a co production with BBC. One example is the preservation of Mitchell and Kenyon films, portrait photography of the everyday lives of those in Britain. They have attempted to build information about the films to give the films context. The collection contains over 800 nonfiction titles 1900 to 1913. In addition the collection includes The Open Road, a collection of travelogues by Claude Friese Greene, a pioneer filmmaker exploring the uses of the color process.

Archiving and production – best practices...New approaches to bringing production and archival sensibilities more closely together
Jeff Ubois, Intelligent Television, Director of Archiving and Access Solutions at Intelligent Television.
There is a need to explore collaborative approaches to archiving. This is especially true as television gains a memory. NetTV is not television. Online communications and archives should be built around production, collaboration and cataloguing. Different organizations, such as Democracy Now!, have begun to tap volunteers on Internet to lower costs. There is a need to explore public-private partnerships.
ParkRidge47
Torture Taxi

Nan Rubin, Thirteen/WNET, Project Director, Preserving Digital Public Television, at Thirteen/WNET. and Kevin Devine, Thirteen/WNET, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Thirteen/WNET.
There is a need to preserve digital public television. The station is currently using its existing system to preserve. Through the American Archive, some materials can be made available, especially for use in educational settings.

Video and open content...The expanding role of video in the open content movement
John Dehlin, Open CourseWare Consortium, Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium based at MIT.
Openness requires a major mind shift. The consortium is attempting to managing growth and maintaining quality. Currently the consortium deals primarily with course materials. Some of the courses have lecture video. Attempting to find ways to preserve course materials. They are struggling with how to make more affordable and richer at the same time. Some universities have take down policies, in case complaints about fair use arise. They are currently collaborating with Itunes Europe. They are attempting to find the funds to build learning communities, and want to create a vertical rather than simply horizontal functionality.

Video, education, and the law – best practices...Rights and other legal considerations for producers, distributors, and consumers
Eric Saltzman, Creative Commons, lawyer and filmmaker, is a member of the Board of Directors of Creative Commons.
From the moment a work is created, it is copyrighted. There's nothing about letting people know the work is copyrighted. For owners who want tell people up front want people to use work, creative content licenses are available on website. They are meant to compliment to copyright. Many licenses require attribution. Some content is more complicated, when users take material from other sources and use. FATHOM. MIT courseware content use licenses that permit derivative work. Science commons are funded by the Hewlett Foundation. Learning Commons attempt to coordinate world of open educational resources.

Josh Nathan, Thirteen/WNET, General Counsel at Thirteen/WNET.
The station has a strong partnership with educators. Rights of copyright owners are negotiated through manner, territory and term. Also they deal with exclusivity. It's all about money. Many want to give up few rights for the amount of money they can get. However, technology is changing the viewership. New economic models are developing, especially with how content is distributed. Rather than video being for sale or rental, it's now specified as home use. How do rights holders get their money? Nathan also foresees that the idea of exclusivity will change. It's early to determine best practices but there is a need to tag and track content to make money. We need to figure out how to build and maintain archive, and we need to rethink public broadcasting. Classroom use needs to change.

Technology – best practices...Technology issues at the intersection of video and education
Maurice Matiz, CCNMTL, Vice Executive Director and Director of Technology at the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University.
The center is trying to get faculty to use technology in a useful way. Trying to employ what it has learned over the years about technology and education. Several aspects are considered: what faculty wants students to learn; faculty needs time for brainstorming; and finding open market. He mentioned TechCrunch. There is a need to know the university's IT stance; are they protectionists or will they open up the content? Finally, students become collaborators. Students often do not know how to use their computers as an educational tool.

Shen Tong, VFinity, Founder and President of VFinity.
VFinity is a social network, which attempts to use the web as a social phenomenon and cultural force. Challenges include difficulties for libraries/archives, broadcasters/publishers, music labels, and film studios. How do we make content equally available to everyone? The software attempts to harness power of the web. It includes an intuitive web interface; users can find video/documents/images. Users can manage in a unified way. The software offers a seemless self-service, controlled vocabulary and free tagging, flexible and open architecture. Users have a dynamic workflow that includes Browser access and is search centric.

Abram Stern, UCSC/Metavid, co-founder of the Metavid Project at the University of California Santa Cruz.
Metavid is a collection of open content, attempting to create open access of U.S. House and Senate. Stern contends the film is public domain. CSPAN did not agree, so Metavid bought about $1,700 worth of film. They are archiving not just video but also closed-caption text. The linear video posed problems. They had the video files but needed to make the files useable. They found information about who is talking based on OCR name data. The archives use Ogg/Theorn software, (which Eric Blankinship let me know Macs have plug-in so I can download files). Metavid enables users to grab smaller portions of video.

Teaching and learning – best practices...Examples of the purposeful use of video in the university
Frank Moretti, John Frankfurt, Michael Preston, CCNMTL
Video in classroom should take advantage of teachable moment. The center used the expertise of Arnold Gesell to help improve teacher education through the use of video. See VITAL as an example. How do you capture details like observe, interpret, think, transfer, and revise? They built a web environment and shoot video, with help of a grant. It includes a video viewer with tools. It enables users to mark in and out points, make notes, and embed video in the essay (text box). Essays can be illustrated with clips, used like quotes, references or footnotes.

Dean Rehberger and Michael Fegan, Michigan State University, MATRIX, Rehberger is an Associate Director of MATRIX and also Associate Professor in the department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures at Michigan State University. Michael Fegan is Chief Information Officer at MATRIX at Michigan State University.
The university had a digital library. Students were not using it much, which lead to the question: how can it be more effective? They wanted students to be able to access, use and reuse content. It acts as a secondary depository: students find digital objects and use digital objects. They can segment and annotate media; they can use with all types of media and combine into online presentations. It includes a layer to help undergraduates think about why and how using source materials, in a form that students fill out. The depository stores URLs, and includes a text database and access when users access. It does NOT store the media.

Judy Stern, University of California – Berkeley, User Interaction Designer at University of California – Berkeley's Educational Technology Center.
The system helps instructors use technology to engage in active learning. Some of the challenges include technology costs, service constraints, and lack of scalability. It allows students to review course materials, but on the human side, the challenges include instructor acceptance. The system involved two different threads: ETS – Educational Technology Services and the adoption of Sakai. The center employs a user-centered design. It focuses on users, attempting to fully understand users based on research and modeling.

Research and scholarly communication – best practices...The research agenda for the role of moving images in education
Richard Lucier, Scholarly Communications Institute, Director of the Scholarly Communications Institute.
The Institute is funded by Mellon Foundation and housed at the University of Virginia. Its purpose is to move scholarly communication to change. The library is at the heart of scholarship. Institute explores scholarly communications as a cyclical process. It begins with research, discovery, dissemination, etc., and eventually back to research and discovery. It deals primarily with humanities scholars. The overall goal is to create opportunities for scholars to understand and embrace digital scholarship. It is working to build cyberinfrastructure with the American Council of Learned Societies.

Patricia Renfro, Columbia University Libraries, Deputy University Librarian at Columbia University.
The libraries are building collections in different ways. Sino-Tibetan Oral History Project. Frontiers of Science. Videotaping professors and develop course materials around that video. Jazz Studies Online. They have acquired different legacy collections. Challenges to these collections include dissemination, storing/accessing/archiving, and preserving analog collections. There is a need for a proposed national agenda for video preservation, i.e., standards/practices, copyright IP, service bureaus, metadata standards.

Richard Kahlenberg, TVSmarts.com
Richard Kahlenberg is the founding archivist of the American Film Institute and Editor of TVSmarts.com.
The site generates a media menu based on the educational standards of various states. The site enables these menus to be imported into school sites. The menu can sort by age and will be based on standards. He says students score higher on tests and write more than if sent to library; however, he presented no data to back this up. It was clear this bothered people in the audience.

Finance – agendas and best practices...The economics of educational video production and distribution
David Weinstein, National Endowment for the Humanities, Senior Program Officer in the Division of Public Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Digital humanities Initiative deals with what's going on and where the money should go. It is concerned about how best use of technology to serve public. It provides start up grants for activities like podcasting, archives, gaming, or making objects open source. It has five new programs. He felt the walls between public programs and education are collapsing.

Dan Lukash, Institute of Museums and Library Services, Senior Program Officer at the Institute of Museums and Library Services.
The Institute connects people to information and ideas. Its primary institutions for grants are libraries, museums, and institutions of higher education.

Brian Newman, Renew Media, Executive Director of ReNew Media.
Newman talked about the economics of educational video production and distribution. The reality of content is that artists want to make money. Artists want freedom to create, make a profit, but most don't. A paid educational marketplace is important. Artists are not aware of alternative licensing. A disparity exists in what goes into production and what gets back to artists. He talked a little about the Reframe Project, which enables artists to digitize video for free and film at cost. New trends are emerging: DVD on demand, digital download to own or rent. The prices at set by rights holder. The trend is heading to ingest on demand, which might involve charging after a certain number of people watch. The system needs to be sustainable: open content with profit rather than nonprofit or for profit.

Next steps I - new structures and efficiencies...Exploring new potential collaborations in the field
Frank Moretti, CCNMTL
These changes involved redefining, recontextualizing, and restructuring. These points of departure exist in the institution. They must be done within the practice. He pointed to the The Triangle Initiative as an example. These changes need to occur in the classroom, in the community, and within the university.

Mara Hancock, University of California – Berkeley, Associate Director of Learning Systems at the University of California – Berkeley's Educational Technology Center.
The center has over 0,000 hours of media, and has seen 10.6 million downloads in 2006. Dynamic media challenges include making more media, podcasts and webcasts, available as well as easier to access. The barriers include technology, proprietary code, people and culture. The system needs to be: scalable, which means reproducible; sustainable, which involves maintaining, supporting, and funding; and growable, like an ecosystem. Open content should exist in open systems. Open systems and standards lead to the ecosystem. There should be alignment across institutions. We need to teardown boundaries and learn how to be in a networked environment.

Next steps II – opening code and content...Future directions for making educational video openly available
Rick Prelinger, Prelinger Archives

Dean Jansen, Participatory Culture Foundation
Dean Jansen is Special Projects Coordinator at the Participatory Culture Foundation.

Colin Rhinesmith, Berkman Center, Harvard Law School
Colin Rhinesmith is Digital Media Producer at Berkman Center for Internet & Society at the Harvard Law School