Public Access, Denver Open Media Style

From: Tony Shawcross
Deproduction/Denver Open Media
700 Kalamath
Denver, CO 80204
720-222-0160 x200
http://deproduction.org

(from correspondence)

...as I mentioned about the suggestions I'd give to access stations,
there are two primary ones.

1. stop all production services that are not directly generating a
significant profit. Public Access stations don't exist to produce
content, but to allow the public to do so, and any resources directed
at internal production work are reducing resources available to
support the community productions Public Access stations exist to
provide. Public Access stations should view themselves like
Wikipedia, where the staff is expressly discouraged from participating
in "content creation" and is entirely focused on facilitating public
creation of content.

2. review all staff activities, identify those which the community
could conceivably take-on. Develop systems and incentives for the
public to take over as many responsibilities for running the station
as possible. There are web-based tools available to enable any Access
station to hand over every task to their community, which results in
stronger community involvement and support.
Scheduling, programming, marketing, equipment reservations, class
registrations, documentation, fundraising, underwriting... these are
all tasks that could be handed over to the public.