Meadow Brook Hall Young Writers Camp

The Meadow Brook Writing Project's first week-long camp for young writers at Meadow Brook Hall is now complete. Two more sessions for children between 3rd and 6th grades are set for July 6 - 10 and July 20 - 24.

With the help of their grant from Building the Civic 'Net, project leaders have so far produced two videos available here for your viewing pleasure.

This first video gives an overview of the program:



This second video focuses on a day in the life of camp attendees:

Introduction to "Building the Civic 'Net"

"Building the Civic 'Net" is a philanthropic initiative sponsored by the Village Square blog and the Village of Rochester Hills. We are currently introducing our first group of four grantees at the Village Square blog.

"Building the Civic 'Net" awards grants to institutions, organizations and or individuals in Rochester Hills and the surrounding areas that propose a creative way to use social media to improve our shared public life. We define social media as a participatory use of the Internet through interactive forums such as a web log (blog), or online service such as twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr, etc.

These grants aim to help catalyze a larger opportunity for Northern Oakland County. With the closing of the Rochester Observer and Eccentric, we believe it is more important than ever that communities use new tools to inform themselves and one another in new ways. We call upon a wide variety of civic, cultural, and educational leaders to pioneer the use of social media to support their missions, build community, and deliver important information to their constituents. If this were to happen, this array of institutions could then form multiple inter-connected hubs online. The sum of the parts would inform, strengthen the ties that bind, and enhance the quality of life for local residents. It might also make Northern Oakland County into a vibrant hub for innovation and experimentation in the local use of social media to enhance the standard of living.

Our hope is that current and future “Building the Civic 'Net” grantees will help the communities of Northern Oakland County pursue this goal of innovation.

Participate in the Building the Civic 'Net initiative by joining our facebook group.



You can also follow us on Twitter.

Detroit Public Television & Digital Content Strategy

Given on-going travails in the newspaper business, Detroit Public Television has an opening to step up its game.

Newspapers are sanctioned in the U.S. constitution as a great search light, a critical check in our democracy on government and other powerful local stake-holders. Yet The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News cut home delivery to three days per week. The Observer & Eccentric Newspapers closed five local editions, including Birmingham, Rochester, Troy, West Bloomfield, and Southfield.

With these institutions battered and weakened by the ‘Net, it is imperative that other institutions emerge to ensure the health of local democracy in new ways. Some of these can and must grow organically out of the creative capacities unleashed by the ‘Net. Nimble old institutions intent on reinvention, though, also have tremendous new opportunities to contribute.

It’s not clear in this topsy turvy media landscape that DPTV can emerge free and healthy. Old institutions in the digital age, with all of their legacy assets and liabilities, can struggle to choose a path free and clear to a prosperous future. The newspaper business has learned this. The Detroit automobile companies, with their vast dealer networks, health plans, and pension funds, also understand how burdensome legacies are.

Some of DPTV's assets are favorable, though. First, DPTV has approximately 1.6 mm viewers; a solid foundation built over decades. Second, DPTV is locally connected, in an era when local content and voices are badly needed; yet they can also draw on strong national resources. Third, DPTV is a non-profit institution. The problem for commercial newspapers and broadcasters is that the ‘Net and digital technology have killed their business models. They are increasingly unviable financially. DPTV’s hurdle to cover costs is less because it doesn’t have to answer to profit-seeking shareholders or equity investors. The metric against which DPTV measures success, how well it fulfills its public mission, is cheaper. Some in Congress are exploring non-profit models for the newspaper industry; but DPTV is already there.

To emerge into the future as a strong and vital organization, it is necessary for leaders at DPTV to focus on two specific short term strategies. These must be coupled with a critical medium to long-term strategy.

First, DPTV must protect and nurture its main asset; the broadcast stream and its 1.6 mm person audience. This is the vital anchor. One problem, however, is that a large percentage of these viewers are older. They aren’t well connected to the ‘Net. As the group ages, it will deteriorate through attrition. The people will be replaced by an audience with consumer usage patterns transformed by social media. If DPTV pursues this as a stand alone strategy, the 1.6 mm person audience will slowly evaporate.

Second, DPTV must invest as heavily as possible in a ‘Net infrastructure tilted to social media. The emphasis should be, first, on the exploitation of free applications such as youtube, google, blogger, facebook and twitter; second, on the purchase of low cost production and distribution technologies; and, third, on investment in a broad array of semi-affiliated content creators, as well as user-generated content.

The users of social media are different than the audience for the TV station. It is a younger demographic, and therefore more culturally progressive. For this reason these efforts should, in the near term, be considered a separate venture. It is a major but necessary investment without an immediate and commensurate return. Such an investment is as critical to the future of DPTV as the Volt is to the future of General Motors.

To emerge in the future as a vital service for local communities, DPTV needs to keep a close eye on medium and long-term strategy. Most young professionals using social media will choose a partner, buy a house, have some kids and become the older audience that has long been served so well by DPTV's Channel 56. A re-christened Detroit Public Media must hustle, as soon as this can be made to happen, to square the circle between the powerful broadcast stream and the new social media ventures. If the station leadership and the Board can maintain the discipline to patiently execute this natural but extended process of convergence over a number of years, than Detroit Public Media can emerge into a radically altered media landscape as a valued service provider for local communities across South-East Michigan

Building the Civic 'Net

The Village Square blog, an online service hosted by the Village of Rochester Hills, is sponsoring “Building the Civic ‘Net”; a philanthropic program committed to support local social media projects in the public interest.

Two times per year the program will award a grant of $3,000 to an institution, organization or individual that proposes a creative way to use social media to improve our shared public life.

They're taking proposals on how you will use social media on the Web for the public interest of a local community near Rochester Hills, MI. Demonstrate how your project will do one or several of the following:

• Foster entrepreneurship and corporate innovation
• Nurture, protect or teach our children
• Promote lifelong learning
• Build healthier, safer, more vibrant communities
• Provide goods or services to the less fortunate
• Strengthen our civic institutions
• Strengthen our creative culture
• Deepen our individual connections in our communities

Detroit Public TV in the digital age

Online e-zine Metromode has recently published an excellent profile of new DPTV CEO Rich Homberg. Here's an except explaining some of Homberg's vision for the station:

"Detroit Public Television will involve considerably more community engagement, as the station plays the role of "collaborator, catalyst, co-conspirator, storyteller. … how to help tell a story, how to capture it, how to edit it, how to post it," says Homberg. "That's a new role for us. "Right now we only see ourselves as a big TV station. Documentary is really an important thing that we do, but a lot of times you need start as little TV," with programs that may not be scripted but evolve into something significant. Invariably there are surprising twists and turns.

Homberg anticipates stronger public affairs programming and community engagement, he says. "It probably starts on the Internet and ramps up over time and always offers more depth, longer versions, more content."

It's not just the content, but also the content's influence on the community that interests Homberg. It's this sense of corporate responsibility that impressed Dan Krichbaum, while he was president of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion.

"Rich brings a passion about improving Metro Detroit," says Krichbaum, who now is COO for the State of Michigan. "He will get very involved in civic leadership. I would look also for more programming focused on educational, economic, and other issues that are critical to get people and organizations working together more cooperatively. He will bring great creativity to helping media of different sorts combine their offerings and reach larger audiences. Look, also, for more emphasis on diversity and inclusion as Rich has a good understanding (of their importance)."

Crain's Detroit Business: "Use the new media to inform"

Hey Everybody,

Crain’s Detroit Business published in the August 11, 2008 issue my letter to the Editor, “Use the new media to inform”:

I’ve included the text below.

Cheers,

Scott


--------------------

Editor:

It's sad to watch The Detroit News struggle, though it's happening to local newspapers across the country. To simplify Bill Shea's excellent July 7 article (“More bad news for The News”), Internet sites such as Craigslist are starting to dominate the market for local classified advertising. Publishers have to make up for the losses by decreasing news and increasing advertising within the paper. The resulting degradation of the news product fosters a vicious negative cycle that depresses the valuation of the asset and creates financial jeopardy.

Such a course of events in local news is particularly damaging here because good, deep coverage is the life-blood of a desperately needed, vibrant civic culture.

Now here's the rub: The counter-trend to the demise of the newspaper is the rise of the Internet. The shift in power from one to the other is the primary reason that clumsy media companies such as Gannett are in trouble in the first place. The problem in Michigan is greater than elsewhere because, for whatever reason, innovation in local news and information over the Internet using the Web, blogging, YouTube, and social networking sites like Facebook lags other states and metropolitan areas.

Because a vibrant civic culture is critical here, those that care about Michigan can and must make a major push to enable and encourage citizens to inform one another through “self-generating content” platforms such as blogs and social networking sites. Investment of time, energy and resources by civic, political and business leaders into this sector will foster the critical new media ecology for our state. Such investment will pay off by spurring on a vibrant civic culture that serves the information needs of our local democracy despite the unfortunate demise of competitive markets for local newspapers.

Scott Aikens
Birmingham

Manchester, England is a good example for Detroit, Michigan

mediacity:uk
Originally uploaded by GScott

Recently I watched the movie 24 Hour Party People which is as much about regeneration in Manchester, England as about anything else. Manchester is another leading example of an important industrial hub that, like Detroit, fell on hard times. The movie shows a slice of how it subsequently reinvented itself by exploiting impressive assets such as its architecture, an enduring brand, and artistic talent (not to mention a thriving sports culture).

Detroit has a dated but once glamorous brand that’s similar to Manchester’s, and a pristine stock of mid-20th Century architecture. The metro’s also the place of origin for premier artistic talents such as Jack and Meg White, Marshall Mathers, Madonna Ciccone and Stevie Wonder. Like Manchester it also has a thriving sports culture. So, what’s stopping Detroit from navigating a path like Manchester has? Nothing!

In fact, an old friend and colleague of mine is heavily involved with the BBC’s major new MediaCity:UK project being developed on Manchester’s waterfront, the Salford Quays. This is another inspiring example for Detroit; and deserves closer scrutiny.