Public Access TV wants to share content on Drupal CMSs

Public Access TV stations around the country generate content from the community. This type of production was famously lampooned in the Wayne's World SNL skit and movies where two local stoners put on a show every Saturday in the basement of Wayne's parent's house. But all jokes aside, each station generates original content and according to a recent article on MassLive.com public access stations are working together and looking for open-source tools like Drupal to share and manage their content.

The project, which received funding from a Knight-Ridder grant, was started by Tony Shawcross from Denver Open Media with the goal of forming a network of public TV stations. The project has come to be known as the Open Media Project and uses a suite of modules built using the Drupal CMS that provides the kinds of tools a TV station would require, such as a slot scheduler.

What's interesting about this approach is it is finding a way for stations that were previously isolated islands of content to share and distribute content in a fashion the large TV networks have done for years. While some of this content is uniquely local, others could appeal to a wider audience and could provide a way to leverage this content across the stations in a way that essentially open sources the content using open source content management. It's a fabulous idea.

For more information:
- see the Mass Live article

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