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• … in which he decides, reluctantly, to write a post about BPP
• The Power of Re-bundling
• BBC’s iMP Player Tests Well
• How ’bout some radio on TV?

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It’s exceptionally good, written with the tone you’d expect from someone who is a visionary, and yet approves of ending what some saw as a visionary experiment.

We’ve/I’ve learned — or relearned — a lot in the process.  Sustaining a new program of this financial magnitude requires attracting users from each of the platforms we can access.  In this case, radio carriage was inadequate and web/podcasting usage was hampered — here’s the relearning part — by having an appointment program in a medium that doesn’t excel in that kind of usage.  Web radio is growing very rapidly (much faster than FM did, for example), but it’s almost all to music and, increasingly, to attention-tracking music.

Perhaps the future of news on the web is in the same user-programmed direction.  I’d like to see good minds like those of the BPP staff think about how we can do good journalism delivered via the web using techniques beyond just throwing up another portal-type web site and expecting people to come to it.  Our new open API release is a great tool for that.

The realities of how people use the web, how web audiences grow through search, and technologies for tracking attention and tailoring content delivery to match how people spend their attention all need to be considered.  Portals still have a place, just as their close cousins radio transmitters do, but we can no longer put all our eggs in that basket.

The cost of this experiment was considerable, on the scale of a traditional radio program, and that created great pressure to achieve the traditional results - primarily, significant station carriage to justify the expense. That’s not precisely the result of “an old way of thinking.” It might be that it’s the result of executing on a scale that ensured that BPP’s web/social media success couldn’t sustain it.

As Haarsager notes, he and others at NPR have learned a lot from this experiment, and there are still plenty of questions to answer about how a news program might derive its life from the web.

NPR has also learned that, while a major expenditure of cash couldn’t make this program successful on the radio, the expenditure of almost nothing garnered a social network of thousands of fans - a big success (how much did NPR spend on Facebook and twitter? basically nothing).

How might they approach such an experiment again? Perhaps with a budget and expectations more carefully tailored to ensure success on the web. That’s one way to do it, and there are others.

This subject has all kinds of layers… from a large successful network built on risks, that some think won’t take risks anymore, to a board that mainly represents traditional radio stations (where the money and audience is right now), to the Innovator’s Dilemma, to demographics, to NPR’s great success with podcasting, etc. Simple it ain’t.

Frankly, there’s more here than any of us can easily synthesize. That’s where a lot of voices is a good thing. Here’s Haarsager; here’s Paterson; here’s Proffitt… and this is just scratching the surface. If you’re interested in the subject, read as many perspectives as you can.

Simple rules never get at the complexity of this stuff, but I’ve come up with a simple rule anyway, and you can take it or leave it as you see fit:

Those of us inside public media, as well as those of us who listen to it, need to encourage and expect NPR to innovate and embrace the future, even when it scares a few among us. We also need to expect that NPR will invest as carefully and thoughtfully as it can in these ventures, and create the conditions that will lead to success.

Related

• This NPR API is a BIG deal.
• NPR Prepares to Launch its API
• Blog “Inside NPR.org” launches
• Maria Thomas’s New… Video!

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An amazing mind, and wonderful good humor, captured in 20 short minutes.

Many of these moments from the annual TED Conference are unforgettable. TED generously shares them free online, which is a considerable discount from the $6,000 fee to attend the conference. There are audio, video and HD video podcasts, too.

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• Weekend Video: Rick Smolan’s story of a little girl
• Weekend Video: Panic in Level 4
• Weekend Video: The Machine that Changed the World
• Weekend Video: Digging into Marx

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If you’re afflicted with the disease which has no name - the periodic, intense craving for documentary films - then you’ll love SnagFilms. I just discovered this site and after spending some time checking it out, I’m impressed.

SnagFilms currently features about 250 films, from the relatively unknown (to me) to major releases like SuperSize Me. The docs are streamed to you, with minimal advertising at the open; you have the standard full-screen viewing option. The site has a widget you can snag (get it?) to showcase favorite docs on your blog or web site, and here’s an interesting twist: apparently, the filmmakers have chosen specific charities and causes they care about, and the site gives you the option to support those charities on each film’s page.

SnagFilms has some big AOL names behind it, including Ted Leonsis (who has financed a couple of documentaries himself) and Steve Case. From the press materials:

In sessions convened by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Paley Center for New Media, the SnagFilms team listened to foundations that fund films, filmmakers and others. A common theme stated by all of the participants was that the bottlenecks in traditional distribution were threatening the economics of the medium and diminishing its impact. Alberto Ibargüen, Knight’s President and CEO, other foundation leaders, and Paley Center President and CEO Pat Mitchell will provide input to SnagFilms to make it an effective platform for the greatest possible number of filmmakers, and increase its community and charitable connections. Knight Foundation is also providing a multi-year grant to assist these activities.

So far, it looks pretty good. The small amount of advertising I’ve encountered isn’t intrusive, the stream looks great on my computer and my TV, and browsing through the list, I found all kinds of docs that piqued my interest.

It’s quality content, and it’s another example of how the term “public media” is expanding to include new entrants.

PBS is a content partner; I count 27 PBS episodes there, including a few NOVA episodes and the Medici series from a few years back. I’d love to see even more PBS content appear here. Frontline and Frontline World are probably the two shows on the top of my wishlist. In particular, Frontline’s absence is a big gaping hole that’s inexplicable (well, not inexplicable, but you know what I mean).

PBS has made a few moves like this - each of them smart. I’m watching less over-the-air public TV than ever, despite having four multicast channels on my TV, but I’m watching more PBS than in years, on other platforms that I use a lot - from Netflix (”Napoleon” was this week’s home viewing) to iTunesU and now SnagFilms.

I don’t actively avoid OTA public TV, but my viewing habits have trended away from traditional TV viewing, and some of my viewing interests are less mainstream (docs, speeches) and therefore not served by any single traditional channel. By partnering with other platforms that fit the mission, PBS ensures that, even as I wander off, its content is still placed where I can discover and enjoy it.

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• * Unprecedented flexibility for anyone, from a blogger in Pittsburgh to KQED in San Francisco, to generate highly specific content searches of the NPR archive (going back to 1995) and port the results to a webpage or an application.
• * A number of stations also have their archives inside the system, too. So queries can also include (or not) results from those stations.
• * If more stations are allowed to contribute their content metadata to the API, the search query delivers better and more complete results, encompassing more of the output of the entire public radio system.
• * NPR content (and our content, when we join the API) begins appearing all over the web, and yes, this doesn’t diminish the value of our work or our web sites; it INCREASES its value as more people encounter and discover it, and click on the links to read more.

Those points are big but that last point is BIG.

The average public radio listener visits her public radio station web site twice a MONTH.

Yes, we’re all working to add value to our sites and increase visits; we must continue to do this. (We’re busting ass on this at Louisville Public Media’s three stations and we’re seeing some great results - details to be revealed in a few months.) But when that content appears on other platforms, that’s when we’ll have a much bigger audience for what we do.

Back to that average public radio listener: she may visit publicstation.org only twice a month, but she reads a set a 10 favorite blogs twice a day. If even one of those blogs uses the API to “curate” a selection of your stories, or installs a widget like this one, guess how much you’ve increased the potential of listeners discovering your content? And clicking over to your web site to read more?

There’s more to be said about other benefits of this… but this is what makes me very excited about what NPR’s Digital team has done… what NPR management has approved.

A technical fog can descend over stories like this, but it shouldn’t. This is a BIG deal.

Related

• NPR Prepares to Launch its API
• … in which he decides, reluctantly, to write a post about BPP
• Blog “Inside NPR.org” launches
• Maria Thomas’s New… Video!

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What will be the impact of this new reality on public media. I’ve been offering some thoughts, hoping they’ll serve as conversation starters.

Now, more than ever, it’s time to engage the community.

I don’t recommend holding off on that cool community engagement concept until your organization is down to its last dollar. But economic difficulties shouldn’t be a signal to lay low until times get better. These times can provide opportunities for you to harness your resources to address key issues that matter most to your audience. Doing so may convince the people who matter in your community that you’re committed to meeting urgent social needs; that enhances your position as a significant community institution, and reminds them that your continued financial health is a core community concern.

Here are a few examples I’m aware of. If you know of others, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Reaching out to families: Iowa Public Television

Dan Wardell is the face of Iowa Public Television’s outreach to kids. On TV, you’ll catch him here and there in the kids schedule. But if you see him in real life, you realize just how much of a phenomenon he is. Every year, kids (and parents) swarm around him during his appearances at the Iowa State Fair. His shows and story readings are standing room only. This year, Dan went on tour all over Iowa, and you can check out his blog to see the results.

During this year’s horrific flooding, Dan Wardell’s “Reading Road Trip” traveled to libraries in flood affected areas like Iowa City and Burlington. He drew record crowds - families who needed a brief respite from the ordeal.

Now, you can look at this as a heartwarming episode. (”Maybe we’ll do that again sometime, if we can get a grant”). But I’d be very surprised if IPTV’s leadership let it go at that. In recent years, they’ve been a network on a mission to build a sustainable future; I bet this is a defining moment.

Solving Community Problems: KETC

I’ve given several shout outs to KETC’s initiative, Facing the Mortgage Crisis. I’m highly impressed with the active role the station is taking to help find solutions to a huge problem. Here, an aspect of the downturn itself is an opportunity for 9 St Louis to show it’s an invaluable community partner.

Facing the Mortgage Crisis isn’t a segment on the weekly magazine show; it’s not a one hour documentary, shot in true-to-life HD. This is a “get in there and get your hands dirty” effort to help the community.

The station is partnering with local agencies like United Way to channel information to people who’ve lost their homes, or who are facing foreclosure. There are live on-air call-ins, and live on-air community discussions. Check out the blog. It’s not promotional, it’s about getting information to people who need it. And this initiative doesn’t end after a day, a week or a month. It’s a long term commitment to St. Louis.

Imagining Energy Independence on PEI: Robert Paterson

This isn’t strictly a public media example, but I offer it because it’s an interesting approach to the macro-crisis, and it might give you some ideas.

Prince Edward Island depends on oil and gas, like we all do. But with an average household income in the province of $35,000, people are really suffering as prices rise. Robert Paterson (who lives on PEI) and others are asking: if cheap oil will never return, if the joyride is really over, can PEI have a future? They think it can, and they’re thinking about how they can create it, from existing but underutilized alternative energy sources to promoting a resurgence of agrarian culture and local food.

(photo by Raceytay)

Paterson starts with the core concept that the answers to our problems are already out there, in the community; the job, then, is to mobilize the community so people will put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Yes, a concept such as this is bigger than any one public radio or TV station could tackle. But not if public media reaches out to community partners, as IPTV has done in working with teachers and libraries; as KETC has done in working with community agencies.

All of this is big stuff, but it’s tied directly to our long-term sustainability. The community will support us if it listens to us and watches us, and if it sees that we’re a trusted partner committed to addressing the needs of the community.

What do you think? Are you undertaking a similar community initiative? If you are or you have, what have you learned from it? Take a moment to leave a comment.

• Part 1: Virtualizing the Workplace
• Part 2: Social Media for Ourselves

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• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Social Media for Ourselves
• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Virtualizing the Workplace
• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Planning for the Downside
• Beyond Broadcast: If you missed it, see it and hear it now

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10am UPDATE: It’s now live. Here’s Daniel Jacobson’s post.

This is a pretty big deal… a signal of openness from NPR, a willingness to let developers have access to NPR’s content, and the beginning of what could be some really cool stuff.

What is an API? Here’s a definition only a developer could love. Here’s my somewhat mangled definition: API is an Application Programming Interface. It’s a set of tools developers can use to access parts of one web site and integrate it with another site or application. Examples? Those applications you add to your Facebook page, those cool applications that plot everything from crime data to photos on Google Maps.

NPR promises a gallery to showcase widgets when the API launches; the blog includes a link to Reverbiage, which plots NPR stories on a world map. That’s a widget I’d love to display on one of WFPL’s News pages. There’s also a nice iPhone app from Axiom Stack. Probably the best thing about an API is that developers anywhere with good ideas can build applications that can organize and present NPR’s content in all kinds of interesting ways.

An API was one of the least sexy recommendations of the Digital Distribution Consortium - remember that? The group was hard at work two years ago at this time, trying to find ways to present a more coherent way to present public radio online.

Some of the DDC recommendations were fought over, some ignored. But, hey, NPR is about to give us, and developers everywhere, the opportunity to create new tools that add value to NPR’s (and our own) content.

Related

• This NPR API is a BIG deal.
• … in which he decides, reluctantly, to write a post about BPP
• Blog “Inside NPR.org” launches
• Maria Thomas’s New… Video!

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An unexpectedly heavy workload prevented me from posting the third of my pieces on Peak Oil and public media, but I’m happy to report that I’ll be able to publish it here tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience!

Random Posts

• New Realities: Rob Paterson Comments
• Why Iowa?
• Amazon to Acquire Audible.com
• Exchanging Phones

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The video is courtesy of Fora.tv, which is a treasure trove of quality public media content. Fora.tv also has a video podcast, so you can sample the best of the new content added to the library each week.

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• Weekend Video: Digging into Marx

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How will you adapt? I’m posting some thoughts of my own on the impact of this new reality on public media, hoping they’ll serve as conversation starters, if your organization is getting squeezed.

Social media: If it’s good for our audience, it can be good for us, too.

Every time I talk to my boss about going to a conference, his eyes glaze over. It’s hard for him to listen and simultaneously fathom the havoc I’m about to wreak on the budget.

Some of it can’t be helped. Some meetings must be in person - the networking opportunities are to good, the shear effect of a collection of brains in one place too important to neglect. But, are we using all those cool web tools out there to maximum effect? Probably not. They won’t replace the vitality of an in-person event, but they fill a big gap for lots of other kinds of interaction. We should harness those tools.

Wikis

They’re almost old-fashioned compared to all the shiny stuff out there, but they’re super effective for collaborations. We just completed work on a grant proposal, in which we partnered with another public media organization. With the exception of two 15 minute phone calls, the entire 3 weeks of work transpired on a wiki. No flyins, no tedious emailing of documents to each other, with the resulting tangle of comments and textual additions and subtractions. It’s all on the wiki; everybody can read it; everybody can comment on it; everybody can change it. Sometimes old-fashioned is just fine by me.

Webconferencing

OK, please don’t let your last experience with webconferencing turn you into a sworn enemy of the technology. Yes, I was on that call, too. The one where the moderator got disconnected for 5 minutes; the web presentation locked up; the Skype call sounded like it was coming from South Ossetia; the PD from Greater Tri-Cities Public Radio put the call on hold and treated everyone to 4 minutes of “Afternoon Classicale.”

There are significant technical hurdles to overcome and the organizer of a web conference spends almost as much time thinking about the technical pieces as the presentation. But it’s like riding a bicycle - eventually, you stop falling off and it becomes pleasurable. I’ve taken part in some IMA, PRPD and other webconferences that have come off with few or no technical glitches. These won’t be a replacement for the annual conference, but organizations like PRPD are making an effort to leverage webconferences more frequently to transmit knowledge around the system and encourage idea sharing. This is a great idea, no matter the state of the economy. For every two people who get to go to a conference, there are probably 10 others who could benefit but have to stay home. (disclosure: I’m on the PRPD board)

Skype/Video Conferencing

There’s probably no easier software to use if you want to use internet phone or (God help us) video chat. Skype’s newest iterations include a much tighter integration of video, and while you can add some other gizmos and make it a big group, multiple location roundtable, Skype is all you need if you want to check in with a reporter at a distant bureau, or other telecommuting staffers. It takes some getting used to. I’ll never forget taking part in a video chat at a station where I worked; the staff at the satellite outpost turned the cam away from them because they didn’t want to be seen. On my side, all of us addressed an empty chair.

Chat, with or without video

UPDATE: Josh Andrews had some good thoughts in the comments, so let me break off a piece of the chat idea from Skype. Skype functions well as a chat application, but I think most of us use one or more of the Big Four: Yahoo Messenger, Windows/MSN Messenger, AIM or GoogleTalk.

These chat services are excellent even if you’re all working in the same building. As Josh notes, email is not well suited for quick questions, etc. If you’re too busy to track down the individual in person, and sometimes we are, chat can get the job done. To make it work, everyone should decide on a single platform, or everyone can download an application that handles multiple platforms (Adium is one of several) and open all accounts at once. Put everyone’s preferred chat screenname on the internal contact list.

DIY Social Networks

I’ve mentioned these before, but they deserve another mention. I got invited to join the Mortgage Crisis project that 9 St. Louis is undertaking. It’s built on the Ning platform, and it’s a joy to use. From profiles to forums, to mini-social network clusters, everyone working on the project, whether in St Louis, Charlottetown PEI, or Louisville or DC, can follow the development of the project from minute to minute, debate and discuss ideas, share clippings, even view and critique edits of video segments.

This is the same platform that WAMU uses to engage its listeners. KETC has put it to use internally to make their collaboration more efficient and meaningful.

Are you using tools like these to bridge the gap? As costs of travel rise, are you thinking more seriously about these tools? Do they work for you? Or not? If you have anything to add, please share in the comments.

• Part 1: Virtualizing the Workplace
• Part 3: Engaging the Community

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• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Engaging the Community
• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Virtualizing the Workplace
• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Planning for the Downside
• Beyond Broadcast: If you missed it, see it and hear it now

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The App Store will be revolutionary, and I’ve already and installed and started playing with about a dozen of them.

The one thing that does get my heart pumping is the 16GB hard drive. I bought my first phone on 6.29.07 with 4GB, an exercise in planned obsolescence: I figured I’ve save $100 and buy a phone with more capacity in ‘08.

But I ran into trouble immediately. I loved the phone so much, used it so much, that 4GB wasn’t enough. I was constantly managing scarcity… juggling small chunks of my music, along with podcasts and audiobooks. I hope that with four times the capacity, I’ll spend one quarter of the time managing it.

We’ll see.

And hey, Chuck gets a (nearly) new phone tomorrow, too. So drinks all around.

FRIDAY UPDATE: A lengthy wait led to a speedy activation (4 minutes, vs. 7 hours for iPhone1 last year) and seamless transition to the new phone.

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I’ve come to know Jody in my time on the PRPD board. What I appreciate most about her is that she’s always focused on goals and the strategies to get there.

Jody is one of the best program directors in the system, and she’ll be an appreciated and integral part of the leadership team in Austin. (Can you imagine Jody Evans and Hawk Mendenhall in one workplace? Boggles the mind.)

So, congratulations to Stewart Vanderwilt and Hawk Mendenhall: you’re building a great team.

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So, how will you adapt? This week, I’m posting thoughts on a couple of the many ways this new economic reality might have an impact on public media.

Your star reporter says, “Look, it’s cost prohibitive for me to drive to the station every day. Why do I have to commute to this building every day when I can do my job with a microphone and a laptop?”

We’re going to be squeezed hard in the next couple years. Our infrastructure costs will rise significantly, and it’s likely our membership revenue will remain flat or drop somewhat.

Making big cuts in the services we provide would kill the goose that lays the golden egg. But we are going to have to cut somewhere.

Costs that have been considered mandatory are going to come into sharp focus: how much are we paying for office space, cubicles, heating and cooling… all based on an assumption that everybody needs to be in the building for 8 hours a day, sitting at an expensive desk, using expensive electricity?

If you can’t give your star reporter, or any of your employees, a raise next year or the year after, what are you prepared to do to keep them? Are you willing to consider letting your reporters work from home one or two days a week? They’re still going to drive to cover the news on the station dime, of course, but a 20% or a 40% reduction in commuting costs could be the equivalent of a nice salary increase with $5 a gallon gas. And after you spend a little (very little) cash to equip them to work virtually, your infrastructure expenditures at HQ may fall.

Other staff in various departments may also be able to work from home for a day or two a week. Internet access and other tools could keep them connected to the home office.

What about employees who do have to report to headquarters every day: your on-air staff, among others? They may have some justification in asking for a raise to cover their higher commuting costs.

Can you virtualize the entire radio or TV station? Of course not. But must everyone be gathered in the same physical space from 9am-5pm each day? No.

In most sectors employing knowledge workers, including public media, concepts like flex-time, and performance standards based on accomplishment are going to become more important than occupying a cubicle for 40 hours a week. Other public media organizations that understand and act on this before you do will have something new and compelling to attract your employees.

What do you think? Would you implement workplace changes like these in order to control costs, or reduce employee commuting costs? Would they have a positive impact, or not? What ideas is your organization considering to control rising infrastructure costs? A “green” initiative, perhaps? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

• Part 2: Social Media for Ourselves
• Part 3: Engaging the Community

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• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Social Media for Ourselves
• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Planning for the Downside
• Beyond Broadcast: If you missed it, see it and hear it now

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What we do know is this: even if oil and gas prices don’t go higher than they are right now, we’ve just barely started to feel the ripple effects of current prices in our other costs of doing business.

This means the smartest organizations are approaching the next year conservatively: at American Public Media, Jon McTaggart has told staff: “we are assuming that the current weakness in the economy will be significant and sustained.”

Regardless of which economic forecast or guru you believe, it’s fair to conclude that, things aren’t going to be like they used to be for awhile.

So, how will you adapt? This week, I’m posting thoughts on a couple of the many ways this new economic reality might have an impact on public media.

They’re starting points for a discussion we should be having, not definitive statements on the topic at hand.  I hope you’ll read them, but more important, I hope you’ll comment and add your intelligence to this discussion.

• Thursday Part 1: Virtualizing the Workplace
  
• Friday Part 2: Social Media for Ourselves
• Monday Part 3: Engaging the Community
  

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• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Social Media for Ourselves
• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Virtualizing the Workplace
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Great to see this kind of information sharing!

Inside NPR.org is one of the collected blogs in my public media “master feed,” which aggregates many public media blogs (I’m always looking to add to it.) The rss feed is here.

Related

• … in which he decides, reluctantly, to write a post about BPP
• This NPR API is a BIG deal.
• NPR Prepares to Launch its API
• NPR’s Knights are training with digital swords

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I attended BB in 06 and 07 but couldn’t make it because of schedule conflicts this year. If you found yourself in a similar situation, then check out the very complete report here.

I’ve just started digging into this, but it looks like some of the deepest discussions came in the afternoon during the Mapping the Money panel, which included Ernest Wilson, Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication and dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California… and board member of the CPB. He chided public media for not keeping up with the pace of change. “If you don’t get this right pretty soon, the quality of democracy will decline and stagnate, and it will be our fault.” Strong stuff, leading to robust discussion.

I’ve always thought this conference was particularly provocative and invigorating; the other “public media” conferences belong exclusively to the wealthiest branch of public media, the radio and television stations that serve a well-educated and largely passive audience (in the case of television, a mostly diapered audience).

I’m happily a part of that elite public media segment and I like those other conferences (I’m a PRPD board member and we put on a pretty good conference ourselves), but as someone who is supposed to be making decisions about the future of public media, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that public media is much bigger than Public Radio and Public Television; that there are smart ways that we can all work together, if we’re willing to experiment thoughtfully; and that we bear the special burden of preserving democracy in a country where it’s under attack on many fronts.

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• Mermigas: you can monetize quality public media
• Conferences: Create your own Social Network

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Why would you charge people $6,000 a head to attend and then give away most of the conference free, afterward? Easy - the fee is for the privilege of being there in person and networking with some of the smartest people in the world. The presentations of those smart people - that’s something you can share with everyone, and because of the wealth of ideas at TED, this is stuff people need to see.

TED offers weekly audio, video and HD video podcasts, highlighting speakers from its annual conferences. The latest episode features a talk by photographer Rick Smolan - a powerful story of a photgraph, an Amerasian girl, and her adoption.

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Rob Paterson mentioned his plan to use Ning for a project in the comments, and now he’s posted in great detail on how he and KETC, and a larger community of public media folks (myself included) are using Ning to track an important initiative that KETC is undertaking to address the sub-prime mortgage crisis. This project is one to watch.

So, you have everyone at KETC, you have Rob, you have other partners, and you have a small group of public media “advisors” around the country - how do you keep everyone on the same page? Rob’s screenshots shows the power of Ning’s platform - you can see how they’re making use of internal blogs, asking questions and fomenting discussion in the forums, embedding clips of content as it’s created.

This is exciting stuff. You can do it with Basecamp and other tools, but Ning adds a social wrapper the project management that’s going on here.

I’m not a paid Ning spokesperson, nor do I wish to be, but I’m enthusiastic about the potential uses for this tool.

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• KETC and Paterson: Creating a network in St. Louis
• Beyond Broadcast: If you missed it, see it and hear it now
• Mermigas: you can monetize quality public media

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Rob offers some thoughts on how he thinks public media can leverage its high quality content online, partnering with new media companies who are starving for this kind of stuff, find more creative and engaging formats for that content, and market it. That way, quality audio and video from public media “infects” a marketplace that needs it and wants it.

Rob dropped me an email yesterday and said he’s finding that his work with One Economy is starting to intersect with public media, which reminds me of one of the meta-discussions at Beyond Broadcast: what is public media? There’s a growing recognition that it’s much bigger than the government sanctioned media outlets that call themselves public broadcasting.

Here’s his post.

Related

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• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Social Media for Ourselves
• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Virtualizing the Workplace
• Peak Oil… Meet Public Media: Planning for the Downside

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Andy Baio, Simon Willison and Jesse Legg have tracked down and digitized all five parts of the documentary, and you can find them on Viddler or on BitTorrent (not that I have any idea what BitTorrent is :))

Baio has included detailed notes for each episode, along with the promise to remove all of it immediately, should the content owners “reach out” to him, or if the documentary comes back in print again.

I vaguely remember catching one or two of these episodes, long ago on WTTW. So this is my first chance to see the entire series. This kind of stuff is what the Internets are for, people.

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Her strong opening line: Nonprofit public media–and most especially public broadcasting–will embrace interactive Web tools that connect companies, producers and distributors of content and their target consumers in ways they once considered “commercial.” Three words of advice: Get over it.

She proceeds to list a number of those “formerly commercial” opportunities, each of which arises from either the quality content we’re already creating, or new initiatives we have underway to explore other platforms.

Her recommendations include better systems to acquire and process donations and contributions, stepping beyond the traditional concepts of membership, perhaps even a central fundraising mechanism; monetizing the connections we’re building with new tools like twitter and Facebook; and getting content out to third parties like Hulu and iTunes, where people can purchase it.

Mermigas offers only a couple examples of ways we’re currently generating revenue from our content, but in truth, there are only a few. She notes there are a lot of interesting things we’re doing that could be revenue generators, from our social engagement on twitter, to signature content we create.

And: An estimated $3.5 trillion of available investment funds are on the sidelines in the U.S.–as much as $40 trillion worldwide–as a result of the credit crunch, cautious lending and economic turmoil. There is a precedent for conditional, nonprofit investing that simultaneously advances social goals and business interests.

Mermigas isn’t giving us all the answers; her post encourages us to think again about what we’re doing and how we might pay for it.

It’s worth a close read.

Dennis Haarsager has introduced me and perhaps many others to the excellent analysis of Diane Mermigas through his blog Technology360. Some of you will remember Diane from her appearances at the Public Media Conference, most recently this last February.

Note: Here at WFPL/Louisville Public Media, we’re pleased to be listed among her examples of public media engagement.

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But this wouldn’t necessarily be the end of analog FM - the interim report says the legacy band would still be home to small local or community radio broadcasters.

The unresolved issues will sound familiar: automobile manufacturers aren’t including digital radios standard in all new cars; DAB service doesn’t reach the entire country (although it’s now at 90% penetration and will reach 93% by the end of 2008); whether the government might help those who can’t afford a new radio.

Digital radio has a higher penetration in Britain than in the US. The latest research shows 22% of individuals in England own a digital radio (lower in Scotland and Wales), and 34% have listened to digital radio on their televisions (Freeview and Sky). These higher numbers when compared with the US result from a number of factors - including, most likely, more effective marketing, as well as the considerable investment the BBC and other broadcasters have made in developing new content for DAB.

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This is a guy who has been teaching Marx for 40 years, so we can safely assume that he has it down by now. Two episodes are online as I write this. I’ve been watching the first episode, and it’s good stuff. Reminds me of my days minoring in Econ in college, except that this is interesting.

Thanks to Open Culture for serving up this tasty platter of Communism. BTW, if you’re in the market for smart content, you should chain yourself to this web site; they’re always finding something interesting.

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It looks like they’re calling the concept 9Network (I love the name). This is a multi-layered initiative that draws on the strength of the television operation (and 9 STL is doing pretty well) and weaves into the strengths of the community. The result is a network mobilized to serve the community: public media.

This is an initiative to watch and to shamelessly copy.

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• Conferences: Create your own Social Network
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• - what kind of video content can enhance a particular story we’re doing
• - how to juggle the responsibility of collecting good audio, conducting a good interview, along with handling a camera
• - workflow: the extra time required to edit and produce video; when overlaying the professional audio track on the video is worth the extra time, etc.

Our approach has been simple: give it a shot, see what happens, learn what works or what doesn’t, go out and try it again. So far, the reporters seem enthusiastic about being able to add another dimension to their reporting.

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There are two great pieces on this: Mark Cuban goes at this story from a business angle, arguing that Hulu is kicking YouTube’s butt because it has better content, controls the content, and therefore can monetize it effectively. Very interesting argument.

Robert Scoble looks at it from the view of a content producer. He writes that YouTube’s decision is smart because long-form content draws fewer viewers at present, but far more engaged viewers, and that means an audience that’s arguably more receptive to an advertiser’s message. “Longform wins and wins big.”

Public Media takeaways:

• *If you have a content partner relationship with YouTube, you may now have, or might soon have, the option to offer more long-form content on YouTube. That’s a good thing because we have a lot of that stuff - more long than short - in our archives.
• *There is an audience for long-form video. Yes, it’s a smaller audience than the millions who might view a 2-minute clip of a cat playing the piano. But, the audience is more engaged… cares more about that content… has likely sought it out… and wants to see it all.
• *The widespread availability of the “full-screen toggle” and the media center systems that marry the TV with the computer are making for a much different online viewing experience - one that’s closer to TV, and one that’s likely to result in longer average viewing times for online video.
• *Better broadband in the home and on the go is creating the possibility of two very different kinds of video consumption experiences. Video viewed on mobile devices is often short-form; even with EVDO and HSDPA, it’s still easier to download and manage shorter clips on mobile devices (although this is changing). At home, there are a small but growing number of users (myself included) that get almost all their video from online sources like Hulu and iTunes. The two minute clip is cute, but we’re searching for the real thing, not a tiny slice.

There is a market for the long-form stuff your station or network is producing, and although it’s small, these folks are your core - your members (or should-be-members) - and the audience for long-form will only grow.

Here’s the online video I’ve watched in the past three days:

• The Cook and the Chef (ABC Australia) 26 minutes
• Check Please Bay Area (KQED) 26 minutes
• ScobleizerTV: Bluepulse (FastCompany.tv) 30 minutes
• WineLibraryTV (WineLibrary) 20 minutes
• TED Talks: Chris Jordan (TED) (in HD) 12 minutes

Last week, I watched Top Chef online (60 minutes) and I have an hour-long video lecture sitting on iTunes, waiting for this weekend.

I’m not going to try to pass myself off as the mainstream of society, but I want to make this point:

We should be prepared to recognize that it’s quite likely the 5-minute video podcast of our hour-long show is reaching people who either don’t really care that much about our content, or it’s angering our core audience who have accessed it hoping to see all of it, and who are willing to engage with our content on a deep level, and derive deep benefit from it.

We’ve gone through this already with audio podcasts. Some stuff is just made to be short - Story of the Day, alt.npr’s Groove Salad Pick of the Week, etc. Some pieces of long-form shows are discreet elements - perfect for excerpting. But most of the time, if we package 5 minutes out of an hour long show and upload, all we do is make people mad.

Public media, in aggregate, has the deepest, richest, most important content archive in the world. People want to hear and see this stuff like you wouldn’t believe. That’s why initiatives like the BBC’s, to make it’s ENTIRE archive (kind of mind-boggling) available online are so important, or PBS’s agreement with Hulu to put several shows online. And have you seen all the stuff on iTunesU? Tons of video, including lots from public media, much of it long-form.

I don’t want to downplay short-form content; but I want to emphasize that there’s an audience for both - and when it comes to the kind of people we want to rea