Tour of Community Television of Santa Cruz

Lisa Mastramico was kind enough to give me a personal tour of Community Television of Santa Cruz last night. It was my first time inside an actual TV studio. I'd like to go back with my camera and videoblog it. After the tour we went to Cafe Pergolesi and I tried to explain blogging and videoblogging to her. It seems like Lisa pretty much dedicates her life to community television, alternative media, and political activism. I had a great time talking with her.

She asked how (video)blogging is different than Indymedia and I'm embarrased by how poor of a job I did at answering the question. Another person that I met at the station expressed concern that the Internet and videoblogging could be used as an excuse to cut funding for Community TV, as that rationale had been used in (I think he said) Los Angeles. I've got to ask Jay Dedman to come and talk to them during his California visit for BloggerCon. (Lisa said she'd like to meet Jay.)

I need to point Lisa at Dan Gillmor's We The Mediabook and blog, at Creative Commons, and at the DigitalBicycle project. Another thing I need to do to evangelize blogs is learn how to use Bloglines or similar tools to send people starter subscription lists. I thought Community TV people would get videoblogging right away, but they've got a sophisticated infrastructure that works for them, and, I tend to forget, that just 10 months ago, I thought blogs were a bunch of hype.