Tonight, a possible community media contract and a request by the Occupy Asheville demonstrators for a curfew exemption are before Asheville City Council.
The city of Asheville approved a request for a community media proposal in June. The finalists, Ponderwell and Xpress, were selected in September. Ponderwell's proposal received the highest score from an evaluation panel, and staff subsequently recommended to Council that they receive the contact. Council will vote on the matter tonight.
While not on the printed agenda, news emerged yesterday that representatives of the Occupy Asheville demonstrators will request an exemption from city curfew rules to camp in Pack Square Park as part of ongoing protests. City staff will make a presentation on the matter prior to the request, and have discussed the matter with Council via e-mail.
The meeting begins at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11 in Council's chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
— David Forbes, senior news reporter
The city of Asheville approved a request for a community media proposal in June. The finalists, Ponderwell and Xpress, were selected in September. Ponderwell's proposal received the highest score from an evaluation panel, and staff subsequently recommended to Council that they receive the contact. Council will vote on the matter tonight.
While not on the printed agenda, news emerged yesterday that representatives of the Occupy Asheville demonstrators will request an exemption from city curfew rules to camp in Pack Square Park as part of ongoing protests. City staff will make a presentation on the matter prior to the request, and have discussed the matter with Council via e-mail.
The meeting begins at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11 in Council's chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
— David Forbes, senior news reporter
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Ponderwell's proposal has little to do with the original pitch made by Lauren Bradley at the May 24th Financial Committee meeting.
Her statements here: http://snd.sc/ol6sVl
In her pitch to City Council before issuing the RFP, Lauren Bradley stated that it would be interesting to see what the “the creative community of Asheville could come up with.” She went on to stress the RFP needed to include four major areas to address as conditions of being awarded the grant money. They were;
• Community Development;
• Economic Workforce Development;
• Industry Development;
• Training and Education
In this proposal, there is no reference to economic growth, job creation or technical training. Instead we have a proposal that does not fulfill any of the objectives originally stated by Ms. Bradley to the Finance Committee.
The present plan offers nothing new, creative or innovating, instead it is a proposal that seeks merely to emulate already existing models and is tantamount to re-inventing the wheel.
This proposal falls far too short of the objectives made by Ms. Bradley to the 5/24/2011 Finance Committee meeting , and aims instead at serving a small group of people who are already producing content in the community. This narrow and exclusive proposal offers little benefit to the community in a time for job creation is imperative. Certainly it fails when one considers a $120,000.00 burden on the taxpayers.
By D. Dial
10/11/2011
I can't image city council will green light this program at present.
By Viking
10/11/2011
We get it, Davyne: you're still pissed about URTV.
By luther blissett
10/11/2011
This has nothing to do with the former public access channel.
By D. Dial
10/11/2011
@CityofAsheville
I just emailed my thoughts on the Ponderwell CMDI proposal and the program generally. It's not too late to fine tune CMDI!
The URTV debacle was a tragedy. The Community Media Development Initiative as a great deal of potential. There's several things that need to be addressed before committing to a solution provider... mainly because this is a community effort.
One thing I can say in public beyond my critique I sent to city council is I think the term 'Community Media Development' does not encompass all the cool things the original COA RFP considered. A ICT platform can get into several levels of civilization. If COA stops, reviews and opens up the process for more community input, we could have a world class community development initiative (certainly using modern ICT/media tools) rolling out late Q1 2012.
By Viking
10/11/2011
If you think that it's "re-inventing the wheel", then clearly it has something to do with the former public access channel.
By luther blissett
10/11/2011