Open Media Foundation

The Open Media Foundation (OMF) is an American, non-profit, charitable, multimedia, organization that provides the means necessary for people to create, edit, and share their visions across various media platforms.

AbOUT OMF

Cameron Parkins, from Creative Commons, gives a clear summation of what Open Media Foundation is and how it was formed:

Mission Statement

OMF's mission statement:

"to put the power of media and technology into the hands of the people in order to enable every person to actively engage their community and bring about the change they wish to see in the world."

Open Media Foundation attempts to divert some of the power away from larger media conglomerates into the hands of the people. Many people do not have access or the necessary funding to get their voices heard by the masses; OMF wants to change this by providing equipment, space, and the knowledge necessary to create whatever the producers desire.

How They Do It

OMF consists of four different departments:

Denver Open Media - The city of Denver allows DOM to run three Comcast public-access channels, 57, 58, and 59. DOM ideally is the name given to these channels. People are able to watch, vote, and write responses to the array of user-created shows that are aired on their stations and webspace. Any and all of the media produced for DOM is under a CC BY-NC-SA licence which enables DOM's viewers to freely remix and share the content, as long as the creators are properly credited. The same rules apply for any created content by users that have remixed or shared the original content.
Civic Pixel - This is the web development portion of Open Media Foundations, focusing mainly on Open Source web development for the nonprofit sector and socially-oriented small businesses.
Deproduction - "still manages our video production efforts, serving dozens of nonprofits each year with affordable, professional video production services and training."
"Lastly, our education program teaches community members everything from Studio Production to Drupal development."

History

In 2001, Tony Shawcross, one of OMF's founders, co-founded a non-profit organization called [denverevolution] in order to provide the public with a calander designed to promote independent arts and noncommercial communities. Then, in 2003, they began producing video as the [denverevolution] production group, borrowing gear from KBDI (PBS 12), Free Speech TV, and DCTV. FSTV provided them with their first editing station in Little Voice Productions' house. In 2004 they switched gears, partnering with the PS1 Charter School beginning to teaching more classes, and formed a board. They incorporated as "the [denverevolution] production group." In 2005 they changed their name from [denverevolution] to Deproduction. They launched Denver Open Media (DOM) in 2006 as a project of Deproduction, giving it a separate name because they wanted the community to see it as their own. In 2008, Civic Pixel was launched. In 2009, they changed their company name to the Open Media Foundation, dropping Deproduction and Cvic Pixel. Denver Open Media was kept in service as a project of the parent company, Open Media Foundation.

Key OMF Staff

:* Tony Shawcross - Executive Director

:* Ann Theis - Station Director

:* Deborah Lastowka - Director of Community Productions

:* Maria Lewis - Development Director

:* Brian Hiatt - Director of Technology

:* Kevin Reynen - Senior Developer

:* Sharee Dieringer - Art Director

:* John Montgomery - Project Manager

:* Erin Yepis - Program Coordinator

:* Rad Anzulovic - Drupal Themer/Developer

:* Dean Tebbe - Systems Administrator

:* Laura Graves - Community Producer/Intern Manager

:* Jeff Villano - Business & Finance Director

:* Shea Scott - Director, Colorado Channel