So, why bother?

I mean why should community media folks go through all of the hassle of learning new skills, diluting their missions, setting up new systems for something that may be just a flash in the pan? I guess my take on this is that we are rapidly moving towards an IP based system of distributiong content. Speeds are increasing, compression is getting better, and the corporations are already heading this way. Either we get on the digital distibution bandwagon or we will find ourselves walking a slow dejected gait in the gutter.

If P2P is the mechanism that all sorts of folks (especially young folks) are using to share music, pirated hollywood movies, and other media, it seems that we have an opportunity to use this infrastructure for community benefits. To get the dialogue rolling I suggest folks check out:

CBC BitTorrent Site(http://sandbox.cpcs.umb.edu/ezt/)
Commonwealth Broadband Collaborative (http://www.cbcmedia.net)
Public Radio Exchange (http://www.prx.org)
Community Software Lab (http://csl.ltc.org)

And then I must plug my own personal interests:

ExtendMedia(http://extendmeida.blogspot.com)
LTC(http://www.ltc.org)

Thanks Daniell, for bringing a new world of technology use to me.