Thursday night the The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
(NAMAC) sponsored a panel to discuss the GBN report "Deep Focus: the future of independent media".

The report is staggeringly accurate in it's portrayal of both the current media 'ecology' and the future of content creation.

The author is Andrew Blau - who's got an almost savant level understanding of content creation, and media economics. I say that not to puff up his ego (he's on a world tour presenting the report to all kinds of groups of media makers) but rather because the work is absent much of the 'crystal ball gazing' or hand wringing that seems to permeate the consultants take on the media universe.

Instead, this presents facts, trends, and the future in a clear headed unapologetic way. It has become an essential tool in my toolbox, as i try and explain the changes that are impacting media makers, networks, and consumers alike.

In the audience at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian were a number of media luminaries from indie media. Danny Schechter from globalvision and MediaChannel.org, POV's EP Cara Mertes, Jamie Daves - one of the Founders of Al Gore's new network Current, as well as folks from Media Rights.org, Drazen Pantic from Unmediated and Location1, MTR's Ron Simon, Alyce Myatt independent media consultant and former PBS and MacArthur exec, and a bunch of other media folks I met in a blinding rush of introductions.

The mix of media makers, distributors, new media folks, foundations, and bloggers is a clue about how people from varying disciplines and worlds are beginning to coalesce around independent media as a new way to reach out to their constituencies.

When the panel ended, and after a moment of awkward silence, I jumped in and asked a question - as much to kick things off as anything else. My query to the panel was how we can connect the divide between free media distribution and filmmakers trying to find a livelyhood in the expanding indie-media space.

Not only did it land like a thud - but it seemed to ratify the whole "all media should be free" culture movement. This is one of those gaps that has to be closed, because no artist that I know wants to keep their work from being used down the road to remix, comment on, and explore issues and ideas. At the same time - they need to eat now, and most of the filmmakers I know are either working day jobs they don't like... Or living off the past success of a film that is funding their rent and food... But also burning a hole in their savings account.

If only we could connect passionate storytellers with empowered audiences who want to get them paid- the result would be explosive (in a good way).