Some oldies but goodies about TVW from when I was at Washblog:

I think TVW can do better with social media
TVW is thinking about doing better with social media

My suggestions back then:

1. Put someone in charge. This is something completely different than what you’ve usually been doing. Even though you’ve had a robust website for years, it operates as if its a website for a TV network (which obviously it is). There is no interactive content, no blogs, no sharable video or audio, just streaming video that is almost impossible to capture and share. There are some podcasts (that I enjoy weekly) and I can download a slug of mp3s, but these aspects of the site are aimed at simply providing the content, not really at facilitating the sharing of it.

So, you have to think about this not as part of a a TV network, but rather as a website in and of itself. At a certain point, TVW will actually be more of a website than a TV network. I already don’t watch TVW at all. I am on a dish, and most of my TV is recorded from a DVR anyway. But, I would consider myself a TVW addict, but solely through the website. Putting someone in charge of “online communities” can be a good start.

2. Don’t put everything into a social media format, at first. Start yourself off slow, let the person in charge of your online social stuff pick and choose (and have suggested to them) content that can be put out there as shareable. And, encourage conversation online. There is a real need for somewhere in Washington State politics, outside of newspapers and blogs, for people to come together and talk. TVW has the unique and powerful potential to quickly become this place.

3. Remember the kind of double standard that already exists between the “news media” and citizens using your content. It already kind of miffs me that in your copyright you carve out an exception for bona fide news broadcasters, and as more people get used to being able to share video and audio, more people will get miffed at this double standard. More and more, we are the media.

Also, Mark Gardner can only think about this issue in terms of partisanship and a congressional race. What really is at issue here is a pretty old distrinction between “bona fide” media and the rest of us.

While some folks may want to continue to believe that there is a difference between folks who write and folks who write, there really isn’t.

Mark, you’re a blogger now. Not “bona fide.” Do you think if this was Darcy Burner saying something silly you wouldn’t want to post it. Well, maybe not, but I would want you to be able to, and I’d rather vote for her.

The quicker TVW learns the same lesson the C-SPAN learned last year, the better.