MAIN awarded $10,000 grant for civic mapping website

September 25, 2012 by Wally Bowen

ASHEVILLE – The nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) has been awarded a $10,000 Rural Digital Advocacy grant to build an online mapping and data visualization website for nonprofit organizations in Western North Carolina.

Awarded by the Rural Policy Action Partnership, the grant was one of six national awards to organizations to demonstrate the use of digital tools for rural advocacy and policy change. The partnership includes the Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State, the Center for Rural Strategies, and Network Impact, with funding provided by the Kellogg Foundation.

The project, entitled “Mapping Our Issues: Data Visualization Made Easy for Rural Activists,” has two phases. In phase one, MAIN will build a web-based mapping and data-visualization tool to enable WNC residents to document the availability, cost and performance of broadband Internet access in their locale. The tool will allow residents to compare their broadband experience with availability data provided by incumbent telephone and cable companies to the Federal Communications Commission.

In a report published Aug. 21, the FCC estimates that more than 48,000 residents of 16 mountain counties live beyond the reach of broadband lines from a cable or telephone provider. The number of WNC residents without broadband is even higher when cost and affordability are factored, the report said.

Phase two of the project will provide training for rural activists in how to use digital mapping and data-visualization to deepen public understanding of their issues. This training will initially focus on staff and volunteers from four local nonprofit partners: Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, Canary Coalition, Disability Partners, and the Western Region Education Services Alliance.

“Digital mapping and data visualization have long been used by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to promote their issues and policy solutions,” said Wally Bowen, the project director and founder of MAIN. “With advances in open-source software, it’s now possible for grassroots organizations to harness the power of digital mapping and data visualization,” he said.

Digital mapping, often called GIS for “geographic information systems,” has been around for more than 25 years. GIS can map everything from the spread of communicable disease or environmental pollution to the geographic distribution of tax breaks and campaign donations. Open source GIS is free software developed and refined over time by programmers from all over the world.

“Sets of data can be dry and intimidating,” said Bowen. “Data visualization brings out the story hidden in data, and GIS can relate that story to a specific place on the map.”

“There are tons and tons of public data available on any issue you can name,” said Neil Thomas, an Asheville-based GIS consultant. “GIS and data visualization allow you to analyze and present this data in ways that inform citizens and advances the public discussion around critical policy issues,” he said. Thomas’ firm, Resource Data Inc., is a consulting partner for the “Mapping Our Issues” project.

The project’s technical director, Richard Civille, calls open source GIS “the most important innovation in nonprofit technology since the advent of social media” to boost public understanding of critical issues and to empower public participation. “Like social media, these tools can be used for crowd-sourcing to create and present local data about local issues,” he said.

Civille noted, however, that grassroots organizations still face a “learning curve” in using GIS and data visualization. “It’s important to find local technical volunteers and partners who can help, and nonprofit leaders need to understand these new opportunities and challenges, and embrace them,” he said. Civille is a co-founder of Navigating Our Future, a nonprofit developer of civic IT infrastructure based in the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound, WA.

Bowen called the “Mapping Our Issues” project “an important step in MAIN’s mission of supporting local journalism and citizen voices” through the local ownership of media and IT infrastructure.

The project builds on Civic Navigator, a prototype GIS website launched earlier this year by MAIN, Navigating Our Future, and two other community media organizations, Access Humboldt in California and Chittenden County TV in Vermont. That effort recently took second place in the Knight Foundation’s Civic Data Challenge.

The “Mapping Our Issues” website is expected to launch by mid-October. MAIN’s Civic Navigator website is available at: http://www.main.nc.us/civic/

For more information, contact Wally Bowen at 828.255.0182 or e-mail: mapping@main.nc.us. For information on becoming a technical volunteer for “Mapping Our Issues,” please visit: http://www.main.nc.us/mapvol END

Posted in Media Reform and MAIN, News | 1 Comment »

Amy Goodman in Asheville — Friday, Sept. 7

August 31, 2012 by Wally Bowen

[Please note that advance ticket sales at Malaprops and online will end at noon Friday, Sept. 7. Tickets will be available at the door.]

Print Printable Flyer

Amy Goodman - The Silenced Majority

Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman will speak in Asheville on Friday, Sept. 7 to benefit the nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN).

The 7 p.m talk will be held in Ferguson Auditorium on the campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students. Advance tickets available online and at Malaprops Bookstore. Proceeds go to MAIN’s “Take Back the Media!” capital campaign.

Following the talk, Goodman will be signing her just-released book, “The Silenced Majority,” with co-author Denis Moynihan. The book examines the power of ordinary people to change the media based on accounts documented during populist uprisings from Fukushima to Tahrir Square and Occupy Wall Street.

Goodman is the host and co-founder of Democracy Now!, the daily news show broadcast on more than 1,000 radio and TV stations around the world. The program is heard locally each weekday at 8 a.m. on MAIN-FM 103.5, the low-power community radio station operated by Mountain Area Information Network. MAIN-FM also re-broadcasts Democracy Now! at 6 p.m. The video edition of Democracy Now! airs weekdays at 10 a.m. on the Blue Ridge Community College education access TV channel, BRCC-TV, in Henderson County.

Goodman’s talk in Asheville will be her first following Democracy Now!’s coverage of the 2012 Democratic and Republican national conventions. In 2008, Goodman and two Democracy Now! producers were among a number of journalists arrested during the opening day of the GOP convention in St. Paul, MN.

Goodman and Democracy Now! filed a civil lawsuit against the local police and the US Secret Service. The suit was settled last October for $100,000 plus an agreement by the police departments to train their personnel in the First Amendment’s protections of journalists and a free press.

“We are thrilled to host Amy Goodman the day after the Democratic Convention concludes in Charlotte,” said Wally Bowen, founder and executive director of MAIN. “With the unprecedented flood of corporate money into our politics, truly independent journalists like Amy Goodman are more important than ever before.”

The nonprofit Democracy Now! does not accept advertising or corporate underwriting, making it one of the only independent national news programs in the United States. Its awards include Best Investigating Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, the George Polk Award for Broadcast Reporting, and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.

MAIN-FM is the only radio station in the Asheville area that broadcasts Democracy Now! live each weekday morning. Bowen said Amy Goodman’s talk coincides with a major power increase for MAIN-FM, which had been forced to broadcast at reduced power since going on the air in 2003. The FCC recently relaxed the rules over opposition from commercial broadcasters. The date for MAIN-FM’s power increase is pending FCC approval.

Founded in 1995, the Mountain Area Information Network is a nonprofit Internet service provider which hosts websites for citizens, small businesses, and nonprofits throughout western North Carolina. MAIN also offers high-speed Internet access in parts of Buncombe, Madison, Mitchell and Yancey counties. MAIN is pioneering a new business model for journalism by enabling local residents to spend their Internet dollars to support independent news and public affairs programming.

For more information, visit: http://www.main.nc.us or call 828.255.0182. END

Posted in Action, Media Reform and MAIN, News | Comments Off

MAIN offers mapping tool for activists

July 29, 2012 by Wally Bowen

The nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) has launched a mapping tool prototype for citizens and grassroots groups in Western North Carolina.

For years, big corporations and government agencies have enjoyed the power of GIS and data visualization to shape public policies and public opinion. Until now, the cost and technical complexity of these tools have kept them out of the reach of average citizens.

MAIN is partnering with community media groups in California, Vermont, Washington, and South Carolina to develop this suite of GIS and data visualization tools. In the months ahead, we will be expanding this prototype by adding more WNC counties, new layers of data, and new applications.

MAIN is also seeking funding to provide tutorials in the use of GIS/DV for staff and volunteers with WNC grassroots organizations.

Please visit the link above for a preview of MAIN’s “Mapping Western North Carolina” website. And while you are there, please fill out the brief “Civic Engagement” survey. It’s quick, anonymous, and it could help MAIN and its partners compete for the Knight Foundation’s “Civic Data Challenge.”

Feedback is welcome at: webmaster@main.nc.us

Posted in Action, MAIN, Media Reform and MAIN, News, Too Cool For School | Comments Off

Corporate Corruption & Media Reform

July 12, 2012 by Wally Bowen

Dear Friends of Independent Media:

“The Spreading Scourge of Corporate Corruption” is an article in Wednesday’s New York Times, and it includes this sentence: “Perpetrators understandably do their best to hide the dirty deeds from public view.”

What this otherwise excellent article fails to mention is this:

It’s the job of independent journalism to pull back the curtain and expose the “dirty deeds” of corporate corruption.

Or as Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now!” says, independent journalists “go where the silence is” to report on what government and corporate elites don’t want us to know.

Corporate media produce stories to maintain a politically passive public, activated primarily to shop.

Independent media produce stories to create an informed public, activated to engage in public policy and civic life, even to the point of challenging the dominant corporate order.

Since 1996, only one organization in Western North Carolina has consistently fought BOTH for independent journalism and greater citizen-access to media. That organization is MAIN, the Mountain Area Information Network.

Now, MAIN is at a crossroads. We need your help.

Please support our “Media Independence for WNC” fund drive with a generous tax-deductible donation via our secure server.

Or mail your donation to: MAIN, 34 Wall Street, Suite 407, Asheville, NC 28801.

And check out how your donation will be used here.

For Media Independence!

The MAIN Staff and Board of Directors

PS – Stand by for news of MAIN-FM’s imminent return to the local airwaves with a much-improved signal!

PSS – If you are new to Western North Carolina, check out this “Timeline of MAIN’s Major Accomplishments, 1996-2012.”

Posted in Fundraising, MAIN, News | Comments Off

Bowen to speak on Internet freedom and spectrum policy in D.C.

May 10, 2012 by Wally Bowen

Local media activist Wally Bowen will speak on the growing shift to mobile Internet access and the impact of federal spectrum policies at two conferences in Washington, D.C. in May. Bowen is founder and executive director of the nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN).

On May 16, Bowen will discuss “Civil Rights and the Public Interest in Spectrum Policy” as part of a panel sponsored by the Media & Democracy Coalition and attended by representatives from more than 50 social and economic justice organizations in the Washington, D.C. area.

On May 23, Bowen will participate in a conference entitled “From Broadcast to Broadband: New Theories of the Public Interest in Wireless” sponsored by the New America Foundation, Public Knowledge, and Rutgers University’s Institute for Information Policy and Law. He will take part in a panel discussion on “What is the Public Interest in Wireless.”

MAIN has been providing wireless broadband services in Buncombe, Madison, Yancey and Mitchell counties since 2003. Bowen calls spectrum policy the “civil rights issue of the 21st century.” Spectrum policy, he says, will determine if a handful of corporations controls the Internet, or if community networks will be free to provide alternative Internet access that preserves civil liberties, supports local economies, and empowers grassroots innovation. For more information, visit www.main.nc.us.


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An important message from MAIN

April 20, 2012 by cd

Dear Friends of Progressive Media:

Many of you know that the non-profit Mountain Area Information
Network has worked for many years to provide an alternative to AT&T
and Charter for Internet access.

Today this mission is in jeopardy. If the Asheville City Council
does not act on April 24, MAIN must vacate a City-owned cell tower
and shut down a major part of its Asheville network on May 1.

Many of your friends and neighbors will lose Internet access. And
MAIN’s ability to upgrade and expand our broadband service will be
greatly limited, making Asheville even more dependent on AT&T and
Charter.

We need your help.

Please review the notice to MAIN subscribers below and then call or
e-mail the members of City Council (contact info below).

Ask City Council to allow MAIN to continue providing nonprofit
Internet access via the City-owned tower.

For a More Democratic Media!

MAIN Staff and Board of Directors

Dear MAIN Subscriber:

We are writing to inform you that your Internet service via MAIN may
be terminated May 1, 2012. The reason is that your service from MAIN
is delivered via a cell-tower owned by the City of Asheville, which
could require MAIN to vacate the tower on May 1.

We apologize for the possible disruption of service, but we are
hopeful that it can be prevented.

The decision to have MAIN vacate the tower was made at the
staff-level. MAIN is currently requesting a policy directive by the
Asheville City Council to prevent this action, and we need your
help.

On March 21, the MAIN Board of Directors passed a resolution (see
below) asking the City Council to grant MAIN access to this
cell-tower for 36 months. This in-kind support has a commercial
value of approximately $60,000 (including past-due rent).

We want to be clear: MAIN is NOT requesting any funding from the
City of Asheville.

As you know, the City of Asheville routinely awards grants and
subsidies to for-profit companies to locate or expand facilities in
our community. Recently the City awarded $3.5 million in incentives
to New Belgium Brewery. Last June, the City awarded approximately $2
million in subsidies to Linamar, a Canadian auto-parts manufacturer.

While MAIN is a nonprofit, we believe our unique public-service
mission merits a small fraction of the support provided these
for-profit enterprises. In return, MAIN is prepared to invest a
minimum of $25,000 to upgrade and expand our broadband network in
Asheville.

MAIN also plans to seek additional private funding as well as
federal broadband support proposed in the National Broadband Plan.
The $60,000 value of City tower space would qualify as “in kind
matching support” to attract future broadband investments in our
community.

As you know, MAIN is the only organization in Asheville dedicated to
bridging the broadband Digital Divide for individual households and
small businesses, a goal shared by the regional Economic Development
Coalition to which the City belongs.

The Asheville City Council meets on April 24, just six days before
the May 1 deadline.

Please contact Council members and urge them to support MAIN’s
request for continued access to the City-owned cell tower. Again,
this request is ONLY for tower space. MAIN is NOT requesting any
funding.

Thanks for supporting MAIN’s unique public-service mission!

MAIN Board of Directors

Asheville City Council contact information:

Mayor Terry Bellamy: mayorbellamy at avlcouncil.com –– 828.259-5600

Vice-Mayor Esther Manheimer: emanheimer at vwlawfirm.com ––
828.258.2991

Councilman Cecil Bothwell: cecil at braveulysses.com –– 828.713.8840

Councilman Jan Davis: jandavis at avlcouncil.com –– 828.253.5634

Councilman Marc Hunt: marchunt at avlcouncil.com –– 828.273.2172

Councilman Chris Pelly: chrispelly at avlcouncil.com –– 828.231.3704

Councilman Gordon Smith: gordonsmith at avlcouncil.com –– 828.279.2551

A Resolution by The Board of Directors

Posted in MAIN, News | 8 Comments »

MAIN-FM suspends over-the-air broadcast
to prep for signal boost; webcast continues

October 11, 2011 by Wally Bowen

MAIN-FM 103.5, a low-power FM radio station licensed to the
nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN), will temporarily
suspend its over-the-air broadcast Oct. 15. Listeners can continue
to hear MAIN-FM over the Internet via the station’s 24-hour webcast.

The temporary suspension of broadcast operations is a step in the
process of boosting the station’s signal, said Wally Bowen, MAIN’s
founder and executive director. He estimated the broadcast
suspension could last from two weeks to a month.

Last December, Congress passed the Local Community Radio Act, and
President Obama signed it into law. The law expands the frequencies
available for low-power FM radio stations. MAIN-FM is now eligible
for one of the new frequencies.

“This power-increase is a long time coming,” said Bowen. “Though we
would rather not inconvenience our broadcast listeners like this,
it’s a small price to pay for broadcasting at the full 100 watts for
which we were originally licensed.” He urged listeners to tune-in
to the station’s 24-hour webcast via the MAIN homepage at
www.main.nc.us during the broadcast suspension.

Since going on the air in 2003, MAIN-FM has been limited to
broadcasting at only a fraction of its 100 watts due to restrictions
promoted by the commercial broadcast lobby. Passage of the LCRA last
December removed most of these restrictions, Bowen said. The FCC
proposed new LPFM rules last July.

“While the new rules have not been finalized, they’re far enough
along for the FCC to grant us permission to move our transmitter to
a location where we can broadcast at full power,” said Bowen.
With the power increase, the station should be heard throughout
Asheville and Buncombe County, and as far north as Mars Hill and
south to Hendersonville. Currently, MAIN-FM’s signal is limited to
parts of west and south Asheville.

“This is a huge victory for listeners who want a non-corporate and
local alternative for news and public affairs, as well as voices
from the local music, arts and health-promotion scenes,” said Bowen.

Two of MAIN-FM’s most popular programs are non-corporate news and
public affairs shows, Democracy Now! and the Thom Hartmann Program.
“Neither of these nationally-syndicated programs were heard live in
Asheville until we began broadcasting them,” Bowen said.

Once a new transmitter site has been secured, MAIN will announce a
date for the resumption of its over-the-air broadcast. MAIN-FM’s
full schedule is available online at www.main.nc.us.

Posted in News | 3 Comments »

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