Building community in your area? Check out the newly-launched Community Organizers Handbook! Everything you need to start and grow a NetSquared Local group or any other community-powered program.
As online video becomes an increasingly popular tool, I've had a number of organizations ask me recently, "Should my organization use audio or video to tell our story?"
Before choosing any social media tool, first you need to ask yourself:
1. What is the goal I want to achieve?
2. Who is my target audience?
3. What are the communication tools I could use to achieve that goal?
4. How much time, staff and money do I have to put into this project?
Invisible 5 is an audio tour along Interstate 5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The tour tells the stories of people and communities fighting for environmental justice along the I-5 corridor, through oral histories, field recordings, found sound, recorded music, and archival audio documents.
You can download the audio and accompanying maps, directions and stop info. from the site. You can also buy a 2-CD set at Get Lost Travel Books and Aquarius Records in San Francisco.
After quite a lot of work,my consulting company, working with The Cedar Cultural Center, just released a revamped web site. (August 23) The new site features music and video, a searchable calendar, and quite a lot more.
The Cedar is a well-established nonprofit music venue in Minneapolis, and features world music, roots music, and lots of other entertainers who are not supported by the major music industry.
The site is based on Drupal with quite a few stock and custom modules. There was a lot of collaborative work involved between my company and The Cedar.
The Cedar Cultural Center is a nonprofit music venue in Minneapolis, MN. August 23, 2006 The Cedar launched a new web site. The site was built in collaboration with Cruiskeen Consulting LLC
The new site has many features. It is very rich in audio and video material, and features information about upcoming performances.
One of the most exciting upcoming events at The Cedar is the annual Nordic Roots Festival, which features music from the Nordic countries.
More information about The Cedar:
The Cedar (also known as the Cedar Cultural Center) is a highly eclectic music venue located in the vibrant West Bank district of Minneapolis. Renowned for hosting some of the best acts in folk, blues, jazz, indie rock and world music in an intimate space, the Cedar is a 501(c)3 non-profit, largely volunteer-driven organization and welcomes your support!
The Cedar's mission is to promote inter-cultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. The Cedar is committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach.
The Cedar is located in the historic Cedar Theater building, which opened in 1948 and operated as a movie theater until the 1970’s before falling into disuse. The Cedar Cultural Center was established in 1989 when local real estate magnate Keith Heller donated the theater to a non-profit started by Deb Martin and Mary Ann Dotsen, Minnesota STAR (Society for Traditional Arts and Resources). Their mission was “to support the preservation of cultural diversity by promoting and presenting traditional music and dance of many cultures.” Bill Kubeczko has been the artistic and executive director since 1993, and with the help of a small, dedicated staff and a legion of energetic volunteers, the Cedar has been presenting 150 or more high-quality shows every year since.
The 501c3cast is an independent podcast for and about nonprofit professionals, volunteers, and people who are interested in the nonprofit sector. It is inspired by personable talk radio shows but also draws heavily from the techniques used by pioneering podcasts. It is a weekly show, generally about 30 minutes long – an average commute time and easily digestible. A typical show includes current news about or affecting the philanthropic world, recommended links to check out on the web (playfully called Lookie, Lookie Links), interviews with nonprofit professionals or volunteers, stories, inspirational quotes, and an occasional song by an independent "podsafe" artist.
There are several purposes and goals of the 501c3cast:
Like many podcasts, the 501c3cast is produced using Audacity, a free open-source audio recording software tool. (See image above) Other applications/services used to produce the content include: Skype, HotRecorder, iTunes, Feedburner, and Libsyn.com.
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