Two Cool Events with Open Media Boston - March 22nd and March 31st

Open Media Boston is working on a couple of fun events that we thought we should encourage everyone to attend … and hold off a bit on talking about issues that are much on our minds. Like skyrocketing food prices. Or the ongoing imposition of austerity at every level of government. Or that business with Charlie Sheen. [OK, maybe not that last one.] First, on March 22nd, you can check out a panel we helped put together to build local turnout for the National Conference for Media Reform - only about five weeks away now. It's part of a Media Reform/Community Tech Day that will involve an event for community technology center folks, too. Second, on March 31st, we've put together a nifty panel that we're co-sponsoring with Lesley University on Digital Media and Popular Uprisings. If you're curious how much of a role social media and digital communications played in the ongoing wave of democracy movements in Tunisia, Egypt and beyond (like Wisconsin, for example), then you should definitely be there. Ethan Zuckerman, Jillian York and Suren Moodliar will be speaking; so we can pretty much guarantee a lively and informative discussion. Read on for all the details. Both events are free; so come on down!

1) Media Reform/Community Tech Day

March 22, 2011
3:30 - 9 p.m.
Charles Hotel
Harvard Square
1 Bennett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Join us for a day of Media Reform and Community Technology organizing events:

3:30 - 5 p.m.
Community Technology Centers (CTCs) and their Brethren
a gathering for supporters of CTCs, Public Computer Centers (PCCs), and Community Media Centers (CMCs) with Mel King and Marlene Archer

5 - 6:45 p.m.
Dinner: Robbie Samuels on "The Art of the Schmooze"

7 - 9 p.m.
The 2011 National Conference for Media Reform and Opportunities for Local Media Reform Organizing
featuring Nolan Bowie, Senior Fellow of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, introduced by Deborah Elizabeth Finn — and a panel of NCMR local host organizations, including

Nicole Belanger, Cambridge Community Television
Jaclyn Friedman, Women, Action and the Media
Jason Pramas, Open Media Boston
Andrew Whitacre, the Center for the Future of Civic Media at MIT

The event is free and open to the public.

Program sponsored by the Tech Foundation

Register at
http://groupspaces.com/BostonMediaReform/item/124902

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2) Digital Media and Popular Uprisings

March 31, 2011
6 - 8 p.m.
Lesley University
University Hall Amphitheater
1815 Mass. Ave.
2nd Flr.
Cambridge, MA 02140

Google Map: http://bit.ly/edM4fz

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114684305275326

The importance of digital media in building the recent wave of popular uprisings in the Middle East has been widely heralded in the global press. But how are social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and digital communication devices like texters, cell phones and PDAs really being used on the ground to help organize millions of people towards a common goal - democracy. And is it true that these movements for democracy in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and beyond are completely spontaneous and being organized on the fly with the help of modern technology? Or is there more to the story?

Lesley University and Open Media Boston have invited three experts on digital media and grassroots organizing to speak to these and related issues. Each brings a unique perspective to the discussion.

Ethan Zuckerman is co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices and senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Jillian York is a writer and freedom of expression activist who studies Internet controls and online activism, with a focus on the Arab world. She is a project coordinator at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Suren Moodliar is a coordinator of Massachusetts Global Action and an organizer of the Majority Agenda Project. He is deeply interested in networks and social change.

The panel will be chaired by Jason Pramas, Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston,www.openmediaboston.org, and introduced by a representative of Lesley University.

Doors will open at 5:45 p.m. There will be light refreshments served in the Atrium just outside the Amphitheater. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, or press inquiries, please email info@openmediaboston.org.

Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston