What is AIR for?The Aotearoa Information Radio (AIR) network is a project inspired by the global network of Independent Media Centres a non-profit network of independent media volunteers that runs open-publishing community and activist news websites like Aotearoa.Indymedia.org.
AIR is a tool for co-operation between broadcasters, programme makers and others who support free public radio. It actively encourages involvement by student radio volunteers, community access stations and others involved in non-profit independent radio.
The AIR network aims to faciliate the sharing of programmes
between community stations by offering technical help and
advice on internet resources. The goal is to make
community-orientated radio programming available to a wider audience around the country. On the one hand people with computers who can't get good radio reception where they live or don't have a community radio broadcast in their area. On the other hand people with a radio and no computer who want access to some of the ideas and analysis available from independent news sources on the internet.
How does AIR work?
Programme-sharing can be achieved by converting programs into digital files which can be downloaded or 'streamed' (webcast) through the internet. Listeners can access programs directly and stations can download them and add them to
playlists. AIR encourages programme-makers to choose an appropriate license for their content from CreativeCommons.org that spells out the conditions of distribution they prefer (eg commerical/ non-proft, editing allowed/ not allowed).
Where possible we aim to use free software, sometimes knows as 'open source' or 'libre' software (see our list of useful software). Another way of describing the free software priniples is 'community access software'. This is because the source code 'recipe' inside the software is a public resource rather than an intellectual property monoplised by one company and can be easily altered by local programmers to meet specific needs. Therefore using free software invests in a socially progressive model of software development which is more responsive to the needs of user and developer communities.
