Media Center Launches Video Aggregation Library!

You'll notice a new feature on the Front Page of our website -- a "widget" featuring three community videos.  Not every video is necessarily Media Center produced.  But each one is a portal to a brave new world.  If you click on one of these videos to watch, you will be carried to our new video library site.  Hosted by our friends at  "Miro",  we are able to aggregate video content from all over the Peninsula and bring it to you.   If you want meaningful placed-based content, look no further.   You can browse the site and even search for topics and keywords that you are interested in.  And you can even submit a video to us to add.

This is a curated site so we are specifically avoiding commercial content like house tours that are made by realtors and promotional videos for local businesses.  Turns out there is a heck of a lot of video content out there right here on the Peninsula and not all of it is "great".  We're straining out the dross as best we can, but then we don't want to be too severe -- because what's dross to one might be nectar to another.  So help us out.  Tell us what you like and what you don't.  Next time you settle in for an evening of good video watching,  consider watching our Miro channel.  Please post comments and flag content you think should not have slipped passed us.  And suggest ways to improve our presentation as well.

We must first off thank people like Anna Jonas at the Participatory Culture Foundation.  They make "open tools for shared culture."  Anna supported us through the development of the site.  Miro's video aggregation tools are provided to non-profits for free.  We also thank Stan Ng for implementing the Miro widget onto our website and to Haelin Cho, one of our high school interns who is curating the site for us.

It looks simple and it is; however, it takes a lot of people to make the Media Center world turn on its axis.  We're delighted we can collect and curate our locally produced videos.   We hope you enjoy the new video library and we look forward to your feedback.

Buster Calms Frazzled Nerves

The upcoming edition of "In the Sisterhood" features a guest who did not say a word and actually fell asleep during the taping. "Buster," manages to entertain viewers even while snoring away. He is a very laid back, canine pug who works by day at the Palo Alto dental practice of Lori Doran. Dr. Doran is also a guest on the show. She describes how Buster calms down all of her nervous patients, such as those who have viewed "Marathon Man" where Dustin Hoffman gets an unforgettable drilling.

Buster goes to work by climbing in their laps and whispering some sweet nothings. Dr. Doran is a big fan of Ellen de Generes and is hoping that Generes, a dog-lover, will catch wind of this episode and book the Dental Duo for her TV show.

"The Bay Area Loves Buster" premieres on Channel 30, Sunday, August 28 at 1:00 PM. You can find numerous replays listed (as of 8/28) here. Next up for "In the Sisterhood" producer Beth Wilson, is author Dawn Armstrong, who wrote a story of hope that is going viral among military service men and women.

Media Center Wins Highest Award!

The Media Center has been given the highest honor for its programming and operations by the Alliance for Community Media (ACM). The "Overall Excellence in Combined Public, Education and Government Access" award was announced at the ACM annual conference last week in Tucson, AZ. The ACM is the advocacy organization for 3,000 community media and public access facilities nationwide.

When we looked back at the work of community producers and our staff over the past year, we knew we had something special. We hadn't entered this overall category since we last won it, eleven years ago.

Some of the highlights from the past year include the inspiring Greenlight Environmental Video Festival, coverage of special events such as the state championship seasons for Paly's football and girls' volleyball teams, the Dalai Lama's visit to East Palo Alto, the Senior Games 2010, and World Music Day in Palo Alto.

There was a burgeoning of citizen jouurnalism pieces coming out of the newly launched field production collaborative - Zoom In. The studio continued to come alive every evening with diverse cultural performances such as classical Indian music and Mexican folklorico dancers, as well as two Blues series. Local issues were highlighted on program series like "Other Voices," produced by the Peace and Justice Center and "Talking With Henrietta," and "Make the Call" from the East Palo Alto Police Dept.

The Media Center also touted its grant funded projects such as "Girls' TV - a part of our after school activities at the San Francisco 49ers Academy, and our violence prevention project with East of Bayshore youth who profiled former gang members who transformed their lives. We had also begun our video and blogging project with the Day Worker Center of Mountain View.

The Media Center strives to be a place where every group in the community can get the training and equipment to lift their voices high. Our channels seek to reflect the fabric of our diverse community, its thorny issues, vibrant arts, and achievements. Every single person who worked on a TV show at the Media Center shares in this recognition and the making of a meaningful community resource.

This is the third time in the Midpeninsula Community Media Center's 21-year history that it has received the national award. Additionally, the Media Center has won the regional award for Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) in 1994, 1997 and 2000. A reel of our sample programming may be viewed here.

On hand to collect the award in Tucson were Executive Director Annie Folger, Past Executive Director and Producer Elliot Margolies and Programming Manager and Producer Rebecca Sanders.

Also honored at the awards ceremony was Media Center producer, Henrietta Burroughs, for an episode of her talk show "Talking with Henrietta." The episode: "Strengthening the Bonds Between Fathers and Children" won for Best Informational Talk Show by an access producer.