This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Now that the City of Longmont has lifted its confidentiality terms on us (which happened on Thursday, September 26), we can announce some exciting news.
The Longmont Observer was awarded a contract to provide Public Access TV for the City of Longmont, replacing the 37-year-old Cable Trust. This will happen starting January 1st, 2020.
Our view of Public Access Media is, we believe, a little different than what's been happening with Public Access TV for the last few decades.
We plan to create a media makerspace, like Longmont's TinkerMill Makerspace. However the media makerspace will focus on media. It will be a place where the Longmont community goes to learn, teach, create and distribute all forms of media. We will encourage and assist patrons to distribute that media on as many different platforms as possible; last century analog systems like Cable TV, possibly FM radio, a vast current array of media consumption methods and devices, as well as everything in-between.
We see this new approach to Public Access Media providing the community with audio and video tools, cameras, software, studios, classes, and expertise to create a community of like-minded media enthusiasts. This community will range from amateurs learning how to edit video, to podcasters, to experts who've spent their lives in Hollywood. Longmont is a rich community of creatives and we plan to give them a place to meet, collaborate, learn and create.
We see this as a true 'owned by the community and open to the community' enterprise that, like today's TinkerMill, will eventually be largely self-funded by membership dues, sponsorships, donations, grants, and fees for space rental, classes, and other services.
We will be creating a separate entity from the Longmont Observer to develop this new media makerspace with a new name to be announced before the January 1st start date.
We plan on announcing public meetings in the near future to collect feedback from the community on what it would like to see us develop, what classes we should provide, and what types of programming should be available.
If you're interested in being involved, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected].
Sergio Angeles Co-founder and CTO
Scott Converse-Co-founder and publisher
Macie May - Editor-in-Chief
