Columbus Sustenance

Last night’s smaller, but no less effective, group met for the second Social Media Cafe’ hosted by WOSU and COSI. There were new faces in the mix, too. Break out discussions included topics such as how WOSU can gather and produce more local content, creating training sessions for social media (blogs, podcasts),urban exploration, as well as the creation of a hyper-local food segment for WOSU.

In working with the group surrounding the gathering of more local content, we exchanged ideas about the programming we’ve seen and heard from other public broadcasters, such as DIY Portland, where locals present on most any topic where one can “do it yourself”. We tossed around ideas for podcasts, web content and radio programming. There’s a true desire to bring forth the voices of local residents.

I suggested that Columbus create a “media hotel” for visiting journalists and bloggers, where they’d have access to the technology needed to create or edit whatever they may be producing for their local markets. In doing so, might Columbus have the opportunity to gain more exposure outside of our traditional boundaries? For Experience Columbus, it would be an opportunity to learn more about what brings people here. For WOSU, a chance to discover unique items of news.

Downstairs, discussions about local restaurants and local food production, as well as a way to discover the “hidden” Columbus were taking place. Tim Eby, station manager of WOSU stated that he felt the over-all concept of all these discussions was “sustainability”. In other words, its how we sustain ourselves with regards to living, working, communicating, eating, growing, as well as the more current definition of the word as it relates to environmental issues.

During the post-discussion gathering, the concept of “sustenance”, came to light. While sustainability often echos the need to conserve, sustenance refers to the need to nourish, and the nourishment of our city, its places and its citizens, is truly the concept with which we’re working. When we nourish one another we create a community of richness. This is the desire of everyone who participated.

Daniel Fox of SKREENED suggested that the identity of Columbus is derived from everyone here, and not in how we compare ourselves against other cities. Walker Evans and Andrew Miller talked about why this young city is attractive and Lisa from Restaurant Widow maintains that living in Columbus offers her, as well as others, a chance to be heard and be involved, whereas in larger cities, doing so is much more difficult.

Columbus offers a higher degree of citizen participation because we are who we are, and this too, makes the city like no other. It too, nourishes our soul.

Please consider joining us for the next Social Media Cafe’. The date and time will be announced as soon as it is available.