May 1, 2007Newsletter

The Center continues to move ahead at full speed as the spring season comes to a close. We are thrilled at the recent coverage surrounding our newest report, The Good, the Bad, and the Confusing, which was released at a recent convening, held in conjunction with the Washington College of Law, on user-generated content. The Center has also launched a new video, Remix Culture on repurposing existing content and a helpful FAQ on Public Media. Read below for the latest news in public media and fair use, and be sure to check back with us for information on SILVERDOCS.

Mobilized! - an event that focuses on mobile communications media practices and technologies and the ways they are rapidly changing public space and social interaction.
Saturday, May 5 - 7PM · EYEBEAM - 540 W.21st St. Bet. 10th & 11th Ave., NYC
Sunday, May 6 - 10AM - 8PM · POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY - Six Metrotech Center, Brooklyn
For more information contact:
CSM Video Fellow Marty Lucas · Dept. of Film and Media Studies, Hunter College CUNY
email: mlucas@igc.org

Copyright Utopia: Alternative Visions, Methods & Policies
May 21-23, 2007 Adelphi, Maryland http://www.umuc.edu/cip/symposium/
Early Registration ends May 4th!

Pat Aufderheide will be joining the discussion at the Center for Intellectual Property on how students, faculty and the general public can continue to innovate and disseminate new content within the U.S. Copyright regime. This event is your opportunity to engage peers and experts such as: William Fisher, Berkman Center to Internet & Society, Harvard Law School, and many others!

Ask about the webcast of the event! For details or to register please call 240-582-2803 or see http://www.umuc.edu/cip/symposium/.

SILVERDOCS 2007
The Center will again be participating in the Silverdocs festival on June 12-17, through the Silverdocs conference, "The Future of Reel." CSM also is one of the hosts of the sensational new moveable mini-fest DocAgora, which Silverdocs will also showcase. Be sure to check our website for upcoming events at SILVERDOCS!

Digital Media and Documentary at DocAgora
by Center New Media Fellow Neil Seiling
I had the pleasure of participating in my first DocAgora session at the recently concluded HotDocs festival in Toronto. Using their words, DocAgora is "a non-profit organization working internationally with documentary festivals to open up a conversation on new forms, new platforms and new ways of financing creative, authored and socially-engaged documentary content." Read more>>

Our Very Own Participatory Media at MiT5
It was a real joy in the last weekend of April to be part of Media in Transition 5, the party that the cultural studies folks at MIT throw for their friends.(Sample the guest list and other goodies at http://web.mit.edu/comm- forum/mit5/. ) In the best spirit of Henry Jenkins' Convergence Culture (the title of his latest book), the event was participatory and multimedia. Read more>>

New FAQ Explains Public Media
Communicating about shared issues-whether it's traffic congestion in the neighborhood, lower wages for women, or the concerns of the families of soldiers not receiving adequate body armor-builds a group's awareness of itself as a public. In this context, public media are media that aim to increase public knowledge and cohere and mobilize audience members. Want to learn more? Read our new Frequently Asked Questions document, by Director Pat Aufderheide and Research Fellow Jessica Clark.

Center Releases New Case Studies on Nonprofits and Media
The Center for Social Media has produced two new reports on the latest techniques that are helping to make documentary a powerful communications tool for social change. Preview them online today!
-Big Dreams, Small Screens: Online Video for Public Knowledge and Action
Learn from CSM research fellow Jessica Clark how popular commercial online digital video platforms, such as YouTube, GoogleVideo and MySpace, are being used to create, exchange, and comment upon information for public knowledge and action-and what their limitations are!
-Documentaries on a Mission: How Nonprofits Are Making Movies for Public Engagement
Read about how the Sierra Club, The American Civil Liberties Union and local environmental groups use documentaries for high- impact and action. This report by veteran journalist Karen Hirsch also includes an introduction by AU School of Communication Prof. Matthew Nisbet, an expert on new media.

Unauthorized: The Copyright Conundrum in Participatory Video
Suppose you're running an online video platform, and people start uploading video that uses other people's work. How should unauthorized use of other people's work be treated in this new environment?

Last month, the Center for Social Media and American University's law school brought together executives from online video platforms in both commercial and noncommercial media with lawyers and scholars, to discuss how to manage unauthorized use. The group found alarming recent moves to create automated "bot" services to hunt down and eliminate copyrighted material; after all, many unauthorized uses are entirely legal and fair. Stamping out all uses of copyrighted material is also stamping out new creativity. The group endorsed more education of users around fair use and their ability to challenge takedowns, and recommended developing best-practices standards for online services that act as gatekeepers for the Youtube generation of media makers.

The group's conclusions are now available here.

Remix Culture: The Good, the Bad and the Confusing
Worry, worry, worry. That's what happens, it seems, when college students upload video to online platforms. They care about copyright, and would like to own their own work and respect that of others. They just don't understand their own First Amendment rights or know how to comply with copyright law.

That's what the Center's new study, The Good, the Bad, and the Confusing, shows. And in this case, confusion directly affects creativity, because people sometimes make creative decisions based on misinformation. Read it and let us know-does this strike a chord?

The report has generated considerable attention in the media, with coverage of the report in Variety, the Associated Press, and media and copyright blogs.

Remix Culture: The Movie
Do you wonder what's really fair when you're making a mashup or a remix? So does everybody else. The rules are still being written for remix culture, and you could help write them. Take a look at the Center's new video, made by our own Dan Jones, at http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/videos/remix_cult ure/. It's a great compilation of some of the Youtube "classics" from the last couple of years. Which of these uses of other people's work do you think is fair? We think the principles in the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use are an interesting place to start thinking.

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc (IRE) - Joining Investigative Reporters and Editors!
IRE is a grassroots, non-profit organization and a top promoter of journalism education. IRE strives to promote new techniques and tools for students and professional journalists to become better reporters through seminars, workshops, boot camps, and newsroom training. IRE teaches the skills that employers are looking for, and IRE has a network of journalists who can help you get that job.

For more information, please visit IRE's Web site at www.IRE.org/ membership. Take advantage of this opportunity and get a head start on your future!

The ACLU Stand Up For Freedom Contest!
Submit your podcast or PSA!
For more information, visit the website. Deadline: July 4, 2007!