[RFU] Re: [Rfu-barnraising] Re: {leti} Re: the automation question

[Phil Stinard]

I agree with you 100%, Andrew.  I thought we'd already deferred this 
discussion for a future date after the barnraising.  I was shocked when it 
became an issue at last night's meeting, but at least I was paying attention 
and raised some concerns.  I agree that the issue of streaming shouldn't be 
imposed on WRFU by external sources.  My understanding of how wireless would 
be integrated with the radio station was covering live events from the 
community using a wireless uplink.  Why can't we emphasize that instead?

--Phil


>From: Andrew Ó Baoill <andrew at funferal.org>
>To: rfu barnraising <rfu-barnraising at lists.chambana.net>,WRFU Mailing list 
><rfu at lists.chambana.net>
>Subject: [RFU] Re: [Rfu-barnraising] Re: {leti} Re: the automation question
>Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 17:50:59 -0500
>
>As I mentioned to Sascha off-list, I hadn't realized that the  streaming 
>issue would be raised again at last night's meeting. We had  decided, a few 
>weeks ago, to leave the issue of streaming to one side  until after the 
>barnraising - reflecting also my understanding of  WRFU's current position 
>- so I didn't realize it would be back on the  agenda. [My apologies, by 
>the way, for my absence - my students  wanted their grades, and they wanted 
>them NOW!] I've dropped leti  from the extensive cc: list, as this is more 
>of an non-techie  internal discussion.
>
>The WEFT case I quoted was an analysis of WEFT's decision to increase  
>power, serving a larger area, so as I said it is not completely  analogous, 
>but some of the same arguments can be raised. The Bekken  article, which I 
>recommend to anyone interested in community media,  is available online at:
>http://www.infoshop.org/texts/seizing/bekken.html
>
>My concerns with streaming are multiple, though not necessarily  absolute, 
>and go to the issue of what the role of a community station  is, something 
>on which reasonable people can differ, and how  structures will impact 
>content, a possible topic for many  dissertations ;-).
>
>Further, however, there's the question of who should decide whether  WRFU 
>will be a streaming operation - Prometheus staff, the  Barnraising ad hoc 
>group, CUWiN, or WRFU itself. To say that we'll  set up streaming at the 
>Barnraising and "see what happens down the  road" seems a rather strong 
>impingement on WRFU's autonomy and self- determination, though I fully 
>realize it is not intended as such.
>
>I'm open to persuasion on the issue of streaming, but want to make  sure 
>the decision is made 'right way around.' Purely on a practical  basis, 
>given our current funding situation, I don't think it's  something we 
>should embark on now.
>
>Oh, and I'll definitely take Sascha up on that offer of grabbing a  beer to 
>talk these things over! :-)
>
>Andrew
>
>On 27 DFómh 2005, at 16:44, Sascha Meinrath wrote:
>
>>Hi all,
>>
>>Andrew and I should go grab a beer so I can get a better feel for  his 
>>concerns; but I and other folks are definitely interested in  setting up 
>>streaming.  I'm not sure I buy that streaming would  necessarily 
>>negatively impact the quality and/or community  grounding of the station 
>>-- at WEFT, we streamed for quite some  time and only stopped because the 
>>price increased.  I haven't heard  of any negative repercussions from 
>>streaming, and unless someone  can make the case the WRFU would be 
>>differentially impacted, I  think WEFT provides us with a fairly good 
>>(local) precedent.  Also,  just so it's noted somewhere, we decided at 
>>last night's  Barnraising meeting to do streaming during the Barnraising, 
>>that  part of things is a go.
>>
>>Either way, I think there's a core group of folks who would be very  
>>interested in learning about streaming and how to set this sort of  system 
>>up -- so we should definitely do that.  Long-term, it could  be that WRFU 
>>decides not to stream their signal; however, other  stations (such as 
>>WEFT) may be interested and this is an  opportunity to demonstrate how 
>>this works.  Since we already have a  server infrastructure available 
>>through the IMC, I think it makes  all the sense in the world for us to 
>>set this up for the  Barnraising and see what happens down the road.
>>
>>--Sascha
>
>--
>Andrew Ó Baoill
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - -
>Inst. of Communications Research, U. of Illinois
>Communications / Participatory media / Political action
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - -
>andrew at funferal.org / baoillo at uiuc.edu
>aim: funferal at mac.com
>+353-87-241-7003 / +1-(217) 384-3142
>http://funferal.org / Galway, Ireland / Urbana, IL, USA
>
>
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