Kollaborativ. Imagination Cubed. News: Brave New World for Public Media. CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- The universe of public broadcasting today is "an embarrassment of niches.
" This topic statement, uttered by Jake Shapiro of the Public Radio Exchange, launched a torrent of speculation and anxiety over both the future and funding of public media -- whether radio, television or otherwise. On Friday, Shapiro gave opening remarks to 300 other broadcasters, podcasters, bloggers, videobloggers and legal and internet scholars for Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture, a conference hosted by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The event, webcast and archived online and simulcast virtually in the online environment Second Life, was marked by a preponderance of questions over answers.