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Blue Ribbon plan charts revival for Atlanta community access channel; makerspace and education consortium proposed
Summary
Dr. Jabari Samama presented the Blue Ribbon Committee’s recommendations for restoring Atlanta’s community access media to the City Utilities Committee on Jan. 28, describing a digital upload portal, a downtown makerspace and an education-consortium governance model.
Dr. Jabari Samama presented the Blue Ribbon Committee’s recommendations for reviving Atlanta’s community access media to the City Utilities Committee on Jan. 28, describing immediate technical restorations, a downtown makerspace and a governance and funding model for a permanent operator.
Samama said channel 24 programming is back online and that the city built a digital upload portal allowing citizens to submit programs remotely. He showed mockups for a makerspace at 2 Peachtree Street and proposed three community-linked mini-hubs at recreation centers to create a citywide production network tied to a central downtown hub. "You can upload your programming now," Samama said, and described a target of a soft makerspace opening by late February or early March with permanent operations transitioned to an outside operator by July 1.
The committee report recommends forming a community advisory and oversight board to provide independent community oversight of the access operation, and an education consortium made up of local higher-education institutions to provide management, training and administrative capacity; Samama said CAU, Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Atlanta Technical College had signaled interest. He proposed a baseline annual operating budget in the ballpark of $500,000, plus capital investment and private/philanthropic matching to scale programming and training.
Austin Wagner, deputy chief of staff to the mayor, and other administration staff said the city is upfitting studio space, purchasing production equipment and planning a volunteer-centered program model. Committee members highlighted historic community-access programming and pressed for promotional materials; council members asked the presenter to provide flyers and to keep the committee updated on partnerships with public media, foundations and education institutions.
Samama said the Blue Ribbon Committee will remain engaged during the transition period and urged council to reinstate a Cable Television Advisory Board–style oversight body. He recommended part-time staff in the near term to run the downtown makerspace and training activities and emphasized leveraging franchise-fee and philanthropic revenue for operations.
