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

[Andrew Ó Baoill]

Prolonged online discussions on detailed matters like this tend to be  
of diminishing utility (isn't someone meant to compare streaming/not- 
streaming to Hitler about now?) and I know they're _fascinating_ to  
the non-participants who return home to 200 new messages, so I really  
would welcome a chance to get together at [insert bar-name here] and  
discuss some of these things informally.

Having said that, I include some responses and questions below.

Andrew

On 27 DFómh 2005, at 18:29, Sascha Meinrath wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Clearly there's been some miscommunication here.  CUWiN has been  
> explicit from the very beginning that we're interested in the  
> multimedia integration aspects of the Barnraising -- this is one of  
> the main reasons why we got involved in the first place.  We've  
> always been extremely up-front about it and am a little confused as  
> to why this is coming up now, if there's a widely held concern  
> about streaming, etc.  I'd like to hear from other WRFU-ers.

Well - and I know Sascha was traveling, so I'm not pointing fingers -  
except for the fact that there hasn't been anyone from CUWiN at most  
of the barnraising meetings, so the centrality of the concept to  
CUWIN's input has not been made clear. The idea of streaming WRFU was  
mentioned, as one of a number of possible projects, a number of weeks  
ago - as a possible 'tie-in' between the two parts of the barnraising  
- and it was at that point that I raised my concerns. As far as I was  
concerned - and Phil's mail seems to confirm this understanding -  
streaming (of WRFU) had been shelved until after the barnraising. We  
were never made aware that streaming was such a central part of  
CUWiN's planned involvement.

> I also think Andrew is quite mistaken in his analysis that setting  
> up a streaming server somehow infringes on WRFU's autonomy.  The  
> streaming server is being set up by Acorn as part of a multimedia  
> system that'll be housed at the IMC, as a part of a project that  
> dates back to last Fall and is a collaboration among the IMC,  
> Acorn, and CUWiN.  WRFU is free to use the service or not;  
> meanwhile, the streaming will also be available to the shows group  
> (think live feeds from the IMC), video and audio groups (for media  
> dissemination), interested organizations, and the local community  
> as a whole.  This server is an extension of the Chambana.net  
> project and has been planned for quite some time.

I know that the idea of multi-media operations has been discussed in  
the abstract for some time, but yesterday's mail (about Acorn making  
a server available) was the first I knew of specific plans.

> Clearly, WRFU should decide for itself whether it wants to stream;  
> likewise, the Barnraising ad-hoc committee should decide what's  
> happening at the Barnraising (this is what we created the group to  
> do and the Barnraising is a collaborative effort among multiple  
> different groups and organizations).  So I'll reiterate what I  
> stated previously, we plan to stream during the Barnraising and  
> WRFU can decide what it wants to do down the road.

Acorn setting up a streaming server is obviously their concern. If  
CUWiN plans to stream random content, as a proof of concept, that's  
their concern. If the plan is to stream WRFU -  either on CUWiN, or  
more broadly online -  that's ours. The barnraising group is a co- 
ordinating group for organizing the barnraising - that doesn't give  
it decision-making power over our broadcasts or internal operations.  
Obviously, streaming station output during the barnraising is a  
matter of concern to both the barnraising group and WRFU, so we can  
have a collision of interests, but I would dispute that the  
barnraising group would necessarily triumph.

Incidentally, this last set of comments raises an (important to me)  
question: does CUWiN plan to stream content 'on-net' (that is, on the  
CUWiN network) or 'online' (on the internet) or both?

>   Are there other folks with concerns about this?  Cause I'd like  
> to get them addressed before we're in the midst of the chaos and  
> stress of the barnraising itself.
>
> Let me know,
>
> --Sascha
>
> P.S.  Meanwhile, we're still looking for volunteers to help with  
> 1st floor construction.  I'm in the space _every_ day (often  
> several times a day) and haven't seen too many WRFU-ers there -- we  
> really need all the help we can get, so please volunteer.


--
Andrew Ó Baoill
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Inst. of Communications Research, U. of Illinois
Communications / Participatory media / Political action
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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