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On March 17 and 18, a conference on the intersection of media, technology, and community access brought nearly 200 individuals to UMass Boston. Participants in the Access 2000 conference came from public television access groups, community and labor organizations, municipalities with an interest in cable television licensing matters, and the high-tech community, where new digital production technologies are quickly overtaking analog technology to open new possibilities for those interested in using media technologies.
The conference offered five tracks from which participants could choose to attend presentations and workshops. For example, Track I, "Crossing the Digital Divide: The Community Interest in Telecommunications Policy," offered a workshop focused on telecommunications policy, including issues before the Federal Communications Commission, Congress, and the courts. Charles Nesson, director of the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at Harvard University, Bunnie Riedel, executive director of the Alliance for Community Media in Washington DC, and Peter Epstein, chair of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, presented and led the discussions.
Other tracks of the conference focused on community media technology strategies for non-profit organizations; community arts and media in afterschool programs for youth; PEG access and community centers managing the migration from analog to digital production technology; and collaborations among visual, video, media, and cyber-arts organizations.
The conference was co-sponsored by the College of Public and Community Service, along with the Alliance for Community Media, Community Technology Centers Network, the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, the Visionaries Institute, and Video Educators of New England.
It was particularly fitting that CPCS should co-sponsor this event, because the College is proposing to develop a new degree program in media and communications, according to Associate Dean Reebee Garofalo. This would provide students with the option of studying in a field that is currently among the most popular in the country on college campuses. "More and more, labor and community organizations are interested in using mass media technologies to get their stories told," says Garofalo, who adds that the College-wide process of curriculum revision showed showed increasing interest in this field among CPCS students.
According to Garofalo, both sponsoring the conference and proposing the new program fit well with the University's mission. "There is the question of access....The conference supports community media and technology centers which offer great resources to individuals who otherwise might not have access to such facilities. And as an urban university, we have a responsibility to make sure that low-income and poor people don't get stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide."