PRX » Articles » Reversioning Deux
PRX just put the word out about another round of “reversioning.” The basic notion is to help producers and stations take existing but currently out-of-circulation programs and update them for new distribution on PRX.
Last year we conducted the first PRX Reversioning Project and brought back to life more than 20 radio pieces in forms and formats that stations are asking for. Among them:
> Behind the Comedy: Thirty Years of Duck’s Breath Mystery Theater
> John Rudolph’s Stories from the NYPD
> The Return of HEAT (coming soon in 2007)
> Waves of Change, Rivers of Doubt: Global Water Issues and Solutions from the National Radio Project
We know there are thousands of radio pieces like these sitting on shelves and forgotten folders on your hard drive right now that are beyond the reach of stations and listeners seeking high-quality, relevant programming. Much of this work simply needs a bit of polish, an update, some edits to be ready for broadcast or online use.
PRX is soliciting proposals for direct support to producers and stations interested in reversioning existing material for distribution through PRX.
Get the details and a link to the online application hereThe deadline is Monday, February 5, 2007.
I spent a cold and rainy Martin Luther King day at a daylong Berkman Center meeting organized by the Sunlight Foundation and focused on use of the Internet “to improve citizens’ access to, and use or, important political information.” The 30 or so people attending are at the leading edge of developing tools and approaches to using tech and the web to empower citizen political engagement.
If you haven’t tuned into this field in a while or ever, it’s clearly experiencing some dynamic growth and Sunlight is a center of gravity. Great to see fellow Berkmanite Zephyr Teachout leading the charge over there.
I was going to attempt some comprehensive note-taking and blogging until I arrived to find power-posters Ethan Zuckerman and Dan Gillmor and David Weinberger in attendance, rendering my services superfluous.
So for a full rundown check out Ethan’s post on the panels and the demos and Dan and David pile on. John Palfrey weighs in with some reflections on the goals of the day.
You can also browse the tag BerkmanSunlight in Technorati or del.icio.us.
One of my favorites of the day was MetaVid. Basically started as a student art project this caught my eye over a year ago when poking around for CSpan footage, and I was thrilled to meet one of the co-creators and see that the project is alive and growing - though desperately in need of some additional support and funding (and maybe some Internet Archiving). Basically Metavid captures all video of congressional proceedings and creates a searchable, downloadable and annotated digital archive for free public domain access. They do this by grabbing CSpan footage and converting it, and by asserting the right to that content as public domain government property, which it indeed is.
Also make sure to check out FedSpending.org and MapLight. Public radio was well represented with PRX and Melinda Wittstock from Capitol News Connection.
We had the opportunity to do some forward promotion of the upcoming Beyond Broadcast: From Participatory Culture to Participatory Democracy, which is shaping up to be an excellent follow up to last year’s conference, this Sunlight gathering, and the 2007 Public Media Conference organized by the Integrated Media Association.
Here’s a taste of Ethan’s rundown on the demos:
- Ed Bender with the National Institute on Money in State Politics is working on putting information about contributions to state legislative races online. He tracks money gien to party committees and ballot measures - this is an enormous amount of data: 90,000 reports issued by 18,000 committees annually, totalling $2.4 billion dollars. The data has been heavily audited and peer reviewed, and includes coding of contributors into categories (labor unions, environmental groups, etc.) There are very impressive tools that allow people to create custom SQL searches or build widgets around APIs. But the most impressive part of the presentation is a set of scatter plots Ed shows, showing the relationship between money and election results in Arizona. Some years ago, you could see a very clear relationship between money and results, with the candidates who spent the most consistently winning races - after three rounds of electoral reform, the results from well and poorly funded candidates are very similar.
- Kerry Mitchell from Sunlight is pinch-hitting for Fedspending.org. It’s a project put together from OMBWatch which lets citizens investigate how federal money is spent, both in terms of federal contracts and grants. Useful data includes a table of top 100 contractors, with the ability to drill down and see whether these contracts are no-bid or transparent.
Here’s the rest of the post
The news is out that NPR is putting together new programming targeting younger listeners across multiple platforms. It’s been in the works for a while and is emerging at a time of some ferment in the system. PRI is also cooking up some new shows in the general vicinity, starting with Fair Game with Faith Salie, and then there’s WBEZ’s not-so-secret radio project and at some point we’ll hear more about the Milwaukee project (how’s that going guys?).
All worthy efforts and the right ideas, and it really comes down to creating compelling programs and solving the chicken/egg challenges of breaking out of the successful core formats on public radio today - all without spending so much money that it’s unsustainable after launch.
NPR Broadens Morning Programming, Woos 25-44 Set — Digital Music News
NPR Broadens Morning Programming, Woos 25-44 Set
Emerging radio technologies are now gaining steam, and that is allowing groups like National Public Radio (NPR) to expand its programming. Currently, NPR enjoys a die-hard listener base of 13 million for its drive-time program, Morning Edition, though the network is now tailoring additional coverage for the 25-44 bracket. “Morning Edition is a tremendous success and a daily priority for millions of Americans, but one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to news and information,” said Ken Stern, chief executive of the network. “The 25-to-44 age group is underserved by the media and seeking smart, thoughtful content relevant to their lives.” NPR will begin delivering its new concoction in March across a number of formats, including terrestrial, satellite, and online radio, as well as HD multicast stations.”
