Results from the pre-AMC2012 survey
"I want to learn to create, to be visionary, to think differently, to collaborate, to tell stories and to listen really, really well." Over the past 13 years, the Allied Media Conference has grown and transformed significantly. We describe our work as conference organizers through the metaphor of earthworms cultivating healthy soil. We identify the right balance of nutrients (workshops, strategy sessions, dance parties, etc.) out of which annual cycles of media-based organizing can grow and flourish. The projects, ideas and relationships that spring out of and through the AMC each year together represent an ecosystem for a more just and creative world. Knowing what makes healthy soil is essential to our work. With this goal in mind, we designed a survey to assess: What are the most important questions facing our planet in this moment in history? What skills do our communities need in order to navigate those questions? What kinds of relationships do we need to be building and with whom? More than 200 of you took time to complete the survey, sharing your goals, ideas, and desires for AMC2012. We gathered your responses, fed them into the AMC2012 coordinators planning meeting in January, and will now use them to shape the session development process. Summarized below are quotes and major themes from the survey responses. If you're considering submitting a session proposal, we strongly encourage you to read through this summary and incorporate this information into the design of your session. Whether or not you are planning to submit a session proposal for AMC2012, we hope this data will inform your year-round organizing efforts.
SESSION LENGTH AND SKILL-LEVEL
"Sometimes people bring unexpected skills to the room. Mixed skill groups enable these to come out. I also think that mixing it up builds on a philosophy of skill-sharing." "I would love some more in depth tech sessions for practitioners." "An intermediate level allows the advanced people to reengage with their skills. More people will be served. Most of the people who come to the AMC are organizers and are looking to share skills as well as develop new skills." "On certain topics...I want to be able to dive deeper, and have presenters that really know what they're talking about, to keep my fire going." More than 50% of survey respondents asked for more sessions that served all skill levels. Nearly a quarter wanted sessions for more advanced skill levels. This year, breaks between sessions will be 10 minutes longer than in AMCs past. This change reflects the fact that a majority of people wanted the length of AMC sessions to remain 90 minutes, but a significant number of people also said that 90 minutes was not enough, causing sessions to run-over time and infringe on the following session's time. With 30 minutes between each session block this year we'll cut down on rushing and allow for more fluid transitions. Even with the extended break, presenters should continue to plan to end their sessions on time.
SESSION CONTENT
"I would like to learn more about sound, interactions, electronics, and how those practices can be use in art and outreach projects." "Movement building techniques that go beyond isolated act of civil disobedience, indigenous storytelling as a means for cultural and historical preservation." "I want to [hear] voices of different generations. I want to be inspired and challenged by someone who's been in the struggle for decades, and I want to find hope in a child's dream for the future." "...the way our art can be political without being pedantic. I want to see new concepts of activist and radical art that move beyond youth media and art work that is more savvy." "Perhaps this is the year you ask select session leaders to begin to think about a longer term (two or three-year) vision for their topics, how they could build, what they might accomplish with a longer- term vision." Survey respondents expressed interest in a vast array of skill-sets, ideas and strategy conversations. Some of the common themes were:
- how to build stronger communities and networks of communities - inter-personally and technologically.
- skills that demystify technology and make it work towards liberation, while honing our non-digital communication skills.
- in-depth strategizing around what we mean by “liberation,” and sharp analysis of our current moment and expansive visioning of our collective futures.
See below for a more detailed summary of what survey respondents said they want to see at AMC2012. Technical skills
- accessibility in digital media
- adaptive technologies
- advanced audio - Ableton, Logic, ProTools
- advanced design - Photoshop
- advanced wireless skills
- alternative energy and how to make media without electricity
- basic animation
- best practices for cloud adoption
- cell-phone friendly websites
- community blogs
- community research
- computer networks
- creating apps for iPhone and Android
- dance - Dunham technique
- database design
- Drupal
- editing
- electronics
- encryption
- graphics
- how to turn complex ideas into accessible art
- live sound
- low-budget technology education curriculum
- making music - drumming, digital and non-digital
- media literacy
- mobile radio stations
- open source software and tools - for advanced and beginner
- performance art - gender-based, technology-integrated
- podcasts
- printmaking - woodcut, silkscreen, stencil
- search-engine optimization
- self-publishing/distribution
- sound art
- storytelling (especially for web)
- street art - murals, and the art of spray paint
- survey of new internet tools
- telekinesis
- using GIS technology - community mapping
- video editing
- video production and editing
- video remixing
- webstreaming
- Wordpress
- writing
- zine-making
Organizing skills and strategies
- collaborative leadership
- communications practices for small businesses
- community accountability
- community content-production models
- community resource-sharing via online/offline space
- conference-organizing
- conflict resolution and transformation
- documenting, archiving, sharing tools
- facilitation
- how to shift from reactive organizing to vision-based organizing
- how to teach technology to elders
- interviewing
- media-based organizing / campaigns
- national/international network-building & communication (sustaining national organizing)
- post-cyber communication skills: intuition, body language, trust
- reflection on what's grown through the AMC thus far
- strategy development
- to listen really well
- web-based, community-powered grant-making and fundraising
Operations skills
- capacity-building
- databases
- financial management
- grantwriting
- how to teach these skills
- membership tracking
- project management
- pros-cons of Bcorps/L3Cs
Non-media related
- astrology
- growing food
- healing from trauma
- healing rituals
- health clinics
- herbal healing
- how to build tiny houses/earthships
- mental health
- seed bombs
- self-care
- time-banking
Issues
- 2012 election
- boycott, divestment, sanctions
- environmental racism
- fat activism
- food sovereignty
- mass transit
- organizing with returning citizens
- resisting foreclosures and utility shutoffs
- sex work
- the prison industrial complex - impacts on queer, youth, poc communities
- transformative justice
Conversations
- 30th anniversary of Vincent Chin's murder
- analysis of different media-based organizing campaigns - what worked/didn't
- analysis of Occupy/Decolonize movements
- art that's political without being pedantic
- avoidable surveillance
- better labor practices in the production of our technologies
- book clubs / peer learning circles
- building hyper-local communications infrastructures (lpfms, public access, grassroots media)
- building intergenerational queer community
- capacity-building and sustainability
- connecting digital justice with hacker/makerspaces
- connecting grassroots organizing with academia
- countering privatization and surveillance online
- creating / reclaiming language i.e.: "family" "health" "education"
- creating beloved community
- creating post-industrial life systems
- creating the societies we want, with science fiction as the starting point
- cultural appropriation
- girls / non-males in technology
- how to be grassroots historians and journalists in our communities
- how to talk about policy better
- identifying and communicating essential survival skills for our communities
- inter-generational conversations with youth leading
- learning from failure
- liberation from the Mac empire
- local organizing in relation to mid east, chile, occupy
- media and disaster response
- media and immigrant rights organizing
- media-making and information-sharing as a process that prepares us for self-governance
- new economic paradigms, learning from detroit
- politicizing childcare and building intergenerational movements
- politicizing childcare in all of our movements
- privilege and oppression
- re-framing the "net-neutrality" discourse
- sex ed and anti-criminalization curriculum for queer youth
- solidarity vs. charity
- strategic assessment of the impacts of our media
- syndication/ alt distribution hubs - evaluation of Indymedia's success and failures
- technology infrastructure ownership
- the culture of remixing - from art to organizing
- the future of independent media
- transformative approaches to anti-bullying organizing
- transformative community-building through performance art
- what are healthy digital ecosystems?
- why is radio still relevant?
- youth of color and media justice
- youth speaking for themselves
WHO NEEDS TO BE AT AMC2012
"Anybody who uses or wants to use media or art as a tool for advancing human interaction, engagement and community development- especially youth, communities left out of mainstream media debates- immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ communities, etc." The outcomes of all the discussions and skill-shares described above will only be as rich as the people leading and participating in them. When we asked who needs to be at AMC2012, survey respondents told us:
- anyone that is willing to participate
- anarchists
- artists
- college professors
- culture-makers
- detroit elders
- Detroit Future Media participants
- Detroit Future Schools participants
- Detroit Future Youth participants
- Detroit youth
- Detroiters
- disabled people
- educators
- elected officials
- excellent, experienced writers
- executive directors who want to learn
- families
- free software folks
- gender non-conforming people
- game designers
- grassroots organizers
- highly stylish people
- homeless youth / youth living in shelters
- immigrants
- indigenous elders
- indigenous people
- mediators and facilitators
- muslims
- Occupy/Decolonize movement organizers
- participatory policy-makers
- people doing real organizing in their communities
- people from other countries
- people of color
- people who are active in uplifting their communities
- people who can't afford to go to conferences
- people who don't have tech skills yet
- people who may not identify as "radical"
- people who may not see themselves as "media makers" or "artists"
- people who want to teach and learn
- prison abolitionists
- programmers who want to teach
- queer elders
- queer technologists
- queer youth
- radical futurists
- radio producers
- religious community activists
- returning citizens / formerly incarcerated people
- self-lovers
- single mothers
- Southerners, esp. ATLians, New Orleanians, Alabamans
- storytellers
- teachers who want to code
- transwonderful people
- unemployed/underemployed people
- women technologists
- working class people
- working journalists
- young mamas
MAKING THE AMC A WELCOMING SPACE FOR ALL
"my first time at the amc in 2010 was really beautiful and inspiring and amazing. but i was incredibly overwhelmed, and don't think i was prepped enough to take away practical skills as much as i was moved by the energy there." The AMC is like a family reunion for people who have been coming for years and years, but as the conference expands every year, we want to ensure that new people feel welcome and are able to participate with their full selves. These are some of the great suggestions for how we can all work to make the AMC a welcoming space for veteran participants and newbies alike:
- a friendly face and a helping hand in getting settled
- accurate descriptions of workshops.
- greeters! hydration stations. buddies.
- having introductory social ice breakers the first day.
- info and schedules in advance of the conference
- making sure people leave with some kind of viable tools
- more coffee
- more support for the healing space and letting folks know that it's there
- online introductions / pre-conference interactions based on skills, passions, purpose, etc
- opportunities for elders to connect & perform / showcase their skills & talents
- people who show up for the first time should get an introduction to the AMC and maybe get partnered with an experienced AMC veteran
- signs posted around campus as to the wheelchair accessible route.
CONCLUSION
With our combined efforts, AMC2012 is going to be the most mind-blowing and inspiring AMC ever. Please take the information from our Pre-AMC2012 survey, make it useful to your work and share it far and wide. We're so grateful for all the members of our AMP network who took time to complete the survey. Your effort is directly impacting our plans for AMC2012. Thank you! If you'd like to discuss themes, challenges or ideas, please contact us.
Summary of the AMC2012 Coordinators Gathering
Over the weekend of January 13-15, more than 30 AMC content coordinators from all over the U.S. and Canada joined AMP staff in our Detroit headquarters to kick off planning of the 21 Tracks, Practice Spaces, and Network Gatherings for the 14th annual Allied Media Conference.
We had a weekend full of activities and exercises to collaboratively strengthen the vision and language of each AMC content area, share critical information about conference structure, and build plans to ensure the fluidity and impact of each session.
DAY 1: BUILDING CONNECTIONS
Our weekend began with introductions and an ice-breaker activity called “Why/Because.” Each participant drafted on paper scraps a handful of random questions beginning in “Why...” or answers starting with “Because...” Some were serious and many were hilarious, but when we arbitrarily combined these questions and answers and used them as prompts for small group discussion, we found the conversation naturally gravitated towards many of the themes that drive the AMC: investing our whole selves, examining a life with possibility, sharing tools and tactics, and emphasizing the cyclical nature of teaching and learning. This was the beginning of our weekend of strategy-building and collaborative development.
DAY 2: TAPPING OUR COLLECTIVE BRAIN
We began the day by posting around the office the working titles and descriptions of each AMC Track, Practice Space, and Network Gathering and spent the morning poring over each other's drafts. We asked coordinators to comment, ask clarifying questions, and offer suggestions for collaboration. Our goals were to recognize and act on overlapping missions and visions, ensure that the language of descriptions was accurate and engaging, and to point out things that felt particularly exciting. Refining these content descriptions was a great way to collectively secure the foundation for what and who we'll see at AMC2012. Read the completed descriptions here.
Network Gatherings, Tracks, and Practice Spaces are the three content types for AMC2012. We placed the coordinators in brainstorming groups based on the content type they are coordinating, allowing for idea development, troubleshooting and skill-sharing specific to each type.
Tracks went over what makes a good session and what doesn't. They spoke about the need for strong facilitation, time-management, accessible ideas, and the reality of what can and cannot be responsibly accomplished in 90-minute session blocks. Practice spaces reflected on how to engage as many people as possible, how to plan for space limitations, and the logistics of putting their ideas into action. Network gatherings discussed logistical requirements and how to accommodate the varying needs in each gathering, open versus closed gatherings, and how to effectively share outcomes from the gatherings.
To make sure that everyone who wants to be at AMC2012 can be there, we went hard into grassroots fundraising planning mode. We reviewed the budgets and lessons from successful past fundraisers and started scheming how each of the 21 tracks, network gatherings and practice spaces will mobilize and resource their communities to get to the AMC. This year, AMP is providing small mini-grants which will be used to seed local fundraising projects to get to the AMC. Look out for dance parties, spelling bees, and other “fun” raisers happening in your town soon.
DAY 3: WINDING DOWN & WINDING UP!
After a Saturday night of Detroit-style partying, we came back Sunday morning refreshed (okay, so we were exhausted...) and inspired. Bringing our weekend full circle, we took time to learn about AMPTalk and other online tools for continued collaboration towards the AMC. We reviewed the timeline leading up to the conference and ensured coordinators who weren't able to make it our meeting had the opportunity to tap into the ongoing networking and planning towards the AMC.
Get involved in shaping the AMC by submitting a session proposal.
Check out our photo recap of the weekend below.
Announcing AMC2012 Tracks, Network Gatherings, and Practice Spaces. Submit session proposals now!
AMC2012 features 21 amazing participant-organized Tracks, Network Gatherings, and Practice Spaces. Read the descriptions here!
You are now invited to submit proposals for AMC sessions. Submit your proposal at AMPTalk!
*PROPOSALS ARE DUE MARCH 14TH*
We are looking for sessions that can be hosted within AMC Practice Spaces or Tracks, or that stand alone in their awesomeness. When you propose your session, you can associate your proposal with multiple Tracks and Practice Spaces, or none-of-the-above by selecting the "General" track.
Tracks are a series of 5 - 10 AMC sessions focused on media-based organizing strategies. We define "media-based organizing" as any collaborative process that uses media, art, or technology to bring about a more just and creative world.
Practice Spaces are experiments in creating the world we want to see. Through Practice Spaces, we model practices that make the AMC more accessible, engaging, and transformative for everyone.
Network Gatherings are day-long mini-conferences held on the Thursday before the conference. These are spaces for established networks or groups to convene in the space of the AMC for in-depth reflection and planning conversations.
We're excited to fill the AMC with incredible content from new and returning presenters.
Let the session proposing begin!
Help shape AMC2012 - take a 10 min survey
Next week, 34 coordinators of the AMC2012 tracks, network gatherings and practice spaces will meet up in Detroit for three days of intensive planning.
At this meeting, we will launch the six-month process of content-development, cross-network collaboration and grassroots fundraising that will result in a glorious AMC2012.
We need your input in this planning process! What skills do you want to learn at AMC2012? What strategy conversations do you want to have? Who do you want to make sure participates in the conference this year?
Tell us all these things and more in a super short survey. It will only take 15 minutes of your time and it will contribute volumes to the awesomeness of this year's AMC.
If you are inspired to give more detailed input, please fill out an additional survey designed by the coordinators of the Webmaking Track to assess what web development skills should be shared at AMC2012.
While we will continue to accept responses over the next several months, your input will be MOST VALUABLE to us if we receive it before 9am EST on Friday 1/13. This will allow us to incorporate your feedback into the coordinators' planning meeting next weekend.
Thank you for being a part of the AMC network.
AMP Year-End Reflections
Image by Joe Namy
This was the most epic year-to-date in the life of Allied Media Projects.
Image by Joe Namy
During that same weekend in late January 2011, AMP moved from our cozy (but too small and inaccessible) office in an old Elementary School to a 3,000 square foot ground-level space in the Furniture Factory Theater building, only a few blocks away, in the Cass Corridor. Our new office includes a media lab/classroom which we designed to host the first round of Detroit Future Media workshops. We have spacious work areas for our staff, which has grown from three at the beginning of the year to a crew of eight full-time and a dozen part-time staff.
Image by DMEC Communicator
Through DFM we trained an inaugural class of Detroiters in audio, video, graphic design, web design skills and the application of these skills in education, social justice organizing, and community-based entrepreneurship. We selected DFM students through an application process which asked, "What is your vision for the future of Detroit?" and "How will you use digital media to transform your community?"
Image by Joe NamyIn August, we launched Detroit Future Schools by hosting 12 teachers and eight DFM artists-in-residence to "AMP Camp" – a five-day professional development retreat at a YMCA camp in West Michigan. AMP Camp was a time for collaborative curricula-building,plus a healthy dose of kayaking, karaoke, and jumping off trampolines into a lake. At the retreat, we looked long and hard at the education crisis facing Detroit. We realized that the goals of our program were nothing less than to reinvent the purpose and practice of education in Detroit. Our purpose is to prepare the future-builders of a more just, creative and collaborative world. Our practice is digital media arts integration, project-based learning, democratic classrooms, and school-community connectedness.
Photo by Leona McElveneAmidst the highs of the 2011 Allied Media Conference, the graduation of the first class of Detroit Future Media, and the AMP Camp week of Detroit Future Schools, the Summer of 2011 hit a profound low with the passing of Detroit poet-activist-educator, D. Blair. Blair had been an important part of the AMC community, most recently as co-coordinator of the "Poetry and Music as Transformative Media" track at AMC2011. AMP staff mourned alongside our vast network of people locally and nationally who loved Blair. We celebrated and honored his life, while committing to do better at taking care of each other as we work towards a more just and creative world.
AMP continues to be an active member in the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition, providing facilitation for monthly meetings and technical support for the network of the coalition's thirteen Public Computer Centers. At the first DDJC retreat, held in November of this year, we laid strategic plans for the coming year of Discovering Technology Fairs (or "DiscoTechs") community wireless networks and communications work, including the publication of the zine, Communication is a Fundamental Human Right.
