Thursday, 11/8 (8 hours): This was the first session of the regional conference that we attended, and I ended up taking 4 pages of notes because it was really interesting. Most of this is directly from my notes/the forum conversation but some of it is what I've added as my own personal view/interpretation on the subject as well. Here's a related link that relates to the conversation and also provides more information on the topic:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/habermas/
What is the "Public Sphere"?
1. Historically, information and content was controlled by either the government (king, dictator, etc) or the church and there really was no sense of "public" in the fact that the public had no real influence on anything that was happening. However, in the 17th/18th century, somewhat of a revolution started to change the way the "public" was thought of, as the common people started getting more access to money and money is power. Suddenly, even though the printing press had been around for years, the people started printing newspapers and making information more readily available. One of the longest running papers: The Spectator, London.
2. The "Public Sphere" really started with the newspapers, the coffee shops and the salons where people sat around and talked about issues that were affecting them or present in society. The public sphere evolved from this PUBLIC DISCUSSION and actually involved more of the public and less of the government/church. However, today the public sphere arena is domnated more by corporate interests- much like before but replacing the church/state. Thus, hte public isn't actually controlling the sphere.
3. People used to actuall sit down and discuss ideas- a public dialogue- but now it's all a monologue where people are screaming their ideas AT he public instead of sharing and discussing ideas. They TELL us what's important versus asking what's important- there's a real lack of actual discussion/communication in general as communication is a two-way street and needs input, output and feedback to be successful.
4. We're not creating citizens in our country anymore, we're creating consumers- we're being lazy and accepting what's being thrown at us instead of trying to change and improve things. Even though we complain a lot, we don't actually do anything about the issues. Overall, as a society we aren't hungry enough to make the change.
5. The true meaning of public sphere seems to be citizenry- not the church, state or corporations (corportate interests/media) but the people.
Improving Public Access Media
6. As public access media, we currently have an opn door policy but really we should be moving in the direction of not only an open door policy, but also an active effort in going out and getting people to come in and get involved. To get people to actually communicate their ideas we will have to first teach people how to have effective communication. Sure, we provide the equipment and the technological requirements, much like the education system these days, but we aren't teaching people HOW TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES- how to get their ideas across and get the message to reflect what they actually mean to say.
7. Our society needs to be more focused on education based in media literacy instead of just the technology-use education. As in: How can we express what we really mean by using this technology? What is the message behind what we're watching/reading/hearing etc.
8. Instead of us just showing the town hall meetings on our channels, we should also have shows that reflect the commentary of viewers in regard to the material that we're seeing. If we can get people to actually respond to what they're seeing and get them involved in such a way that we have shows going back and forth in a sort of discussion format, THEN we'll have more of what we see as the public sphere. The people would be again voicing their opinions instead of just accepting the opinions they're shown.
9. Can public access tv somehow join together and consolidate like the FCC is doing to laarge-scale media efforts? If we are able to unite on more of a national level we would have more unity, support and overall strength. We currently have a national chapter of the Alliance for Community Media, but it's really a very small group of people and therefore not as effective as it could/should be.
10. One of the downfalls though is that the ACM is looked at like a bunch of "old fogeys" as said in the meeting, because of the platform we're using. Instead of doing the internet thing we're still on TV, which some groups are looking down on. However, radio has been around even longer and it's still going strong.
11. The game plan: where is the next public sphere going to emerge? Internet videos? Blogs? Can we get in on the underground/what the kids are doing these days and integrate ourselves in there so the kids think that this is just the way things are and accept us? Kind of a sneaky plan, but it might work.
12. THE LARGER ISSUE AT HAND: has nothing to do with technology or the platform we're using. How do we get more people involved in the conversation, to participate and help revive the public sphere?
13. many local newspapers and large scale newspapers say things like "come to us with your opinions and information and we'll be the center of the community" but then they take control of the material and skew the message which is bad fo rthe public sphere.
14. However, when you think about it we really are corporate media in our own way because even though our intentions are good, by telling the public what they should put on air (non commercial, preferable personal opinion dialogue) we ARE THE MAN and are controlling what they're able to say. Just like back in the day when Swift and DeFoe and whoever else were talking and creating the public sphere it still wasn't open to everyone, it was expanding but not open to everyone. As in, not everyone was able to sit around and think these big thoughts.
15. We can't just go out and yell at students to say "you're being duped by the media" because then we come off as the next group sharpening the axe- our education tactics need to change or else the kinds are being trained to come off as the next "monolith yelling" because they don't know how to express their ideas without screaming them at the audience.
16. Within public access employees, people need to think of this as a calling, not just their job. It was compared to Paul Revere making a conduit available to the people, one day it'll be the only way for people to get their voice/ideas out.
17. Random fact about consumers vs. citizens- the Cope hearing referenced the American public as consumers 62 times and citizens 4 times. Kind of a big issue huh?
18. The biggest thing we need to work on teaching is "what do you want to say?" before teaching "how do you say it (medium)? We need to focus on the message and how we can improve communications. Thus, we need more education in terms of HOW, not theory and not technology but how do you actually express the messagge? MEDIA LITERACY PROGRAM both here at the station, and spanning the educational system from preschool to college.
19. Essentially, public access media is serving as a bridge to the digital divide and we need to make sure we're living up to that responsibility.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
2 Fridays, and not much in between.
Friday, October 26 (6 hours): TJ and I went to the Alma studio today, because Jan had a meeting but John from one of the church groups had a program that he had wanted to edit, we had to take a DVD of an elementary school musical to an access user, and another woman had to drop off a program for us. John ended up staying the whole time because he always does, which is good because at least someone is using the Gratiot access center. As it turned out, we didn't have the right DVD for the woman, so we have to search through the archives to find the right one. However, this may prove to be a difficult task because a lot of tapes keep going missing from the Gratiot studio, and so if it was there in the first place it may not be there now, and that will be unfortunate.
Friday, November 2 (7 hours): Preparing for conference next week, things are getting really chaotic around the station. First, we have to make sure we've got everything set around here so that we can leave for a few days. This is kind of a big issue, because lately our Nexus (the big computer that pretty much runs everything that you see on TV- the slides, the shows, everything) has been randomly blacking out. This turns out to be an issue with producers leaving blank spots on the beginning of the dvd's, which the nexus picks up as having no content because it does this smart scan thing and if there's nothing at the beginning of the program it thinks there's an error and stops playing. However, sometimes it stops playing just for the time allotted for that program, and sometimes it's been stopping all night until we get in and fix it. Kind of a weird situation, so we must talk to the Leightronix (our electronic provider people) guy to see why it's doing it.
Second, we have an official list of things that I need to be working on, including 1) the brochure, 2) making an instructional sheet for the new Panasonic cameras, 3) I still need to make a show 4) we need to start calling the NPO's that we sent surveys to, as most have not responded to our mailing (not that it's really a surprise because mailings aren't that effective).
Third: today I did my first official camera check-out. As in, I gathered the equipment and filled out the check-out sheet for the user, and then he took the equipment for the weekend. This was pretty cool, because it shows that I'm becoming more familiar with the equipment and am able to actually function in the role of a "real" employee. Woo hoo!
Total of 102.5 hours so far.
Friday, November 2 (7 hours): Preparing for conference next week, things are getting really chaotic around the station. First, we have to make sure we've got everything set around here so that we can leave for a few days. This is kind of a big issue, because lately our Nexus (the big computer that pretty much runs everything that you see on TV- the slides, the shows, everything) has been randomly blacking out. This turns out to be an issue with producers leaving blank spots on the beginning of the dvd's, which the nexus picks up as having no content because it does this smart scan thing and if there's nothing at the beginning of the program it thinks there's an error and stops playing. However, sometimes it stops playing just for the time allotted for that program, and sometimes it's been stopping all night until we get in and fix it. Kind of a weird situation, so we must talk to the Leightronix (our electronic provider people) guy to see why it's doing it.
Second, we have an official list of things that I need to be working on, including 1) the brochure, 2) making an instructional sheet for the new Panasonic cameras, 3) I still need to make a show 4) we need to start calling the NPO's that we sent surveys to, as most have not responded to our mailing (not that it's really a surprise because mailings aren't that effective).
Third: today I did my first official camera check-out. As in, I gathered the equipment and filled out the check-out sheet for the user, and then he took the equipment for the weekend. This was pretty cool, because it shows that I'm becoming more familiar with the equipment and am able to actually function in the role of a "real" employee. Woo hoo!
Total of 102.5 hours so far.
Starting to think about the paper.
Monday, October 22 (2 hours)and Wednesday, October 24 (2 hours): A lot of the time here was spent discussing how the Friday shoot went, which we think was good. We've got 4 tapes worth of material, and so when it comes time to edit that we should have a lot going for us. We're now in the process of trying to make a date with Dr. Gilbert to do the editing, but fitting that in sometime when everyone is available is going to be quite tricky because we've got 2 weeks left until we leave for the conference and arrangements need to be made for that. I was also left in charge of calling Dr. Gilbert to make arrangements to get back the jacket that TJ had left in the theater on Friday night. It wasn't a bad task by any means, but it was a tad intimidating for me to just phone my professor at home and be like "so did you happen to find a jacket at the theater? Oh, you did... can we get that from you sometime?" It's not that I didn't want to talk to Dr. Gilbert, but I've never actually called a professor at home and so it seemed more like some kind of violation of the standard communication paths or something. But I survived, and we had a nice discussion about how things are coming along here. It kind of seems like even though I'm learning a lot of things, they're hard to put into a journal because about half of the things tend to be the real-life experiences that don't really seem impressive on their own until I reflect on the fact that I've grown as a person because of them.
On another note though, a few of the people who had originally scheduled to go with us to the conference have found out that they can't go, and so that's kind of a loss because the more the merrier, and if we have more people we could potentially gather more information because there will be multiple sessions going on at the same time at this conference. I'm going to take a notebook and just scribble furiously in hopes of catching the important stuff. I've been thinking about the paper that I have to write at the end of the year- not a lot, but a little bit at least, and I have been keeping up on the "outside readings" that are part of the internship requirement... actually I think I'm a bit ahead of the requirement because I've got more than 1 per week, but I've been trying to learn as much as I can about public access TV and the related fields. I guess I should make a list of these; a lot of them are scholarly journals and books on the media use (photoshop, dreamweaver, iMovie, etc). I'm not totally sure how I'm going to tie these in together, unless I do something like an overview of my internship from the broad to the narrow- explaining public access television and all of the drama/excitement surrounding it, and narrowing down to the actual creation of material for P.A. TV. I'll need to work on the idea, but I do have some materials.
On another note though, a few of the people who had originally scheduled to go with us to the conference have found out that they can't go, and so that's kind of a loss because the more the merrier, and if we have more people we could potentially gather more information because there will be multiple sessions going on at the same time at this conference. I'm going to take a notebook and just scribble furiously in hopes of catching the important stuff. I've been thinking about the paper that I have to write at the end of the year- not a lot, but a little bit at least, and I have been keeping up on the "outside readings" that are part of the internship requirement... actually I think I'm a bit ahead of the requirement because I've got more than 1 per week, but I've been trying to learn as much as I can about public access TV and the related fields. I guess I should make a list of these; a lot of them are scholarly journals and books on the media use (photoshop, dreamweaver, iMovie, etc). I'm not totally sure how I'm going to tie these in together, unless I do something like an overview of my internship from the broad to the narrow- explaining public access television and all of the drama/excitement surrounding it, and narrowing down to the actual creation of material for P.A. TV. I'll need to work on the idea, but I do have some materials.
Friday, October 26, 2007
THE EMPERORS NEW CLOTHES!
Friday 10/19 (9 hours): I took the GRE this morning, and it wasn't that fun but I did survive so it could have been worse.
In the afternoon I hung out at the station for a while, and then we all headed down to Alma for the big show. It was fun because we had dinner at the Main Cafe downtown, and with all 5 of us (Jan, TJ, myself, Will (a volunteer who rocks) and Tim (my boyfriend who is now volunteering as well) dressed up in our MAC3TV shirts we looked real slick. The show itself went really good as well, I had my first experience duct-taping the cables to the floor (so no one trips or knocks the camera over), setting up the tripod and camera, and actually doing some taping aside from the caterpillar. I was in charge of one of the wide-angle cameras up in the projection booth, which was good because a) there were 2 of us, so if I messed mine up there was a backup, and b) it was easier to follow the action from a distance than it is to follow it up close. When we actually watch these tapes and start editing them I think there will be some commentary on what I did well/could have improved on while taping, but overall it went pretty good. I'm really excited that I actually got to tape something, because I'm getting more responsibilities around the station and a lot of hands-on experience. Sometime in the next few weeks Dr. Gilbert is going to come up to the station and help with the editing process so she can have a copy of the show for herself, and make sure that we're getting the important parts in the final copy. It's going to be a good time, and when it's finished I'm going to include a copy in my final portfolio as an example of my work.
In the afternoon I hung out at the station for a while, and then we all headed down to Alma for the big show. It was fun because we had dinner at the Main Cafe downtown, and with all 5 of us (Jan, TJ, myself, Will (a volunteer who rocks) and Tim (my boyfriend who is now volunteering as well) dressed up in our MAC3TV shirts we looked real slick. The show itself went really good as well, I had my first experience duct-taping the cables to the floor (so no one trips or knocks the camera over), setting up the tripod and camera, and actually doing some taping aside from the caterpillar. I was in charge of one of the wide-angle cameras up in the projection booth, which was good because a) there were 2 of us, so if I messed mine up there was a backup, and b) it was easier to follow the action from a distance than it is to follow it up close. When we actually watch these tapes and start editing them I think there will be some commentary on what I did well/could have improved on while taping, but overall it went pretty good. I'm really excited that I actually got to tape something, because I'm getting more responsibilities around the station and a lot of hands-on experience. Sometime in the next few weeks Dr. Gilbert is going to come up to the station and help with the editing process so she can have a copy of the show for herself, and make sure that we're getting the important parts in the final copy. It's going to be a good time, and when it's finished I'm going to include a copy in my final portfolio as an example of my work.
10/12 through the first half of Access Training
Friday 10/12 (8 hours): We spent a while going over the tape from the dress rehersal and figuring out whether or not we should use 2 or 3 cameras for the actual shoot- we decided on 4 as it turns out. If we put two cameras up in the projection booth as wide-angle shots, we can be sure to get a wide span of all of the action going on onstage. We will also have 2 cameras on the floor, one on each end of the stage, which will give us some nice close-up shots of the action and different angles that will make the finished, edited project really nice with some smooth transitions. We also spent some time in the Gratiot studio today, working down there with the people who use the facility and still working on straightening the place up down there.
Monday 10/15 (2 hours): We had some interviews for the Gratiot position today. We're still going through the process of finding someone, because as before, Lori is still out with the eye thing and also the job had to be posted and interviewed for anyway, even if we do think she's the best for the position. We've gotten about 8 applications, even though some aren't qualified, it's nice to see some response to the posting. TJ and I made arrangements for Wednesday morning to work on getting me trained to actually use the cameras. The "official" training class is tonight (my boyfriend Tim is attending), but I have to work and so I need to get other training scheduled in to be ready for Friday!
Wednesday 10/17 (3.5 hours): At the station super early to do the first half of the camera training. Actually, it's all the training for the cameras, and then the second half of the training is the computer editing part of the program. However, we only have time for the first half, which is all I really need for this week anyway. And this really was an exciting training session, because when I went outside to do the "practice filming" I was going to tape the construction workers across the road because it's fun to make them feel nervous about why we'd be taping. However, after a few minutes of that I looked down and saw the strangest caterpillar ever, and so I started taping that instead (really, it wasn't moving a whole lot so it's just me zooming in and out a lot). Extreme home makeover turned into discovery channel. I'm the best videographer ever!
Monday 10/15 (2 hours): We had some interviews for the Gratiot position today. We're still going through the process of finding someone, because as before, Lori is still out with the eye thing and also the job had to be posted and interviewed for anyway, even if we do think she's the best for the position. We've gotten about 8 applications, even though some aren't qualified, it's nice to see some response to the posting. TJ and I made arrangements for Wednesday morning to work on getting me trained to actually use the cameras. The "official" training class is tonight (my boyfriend Tim is attending), but I have to work and so I need to get other training scheduled in to be ready for Friday!
Wednesday 10/17 (3.5 hours): At the station super early to do the first half of the camera training. Actually, it's all the training for the cameras, and then the second half of the training is the computer editing part of the program. However, we only have time for the first half, which is all I really need for this week anyway. And this really was an exciting training session, because when I went outside to do the "practice filming" I was going to tape the construction workers across the road because it's fun to make them feel nervous about why we'd be taping. However, after a few minutes of that I looked down and saw the strangest caterpillar ever, and so I started taping that instead (really, it wasn't moving a whole lot so it's just me zooming in and out a lot). Extreme home makeover turned into discovery channel. I'm the best videographer ever!
Dress Rehersal for the Emperors New Clothes, 10/11
Thursday, 10/11 (2 hours): The dress rehersal for Dr. Gilberts "Emperors New Clothes" was really cool because I was able to see both the precess of preparing for a muscial production and the preparations for videotaping such a production. This was the first day that I actually got to (kind of) use one of the cameras (even though I'm not a certified access user yet) and I learned a lot about where the cameras should be placed, how to measure for cable needed, microphone needs and also the issue between backdrops and camera ligth levels. For example, the backdrop on the stage was lit well enough for the audience to see it, but not well enough for the camera to be able to pick up all of the details. Lighting was also an issue with the mirror that the emperor was holding, because it had a lot of sparkly "gems" on the back side- the side facing the audience- which is a nice effect except for the fact that all the light reflected from the sparkles would really mess with the camera pickup and display. We spent a few hours here getting things organized for the shoot on the 19th, and I think it's going to turn out very good, which will be nice to have some evidence that a) I'm learning things, and b) Dr. Gilbert is a witness to this as well. On a related note, the sound guy at the theater complimented my handshake- BIG BONUS! because self presentation was one of the topics that I had put in the objectives to work on, and here was the first criticism that Jan had given me, and it was turned into a compliment within a few months. Just thought I'd note that, because it seems like a pretty big improvement from where I was in the beginning of the semester.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The new news.
I haven't posted anything in the last two weeks, I guess because there hasn't really been much going on that is very noteworthy. However, I'll update with what I've got, because I have been going to the TV station as scheduled. With the posts up until 9/24 I had 37.5 hours, just for the record. Since then I've been in:
Wed. 9/26 2 hours (I've started going in between 9 and 10 on Mondays and Wednesdays)
Fri. 9/28 8.5 hours
Mon. 10/1 2 hours
Wed. 10/3 2 hours
Fri. 10/5 7 hours
Mon. 10/8 2 hours
Wed. 10/10 2 hours......... thus bringing the total up to 63. About half way to the required hours, although I'm not worried about that since we have so many extra outings to count.
Now, past the bookkeeping stuff...
We have officially posted the position to hire someone to run the Gratiot studio, because Lori (the interim) had surgery for her detached retina and hasn't been in. Even though we would like for her to apply for the job, this is proving more difficult than we first expected because she isn't sure if she's up to it. This is too bad, because she has a doctorate in broadcasting and is a retired CMU professor and would have been absolutely perfect for the position. Hopefully she'll get to apply, because while we have some other applicants I think she would probably work out the best for our purposes. In the meantime, TJ and Jan have been taking turns at the Gratiot studio- I've been going with Jan on Fridays for a while, but since I'm not yet ready to run the place by myself I can't go alone.
The other major thing that's been going on at the station is the survey to the NPO's of Gratiot county. I think we've been through at least 7 drafts of the letter and the survey questions, and today was finally the day that we sent them out. The reason these took so long was that a) we were working on these at the same time we were working on everyday tasks that need to be done around the station, so they didn't have the full attention that they deserved each time they were looked at, and b) every draft we'd make we would take some time to let it sit so we could look at it fresh later on. This turned out for the best I think, because we went from a 1-page piece that had the introduction and the survey questions on it to a 4 page mailing. The first page was a letter introducing MAC 3 TV, for those who are not familiar with how public access works. Then it explained all of the free services we offer, and mentioned the attached interest survey. The last thing it did was mention the Gratiot access center (which is the target area for these NPO's to use) and explain that we are remodeling and will soon have a Grand Re-Opening that they will receive an invitation to when the time gets closer so they can come take a tour of the center. The second page had the questions, which were pretty simple: do you ever use the Gratiot access center? Would you be interested in using it? Do you have any special/yearly events that you would like taped and on public access TV? Would you be interested in having some of your volunteers attend the free training to be certified to use our equipment and tape your event? Questions of this sort. And then the last 2 pages were part of our rules and regulations that explained about what kinds of things can be put on public access TV and such. Overall, I think it was a very simple mailing in the sense that the way we set it up will be easy for the recipients to understand what we've sent. We put the fax number on the first 2 pages, the front page is on our letterhead, and the second page it is listed at the bottom of the survey so they can return their answers without the hassle of envelopes and postage.
Another cool thing that's been going on is we've been preparing for Dr. Gilbert's performance of "The Emperor's New Clothes." We'll be taping the show on 10/19, also the same day that I take the GRE (wish me luck!). I'm excited to go and tape a live event, which is good because I'm kind of learning to use the cameras. I still need to take the official training courses, but so far they've all been on Monday nights and I work on Mondays so that hasn't worked out. However, I think we're doing a 1-day session of it before the 19th so I'll be useful during the shoot for Dr. Gilbert. Jan and I are going tomorrow night to the dress rehersal to spec out the area and see what equipment we're going to need, where to position things, how many people we'll need, etc etc. This should be good fun.
Wed. 9/26 2 hours (I've started going in between 9 and 10 on Mondays and Wednesdays)
Fri. 9/28 8.5 hours
Mon. 10/1 2 hours
Wed. 10/3 2 hours
Fri. 10/5 7 hours
Mon. 10/8 2 hours
Wed. 10/10 2 hours......... thus bringing the total up to 63. About half way to the required hours, although I'm not worried about that since we have so many extra outings to count.
Now, past the bookkeeping stuff...
We have officially posted the position to hire someone to run the Gratiot studio, because Lori (the interim) had surgery for her detached retina and hasn't been in. Even though we would like for her to apply for the job, this is proving more difficult than we first expected because she isn't sure if she's up to it. This is too bad, because she has a doctorate in broadcasting and is a retired CMU professor and would have been absolutely perfect for the position. Hopefully she'll get to apply, because while we have some other applicants I think she would probably work out the best for our purposes. In the meantime, TJ and Jan have been taking turns at the Gratiot studio- I've been going with Jan on Fridays for a while, but since I'm not yet ready to run the place by myself I can't go alone.
The other major thing that's been going on at the station is the survey to the NPO's of Gratiot county. I think we've been through at least 7 drafts of the letter and the survey questions, and today was finally the day that we sent them out. The reason these took so long was that a) we were working on these at the same time we were working on everyday tasks that need to be done around the station, so they didn't have the full attention that they deserved each time they were looked at, and b) every draft we'd make we would take some time to let it sit so we could look at it fresh later on. This turned out for the best I think, because we went from a 1-page piece that had the introduction and the survey questions on it to a 4 page mailing. The first page was a letter introducing MAC 3 TV, for those who are not familiar with how public access works. Then it explained all of the free services we offer, and mentioned the attached interest survey. The last thing it did was mention the Gratiot access center (which is the target area for these NPO's to use) and explain that we are remodeling and will soon have a Grand Re-Opening that they will receive an invitation to when the time gets closer so they can come take a tour of the center. The second page had the questions, which were pretty simple: do you ever use the Gratiot access center? Would you be interested in using it? Do you have any special/yearly events that you would like taped and on public access TV? Would you be interested in having some of your volunteers attend the free training to be certified to use our equipment and tape your event? Questions of this sort. And then the last 2 pages were part of our rules and regulations that explained about what kinds of things can be put on public access TV and such. Overall, I think it was a very simple mailing in the sense that the way we set it up will be easy for the recipients to understand what we've sent. We put the fax number on the first 2 pages, the front page is on our letterhead, and the second page it is listed at the bottom of the survey so they can return their answers without the hassle of envelopes and postage.
Another cool thing that's been going on is we've been preparing for Dr. Gilbert's performance of "The Emperor's New Clothes." We'll be taping the show on 10/19, also the same day that I take the GRE (wish me luck!). I'm excited to go and tape a live event, which is good because I'm kind of learning to use the cameras. I still need to take the official training courses, but so far they've all been on Monday nights and I work on Mondays so that hasn't worked out. However, I think we're doing a 1-day session of it before the 19th so I'll be useful during the shoot for Dr. Gilbert. Jan and I are going tomorrow night to the dress rehersal to spec out the area and see what equipment we're going to need, where to position things, how many people we'll need, etc etc. This should be good fun.
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