Building the Digital City, Part 1

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:51:00 +0000

At its November 17th session, the Long Beach City Council voted to instruct City Staff to come back with a plan within 45 days on how they expect Public Access to be resurrected. That deadline is January 5, 2010.

This is the framework for a dialogue that I hope those of us involved in the building of the Digital City will engage over the next 45 days.

The media world has significantly changed since the foundations of cable rules were established. Funding for Public Access, Education and Government (PEG) channels were written into franchise rules when there was a scarcity of distribution channels for information to underserved communities and constituencies. Now, the explosion of traditional and non-traditional distribution channels raises questions about the old paradigm and the need for antiquated views on media.From YouTube to FaceBook to MySpace, there is a crowd of alternative distribution systems. The heady days of a limited number of cable and now FIOS channels for distribution of programming for a limited audience utilizing capital intensive studios, production facilities and staff are gone. With a 100 dollar flip video camera or a camera on my mac and pre-installed software on my laptop, I can reach the world. Why spend 200-thousand dollars to produce programming that will reach a limited audience with a limited message?

The first question we undertake should be simple: How does any "Media Plan" create economic, social and community development impacts that builds an industry, creates jobs, provides maximum opportunities for all people and spurs new growth? Providing capital funds to the old paradigm does none of this. However, there is another strategy to create new opportunities.

The goals should be:

Train for the 21st Century media world where 1000 dollars can buy you a studio, post production resources and a door to the world
Develop a new media industry that is based anywhere and inspires new visions, new jobs, and a new future
Create a strategy thatconnects government, education, community, business in a proactive economic development and workforce development movement
Builds a new media network utilizing current and future tools that allows for the city’s residents, business, government and education to communicate, share information and media resources, to interact on a level only now becoming possible because of the technology.
Most importantly,create a vision of a city that is light years ahead of other cities in buildinga infrastructure that is progressive, green, and places the power of new mediain the hands of ordinary citizens.

We need to develop a "Media Plan" based on a wider conversation with other players including Community Organizations and Schools who are already training young people in new media careers and to come back with a more concrete set of actions that ensures that we do not return to an antiquated paradigm and miss an opportunity to become the New Media Center of the United States.

The Creativity Network

Building the Digital City, Part 1