Pieces of MiND (Blog)

Welcome to the blog for MiND: Media Independence.

MiND is a new multi-platform (TV, internet, internet VOD) learning channel put together by a real and virtual community of producers, independent thinkers, individuals, non-profits, companies, and more. Our goal is to use media as a way to learn from one another, and hopefully, to cause some positive change.

As you read this blog, you’ll find that we focus on a few key areas, and that we allow ourselves considerable flexibility as well. The key areas are:

• The reinvention of television
• Media, learning, and social responsibility
• The intersection of media and community

From time to time, we’ll also write about the process of building one of the world’s first global, multi-platform learning channel, and the process of making MiND come alive.

Getting Started

About fifteen years ago, I started wondering why there was no Sesame Street for grown-ups: short-form programming, like we watched in the early days of MTV, but with more than music.

About two years ago, Philadelphia’s independent (non-PBS) public TV station, WYBE, was struggling, and was in need of a new idea. In this pre-YouTube, pre-Current.tv era, we decided to build a new kind of TV channel that would (a) be built from short-form programs; (b) encourage everyone to make their own programs; and (c) become a kind of learning community.

All good, except for a few minor problems: (a) we had to keep WYBE on the air, which more or less required the time of the entire staff; (b) we had no additional money to build the new service; (c) we had almost no internet or technology expertise; (d) our production capabilities were very limited; and (e) nobody had done anything like this before.

So here we are in 2007 with (a) a new studio and plenty of production capability; (b) a solid technology infrastucture; (c) a staff that has managed to keep WYBE on the air while developing a new business; (d) a few proofs of concept [YouTube, Current.tv, others] suggesting that this once-crazy idea might actually work; (e) a few hundred short-form [now, 5-minute] programs in our library, and many more being made; and (f) plans to launch a new TV and internet channel.

How did it happen? Luck, a few convenient miracles, a lot of hard work by a small but dedicated staff, over a hundred interns, and, most important, a reasonably clear understanding of what we’re doing and why.

So what, exactly, are we doing? Well, we’re spending a lot of time and energy watching what’s not on TV, and figuring out how to reinvent the whole thing. We’re teaching people to use camcorders and editing equipment. We’re producing lots of original 5-minute programs, and lots of clever brand IDs so that people will know who we are and why we’re special. But mostly, we’re setting up a system that will encourage people to learn from one another in a community that’s local to Philadelphia and global in its impact. This is beginning to feel a lot like democracy in action, which is, itself, an idea that’s big enough for its own blog entry.

--HB, CEO, MiND

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