| RSVP Today: Donor Appreciation Cocktail Reception | |
Donors and supporters are invited to join us for a special event on Friday March 1, 2013. Right before First Friday festivities begin in Studio A, a cocktail reception will be held from 6-7pm on the 2nd floor of our building at 700 Kalamath in the Santa Fe Arts District.
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| Save The Date: 2013 OMF Fundraising Breakfast | |
This spring, make sure to mark your calendars for OMF's fundraising breakfast. OMF needs your support to continue offering affordable communication tools to the community, and put the power of the media in the hands of the people.
The event will be in May, and details are coming soon. Email |
| The Colorado Channel: Keeping Colorado Government Transparent and Entertaining | 
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Work with Live Television!
Colorado Channel Internship |
The Open Media Foundation is seeking production interns to assist in the live television broadcast of the floor sessions of the Colorado Senate and House of Representatives for The Colorado Channel.
We are looking for individuals who are dependable, professional and who can commit to serving the length of the Legislative session (present to mid-May). Computer competence, a background in video/TV production and an interest in state politics are preferred. A working knowledge of Photoshop and Final Cut Pro would be beneficial. Interns would need to commit to covering the session 3 days a week, starting at 8:30am. Although this internship is unpaid, interns will receive unrivaled professional experience, including the opportunity to work in live television. If you are interested, please send your resume and cover letter to chris@openmediafoundation.org
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| New Youtube Streaming Online for DOM Channels |  Since the inception of DOM, we have struggled to find a good and affordable live streaming service. This is important to us, because our channels are limited to Comcast cable subscribers within Denver city limits. Having a livestream allows us to expand our audience and also allows our producers to show their programs to audiences outside of Denver.
So we were very excited to move to our livestream to Youtube's new livestreaming service, which has proven very reliable thus far. The service is provided via a grant from Google for Nonprofits. The service offers us more available streams. In the future, we are looking in to offering live streaming to producers who want to shoot live shows remotely. |
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| Executive Director Report from Tony Shawcross |
 When the Colorado State Legislature convened on Jan. 9th of this year, something was happening that had never happened before.
In partnership with the Colorado Channel Authority and Archive.org, OMF launched a new web-based system utilizing entirely free and open-source tools to make the House & Senate proceedings accessible to anyone with an internet connection. While visitors to coloradochannel.net may not have noticed anything new (Colorado has been streaming and archiving legislative sessions since 2008) behind the scenes, a revolutionary, non-commercial approach to increasing government transparency was being tested for the first time.
At the heart of this system is the Open Media Project software built with support from the Knight Foundation and the City of Denver to power Denver Open Media and other people-powered media stations. The tools were updated and modified for Government Media, and in the end, viewers enjoyed significantly higher-quality video at a significant cost savings compared to previous commercial solutions.
In addition to statewide viewers on Comcast Channel 165, over 2,000 people tuned in online to watch the State of the State address from Governor John Hickenlooper on Jan 10th. Without a hitch, these home-grown, free, and open-source solutions out-performed anything the State had used in the past, and we couldn't be any prouder of this collective effort to expand government transparency and civic engagement in Colorado.
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First Friday at DOM is February 1
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 | | A Poetic First Friday |
Denver Open Media's February First Friday celebrates Black History Month through poetic expression. This month's program features some of Denver's finest poets, sharing with you great poems that celebrates the historic accomplishments, vital struggle, and future hope of Blacks in America.
Featured poets include Lucifuri, Mahogany, Jovan, and Isis. Also featured during this program will be a visit by Denver historic figure, Dr. Justina Ford, known as "Colorado's Lady Doctor", portrayed by actor Adrienne Martin-Fullwood. And don't miss our video tour of the Blaire-Caldwell African American Research Library.
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
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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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| Intern Spotlight: Sherman White, Station Access Intern | 
How did you become involved in multimedia work?
I first became interested in film and video production at a young age. My grandmother had a laser disk of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. I must have been 6 or 7 years old. I remember the first time I watched it, it scared the crap out of me. Then my grandmother showed me the flip side of the disk and it contained the behind-the-scenes footage. I was amazed at the whole make-up process, the big cameras on set, and how much fun everyone was having. I thought to myself "that's awesome, I want to be apart of that".
Tell us about why you decided to do an internship with Open Media Foundation?
I become involved in Denver Open Media foundation through a friend who had been a intern at DOM. She told me to fill out an application and then introduced me to guy who was starting work on a documentary. I worked with him for about a month before hearing that I had been approved for an intern spot. I have continued to work on the documentary which should be done some time this fall.
Read more on our website >>
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OMF Staff Spotlight: Heather Schreck, Fundraising Events Manager
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Tell us a bit about yourself.
I guess I've always followed my heart and dreams. So cheesy but very true. I have been truly blessed! I wanted to work in the film industry since the age of 5. It was my mission in life and so I attended Columbia College in Chicago which was like the TV show Fame with all the creativity and diveristy of the arts. I ended up leaving half way through my junior year when I was offered an internship on the remake of 'The Shining' which was filmed in Estes Park and Denver. I was very lucky that they had designed my internship to follow the career path that I was on at the time, a producer, so I interned in every department. After the show wrapped 2 months later I was offered a job on a TV show on HBO in Los Angeles, which was one of my dream companies to work for after watching 'And the Band Played On.' I would free lance jumping project to project but would find myself back at HBO for 2 years working in post production on the 1st 2 seasons of The Sopranos and then 6 years as the Festival Coordinator on the US Comedy Arts Festival which was a comedy/film festival in Aspen, CO. I went on to to AFI Fest and LA Film Festival. I had been volunteering during my 6 years at HBO for Afghan Women's Mission which is a nonprofit organization that supports the oldest feminist women's organization, RAWA. That's where things began to shift for me and I began to realize that I wasn't on the Hollywood path anymore but more of an activist one. I worked as an event coordinator doing nonprofit benefits and realized that through my event experience I wanted to help to raise the funds for people to do the good work. I wanted people to discover a great organization and the importance of their work and help them achieve it. That's how I ended up leaving Hollywood and taking me on this new path. One that is still new, exciting and the one I will follow the rest of my life.
Read more on our website >>
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| Client Spotlight: The Consortium |  Please provide a brief summary of your organization. The Consortium is a nonprofit organization providing assistance to school districts with the Medicaid School Health Services program. We strengthen health services and maximize resources available to students throughout Colorado. What are the information/issues that you are trying to bring to a larger audience? We'd like to bring a positive light to our program. Medicaid in the schools isn't necessarily positive or well-liked, but our program is doing amazing things for students in Colorado. We're helping our school districts bring in more resources to serve the health needs of students. That means emergency medication vouchers, eye glasses and additional nursing staff to name a few resources purchased. Why is your organization unique? We assist school districts with the State's Medicaid School Health Service program. We work with a number of individuals at the state level, as well as school district employees. Although we know we're making a difference, we don't often see the direct impact we're making at the school level. This project helped; we were able to see the day-to-day from the perspective of teachers, service providers and students. And of course, it makes it worthwhile seeing happy, successful students at school. What is your intended outcome of the video project you recently completed with the OMF production team? We wanted to create a video that would help us tell our story and to focus on how to participate in the Medicaid SHS program. It's complicated and not very easy to explain. The video creates a clear, consistent message. It makes it easier to show someone the impact too - the images of the students, service providers and teachers drive the message home - the program brings in extra health resources students!
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