The name of the game around this online space is community. Well, it’s some other things too, but mostly it’s about community. Creating them, building them, sharing them, participating in them…if it wasn’t for communities, it wouldn’t be much fun out here on the Interwebz, in my opinion.

Community these days seems to be a tricky thing for some. I feel that the concept of community is way over-analyzed in this online world. People are trying force communities into existence, then keep them afloat through tactics that are sometimes questionable.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not out to slam those whose job it is to build and manage communities. People like Scott Monty and Keith Burtis are excelling in this area right now. Why? Because they get it. They do it well because they understand how communities work, and how they need to work within them to make them succeed. What I’m saying is that communities can’t be forced.

Whether you want to create, join, lead or participate in a community, there are a few fundamental principles to abide by. I’ve been involved in communities all my life. Perhaps it comes somewhat naturally to me because I grew up in small, isolated towns. Perhaps it’s because of the influence of my parents, who were both active participants and leaders in the communities in which we lived. Perhaps it’s because of my experience working in community television – where it’s ALL about being part of a community. I suspect it’s a combination of these. Regardless, here are a few things I’ve learned about how to succeed with communities. I’d love to hear your tips in the comments too.

You can’t force it to be the way you want it to be. I know this is the third time I’ve said it, but communities cannot be forced. They can be facilitated, to be sure. Most communities begin with an idea. That idea gets spread around to a few people, and they tell two friends, and so on. Before you know it, you have lots of people communicating and collaborating and making things happen. The key is that communities are created by unique, individual people. Those unique voices are what creates the dynamic of the community. Different voices? Different dynamic. You can’t change that. The community evolves into what it will be. You can guide it along the path, but ultimately, you can’t (and shouldn’t) control everything about it.

To lead, you must listen. The brilliant thing about communities is the way the participants shape the community. Communities never work when they are top heavy. When the leaders are the ones dictating the way the community should run, what the community should talk about, and what the community should accomplish, then people lose interest really quickly. A community works when all of the participants have an equal opportunity to have their ideas and opinions heard. This takes listening, and listening closely.

Danny Brown does this exceptionally well. Since he started the 12for12k project, he’s been listening intently to the ideas that people have put forth to him. He’s accepting of people’s opinions and thoughts, and is happy to work with community members to help make their ideas come to fruition. He’s doing more listening than talking. And as a result, he’s doing more leading, and his community is succeeding in amazing ways.

Once a community evolves, it won’t need you as much. Every year at the community TV station, I’d get one or two more new studio shows put on my plate. New shows were a lot of work.  I was responsible for creating them from the ground up – building sets, designing the lighting, finding hosts, creating the elements (opening, titles, etc.), and figuring out the concept and content. I was also in charge of finding my volunteer crew and training them.

At first, I’d be doing everything. I’d be writing the show, coaching the hosts, training volunteers on how to set up the studio, light it and do all the technical production. When I wasn’t training someone to operate cameras or clip on microphones, I was editing all the pre-taped segments. The first show day was usually about an 18-20 hour affair. I would have to answer about 5000 questions a day and fight about the same number of fires. At the same time, I’d also have to make sure I was paying individual attention to my hosts and crew. I’d have to make sure they were feeling happy and challenged and engaged.

Building, designing, creating. Individual attention. Answering questions. Happy, challenged and engaged. Kind of like a community manager, eh?

Each week, we’d do another show. And each week, the community (i.e. the crew) would become a little more independent. Eventually it got to the point where I only had to roll in about an hour before the show went on, and roll out an hour after. My 18 hour days were now 3 or 4 hour days. The community had taken over. I was now just a guide, a facilitator – a listener. I would provide coaching when needed, and fight fires if they occurred (but my community even got good at that!). The show continued to improve, got more viewers, and most importantly, the community was strong and vibrant.

Don’t feel bad if your community doesn’t need you much after a while. It means you’ve done your job. And, hey, it frees you up to go build another community!

There you have it – my tips on building healthy, strong communities. But I want to hear from you. Many of you are experts at this, too. Please add your thoughts to the comments, I’d love to hear what you think.

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Over the past week or so I’ve been writing about my experiences in community television over the years and some of the striking similarities that social media has to the original days of community television. As a result of my articles, I have met Colin Rhinesmith, who is the Community Media Coordinator at Cambridge Community Television in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Colin was kind enough to post about my articles and we have struck up an interesting conversation about what his group is doing to involve their members not only in producing television for traditional broadcast but also for the Internet.

I have to say that the existence of these community channels in the U.S. has been a bit of a new discovery for me. I was aware of public access TV but thought that it was mostly about PBS and its affiliates. We live in a bit of a broadcasting bubble here in Canada, and though we get lots of American TV stations up here, we don’t get much more than specialty networks and network affiliate stations. We certainly don’t get to see the great content being produced at the community level.

For those of you who don’t know much about public access or community television in the U.S., here’s what I’ve learned thanks to Colin. It’s similar to the model we have in Canada, whereby the cable companies contribute a certain amount of their revenues towards equipment, staffing, licensing and day-to-day operations. What’s different is how it is implemented. Though some of these stations (some 3,000 across the U.S.) are simply run and staffed by the cable companies (like in Canada), and some of these stations are very independent from the cable companies, running as non-profit organizations that have members who pay fees (like CCTV). There are also government access centres run by municipalities, and educational access centres run by colleges and schools.

I find these independent stations like CCTV most interesting. To become a member, you pay a yearly fee and, you get to take inexpensive workshops (ranges from about $20 to $50 depending on the level and length) and then produce your own television programs. It’s simliar to a video co-op, except you get to put your stuff on the air! It’s true community access, and from what I’ve seen the programming is great.

CCTV is doing some remarkable things. First, their web site is created in Drupal and it’s terrific. In addition to all of the regular information about how to become a member, programming and workshop schedules, members can have their own blogs where they can post their thoughts and link to their shows online, and groups where like-minded members can share ideas, brainstorm or make announcements. These guys are really taking community TV to the next level. Members are encouraged to participate on many different levels and they do.

There has been some talk about the relevance of true community access television, with the advent of YouTube and other video services going online. If anyone can now make a video and post it for the world to see, why do community TV stations even need to exist any longer? The reason is simple. It’s about community. It’s about people physically coming together and producing valuable content, and the relationships that are formed when people are in this kind of environment. You can’t get that by hitting “Submit” on your YouTube page.

I think the Internet is going to be an extremely valuable outlet for those community television stations who choose to embrace its potential. By taking the power of community and sending it out to the world, everyone stands to benefit. Now, we not only have the power of being able to bring the community to the world…we have the possibility of linking these communities to make something even greater.

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In my last post on this topic, I talked about how I ended up with my first media job, working as a producer in community television. In this post I will conclude with how online media and social networking have become the new public access media.

Community television in 1990 was a very different beast than it is today. Back then, it was all about public access. Anyone in the community who had an idea for a show could pitch it to the station. If the station agreed to air it, then that community person, with no television experience whatsoever, got to produce it. As staff producers, we were there to show them the ropes, guide them through the process and help them to get a decent show on the air. We produced a lot of shows every week. At one time I was in charge of 7 shows at the same time – albeit they were not all weekly shows, but covered a vast array of subject matter – music, arts, culture, and call in shows.

What strikes me is that this type of content production environment is not unlike what many people are doing online these days. If I wanted to, I could use these different online tools to create “shows”, and present my different stories in different ways. On Flickr, I could post the story of what I did on my last vacation. On YouTube, a story about a short film I’ve made (ok the example provided is my brother’s YouTube page, but you get the idea). I could create a page Facebook, to share my family’s story. On my WordPress blog, I can tell my professional life story. And through my Squidoo lens, I’m telling a story about my family of pets. In a sense, I am back to producing many shows again. I’m telling stories to an engaged audience and they are joining me in the conversation.

Community television, in the old days, was not about creating the next “Lost” or “Anderson Cooper 360“. Most of the time it was just about getting something on the air that was interesting to the audience. They used to call community TV “two people and a rubber plant” television, because we didn’t have a lot of money for fancy sets (but an abundance of fake plants!). We did have interesting people who had something to say. Kind of like a video blog, except with three cameras, more lighting and a crew of volunteers working behind the scenes.

We had proof that this format worked, because people would call us and tell us what they liked or didn’t like about the show. I recall a show we did at Skyline Cable, called “Around the House”. Ren Molnar, Ottawa’s preeminent home renovation expert, would sit in a chair for an hour and take calls from weary homeowners whose furnace was on the fritz or whose roof was leaking, and tell them how to fix it up. The show was so popular, we had to have a volunteer start manning the phones an hour before show time. People were continuously disappointed when they couldn’t get on the air.

Another show that I produced, called “Soundtrack”, was like MySpace on TV. Each week we would profile what was going on in the local music scene. It was hosted by Janet Eastman, at the time a local radio personality, and Roch Parisien, Ottawa’s premiere musicologist (at the time the guy had over 12,000 albums in his record collection). We would bring local bands into the studio to talk, play and promote their upcoming shows. We’d go out to local music venues like Barrymore’s and Zaphod Beeblebrox and interview whoever was in town. Some of the people I got to meet and interview include Barenaked Ladies, Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos, The Sweet, and my personal favourite, Davy Jones from the Monkees. Not to mention, Tom Green and his first rap band Organized Rhyme were pretty much a staple on the show. How’s that for my first job out of college? Anyway, the show was immensely popular and Roch and Janet couldn’t walk down the street without being recognized. Not bad for a show that, again, was produced almost entirely by volunteers (and the wonderful, fabulous local musicians, record company reps and bar owners in town).

My point is, what we were doing back then, long before the Internet became popular, is what social media is doing now. We were making good content that spoke to a specific audience and involving people from the community in the conversation.

These days, community television has moved in a different direction from the “two people and a rubber plant”days. The abundance of television specialty networks has forced the cable companies (who run community TV stations) to abandon the old thinking about public access and move towards competing with the local television market. In my opinion, it may have not been the best decision. Sure, they still work with volunteer crews and on-air talent. But the story has changed.

Community TV in 2008 is people telling other people’s stories, not their own stories. They are just like the other TV media. And to me, that’s not nearly as interesting. I guess that’s why I’ve made the shift to online media, because people’s own stories continue to unfold here. The Internet has created a new form of public access through social networking and online media. The community has found a new place to live.

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In my last post, I talked about how I first got involved in community television. When I was 15, we moved away from Masset. My experience with Masset-Haida TV had inspired me. At that young age I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I graduated high school in June of 1988 and that September I was off to college, enrolled in the Television Broadcasting program. At just 17, I couldn’t wait to get started living my dream of being a television producer.

At the time I imagined myself working my way up the ranks at a local TV station, then moving on to network television. I had a particular fondness for news at that time, so I had visions of producing or directing network newscasts, or working for CNN.

In 1990 I graduated from the TV Broadcasting program, and my parents and I moved to Ottawa. I was certain that I could get a job at one of the TV stations in town! I knew everything about TV production, of course, and was ready to make my mark. Of course I very quickly came to the stark realization that TV is a hard business to break into. They didn’t really hire people just out of school. I had to figure out how to get some experience.

Then one day I was on my way to the bank or something, and driving down St. Laurent Boulevard, I spotted a sign. “Skyline Cablevision”. I recalled seeing some sort of TV programming affiliated with Skyline Cablevision one night a couple of weeks earlier. Then it clicked. They have a TV station in there! I sucked up all my courage (I was a very shy girl back then) and turned into the parking lot. I walked in the front door and at that moment my life changed. The nice lady at the front desk (who later became a dear friend) was kind enough to take me on a tour of the station. She told me that the place ran mostly with volunteers, who did everything from camera to sound to lighting, directing and producing (did she say “producing”???).

Needless to say I was fired up. I signed up as a volunteer and man, I was there every day. I did camera, editing, audio, directing, and gained a ton of experience. The programs were in some ways similar to the shows we did back at MHTV. They were community-focused, and targeted to niche audiences. There was a community news program called “City 22″, an arts program called “The Scene”, and a program that would eventually have a significant impact on my life called “Soundtrack”, about the local music scene. There were multicultural programs for the Greek, Japanese, Polish, Italian, and Dutch communities. There were call in programs about politics, movies, home improvement and more. Viewers were encouraged to participate in the conversation by calling in, or leaving a message on the viewer response line. It was a true social network. People from the community, all volunteers, produced the programs from the ground up. They wrote the content, booked the guests and got the show on the air with the help of volunteer crews. It was an amazing place.

A few months after I started volunteering, a job opportunity presented itself. At barely 20 years old, I was hired by Skyline Cablevision to be a Staff Producer, one of 5 paid producers who were hired to manage the productions and the volunteer crews. I had 7 different shows to produce. I was the youngest person on staff, I was in charge of building a community of people, developing their skills to produce good quality programming delivered to targeted audiences, and engaging people in an interactive way (something that mainstream TV networks did not do very well back then). It was social media delivered via television!

In my next post I will be talking further about how community television changed over the 7 years I spent in it.

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Chris Brogan wrote an interesting post the other day that has really got me thinking. His thought about how to make it in this burgeoning world of online media:

” …it’s people who are figuring out the triangle, delivering something of quality, and are connecting targeted content to interested audiences.”

Hmmm. Sounds to me like Community Television to me. Over the next few blog posts I shall endeavour to explain.

Community Television. Public Access TV. Cable Access Programming. I’ve been involved in community television since I was about 10 years old. More than 27 years.

It started in the small town in which I grew up called Masset, on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). My Dad, along with some other townspeople, helped start a small (VERY small) community television station using some old leftover TV equipment. They hooked up a couple of cameras, an A/B switch, stuck a microphone on a table and went on the air. Kids from the community (me and my brother included) read community announcements. This community-based TV station was called Masset-Haida Television (MHTV) and it still exists today, last I heard, on Channel 13. Go to www.mhtv.ca. . See the blue station logo? That is the very logo my Dad designed back in 1979!

Our little TV channel covered everything that was happening around town. On Canada Day, my mom played roving reporter, my dad played cameraman and I helped carry equipment as we roamed around town catching all the festivities. When the Annual Miss Masset pageant took place, we were there, carrying it live for all the town residents to see. And every year at the end of November, we held a telethon, where this small town of just 1800 people would go on the air for 21 hours and raise over $25,000 each year for the Timmy’s Christmas Telethon. $25,000 was a lot of money in 1980.

My family was there for the very first telethon, held I think around 1980 or 81. My Mom worked in the accounting office. My Dad was the Director for the TV show. I was the number board girl, hanging white cardboard numbers on nails stuck in a piece of painted plywood. My brother was one of the on-air hosts. There was entertainment, and lots of it. Magicians, high school bands, clowns, comedians, we had it all. And every year the Haida dancers would come, at least 50 Haida men, women and children, and fill the community hall with their beautiful button blankets and incredible sounds and rhythms. Anyone who knows anything about Haida Gwaii knows that was something pretty special.

There were three phone operators taking donations, usually prominent people from the community, like the Mayor, the Fire Chief, and the RCMP constable. The old rotary phones they used would “rrrrrring” in the middle of the performances, but nobody cared. It meant people were tuning in, and it meant they were giving.

It was the ultimate in small town TV. It was no Jerry Lewis Telethon, but it was technically pretty darn good. But the most important thing? The whole town tuned in. And the whole town gave. It was interesting content delivered to a targeted audience (all those parents, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends of all those performers!)

Back in 1980, we had the triangle figured out. My family has long since moved on, but the people of Masset are still doing that telethon every year. 27 years and going strong, and hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for a great cause. I think Jerry Lewis would be impressed.

In part II of Online Media: Community TV Comes Full Circle, I’ll talk about my 7 years working for a community cable station and how the evolution of online media continues to bring me back to those roots.

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