sustainability

I've been to a bunch of conferences for the past year. community media, grassroots media, media policy...and there has been a 'hijacking' of 'sustainability' as a term used in the emerging business models of community media and technology organizations referring to funding. I imagine that there is a sense of the organization giving back to the world but there is a stark difference between this concept and the concept of sustainability. is anything concerning technology actually sustainable? this is a different concept than "can we make enough money to buy new technology next year". I'm sure there are many different opinions on this and I like to hear them.

wikipedia has this to say:

Sustainability is a systemic concept, relating to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of human society, as well as the non-human environment. It is intended to be a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals in a very long term. Sustainability affects every level of organization, from the local neighbourhood to the entire planet.

Apocalypse Soon for Public Media?

An On-line Community Discussion featuring Live Podcasting and Blogging
[Boston-area folks invited to be in the live audience]

read more on the tactical media blog http://tacticalmedia.blogspot.com/

Encuentro 5
http://www.encuentro5.org/
33 Harrison Ave., 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02111
-- corner of Harrison Ave. and Beach St. in Chinatown, 3 blocks from the Boston Common --

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006
6:30-8:30 p.m.

The Community Media and Technology Program at the UMass Boston College of Public and Community Service, The Tactical Media Project, and Massachusetts Global Action are presenting a communications policy discussion and community meeting.

Public media and the Internet are in deep trouble. We are currently seeing the emergence of the communications and media systems we will live with for the next several decades. And, as we write, there are proposals in Congress that dramatically threaten the public interest, and the potential for innovation and media justice in those emerging systems, in the US and around the world.

At stake are:

* local control of our communications infrastructure,
* the survival of the Internet as an open and affordable communications network [a.k.a. "net neutrality"],
* maintaining and expanding public access to cable and other media production and distribution resources,
* our communications rights to receive and create media,
* the democratic and equitable provision of telecommunications access to low income communities and communities of color,
* the future of public service media,
* the ability of local government to assure the communications infrastructure is present to support progressive economic development.