Volunteers at my local polling station. The man standing, and wearing a sweater, is John Hogan, who kindly volunteered his garage for the cause of American Democracy.

A Visit to INdTV

Last week some of the local DC applicants to the new INdTV digital cable startup met at the Noc Noc's on Haight Street, to have more discussions of how we can make TV better. Smith Forte and Robin Sloan, two honest-to-goodness actual employees of INdTV were kind enough to join us, and told us we could drop by and check out the new space. Today I took them up on the offer, and below you can see some pictures I took.

After Eugenie let me in, Smith was kind enough to offer me a bottle of water from the company fridge, and I oohed and ahhed over the open air space, hard wood floors, and bare brick walls. The downstairs has the makings of a large cafe, and there is talk of putting a control room in front of the window and letting the lobby be open to the public upon occaison. As we were about to go upstairs, a small tow haired child was knocking on the front door, and Smith opened it for him, asking him and his mother if there was someone in particular the little boy was looking for. The mother bashfully explained that they were just walking by when the child took a fancy to his own reflection, and Smith offered the little boy some juice, but the boy bashfully declined. INdTV's youngest fan?

Besides the people pictured (Annie, Ezra, Allison , Jamie, and Eugenie) I also met Joanna Drake Earl, the head of the web department, and caught a glimpse of Joel Hyatt. Annie, Robin and I talked about the advantages of starting out with an existing digital cable channel among other things. Smith, Robin and I talked about creating workable structures for citizen journalism and bringing audience participation to entirely new levels. All in all, it was pretty exciting. Thanks guys!

Tour was courtesy of Smith Forte (shown here with with a lone PC) and Robin Sloan.

A view across the street of sail boats in the Bay. It's a pretty and yuppified neighborhood, with expensive looking condominiums down the street and around the corner.

INdTV's new offices are right across the street from SBC Park, aka Pac Bell Park, aka the home of the San Francisco Giants. Gotham, is this going to be a problem?

A long view of the cast iron mystery object in the INdTV space. Is it some kind of scale? Should they hang a plasma display from in it? Does the trapdoor lead to adventure? Or to doom?

Robin points out one of the oddities of the space. INdTV community--what is this thing?

Annie Zehren, the new head of Sale and Marketing. She is also overseeing the DC application process.

Ezra, Allison, and Robin in front of one of several cubicle bays.

Going up the stairs leads you to the executive part of the building (where, for example, Al's office is), which is connected to lots and lots of office space with a nice industrial bridge. (Robin demonstrates the innate joys of being on a bridge.)

To the left of the entrance, facing the street, is a large cafe type space where Robin & Smith envision INdTVers socializing. The windows have projection screens installed, and there is the possibility of inviting people off the street to watch shows and participate.

Smith Forte (the "Internet guy") and Jamie Daves, with receptionist Eugenie smiling in the background. Front entrance, note the stair case and bridge above.

INdTV's headquarters: The Townsend Building, 118 King Street. Used to be a coffee factory, built up by E*Trade.

Welcome!

This is a holding zone for me to post pictures, audio, thoughts, links, and the like that are very narrowly focused on the idea of a New Media revolution. I'm less likely to use complete sentences here, and more likely to do insider-baseball type writing.