Porter Square Neighbors Association

We rolled out our shiny new website today! Lots of thought and effort went into this redesign, with the purpose of making the site easier to find local stories and content made by people who live here in Cambridge. We've worked hard to bring all the more locally produced blogs, videos, and special programs up to the surface of the site.

Our users get a few extra features with this new website release as well. Bigger and better user profiles make it easier to create an online personality and easier for you to identify and recognize the people using our site. We're strengthened our use of RSS feeds all across the boards, and we're listing our full, search-and-sortable class schedule on the site as well. read more...

These events are FREE and open to the public.
Children are welcome in the company of an adult.

Sunday, July 6
7:30 to 9:30 am
Neville Place Driveway, 650 Concord Avenue

In the summertime, early morning is the best time to look for birds. They are most active when the air is cool and they are hungry. Adults may be feeding babies, and fledglings will be following their parents and chirping for food. Beginning birders are welcome. Binoculars can be provided if you need them.

Monday, July 7
6:00 to 8:30 pm
Walter J. Sullivan Water Purification Facility
250 Fresh Pond Parkway read more...

• NeighborMedia

Come to CCTV on July 16 to learn how individuals and organizations are using the virtual world Second Life.

During the event, we will provide an overview of virtual worlds and present our proposal to create an historical re-creation of a physical location in Cambridge using Second Life in 2008-2009.

The goal is to present our project - created by you! - at the grand re-opening of the new Cambridge Main Library set for Fall 2009.

Join our CCTV online group for updates.

This event is sponsored by Cambridge Public Library and CCTV.

(Photo above by Pathfinder Linden available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

• Launching into Second Life

The hard-working CCTV staff traded desks and edit suites for a day of work at George's Island in Boston Harbor. Between developing a capital plan for the next ten years, analyzing facilties' usage patterns, and discussing membership development and outreach, there was frisbee, sandwiches and cookies, and dodging lightening. Look for a newly invigorated group at the station on Sunday night.

As people celebrate the 4th on the Charles, they may be happy to find trash receptacles to help them depart with their waste. But if you are a resident in 02141, you know that these receptacles are only temporary. What you see for the rest of the year will shock you. There are only three receptacles between the Museum of Science and the Mass Ave bridge. If you call the DCR and ask why, they will tell you they will look into it. They have been telling me for this for the past three years. People often put the trash where the barrels should be. VERY SAD

• NeighborMedia

<---- This is me thinking hard. Thanks to flickr user Regalore for the image.

Last night was a full agenda for CCTV's June Board Meeting! It was a night full of teaching and learning. Our Treasurer Steve did a great job teaching us a bit about financing, Steve Shultz and Rika contributed their knowledge about and experience with franchise negotiations, Amy brought us up to date on the MAC, Sean Eiffel, Associate Director of CCTV, shared with us all the hard work that goes into submitting to the Hometown Video Festival, in which CCTV won TWO Overall Excellence awards (Congrats again CCTV!!), and Susan gave us a "Sedentary Tour" of CCTV, generating lots of excitement about exactly HOW MANY THINGS are going on at CCTV!

All in all it made for a very fun meeting! My head is nearly aching from all the new knowledge. Well, either from that or these strange metal wires coming out of my ears. ;)

/aal

• CCTV Board of Directors

This summer, you could be learning how to make media for all of Cambridge to see! Come to CCTV's next public information session and find out how to get involved at the number one public access center in the country.

Where: CCTV, 675 Mass. Ave., entrance off Prospect St. (Central Square)
When: Tuesday, July 1st, 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Check out the video of the Father and Son’s Breakfast - the kick off for the Men’s Health League which occurred on May 31st 2008 at ‘the Elks’ on Bishop Allen Drive in ‘the Port’/Area 4 Cambridge.

Getting a Man to check on his health has always been a challenge and Men of color in particular are at the top of the charts when it comes to statistics on high cholesterol heart disease, and cancer. Yet a solution to those barriers has been found with the new Men’s Health League - a program that “aims to reduce disparities and improve health outcomes for men of color in the city of Cambridge.”

NOW - if you are a man of color and need to get your health in check ahora/now DO call 617-665-3830 and speak to Henry Lewis or Albert Pless - I am sure they can start you on the road to your health success!!!

• NeighborMedia

Beginning July 18, CCTV members may receive help with online media projects, such as blogging, podcasting, or uploading video to the web, every Friday 3-6PM in computerCENTRAL.

During these hours, members may learn how to create and share audio, video, photos and text online using our website at cctvcambridge.org or on popular websites such as YouTube, blip.tv and Miro.

Do you have a digital camera but don't know how to upload photos or video to the web? Bring it to Web Media Help and we'll show you how!

If you have any questions about our Web Media Help hours for CCTV members, please email Colin Rhinesmith, Community Media Coordinator at colin (AT) cctvcambridge.org or leave a comment below.

A friend who lives on the Cambridge Riviera sent me an e-mail on Monday June 16 saying that there was another oil slick on the Charles River this morning. It extended from the Charles River Yacht Club opposite 100 Memorial Drive to some point down river from the Mirant Kendall electric plant. The Broad Canal was completely covered. This has been happening since April.

Both Cambridge Fire Department and the State Police were on the scene investigating. Mass DEP also sent a crew. I called the CFD and was told that the Mirant plant manager reported the spill at 9:28 A.M., and that they had eliminated the barges working on the Longfellow Bridge as a source. The gentleman also mentioned run-off as a possible source. This seems unlikely since the rain did not come until Monday night. read more...

• NeighborMedia

The Hometown Video Festival, sponsored by the national Alliance for Community Media, has announced its 2008 community media awards, and Cambridge Community Television is sharing top honors with Arlington (VA) Independent Media in the Overall Excellence in Public Access Programming category for organizations with annual budgets over $500,000. Newcomer Cambridge Educational Access (CEA), Channels 98 and 99, has received the Overall Excellence in Educational Access Programming award for centers with budgets under $200,000. The Overall Excellence award recognizes public, educational and governmental (PEG) cable access stations for the high quality of their operational activities and programming efforts. CCTV competes in the highest budget category, against the major cities in the country. read more...

If you live in Cambridge and you haven't yet started producing a radio program, hosting your own live show, or learning how to make a video ... then what are you waiting for??? The summer is almost here, so no excuses -- it's time to get yourself out to CCTV so your programming can be viewed on local television!

Learn all about Cambridge Community Television and how to get involved here at our free, public information session.

Where: CCTV, 675 Massachusetts Ave. (enter off Prospect Street) -- right in the heart of Central Square
When: Wednesday, June 4th, 6:30-8 p.m.

Opportunities are also available to individuals residing in other communities. Because who knows...before you know it, your media could be the talk of the town!

Did you miss out on seeing Project Documentary's latest short film "The Dames"? Well you're in luck! We invite you to one (or all) of our free screenings this June:

Thursday, June 5th, 8:00pm at The Middlesex Lounge

Wednesday, June 18th, 6:30 and 8:00pm at The Enormous Room

Thursday, June 29th, 8:00pm at The Otherside Cafe (along with other short films)

All screenings are FREE and open to the public (over 21 for bar screenings).

• Roller Derby Documentary

On June 2, the city is hosting an event at City Hall to celebrate the success of the digital divide pilot program.

During the event, students at Rindge School of Technical Arts who refurbished the computers and provided technical support for participants, as well as the collaborators who worked so hard to design the program, will be recognized for their contributions. We also welcome participants from Newtowne Court who participated in the program to attend the celebration.

(photo above by Elizabeth Thomsen available under a Creative Commons license)

• Digital Divide

It's the event you have all been waiting for: The first term of CCTV's NeighborMedia program is coming to a close, which means the entire community is invited to CCTV to celebrate the work your neighbors have done. After viewing some of the content from the past year, you will have the opportunity to tell us what you think and find out how you, too, can get involved with NeighborMedia -- either by having others tell your stories or by learning how to report on issues and events in your own backyard. Refreshments will be served.

• Where: CCTV's Big Studio
• When: Monday, June 16th, 7pm
• Free to all!

TUES & THURS June 10, 12, 17, 19, 24 & 26 6-9 pm

Get ready for another exciting and fast-paced workshop in short documentary production!

Instructor Ryan Tebo, filmmaker and professor at Emerson College, will lead the documentary team in producing a new feature for CCTV. Join the team as we spotlight yet another integral aspect of the greater Cambridge community.

In this course, you'll learn about all the different stages of production and equipment needed to make effective and touching documentaries. This class will also certify you to checkout CCTV camcorders and reserve CCTV edit suites.

Want to enroll? Email Shaun Clarke or call (617) 661-6900 x128.

Brattle Theater, Harvard Square, Cambridge
8PM of May 29, 2008

With twenty years of excellence and notoriety under its belt, Cambridge Community Television has archived decades of local television programming, from political mudslingings by elected officials to embarrassing cooking shows starring, most probably, your neighbors. To celebrate their 20th anniversary CCTV will screen samples of their most famous programming gems since opening in 1988, including coverage of local historic events, locally famous personalities, and other programs that captured the greatness of Cambridge on television. Also included are the programs that put Cambridge on the map for different reasons altogether, such as gratuitous frontal nudity, the violation of a frozen poultry, and a bunch of other shows that prompted residents to file complaints (fruitlessly) with the FCC. read more...

CCTV has come a long way since 1988, when our facilities were located at One Kendall Square. But the 80s weren't all that bad! Check out the video to watch our staff members' recent time warp -- and get ready to join the fun by marking your calendars for our next celebratory event: "(In)famous: 20 years of Cambridge Community Television's most talked about programming," a screening to be held on Thursday, May 29th at the Brattle Theatre.

• CCTV's 20th Anniversary

Tuesday, May 13
6-9 p.m.

Just about everyone has some sort of personal space on the internet nowadays; be it on MySpace, Facebook, or any of the other social networking sites. But what if you wanted complete control over your web presence? What if you wanted to create a space on the web with the look and content that really reflects your style?

Come take the Introduction to HTML and Dreamweaver class! You'll learn everything necessary to create your own personal web pages: HTML tags, page structure, layouts, text and color control, and image manipulation. Plus, we'll go over how to enhance your pages by dropping in YouTube videos, music, and more!

Pre-requisite: STRONG ability to manage files within Mac OSX

Want to join up? Email Shaun Clarke, or call (617) 661-6900 x128.

Photo courtesy of the Free Art and Technology (FAT) Lab.

Wednesday May 14
6-9 p.m.
Enroll Now!

This class is ideal for people who are interested in learning more about how to use the web to create and share media online. This is a one-session primer on the fastest, easiest and free-est methods of publishing text, photos, audio, and video using services like Blogger, Wordpress, Flickr, YouTube and Blip.tv. We will also discuss DIY options for hosting your own website and services.

Pre-requisite: solid mouse, keyboarding and file/window/ management skills.

Want to enroll? Email Shaun Clarke or call (617) 661-6900 x128.

(Photo above by Ben Sheldon available under a Creative Commons license)