It's a bureacratic piece of silliness. I work with a non-profit television station... Public Access. Been doing it for close to 9 years now. All these years, public access stations across the nation were set up as a resource for local residents to produce their own television shows. The conditions, programing is non-commercial. So basically a lot of people get to make originial, innovative, and yes - amateur television shows. For the most part, production value was low, but conceptually, it's cutting edge and heavy on self-discipline and learning by your own mistakes.

It's a real, tangible place where individuals can be creative, expressive, vent, complain, inspire motivate and share their take on the world. It's so affordable and abundant with potential that the poor, marginalized, invisible, and outcast can publicly display and exercise their free speech through an incredibly powerful platform... television. It's one of the aspects of American culture that defines us. It's not as wide-reaching as the internet, but it pioneered activists, artists, journalists, civic leaders, community personalities, and local icons found nowhere else. It's a cheap representation of the people around us, but it's a representation and a community center, nonetheless.

Recently, the authority controlling the future of television has shifted. Now; local government (city government) has lost the control of how operational money is distributed to local access channels. This means government channels that show how your city government works, the channel that airs programming through schools, the public access channel that lets neighbors, seniors, non-profits, vain performers, socially conscious activists, seniors, students, children, and congregations of faith-bound spiritualists are going to loose that platform.

I'm worried about my job. It pays the bills, it feeds me, it's the place where I meet my peers and learn to deal with clinically maladjusted, conspiracy theorists, kinky exhibitionists, and forward thinkers that make my home worth looking at. I work in a place where mediocrity is not a norm. I work in a place where I know every person by name. I invest my talent and spend my patience in an environment which so often feels like a thankless bombardment of criticism and sub-standard gratitude. I believe in a forum where a person with no practical experience with multi-media technology can learn how to use a television station, staff, and peers, to make something that major networks can't begin to duplicate.

It's honest. It's not perfect. Shows may not be completely polished. Programing may not be the same caliber of entertainment worth $10 and a bucket of popcorn, but it's made by my neighbors. It's a close proximity to our unique imaginations. It's a grab bag of challenges, success, frustration, fame, and the potential of finding controversy and dismissal will always be there. But we can all say this... we did it.

You may not like what you see on tv, but for the next few months, there is a place in San Francisco where you can make your own. In a matter of weeks, that option my not be there.

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I went to a launch party for a new website tonight. It was a great mixer for a gay MATCHING service for men looking for a long-term partner. Firstly, big thanks to David Perry & Associates for including me with this launch. Great teamwork guys, wonderful PR.

Now... Partners for Life. Imaging a mix of eHarmony, Vehix, Best Buy and and a well-organized HMO put into one single website for a man who wants a solid relationship with another man. That's about it. It's not a hook-up site. They're very clear with that goal. It's a premium match making site with incredibly complex software programming, demographics and very detailed and flexible matching criteria. Answers aren't yes/no but on a scaled variable, your answers are valued at fine increments to better match who you are and what is is appropriate for you. Sure, it's probably nothing new. Here is the ingenuity. I liked that potential matches can be viewed in a "side by side" comparison, much like shopping online for a car with Vehix, or a camcorder through Best Buy.

The fine engineering? That comes in with the actual matches. Believe me, I was talking to Stuart McFaul from Product Development for a good deal of time. It's not just a site with a search engine for similar matches from most occurring to least occurring key words. This is engineering that's been fine tuned with psychologists, sexologists, statisticians, and an enormous team of gay men who are no strangers to the dating scene. I wanted to know how focused demographics were to relevant regional service. Guys in San Francisco have a different dynamic from guys in Waikiki. It's a different "norm". How will the engineering of the site permit a reliable service (matching based on similarity vs compatibility or "ideals").

The development team has incorporated variables from age preference, race, economics, career, family development, health, and monogamy. It's a brilliant site that has really accepted the complexities of dating and finding a PARTNER. Again, I give them a thumbs up for the brilliance of really establishing a site for searching for long-term relationships, rather than a commercial orgy space on the internet. The site launched today and will expand to Southern California later this year. Projected launch for the major metropolitan cities on the East Coast will be under two years.

Ah, San Francisco, merging high-tech geeks with romance and sustainability...

Are we really so pressured to purchase a service to assist us with finding a mate? Have we been burned beyond repair that a bionic matchmaker is just far easier than healing or learning from our relationships? It's a question that we each have to answer and most likely a process no CPU can fathom, but it's what makes us human.