Hello, Again: Had to leave the list a long time ago, but all of you
were in my mind, and hoping you're doing well.
In the U.S., there's a lot of changes going on, almost entirely at the
expense of the most vulnerable, I might add. For example, the Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) agency is being gutted, and soon the
remnants (think upper/senior management) will be moved to the Commerce
Department. One of the wonderful programs that HUD provided, was the
Neighborhood Networks Program. Low-income (usually multi-family)
residences were able to establish Learning Centers where the residents
and members of the community could learn how to use computers. There
are presently over 1100 such centers around the country. Within a
matter of months, every one will need to become self-sustaining, or
disappear.
A community-based recording studio in each center would enable the
Learning Centers to generate revenues. As most of you know, a
community-based recording studio might be little more than a low end,
PC-based computer with state-of-the-art audio and video software on it,
sitting on someone's kitchen table. With such a computer, world-class
recordings, CDs, DVDs, Public Service Announcements, tv shows, radio
shows, even full-featured films can be produced. But, we also need to
mention, that a community-based recording studio in a school, generates
the same stuff! . . . .
Anyway, Open Studios wants to find out if anyone has an interest in
helping organize a campaign to get the Neighborhood Networks centers
aware of FOSS and start thinking in terms of self-sustaining options.
Whatever we work up for the Neighborhood Networks campaign, almost
certainly can be tweaked to carry into schools around the world.
If you've read this far, take a look at how the numbers roll out:
Say, for discussion, a donated computer with the Stanford University
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) [FOSS,
right?], was set up as a community-based recording studio:
A homeless person could make a CD and sell them to 100 sympathetic
souls:
1CD x USD$10 x 100 sales = USD$1,000
Now, let's extrapolate this to a school that sets up a community-based
recording studio, and creates a fund-raiser CD:
same thing - USD$1,000
If the school does this 10 times a year:
USD$10,000
If the school district has 10 schools, with each one making 10
fund-raising CDs:
USD$100,000
You get the idea. And, we haven't even touched on the possibilities for
Schoolforge to bring in a community-based recording studio for their
in-house fund-raisers, tv show, radio show, Public Service Announcements
(PSA), . . . . Did I mention that a PSA can be created, and sent to
every Public Access station across America?
Open Studios is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to replenishing our
precious Public Domain. To accomplish this mission, we set some goals.
One goal is to assist those who want to build and operate
community-based recording studios. If you would like more information,
please contact me, directly. Please remember, all our services are
free.
Looking to hear from you.
Tom Poe
Open Studios
Reno, NV, USA
www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/