On May 12-13, Boston’s Berkman Center will host a conference called “Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture.” This one looks to be fruitful.

You are invited to an open convening at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

The goal of this convening is to create an opportunity for interaction between active participants in traditional public media and new participatory web-based efforts; to showcase and discuss the latest projects and models emerging faster than anyone can keep track of; and to cultivate a shared understanding of the potential and meaning of a renewed public media role.

Throughout we will explore the thesis that traditional public media – public broadcasting, cable access television, etc – face a unique opportunity to embrace new social media models – podcasting, blogs, social software, etc – and create a stronger and more vital public service.

In addition to presentations and discussions of the topics at hand, we intend to incorporate media presentations (screenings of video, film, audio, web), demos of new tools and models, and a gathering of engineers and technologists meeting together to discuss their work down to the code level.

Conference blog here.