Community Media Support

[Ian Applegate]

I'd like to help gather support for Nhv.Org. The goal or intention is to spread awareness about the useful source of factual, current information that is in bright color with full detail, and is free and accessible to the public, which is Nhv.org.  Nhv.org's main goals are to create connections within the New Haven community through documentary-film work, educating youth on internet-based community development, and sharing community calendars throughout the many diverse communities of New Haven.

Nhv.org aims to support all of the ideas presented to the GNH Community because we provide  documentary video support to hyperlocal community projects. Videos are an efficient and stimulating ways to spread awareness about New Haven causes, and I would both collaborate with people/organizations to create the video for you, as well as share it on the internet with the growing audience of people becoming aware of Nhv.Org as a website. Essentially, the goal is to help the community become aware of how awesome New Haven really is; we have so many innovative community projects, and the goal is for Nhv.org to showcase them.

Imagine you're doing something interesting which is good for the community and no one is getting paid for it.  It's unlikely Channel 8 is going to pay a visit, and even if they do, it's uncertain they'll document your activity in a manner that best describes it, with an article that accurately links to your current website so that others can get involved. Now there's someone you can call.  And that's basically Nhv.Org, a news outlet that is centered around raising awareness for things happening in New Haven that the community itself would like to promote, whether that's your local community garden, your nonprofit, your school, or any GNH sponsored event.

This is an example of some free video work for a local organization to raise awareness.
The organizers of the event, which benefitted Common Ground HS, can use this video to promote their next event.  Here's another example of something I produced which fits nicely into the format.

Calendar System
The idea has been to give community organizers (music show promoters and others) the ability to post an event in a stream of other events, with the intention of eventually getting that list to give an actual picture of everything going on in New Haven at a glance.  That particular calendar is supposed to be browsable on a Monday, for example, while you're reading articles or watching the lastest Nhv.Org video, and give you an idea that maybe Thursday you might want to see that free organist at Woolsey Hall, which you otherwise might not have heard about.  Its beauty is in the simplicity of its design, it gives only the details (a description) and a link to the group that has organized the event.

If an organization already uses a public Google Calendar to show their events, it can be streamed into the rest of the Nhv.Org calendar.  An example is the Observatory calendar.  Simply that it exists allows me to run it with everything else.  People can add an event by going to their calendars while signed into Google, and looking for the public calendar they have been given access to.  

I'm able to grant calendar posting permission access to anyone that requests it.  The secret about it is that now it tweets events #Nhv whenever somebody posts anything, so in addition to posting the event itself, you're also sending out a message on twitter to all @nhvorg followers, and anybody watching the #nhv hashtag.  

Nhv Tweets

Anyone who tweets "#Nhv" also appears instantly on the site's Twitter stream, which constantly displays tweets about New Haven.  This could be your next door neighbor, or it might be Yale or it could be City Hall, but it's all available in one channel with a simple key # phrase, hence the nhv.org domain.

Training on Blogger and other Google Products (Maps, Calendars, Docs, Forms, Youtube)

While Nhv.Org does use free internet products like Twitter, Soundcloud, and Vimeo, and it often links to sites like Wikipedia (as well as other sites on the internet), a majority of it is built in the suite of free tools given to anyone that signs up for a Google account.

Part of what I'd like to do is to train students on how to design a Blog, in the form of a 1 hour session at the library once a week, with an advanced class for people who want more in-depth topics, at the Grove for a small fee.  Anyone who takes that class will learn precisely how Nhv.Org was built, and will be able to start their own for their neighborhood, like Chatham Square's website, for example. This is a way to engage youth in learning about, sharing, and promoting their New Haven community.

The choice to use mainly Google products is intentional.  Their products are extensively available, all completely free, and built with the purpose of being easy for everyone to use.  While Blogger is just another platform, like Wordpress, it's also easy to share access to write or add articles to Nhv.Org by sending permission through people's Gmail, and I've already written instructional tutorials on how to do that.

Overall, New Haven could be understood better by the representation of ourselves through media such as video and articles. My goal for Nhv.org is to highlight, document, and promote the interesting along with the awesomely commonplace occurrences in New Haven. 

[Ian Applegate]

wow i said 'community' about 30 times in that first sentence.  its no wonder i only got one like!