eRadio: empowerment through community web radio

 
   

 

workshop  
tulcingo
 
structure
tools
radio production
timing
group sessions
individual sessions
locations
backups & copies
behind the scenes
in the front line
 

 

the first workshop of the eRadio project was in Tulcingo, from March 20 to 28.

structure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tools

 

 

 

 

 

radio production

 

 

 

timing

 

 

 

 

group sessions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

individual sessions

 

 

 

 

 

locations

 

 

 

 

backups & copies

 

 

 

 

behind the scenes

 

 

 


in the front line


the software, the process, and the workshop are structured the same way, that is, gather, produce, publish, and listen.


Gather
Produce
Publish
Listen
getting raw audio material, from interviews, covering events, recording local sounds and noises. transforming by editing the recordings into master pieces. making available to others the mastered audio pieces. listening critically to everything that was done by others.
 

 

 

the electronic tools used to facilitate the production of audio content were portable digital audio-recorders and the vox pop boxes. The portable recorders were intended mainly for field recordings, such as to interview, to cover events, to record local news,... The vox pop boxes were used to edit the recordings and transform them into an interesting, self-contained transmittable audio piece.



 

   
radio production was based on guidance about what radio production is, group work on individual ideas, and intuitive knowledge and hands-on learning in the process.
   


the sessions and the timing of the workshop had to be adapted to the current activities taking place in the town. From the first Sunday to Wednesday there were many activities going on, religious, educational and commercial. So field recordings were supposed to be done on those days. From Thursday to Saturday editing took place, and the transmission was on Sunday.

Taking into account the original timing plan and the Tulcingo experience, it is important to keep to the plan of allotting more days for editing than for recording. Nevertheless, the festivities were valuable input for the project, as Jesus and Don Carmelo had foreseen.

   

there were five group sessions distributed throughout the nine-day workshop.

  • the first session (Saturday 20, 9pm) was for introducing the project, setting up group sessions and individual work, presenting the tools and what the next step would be, for the participants to start working on it.
  • the second session (Wednesday 24, 9pm) was to see the participants' progress with the field recordings and to discuss their ideal final product. Then individual sessions were also set up. The necessity of listening to a piece already edited was brought up.
  • the third session (Saturday 27, 9pm) was to decide the transmission logistics and timings.
 
  • the fourth session (Sunday 28, 11am) was the simultaneous transmission of the pieces in the town and at Casa Puebla, New York. A phone call was placed during the whole transmission, keeping both groups in touch. Towards the end of the transmission, the Tulcingo participants were so enthused with having listened to their radio program that they cheered for the people in New York.
  • the last session (Sunday 28, 9pm) was to evaluate the work done, to listen to comments and discuss possible improvements, to talk about future approaches and plans and to celebrate the closure of the workshop.

The group relationship was very friendly. All the participants had done different activities together.

   


the extension and frecuency of the individual sessions depended on the amount of editing that was needed. Listening to the field recordings and choosing the parts that were going to be used was the most time-consuming part.

The edition process was different for each piece, the same is true of the total time allotted to each final product (audio piece). With one piece, total editing time was about 14 hours. The other two were about 6 and 4 hours.

Each piece had a unique style of how things were going to be said, what the message to be conveyed was, and how the chosen parts of the recordings were going to be put together.

on Monday 29, each of the participants answered some questions about the workshop and tools; they were visited at their homes/work places.

   


the project took place basically in two main locations:

  1. the operations center where group and individual sessions were carried out was at David's place, downtown Tulcingo.
  2. the Internet connection for the project was at Armando's Internet Café.

the eRadio Project had its own stand at the Tulcingo 2004 Educational Fair on Tuesday 23 April.

   
 


every night a backup of the recordings and projects was done.

given the dialup connection, the uploading of audio files to the server in Boston had to be done overnight on the Saturday to Sunday night. Carla was on the Tulcingo side, uploading, and on the USA side, Steve until early in the morning. With Carla, was Israel, to make her company and to make sure that mosquitoes were biting her just enough to keep her awake.

the last Monday, a copy of the transmitted program and the collection of pictures taken were burned onto a CD for the town people.

   

before the workshop, in Boston, Steve, Kow and Carla worked hard on getting the system to run reliably and to have everything ready for the workshop.

once the workshop in Tulcingo was running, Steve, on the other side of the phone in Boston, was the technical support behind the scenes.

for the New York transmission, Steve, Jesus and Don Carmelo made sure that the place, the audio settings, the people, and some food were ready for the transmission.

 

   


Carla was running the workshop in Tulcingo, coming up with alternative plans for every challenge that sprung up.

 

 

   

people

place
participants and people involved
tulcingo town
the transmitted
radio program