after checking out a few more galleries i started to head back to the sheraton and happened to pass a dozen people marching back and forth in front of a Holiday Inn on King St. As they were wearing UNITE HERE placards i swung over to see what was up. * They said they were there b/c twenty workers were locked-out of the hotel (put on temporary leave) for three consecutive weeks after pushing for better working conditions and wages. they asked me to come back the next day, wednesday, to catch the larger demonstration.

i returned at noon on wednesday, oct. 17th, and witnessed a pretty amazing rally and march from Metro Hall on John St. to the Holiday Inn on King. one significant observation was that, compared to my experiences in Philly and New York, there was barely a police presence. No cops in riot gear, no 50 squad cars and sirens blaring. i’m sure there could have been some cops undercover though. the rally was also distinct as there was a heavier focus on conquering poverty in general and standing in solidarity w/ non-industrialized nations besides addressing the union members’ own needs. according to the Hotel Workers Rising website some 2000 people participated in the march and demonstration. It was really cool to see all of the CUPE members out supporting UNITE HERE.

i took the opportunity to record a bit of the rally and march on my digital camera and get an interview w/ John Sultana, a locked out union worker.

check out the slideshow w/ interview and the brief footage of a hotel worker speaking at the rally.

* back in Philly the Media Mobilizing Project is working in collaboration with UNITE HERE and the Hotel Workers Rising Campaign.

i attended a panel discussion about “citizen journalism,” which is one phrase that could describe what the Media Mobilizing Project is doing. However, MMP folks don’t seem to like it and i think i am beginning to understand why. thus far, the mainstream groups seem to treat the work of “citizen journalists” as “user generated content” that they can exploit to their own means – cheap or free labor that adds information to their content-hungry sites. it’s not necessarily an altruistic relationship.

that doesn’t mean that all such projects need to be viewed so cynically.

the folks at creating community connections (creatingcommunityconnections.org) are working with students at columbia college who in-turn work with a number of neighborhoods and cover them. okay, so that’s not the immpressive part. i don’t think that having privileged college students cover “bad” neighborhoods that they are not from is a good thing. it was unclear whether or not they trained folks from the neighborhood too. or maybe i just took bad notes.

yet they incorporated an innovative call-in feature to their site that allows people to call an automated messaging service, record an audio story or drop leads for the site’s reporters to cover. the stories can then be published as audio files on the website. if i’m not mistaken, the project’s directors’ worked with an online publication called Oh My News http://english.ohmynews.com/ which i have yet to check out.

the creator of the Twin City Daily Planet was a former mainstream reporter who saw that his paper’s virtual and physical product did not do the area justice. inspired by ohmynews.com, the site is a collaboration between professional journalists (i guess the folks who went to school and are getting paid) and citizen journalists who contribute. it was funded (as was the other project above) by a J-Lab grant at the University of Maryland.

interestingly the TC site both produces original content and aggregates news from a variety of sources. the online paper also collaborates with several ethnic news publications in english, spanish, somali and hmong – which blew me away. i really like the idea of collaborating across linguistic and cultural boundaries. furthermore, like the Media Mobilizing Project, the TC Planet partnered w/ their city’s wireless provider to generate “hyper-local” news/content. they’re also partnering with the public library, Minnesota public radio and local nonprofits. the director (fill in name here) recommended the site new american media.org which does news aggregation and training apparently.

as i took notes during the discussion, i imagined that it would be fantastic for mmp to work with seniors, disabled rights groups and look at how we can integrate call-in audio and cellphone aka mobile technology into the future site. i later heard that a program called WAP is what provides mobile technology integration w/ the web, so i’ll have to look into it.