Connecting Americans to Each Other   
The RedBlue Project

RedBlue is an Internet-based series of activities that offer Americans a compelling alternative to today’s divisive on-line political discourse – a way to engage directly with someone on “the other side” of our divided political landscape, in order to explore our differences and find out what we have in common.

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SNAP

SNAP is an extraordinary pilot series InterAct co-produced in August 2003 that fully integrated webcams into a live television environment for the first time. SNAP may be an historic first: live Internet video, a live satellite feed, and live viewer call-ins integrated into a nationally broadcast, professional-quality live television program. An especially significant step was the inclusion of genuine webcammers, because webcam technology is used predominantly by the young and is projected to grow exponentially among them. The enthusiastic response from webcammers to being 'on television' suggests a new kind of reality TV program: one that lets real people have a voice on television, still the most powerful medium of our time. Watch the SNAP demo.

Everybody's Guide to Somebodies & Nobodies

A new DVD and Documentary project about dignity and rank. Watch the animation!

Click here to watch.

Community Renewal Dialogues

This project uses two-way interactive video-conferencing to reconnect victimized individuals and communities to violent offenders who will soon return to these communities. The Community Renewal Dialogues project aims to increase the offenders' sense of responsibility to those who were victimized, while reintegrating them into community and family life. The goal is to revive the social engagement that has been lost to fear and isolation in high-crime neighborhoods. Since 1999, the project has been linking inmates who are learning to control their violent behavior at the San Francisco and San Bruno Jails, with members of San Francisco's Bayview and Mission District communities. The project is carried out in cooperation with the San Francisco Sheriff Department's Resolve to Stop the Violence Program (RSVP), the Bayview Family Resource Center and Youth Opportunity San Francisco. The videoconference technology eliminates the need for complex security clearance processes that would be necessary for jail visits, minimizing the intensity of face-to-face meetings in the jail. Mediated dialogue formats include:

Employment Links - job interviews with near-release offenders.
Family Links - victimized family members in facilitated
   dialogues with inmates.
Youth Links - dialogues between inmates and at-risk teens
   about the reality of life in jail.
Survivor Restoration Links – survivors of violent crimes
   connect with violent offenders.

Urban Rural Dialogues

Minnesota Citizens' Forum

The success of the KTCA-TV Interactive Candidates' Debate on October 30 1998 and its citizen participation process has led to a continuation of two-way programming. Another series of six monthly links between the Governor of Minnesota and citizens gathered at three locations around the state was broadcasted live by KTCA-TV and MPR. A videoconference unit and the transmission costs were provided by InterAct with a grant from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism.

Other programs were developed as the growing number of Minnesota communities connected with the studio and each other. These include:

PROM NIGHT QUIZ - live linked teens and their families, viewers and studio guests took the Star Tribunes sobriety test together.

URBAN RURAL DIALOGUES - A series of four discussions linked the rural farm town of Crookston, Minnesota, which has recently experienced losses of traditional family farms, to the Public Policy Forum at Lucille's Kitchen Restaurant in North Minneapolis. This urban/rural discussion aired live on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and was covered on KTCA and in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.