And while every upsurge of activism from civil rights to gay liberation has spawned new organs, whether bundled or byte-size, the delicate balance of media and movement seems to have entered a new, less predictable phase. The battle of Seattle, the same event that would ultimately spawn the World Social Forums, also introduced us to Independent Media Centers, and the idea that anyone--in fact, everyone--can be a journalist.

While the Boston Social Forum has largely escaped the glare of the mainstream media, save for mentions in the Boston Phoenix and the Boston Globe, the alternative press is here in abundance. Correspondents from Free Speech Radio, area IndyMedia outlets and alternative newsweeklies are working the crowd, while no fewer than five independent filmmakers are recording the proceedings.

The prospect of a movement caught on film fills organizer Catherine Benedict with excitement. "We're living in a moment when technology has really democratized the media," says Benedict, who helped to coordinate the Boston Social Forum Film Series. "People are able to get their message out much more easily today, especially young people because they understand the technology," she says. Case in point: The film series is showcasing not just the work of established filmmakers, such as John Sayles, but that of 'kids with cameras,' like Lev Grossman-Spivack, a teenager who made the trek to Mumbai, India, in January for the World Social Forum, digital camera in hand. "This was the first video project he'd ever done," says Benedict.

But the fact that the alternative media movement seems to be expanding so much more rapidly than the social movements its partisans chronicle raises an interesting question: What happens when there is more media than movement? And is there such a thing as too much media, even of the alternative variety?

It is not a question upon which the progressive community agrees, even at the Boston Social Forum. At a gathering titled the "New Media Summit" on Saturday afternoon, filmmaker Richard Hoefer made the case that the alternative media movement should devote its resources to establishing a new, noncorporate television network designed to appeal to both moderates and progressives. "There's not going to be any taking back of the mainstream media," said Hoefer. As for alternative outlets, he doesn't see much hope there either: "If I don't know you exist, I have no way to access your information." Others were skeptical of the idea, feeling it more worthwhile to devote themselves to less costly projects like low-power radio, Internet webcasting and documentary film-making.

The distance between Hoefer's vision of a branded TV network that will appeal to millions and the specter of a single activist armed with a hand-held camera seems impossibly huge. "Isn't there something in between?" I wondered aloud to James Haslam, director of the Vermont Workers' Center, who made the trip down from Montpelier for the BSF. A frequent guest on a Vermont radio program known as Equal Time, Haslam turned out to be a good person with whom to share my musing.

"What you have to understand about the show is that it is and it isn't alternative media. It's alternative media in that social movements have access to it, but it also very much relates to the lives of ordinary Vermonters," says Haslam. "We go on to talk about an issue confronting Vermont workers and we get calls from people all over the state," says Haslam. "This is really new." It also differs from much alternative programming in that it has a sizeable audience, at least by Vermont standards. WDEV, the station on which it airs, also broadcasts a right-wing opinion show called True North, and live auto-racing, proving that diversity in programming isn't always bad for business.

Back at the New Media Summit, as a presentation of excerpts from new films had the crowd roaring with approval, organizers hoped to have a blueprint for a new progressive TV network in place by the close of the BSF.

July 23

The Boston Social Forum is not a conference. While the official program may list panel discussions--some 500 of them, in fact--on topics from water privatization to the Wal-Mart economy to defeating George W. Bush in swing states this November, do not, insist BSF organizers, confuse the event with a typical left convocation.

Neither is the BSF a coalition, an alliance, a congress or an organization. The BSF does not make decisions, issue statements, call for actions or sponsor campaigns. So while the delegates to the Democratic National Convention will adopt their party's official platform in a few days, we here at UMass Boston, just five miles away, are platformless.

All of which raises the question: What exactly is a Social Forum anyway? Organizers of the event describe it as an "open space"--part of the World Social Forum process begun in Brazil in 2001, continued in India, and carried on in Europe--that enables people who believe in something other than the neoliberal economic model to get together and think, talk and dream about what that alternative might look like. Forumistas are dead serious about keeping that space open, too. While the organizing committee established priority "tracks"--loose topics like global justice, movement building or immigration--the vast majority of workshops are "self-submitted," the brainchild of one group or even a single person.

It's unclear what the thousands of participants who are expected to attend the BSF this weekend might be hoping to get for their $30 registration fee, but the event has proven wildly popular. Two thousand attendees are already registered for the forum and organizers are expecting twice that many for a weekend of lectures, star-studded convocations, performances and documentary film viewings from John Sayles, among others.

Not bad, considering that the "open space" model wasn't exactly what a cluster of Boston-area social change organizations had in mind when they came together last springto plan for the BSF. "We wanted to keep the focus very much on Boston, to gather our grassroots organizations together and figure out how to deepen our social movements," says Tim Costello, the director of the National Alliance for Fair Employment (NAFFE), one of the groups hosting the forum.

But what they got couldn't be more different. And they're not the least bit unhappy about it."This is a real Social Forum,"says Costello. "Here you've got the entire range of issues that constitute the left in America," he insists, pointing to a rainbow flag, a flag having something to do with water, and another whose reference is unclear. "The magic of this is that it enables people to connect up with something bigger than themselves. You can do the workshop, you can do the performance and imagine that you're part of something bigger--that you're part of the world."

"This is a place where you can dream," agrees Ana Amaral, an immigrant rights organizer with Massachusetts Jobs with Justice. "It's important for us to have a space like this," she says. "I just hope that people will come tomorrow," she says, referring to the event she's coordinating for members of Boston's huge Brazilian community. "I'm afraid everyone will be working."