Open Media Boston Co-Sponsors National Writers Union Digital Media Conference

Open Media Boston is pleased to invite our viewers to attend a conference that we're co-sponsoring with the National Writers Union called "Shall We Write for Free or Shall We Write for Pay? Writers Face the Digital Age." The event will take place Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17 at the Egan Research Center at Northeastern University. Other co-sponsors include the John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute at Northeastern, Grub Street Writers, PEN New England and the Women's National Book Association.


Folks can register at the conference website, http://www.digitalmediaconference.org. Click here to read more.

The title alone should make it fairly clear why I'm organizing the event under the aegis of this publication and America's labor union for freelance writers - which I served as a staffer for six years in the 1990s and rejoined last year upon my return to journalism.

In fact, my rationale for encouraging the NWU to stage the event is closely related to why I decided to found Open Media Boston – that is, I find it unacceptable that the expansion of the brave new digital media carries with it the expectation that creators of all kinds are just supposed to give our work away for free. And hand over all rights to our work to the private sector (or other powerful institutions) in perpetuity. At the same time I want to encourage rapprochement between forces that believe – as I do – that digital media encourages the spread of a more democratic global culture based on the rapid and transparent sharing of information of all kinds and creators who truly need to get paid cash money on a regular basis to continue producing much of the best and most useful of said information.

That's one big reason why I've been working hard with a growing group of co-workers to get OMB off the ground. If we can monetize this puppy, everyone is going to get paid decently for their work. Staff, freelancers, interns ... everybody. Whether they file three pieces of content a week or are first-timers submitting work out of the blue. Regular OMB viewers will also note that our contributors already keep full rights to their work and get to choose from an array of 12 rights licenses from copyright to Creative Commons to the Gnu Free Documentation License - which is a way of demonstrating our commitment to ensuring that workers rights is inexorably linked to digital media production anywhere that we hold sway. Even though we're still poor (like most of the American news media these days). And even though such a stance makes us feel like we're salmon swimming upstream some days.

That said, I’m not interested in turning back the clock and sacrificing an increasingly participatory digital media at the altar of professionalism - any more than I’m interested in letting undemocratic multi-national corporations continue to dominate global media production as they have done for the last several decades. I want to see serious discussion of how hundreds of thousands of professional and semi-professional writers, photographers, film makers, videographers and graphic artists can have some reasonable expectation of being able to survive and thrive on the fruits of their labor. And retain full control of rights to their work. I also want to see a real push for a vast expansion of public funding for media production and media arts – which is barely on the policy radar yet at a time when billions are being dumped on giant financial services corporations that manufactured the ongoing economic crisis, while little is being given to help working people make ends meet in hard times that we by-and-large did not bring down on ourselves. Yet such reforms should absolutely be on the policy agenda at all levels of the political system.

I don't think that it would be healthy for our society to simply agree that the creative professions are suddenly no longer worthy of support. And that journalists and producers and artists are going to end up being reduced to something like the lot of medieval court jesters - seen but not taken seriously. Or paid. But I’ll save my main remarks for the conference. Read on to check out the basic conference information.

Hope to see OMB viewers there!

Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston and Steering Committee Member of the National Writers Union/United Auto Workers Local 1981 - Boston Chapter. He is lead organizer of the Digital Media Conference.

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National Writers Union Conference: "Shall We Write for Free or Shall We Write for Pay? Writers Face the Digital Age."

Register at http://www.digitalmediaconference.org

Friday, October 16, 7 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. (registration starts at 6 p.m.) and all-day Saturday, October 17, 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. at the Egan Center (Northeastern University campus) 120 Forysth St., Boston, two blocks from Museum of Fine Arts and the MBTA. Parking in the Renaissance Garage.http://www.northeastern.edu/campusmap/

Cost (covers Friday night, all-day Saturday, catered lunch): $50 with $10 discount for members of the National Writers Union and co-sponsoring organizations (PEN New England, Grub Street, Open Media Boston, Organizers' Collaborative, John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute at Northeastern University, Women's National Book Association). $30 for students/low income. For more info, contact Jason Pramas at jason@openmediaboston.org or 617-506-9515. Ticket admits you to "Grassroots Use of Technology Conference" being held in tandem with the Digital Media Conference -http://www.grassrootstech.org for more info.

Friday Evening Panel

* "How Can Creators Make a Living When We Are Expected to Give Away Our Work for Free?"* with Dan Kennedy (moderator) of Northeastern Univ. Journalism Dept., Zach Seward of Nieman Journalism Lab, Topper Carew, noted TV Producer and Writers Guild member, Lisa Williams of Placeblogger.com, Jason Pramas of the National Writers Union and Open Media Boston, plus welcome statements by Richard O'Bryant of the John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute and Jeanne Harnois of the National Writers Union

Saturday Workshops & Special Events:

*Creators on Creative Rights:* This roundtable will feature creators from various industries sharing their experiences with keeping control of rights to their work in a time when many employers expect people to sell all rights to their works in all media for low one-time payments./ Led by Roberto Mighty (new media producer and director of prime time programs and documentaries), David Goodman (Open Media Boston and I.B.I.S. Radio)/

*Mastering Social Media and the Internet: Tweeting, Blogging, and Friending Your Way to Online Marketing Success.* This workshop will give you a jargon-free introduction to one of social media's most important functions - helping you to market your work to the growing online audience using Facebook, Twitter and other social media services. /Led by Rob Watson, Massachusetts Cultural Council Social Media Communication Coordinator, and Jeanne Harnois of the National Writers Union)/

*Introduction to Virtual Worlds:* You've probably heard about virtual worlds like Second Life - online systems which allow millions of people to create online versions of themselves (called "avatars") and pursue all kinds of creative and mundane activities in a completely human-created environment with global reach. But did you know that writers are making money in virtual worlds? This workshop will provide a general introduction to Second Life via live demonstration of the system - followed by an online presentation on writing in virtual worlds. /Led by Persia Bravin," the avatar of a noted UK-based journalist for major media outlets, and Gary Zabel, UMass Boston Philosophy Dept. and Second Life Innovator./

*Is There a Future for Journalism as a Career?* Experienced journalists and those just entering the field - or considering going to school to learn to do so, see layoffs and newspaper/magazine closings and ask: are paid journalists opportunities out there, or should they switch to a field where there are jobs? /Led by Steve Simurda of the UMass Amherst Journalism Department./

*New Ways to Get Paid for Your Work: Micropayments, Microfinance and Crowdfunding.* Can you make enough money from $5 or $10 payments from your website's audience to actually make a living? Does getting sponsors to pay for your freelance work make good financial sense? This workshop will talk about the ups-and-downs of trying to fund your work through online micropayments, ads and donations. /Led by Jesse Kirdahy-Scalia (Open Media Boston)/

*Who Owns Your Work: an Intellectual Property Rights Primer.* Here's your chance to learn not only the basics of copyright but how to spot new clauses that are popping up in contracts that can diminish your control of the use of your writing and other creative works. /Led by Barbara Mende of the NWU Grievance and Contract Division./

*Saturday lunch talk: The Road Less Traveled: Public Funding for Content Creation.* This talk by noted documentary film maker and community media expert Fred Johnson will address the possibility of a new WPA-style program for creators in the context of current debates about "Public Media 2.0" that are swirling in American academic and government circles.

*Open Forum: Speakout and Brainstorm * on how we make common cause to enhance our collective ability to improve our working conditions?/ Led by Larry Goldbetter, President of the National Writers Union./