Bainbridge trees is a cyber-celebration of the
trees of Bainbridge Island and the people who care for them using the new internet-based tools that
allow a community to express itself and communicate by blogging , recording and
broadcasting via digital audio and podcasting.
I have been living on Bainbridge Island for 6 years now.
As a cyberjournalist, all my work
has been internet-based.
In February last year I started experimenting with
digital audio recorders and I created a local community webradio Voice of
Bainbridge: www.voiceofbainbridge.org
During its first year of
operation I have recorded and posted on line more than 150 programs.
Since October 2004 I have been
creating blogs, starting with one for VoB but also
www.blogvert.org (in French), www.ecofilms.com (about environmental
films), www.ecotalkblog.com for the
weekly radio program EcoTalk aired on Air America.
While VoB is entering its
second year I would like to produce with the support of BIAFF a weekly webradio program about
Bainbridge trees and the people who care for them.
The program will include the creation of a blog dedicated to the trees and providing additional information and links about the issues discussed.
There would be several segments: each week a different guest would talk about her/his favorite tree, we would have presentations about remarkable trees, specialists answering questions sent (via email) by the public and we would look at local issues around trees.
This should be a weekly half hour show with a total time for preparation and production estimated at two hours. The program would start as soon as possible. The recordings would be made on Bainbridge, “face to face” or if necessary via the phone.
I think the merit of such a project is multifold: it would be a way to make the community more aware of the existence of new media (blogs and podcasts) that are easy to use and contribute to allow more people to express themselves.
In terms of content, trees are important for our community (as showed by past
and recent debates) but they rarely get the constant attention they should get:
once in a while a crisis occur, concerns are expressed but there is a lack of
continuity that is -I believe- very detrimental to our trees.
I think the
program I am proposing would help raise the awareness and give the trees the
continuing attention they require.
I would mostly carry the 2 hour production part of the program while another person would spend an equal amount of time promoting and marketing. The program would reach out to the whole community and guests would be as diverse as possible.
The target of such a program is the people who are familiar with the use of the internet (a lot of people on Bainbridge) and the people we hope to make familiar with the new media.
The main goal is not to give out information to a passive audience but to engage the audience in a more interactive way with the hope that people start becoming co-producers of the program by sending documents, volunteering to record stories, learning how to blog and podcast. To that end a series of workshop/conferences will be organized with local bloggers about how to use the new media.
I expect from this project are a better understanding by the community of the importance of the trees for the quality of our life and what needs to be done to take good care of them.
Another key goal is to develop a larger audience for the web-radio and build capacity within the community for more bloggers and podcasters as those new media can allow more people to express themselves.