WG/Media/Minutes/11022019

Occupy Boston Media Working Group Meeting
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - 7pm-9:30pm - Encuentro 5
'Present: Deborah (facilitating), Dan (notetaker), Michael (1st media mtg), Deborah (1st media mtg), John, Matthew, Jess, Josh, Linda, Katie, Bil, Joshua, David (1st media mtg), Mike, Liam, Eli, Rachel, Devin
^During introductions, if folks volunteered that it was their first media meeting, I made note of that

-Agenda: In addition to the agenda items that were published, we also added to the agenda that we would talk about Twitter, the joint Media/OBIT meeting, the Citizen Journalism Initiative, independent funding source of media, an OBTV update, and what we need to write about

'I Introductions

1. We've started out by going around, introducing ourselves, what we do, and sharing about what we see the role of media as

II Twitter Meeting - Joshua

1. The password was changed for the main twitter account, which prompted a meeting to discuss the use of the twitter
2. A few people now act as admins
   1. If people are not an admin and would like to be, they should talk to someone who is an admin
   2. There's also an email-to-twitter system
   3. There's also a twitter-to-twitter system being worked on that will create greater accountability
3. We also held a twitter training program for folks to use the email-to-twitter system
4. We also discussed best practices for using the @occupy_boston twitter account
   1. No livetweeting, unless there's an emergency. Instead, the account can be used to redirect to others who are livestreaming or retweeting
   2. Use for retweeting working groups
   3. Use for occasional "personality" tweets
5. Discussion about twitter use:
   1. Q: Can't twitter use just be automated - can't all WGs have access to the twitter?
      1. A: No, not with the current system. Not everything should be RT'd, because there will be lots of followers lost. We need to be strategic about our use of social media.
   2. Q: So there will be instructions mailed out about accessing twitter?
      1. A: Yes; they'll be mailed out to the media list, and could be posted on the wiki

III OBIT/Tech Meeting - John and Eli

1. Website issues - site has failed over past 6 weeks
   1. OBIT demonstrated that they're making deliberate systems choices
      1. They still need to work out bugs
   2. Better procedure for reporting bugs
      1. A ticketing system has been developed! (support.occupyboston.org)
2. We have a few people who are direct liaisons between the two groups
3. We learned that there are political implications of tech decisions
   1. And now there are no more crashes! (?)
4. We may discuss moving our own meetings so people are able to attend both Media and OBIT meetings
   1. POI, a Doodle was sent to figure out a good day for new meetings
      1. It will be sent again tonight
5. OBIT is also getting more involved in twitter
6. OBIT and Media may host a joint community gathering in late March about political implications of tech and how our tech reflects our values

IV: OBTV - Matthew

1. Three tapings
   1. Traditional interview (20 minutes)
      1. Interviewees have included members of MA legislature, homeless occupiers
2. Listed on pegmedia!
3. Will also start doing investigative journalism in conjunction with Occupier
4. Another initiative: Arts for the 99%
5. Occupy News Network is another “TV” group associated with OB
   1. They’ll be meeting later on to coordinate a bit more

V: Social Media Branding - Joshua

1. We should have more consistency across twitter, Facebook, website in terms of appearance
   1. For example, we should have consistent "taglines," like "we are the wicked pissah 99%"
   2. The person who made the website header may also be able to make a twitter and Facebook template / icons so we're consistency
2. Discussion:
   1. Consistency:
      1. Mixed feelings
      2. Perhaps should invoke regionalism?
   2. Wicked pissah
      1. Not family friendly
      2. Doesn't appeal to some readers, such as blog readers
   3. We should: Look at what other occupations are doing
   4. Mainly have consistency across design and appearance, though, except for special cases (such as Sink, SOPA, etc.)
3. While there's no consensus, we'll start to develop

VI: Listservs

1. People are having trouble joining listservs such as community forum
2. Not user friendly
3. We can work with OBIT on how to make it more accessible
4. Dan will add community forum info on wiki
5. Joshua will clean up WGs page on site
   1. We'll try to work on making the site easier to navigate in general

VII: Coverage this week

1. Underwater march CL/VU, MU, OWS, Monday, 12:00-1:30!!!
   1. Need to really push to get OB and greater Boston to participate
   2. Media advisory
      1. It would be great to have press there!
   3. Blog posts
   4. Facebook and twitter
   5. Livestream
   6. Good video footage!
2. OWS is coming into town
   1. Blog post afterward?
      1. Canvassing in Revere (Sat)
      2. Organizer training for OWS / OB (Sun)
   2. TALK TO INTEROCCUPY - Rachel will talk to Ben
3. Community gathering
   1. CASA
      1. Blog post
         1. Use press release that had been sent out
      2. Facebook and twitter
4. MU March to Collect (1/26!)
   1. Livestreaming (Ryan)
   2. Photos
   3. Twitter
5. On coverage:
   1. There's a form that's been created to allow working groups to request coverage… we'll be pushing this a lot more

VIII Questions from Jess about Media Structure, Funding, etc.

1. Media has independent funder - can we talk about that?
   1. Earmarked funding is possible according to the way we've structured things from FAWG
   2. David came directly to Media who wanted to work with us and directly fund us to be able to do coordinated campaigns
   3. David also joined the group, but wants to now step back
   4. Has agreed to spend $24,000 over the course of a year
   5. FAWG has total oversight
   6. Joshua is the direct liaison between FAWG and Media
   7. David mails check to CU, and it's earmarked for Media.
   8. Decisions on how to spend money require quorum of 12 at a regularly scheduled Media meeting
   9. FAWG gets receipts, David gets copies of receipts
   10. Media and FAWG have access to Google Doc
   11. He is NOT telling us what to focus on
       1. He had said he was interested on CL/VU, but we said that we wouldn't be able to participate in having funding AND direction
   12. $400 rent to E5 is from general fund, not from Media earmarks
   13. Campaigns haven't been developed yet
       1. One of the things that's been discussed is the citizen journalism project
          1. We need lots of people filming all over the place, live!
          2. $1500 on computer for video editing (postproduction), $500 rolled over
       2. For Citizen Journalism initiative, Jess strongly recommends that we encourage others to learn more about public access television (including folks in the Media WG!)
   14. (meeting, next Wednesday)
   15. Appeal to be frugal with this
2. OBTV + Media
   1. Occupier relationship or part of the umbrella?
   2. We should meet to discuss in two weeks