| NEW! OMF T-shirts Available for a $10, $15 or $20 Donation! |
Choose from women's tanks, regular tees or men's long sleeve thermals ($10/$15/$20 donations respectively). Come into the office and get yours today!
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| Work at a Television Station as a Station Access Intern! | 
Do you love television and broadcast? Want to give back to a community TV station? You could be perfect for our Station Access internship.
This position is a great fit for someone with an interest in studio management and has a passion for independent production, as well as the ability to commit to a 12 hour/week, 200-hour total internship schedule. OMF interns receive incredible benefits such as access to free classes and a free Unlimited membership during the duration of the internship and a $175-level membership for the year after they complete the 200 hours.
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| DOM Sixth Anniversary Fundraiser Wrap-Up |  This year's Anniversary Celebration 'Independent Voices' was a huge success! We doubled our attendees and raised over $17,000, with an additional $3,900 raised through the largest silent auction we have had to date! We are indebted to our fabulous sponsors which included The Black Pearl, City O' City, Root Down, and Watercourse. Thanks to them we enjoyed an unforgettable menu that was the talk of the night. Also, many thanks is owed to Strange Brewing Company, for donating beer, and Bhakti Chai for coming all the way from Boulder to serve their delicious chai tea. The exquisite decor of the room was provided by Colorado Tablecloth Company. Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our anniversary this year and we look forward to a bigger and better event in 2013! |
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| Executive Director Report from Tony Shawcross | |
Rather than taking the usual look back, I'm going to start this year off with a brief look back at the very origins of the Open Media Foundation.
Communication is how change begins, and massive change begins through mass communication, which is why we focus on media at OMF as our tool for empowering social change.
With DOM, we envisioned an entirely new kind of TV network, a truly democratic TV station, where the values of minority and low-income communities could be heard, where free speech was embraced and new ideas could be shared, regardless of their financial value. Ten years later the media is still largely just a tool for corporations to promote consumerism, aimed primarily at privileged audiences advertisers want to reach.We still don't have this new, people-powered media system, but here's what we have accomplished:
- We launched three TV stations in Denver. With no operating funding, we demonstrated that this new approach to community-powered television could work.
- We helped hundreds of community members produce thousands of shows for TV and the web, surpassing that of the previous Public Access TV station on a fraction of the budget.
- We helped over 100 nonprofit organizations produce videos to help spread their word, raise funds, and represent the perspectives of the communities they serve.
- We launched a new statewide government TV channel, making every debate of every bill proposed in Colorado's House and Senate available on TV and the web, and once again, did it on a fraction of the budget of any comparable station in the country.
- We taught thousands of kids and adults how to make their own media, and make it effective!. From basic cinematography to 3-D animation, we taught people who didn't grow up with camcorders and YouTube in their homes.
- We built websites for hundreds of nonprofits, helping them better serve their constituents on the internet.
- We partnered with Archive.org to help build a national archive for community media that enables noncommercial TV stations share broadcast-quality content across the globe.
Are we there yet? Not even close. This path has yielded some pretty amazing results so far, so please consider joining DOM, taking a class, or spreading the word, and lets see where we can get.
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| Now Accepting Applications for the OMF Multimedia and Outreach Assistance Grant | |
For 2013, OMF is offering one nonprofit organization $15,000 worth of media & communications services and resources aimed at engaging and amplifying the voices and perspectives of Denver's Latino community and/or individuals with no post-secondary education in our local media conversation.
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| DOM's Spotlight on Students Presents "Denver's Youth Talent Showcase" |
 The time has come for youth in Denver to shine! To be considered for the show, please put together a video of your performance and a short statement about why you do what you do. We want to see not only your talent but to understand behind the scenes what motivates young people to pursue talents, practice, what obstacles they face as well as they what they want to achieve.
Rehearsals and Live shows in January and February! Lock in your slot now by emailing
Please check out our website for more information. |
| You Are Invited: Make Great Films with DOM Filmmakers |
The DOM Filmmakers' Co-Op is a group of Colorado Filmmakers who collaborate weekly in the production of short narrative, documentary, and experimental films over a two-month "session".
The group meets weekly on Monday evenings at the Open Media Foundation from 6pm to 8pm, with the first meeting of each session including the presentation of the selected projects for that session. Some projects will require time outside of the evening sessions, while others will be completed entirely within the allotted weekly meetings. Production schedules, cast & crew needs, and other relevant information will be presented at the first meeting. Co-op members then self-select to participate in the project of their choice. Subsequent meetings are working meetings, spent in production of the films, followed by a final screening party, at which time the subsequent session's films are announced.
Participation requires an Unlimited DOM membership. Equipment will be provided by OMF and Denver Open Media.
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OMF Staff Spotlight: Erin McCarley, Media Education and Intern Coordinator
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Tell us a bit about yourself. 
I moved back to Colorado in 2010 after spending seven years in Austin where I got my master's degree in photojournalism and worked as a freelance photographer and documentary filmmaker. The mountains called me back, as well as an enduring community of friends and family. When I'm not at OMF, I'm working on my own documentary film, hiking, camping, gardening and loving on my kitties. In my previous life, I was a social worker and my sociology background still drives my media passions.
Why do you think community media is important?
I think community media centers have the potential to be forces for real democracy in a bastion of corporate media conglomerates and advertising culture that dominates the airwaves, broadcasts, and bandwidths in this country. In this kind of system, independent and diverse voices are pushed to the margins. And while community media centers may tend to exist at the margins, they have the ever-growing potential to challenge, expand and inform the public in ways that the mainstream media cannot.
Where do you see yourself in the future?
I believe that the media is still one of the most, if not the most, powerful instrument of social change. Because I'm a social activist at heart, I see myself always working via the media toward progressive social change-- be it in the form of producing media or teaching/facilitating skills that allow more and more people to do the same.
What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?
I enjoy the people I work with, frankly. I enjoy productive collaborations, awesome interns, and generous teachers. I'm excited about reaching out to new communities, finding commonality with other grassroots, community organizations and ultimately, playing a part in building and sustaining a thriving independent media community in Denver.
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First Friday at DOM January 4 - Winter Holiday Break
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On the first Friday of most months, DOM hosts a free
 community event with local performance groups, musical acts, and nonprofit partners. These events are broadcast live on Comcast Channel 57 as well as streamed on our website. They are rebroadcast on Channels 56, 57 and 219. They are also available online for on-demand This month due to the holidays and our big anniversary party in December, we are taking a break for January. Please join us in February when we expect to host a poet extravaganza! Stay tuned for details. |
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