Thanks so much for being a part of PubCampNC (@pubcampnc) in-person; and remotely; and via live stream. North Carolina’s first-ever PublicMediaCamp, a one-of-a-kind unconference hosted by UNC-TV (@unctv) and MCNC (@mcnc), seeks to strengthen the state’s public media engagement through ongoing collaborations with the public: i.e., you.

This collaborative environment begins with content creation and sharing. Content creation and sharing is not only the cornerstone of public media, but also an essential part of the PublicMediaCamp experience. To begin, we want to let you know the many ways you can contribute and let your voice be heard before, during, and after PubCampNC:

PubCamp NC| Where Everything is on the Record | All presentations and sessions at PubCampNC are on the record; blogging, podcasting, live tweeting, and presentation-sharing are all strongly encouraged using the Twitter hashtag #pubcampnc. As such, you are encouraged to bring your laptops, tablets, smartphones or any other connected device and plan to connect, collaborate, and engage throughout the day.

PubCampNC Blog | (http://www.publicmediacamp.org)
As part of the national PubCamp blogging experience, PubCampNC is currently participating in posts at publicmediacamp.org. This site is used to begin conversations, where you can then comment on posts and link to them in your own blogs, tweets, and other social media presences.

PubCampNC Wiki | (http://wiki.publicmediacamp.org/PubCampNC)
In conjunction with the broader PubCamp wiki, PubCampNC has set up a local camp wiki—a collaborative space where PubCampers can edit pages and plan their own camps. Think of it as an active repository for the work we’ll be doing on August 20. From the PubCampNC wiki you can “Join the Workspace,” and add your session comments, session notes, share and embed presentations, and start your own PubCamp.

PubCampNC on Slideshare | (http://www.slideshare.net/group/publicmediacamp)
In addition to being a part of the in-person conversation, during PubCampNC your organizers will be focused on content creation and publishing, detailing who attended, what happened, and what emerged. This is crucial, as content is the key form of social currency that will be exchanged between PubCampNC and other local camps. In order to add content to the body of knowledge around PubCamp, we’ll leverage media-sharing sites like Slideshare and its playlists to distribute information on the wiki and blog. To get involved, create an account at http://www.slideshare.net and join the PublicMediaCamp group (URL listed above).

PubCampNC Google Group | (http://groups.google.com/group/public-media-camp)
As much as we encourage the use if social media for content sharing in PubCampNC, e-mail remains a primary channel of communication for most people online. As a result, e-mail discussion lists such as Google Groups are very effective tools to connect our local community during and after Camp. As North Carolina’s PubCampers, we encourage you to join the national group (see URL above).

PubCampNC on Twitter | (https://twitter.com/pubcampnc)
Share your content, comments and questions with the Twitter community via the hashtag #pubcampnc. Got a little extra space in your tweet? Add the hashtag #pubcamp and let a national audience of PubCampers know what you’re up to. And follow PubCampNC now (and from now on) at @pubcampnc.

As mentioned, PubCampNC adopts an unconference format, during which there is no audience, only participants. In addition to being a partner in content creation, be prepared to take an active role in making the conference what you want it to be—both online and off.

On Friday, you’ll be putting the “public” back in public media. And we can’t wait.

Thanks again.

Want to start the discussion early?  Join us for a pre-camp happy hour at the Scottish Arms!  6 p.m. on Friday, August 13th.

Location – The Scottish Arms

PubCampSTL is just around the corner!  So far, we have about 100 people registered, and we can all look forward to a day of community, public media, and talking about how we can collaborate to make St. Louis a better place!  In preparation for PubCamp, consider the following questions:

1. The biggest issue facing St. Louis is…
2. My one hope for the St. Louis region is…
3. If public media could do one thing for me and my community, it would be…
4. I’d be really interested in working with public media on…

When you check in on Saturday morning, we’ll give you a post-it note so you can write your responses down and post them so the whole group can see what everyone’s saying.

See you Saturday!!

Based on the insights of Kivi Leroux Miller (@kivilm), a leading source of information and guidance for nonprofits with limited resources, @unctv, host of PubCampNC has put together a little Prezi on “The New Realities of Public Media.” What do you think?

On Friday, August 20, 2010, UNC-TV will partner with MCNC to host North Carolina’s first-ever PublicMediaCamp (PubCampNC). PublicMediaCampNC will take place at 10 AM-4 PM from MCNC’s Research Triangle Park’s facility [3021 E. Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889]. [map this] Event check-in will begin at 9 AM.

For general registration:
http://members.unc-tv.org/unctv_pmc

For remote registration:
http://members.unc-tv.org/pmc_remote

Join us!

On Friday, August 20, 2010, UNC-TV will partner with MCNC to host North Carolina’s first-ever PublicMediaCamp (PubCampNC). PublicMediaCampNC will take place at 10 AM-4 PM from MCNC’s Research Triangle Park’s facility [3021 E. Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889]. [map this] Event check-in will begin at 9 AM.

Based on the national PublicMediaCamp (PubCamp) initiative and incorporating the theme of “strengthening public media’s relationship with the public through the creation of collaborative projects,” PubCampNC will employ an unconference format: allowing participants to plan their own conference sessions and schedule throughout the day of the event.

To introduce the event to our participants, we’ve been using a short Prezi to kick off North Carolina’s first-ever interactive media unconference. Enjoy!

One month ago, we announced that we were going to award 10 PublicMediaCamp scholarships to PBS and NPR stations that would allow them to send up to two people to PubCamp this weekend, as well as receive a $2000 stipend to help defray the costs of their own local PubCamps.

We’ve now confirmed that the following stations will receive scholarships:

Georgia Public Broadcasting (Susanna Capelouto and William Overall)
KETC TV, St. Louis MO (Lauren Schwarze and Kate Shaw)
KLRU TV, Austin TX (Shane Guiter)
Maine Public Broadcasting Network (Chris Sweet and Nick Woodward)
Mississippi Public Broadcasting (Thomas Broadus)
Oregon Public Broadcasting (Rob Vincent)
UNC-TV – North Carolina Public Television (Jen Jones and RL Watson)
WFWA TV, Ft. Wayne IN (Mark Ryan)
WLRN TV and Radio, Miami FL (Stephen Malagodi)
WOSU Radio, Columbus OH (Susan Meyer and Andrew Miller)

Please join me in congratulating them for winning the scholarship – we look forward to seeing you in DC and learning about your own PubCamps in the future!

Despite our best efforts to organize PubCamp during what’s usually one of the most beautiful months of the year in DC, it looks like our weather is going to be cold, dreary and wet. So what better way to cope with the intemperate weather than grabbing a beer Friday night with your fellow PubCampers.

Since we’d hate to leave you wandering aimlessly around the damp, dank streets of DC, we’re going to have an informal meetup/tweetup Friday at 5pm over at Buffalo Billiards in Dupont Circle. If you’ve never been, it’s a cavernous place full of pool tables, dart boards and even a few Wii consoles. This isn’t an official PubCamp event (read: we’re all going Dutch on this one; the beer is on us Saturday night) but at least it’ll be a place to congregate in some relative warmth and contemplate the chaos that’s about to ensue over the weekend.

Buffalo Billiards is located at 1330 19th St NW, one block south of Dupont Circle. If you come via Metro, take the Red Line to Dupont Circle and take the south exit; it’ll literally be across the street to the right when you come up the escalators. If you’re at Hotel Helix, it’s about a 10-15 walk or a five minute cab ride.

Once some of us get there, we’ll post some tweets with the #pubcamp hashtag letting you know exactly where we are in the bar. Hopefully it won’t be too hard to find us. We’ll likely be the geeks with the iPhones and the Flip Cams and whatnot.

We’re just a few days away from PubCamp and in order to make your trip as easy as possible, we’ve put together a short guide that you can download here. You can also click the map to the left for directions from Hotel Helix. The venue page on the wiki has some useful images of the building we’re using as well.

Lastly, follow the pre-camp buzz by tracking #pubcamp on twitter and/or following @publicmediacamp. We’ll be monitoring those and answering any questions if you have them while in route.

(See Update Below)
We are excited to see that currently approximately a third of registrants are coming in from out of town.  We have made arrangements for a block of rooms at the Hotel Helix at a pre-negotiated rate of $195/nt.  These 50 rooms are available on a first come basis.   Call: 800-706-1202, and reference NPR and/or PublicMediaCamp.

While we made sure the camp is free, we couldn’t convince any hotels to give away their rooms.   It is peak hotel season in DC, and given the time frame it was the best option we found for being able to reserve a block of rooms.  The Helix is a great hotel in a fun neighborhood that offers a variety of interests for after conference food and entertainment.   As this hotel is not walking distance to the conference we plan to arrange a shuttle to and from this location.

If you find a cheaper hotel (or a friend’s house) you can take the Metro Red Line to Tenleytown station, and from there ride the AU shuttle to get to the conference. For more directions see Camp Directions and Map.

UPDATE: The Helix Hotel room block is only available through Sept 30th. The one big advantage with this location is that we will be running a shuttle to/from at beginning/end of day. If you’ve found a better rate at another hotel feel free to post in comments so fellow campers can see.

The weekend of October 17th and 18th is quickly approaching, below you’ll find a rough schedule of how the unconference will be framed time-wise.

Our venue is fabulous and has lots of large, open spaces for sessions, project work, and food. There will be ample power, wifi and collaborative areas where developers, creatives, and everyone else will be able to easily work together and make themselves comfortable.

Saturday:

• 8am Breakfast and Socializing
• 9am Welcome to #PubCamp and session planning
• 10am Breakout Sessions (1-hour long segments)
  
• 12pm Lunch
• 1:30pm Breakout Sessions and open-space meetings (1-hour long segments)
  
• 5:30pm Happy Hour! (sponsorship opportunities available)
  

Sunday:

• 8am Breakfast
• 9am Day 1 recap and Day 2 session planning
• 10am 2-hour Power Sessions
• 12pm Lunch
• 1pm Sessions and open-space meetings (1-hour long segments)
  
• 5:30pm Post-camp next steps for organizers and attendees

This schedule can, and will change and feel free to leave your feedback on how we’ve set things up in the comments section below.