Reflections on PRPD

Jake Shapiro concludes a wrap-up of last week’s Public Radio Program Directors conference with an observation that the annual meeting feels “a bit stuck.” “Given NPR’s New Realities meetings and the ‘unconference’ experiments underway elsewhere, it would be helpful to break out of panel mode for some open facilitated meetings — tap into the wisdom of the crowd,” he writes. Mary McGrath of public radio’s Open Source also reflects on the conference: “Public broadcasters have been slow to wake up to the opportunities afforded by the Web. Some of the old timers just want to be retired before they have to really deal with it. Some are just confused or clueless or broke. Others, like the stations that carry Open Source, embrace the future of their medium with all of its uncertainties.” (Keep reading for interesting comments from OS listeners.)