Concord residents unite online to save local TV station
CONCORD, Mass., Feb 4, 2005--: Not wanting to see their local TV station go off air, a group of Concord residents, incorporated as Concord TV (CCTV), have united online to save the station after they were told Comcast cable, the station provider, planned to shut it down for good once its license expired in October last year.
Court Booth, volunteer chairman of CCTV and Concord resident for NUMBER years, said that Comcast announced in MONTH last year that it would be closing down the Concord TV station that has been watched by more than NUMBER people every day for NUMBER years.
''Comcast was turning the lights off on October 31, and the Town of Concord was eager for us to turn the lights on November 1," Mr Booth said.
With only six weeks to get organised, CCTV used the services of local software company, ProjectLounge.com, Inc., to set up an online workplace that helped them rallly the local community, attract TV producers and recruit volunteers to manage the team.
Kim Dowds, Chief Executive Officer, ProjectLounge said an online workplace is a new way of communicating over the internet that lets organisations access files, knowledge and resources from any location using a secure, password protected website.
“CCTV was able to setup an online workplace immediately without the assitance of IT professionals, and without incurring significant upfront costs, such as hardware, software or training,” Ms Dowds said.
“With such a strict deadline and budget constraints this was the perfect solution for CCTV,” Ms Dowds said.
Mr Booth said that being able to collaborate online was crucial to CCTV’s success as most of their NUMBER volunteers had full time work and family commitments.
“In the beginning it was just a group of citizens passionate about keeping our local TV station on air, but it was the online workplace that provided us with the technology to get organized and publicize our cause on the web,” Mr Booth said.
“The online workplace meant we could share information and key documents in a secure place online,” Mr Booth said.
Volunteers were also able to coordinate tasks online, such as XX, eliminating the need to meet in a physical location.
“Another nice feature of the online workplace was that it could only be accessed by invited members making sure that content was added or edited with the approval of authorised volunteers,” Mr Booth added.
Ms Dowds said that unlike other software providers, ProjectLounge has developed a website that streamlines the steps required to create a secure online workplace.
“Anyone can setup an online workplace using our website: you do not have to be an IT whiz, all you need is a web browser,” Ms Dowds said.
Mr Booth said that CCTV met its deadline and was on the air November 1. It has been on the air with an increasing schedule of programs such as XX since that time.
“We are incredibly grateful to ProjectLounge for providing us with this technology that helped us get organized so quickly – it saved us both time and money,” Mr Booth said.
For more information on CCTV visit http://www.concordtv.org/
For more information on ProjectLounge.com, Inc. including screenshots visit http://www.projectlounge.com/
"I have enjoyed working with ProjectLounge over the last couple of months."
CFO
ProjectLounge is an Advanced Business Partner of IBM/Lotus, and uses Lotus Team WorkPlace (QuickPlace) software to bring you web collaboration.