Sue Schardt, Executive Director of AIR, and Jessica Clark, director of the Center for Social Media’s Future of Public Media project, just published this report on the impact of MQ2, featuring a detailed analysis of Mapping Main Street. Read it here:

Included is an infographic demonstrating the ways in which MMS has extended far beyond the initial NPR broadcasts, taking on a life of its own and illustrating a new paradigm for multiplatform public media.

Here’s the video that we put together with AIR Executive Director for the FCC’s workshop on “Future of Media.”

And here’s a version that Jim Hair, one of the project’s most engaged contributors, posted on YouTube pulled from the FCC archives.

In the winter of 2010, a reunion of four high school friends occurred in the Village of Port Jefferson to document the place of their youth. All founders of Silly Hats Only Productions, they made their way up and down Main Street, visiting the shops, clientele, and business owners that bring life to the Village every day. Along the way they shared conversations with a village guide, the mayor, the owner of a sea shell store, an arts director at the local theatre, and more.

The four of us have a yearly tradition of coming together over our respective winter breaks to shoot short films as a creative outlet. This year, we decided to put our efforts towards a Mapping Main Street contribution, since we felt our beloved hometown, with its combination of history and unique small businesses, had a story worth telling. What we didn’t account for during the shoot were the gusts of wind, quickly dropping temperatures, and the icy water kicking up on shore by the town’s ferry. Our only regret in putting this short film together is that we couldn’t share every part of our Village, from the downtown bar regulars to the line cook at the local steakhouse. There’s a richness in character on this Main Street that must be experienced in person.

- Adam Gismondi, Luke Ceo, Mark Sternberg and Ryan Hodum

Downtown Durham, North Carolina is filled with old tobacco warehouses, more and more of them now being converted into hip lofts, offices, and retail shops. Durham’s renaissance has come slowly, and only after decades of dormancy. Native son Gayford Caston has a small shoe repair shop on Main Street. He’s open 7 days a week. When he’s not fixing torn leather on his old Singer sewing machine, replacing worn soles on his shoe jack, or erasing black marks on scuffed boots, Caston loves to chat, and reminisce about the old Durham, with his customers.

Gayford Caston, Main Shoe Repair Man, Durham, North Carolina from Jill Strauss on Vimeo.

Many thanks to Jill Strauss who produced this piece for “The Short Audio Documentary,” a course taught by John Biewen at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

You can also check out Jill’s photo slideshow, here.