Game Changers Guest Post: UChannel
NOTE: We asked each of our 2009 Game Changers Awards finalists to write about their projects, what they’ve learned along the way and what’s next. This essay written by Donna Liu, Director for Strategic Initiatives, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.
UCHANNEL: ACCESS TO A WORLD OF IDEAS
The Woodrow Wilson School launched the UChannel project in 2005 with a mandate to influence the broader public policy debate with more direct input from academics, researchers and practitioners. The audio and video recordings of full-length lectures and discussions from around the world that form the UChannel collection are an effective antidote to the soundbite media culture that often oversimplifies the discussion of complex policy issues.
Members of the global UChannel consortium of universities regularly update the collection with public presentations focusing primarily on the discussion of public and international affairs. UChannel does not seek to be a news outlet. Instead it has positioned itself as a primary source of sound analytical academic thinking, the rigorous approach that good universities are committed to fostering.
UChannel arrived at exactly the right moment. It was launched just as RSS, podcasting, and online video technologies were empowering non-traditional media sources. UChannel’s technology is intentionally kept as simple as possible. Using an open-source blogging platform linked to the computing cloud via Web 2.0 tools, its academic, well-researched and peer-reviewed discussions have been opened up to a diverse and global audience. While uc.princeton.edu is the main repository of UChannel’s vast and growing library, its lectures and fora can also be accessed through YouTube and iTunes U. Even while keeping staffing to a minimum, UChannel users from more than 130 countries download several thousand full length discussions every day. How valuable is the content? Typical of the feedback: “There are signs of intelligent life on YouTube!” Bloggers and academics regularly link to UChannel postings, and the general public has free and total access to all of its material. The best academic policy discussions are available to anyone anywhere in the world with an Internet connection in at least six different digital formats, with others being added as they arise.
UChannel content is now available to the public as audio and video downloads, streams, and (an unusual avenue for web-based distribution) full-resolution television programs on a network of public and educational access channels. The public can subscribe to UChannel content through RSS, iTunes U, YouTube, any number of podcast directories, Facebook, and even Twitter. Throughout its history UChannel has been a recognized as an early adapter of distribution technologies, but has never lost sight that it is the content itself, not the delivery system, that has kept people engaged and informed. With steady growth over a little more than three years, UChannel has emerged as a bedrock source of opinion in the global policy debate.
Beth Laing is the project manager for iFOCOS, which organizes the We Media conferences, awards and community. Prior to working with We Media she worked in a variety of new media roles with Knight Ridder, Infonautics and Access Atlanta. She is currently on the board of the Atlanta Women’s Alliance (AWA), Community Advisory Board for Junior League Dekalb and a Leadership Dekalb 2010 class member.
