Community media is great in theory, with radio, video, web and so on now much easier and cheaper for local groups to put together. There are some great showcase examples, but not as much happening as might be expected from the general growth of personal media. What's needed, I think, is more help from institutions who have technical resources and support staff, and who are prepared to make technology fun.
So it's good to see a new burst of energy from the University of Teesside, where former steelwork and musician Steve Thompson is Community Media Coordinator. Steve is one of those people who just gets on and does stuff, and he's now recruiting student volunteers. One role is for Community Media Application Developers, where the aim is "to share experiences and to pool skills to develop applications assisting ordinary people to generate and/or publish content utilising opportunities afforded by new media but without the complications of having to learn programming languages."
I'm sure Steve would welcome offers from wider afield, if you want to share ideas. You'll find his personal website here, with MP3s of some of his songs recorded by Celine Dion, Sheena Easton, and Elkie Brooks.
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