Today is the first day of my last month at Project New Media Literacies. It would be a lie for me to say that every minute of the nearly two years I've spent with this project was exciting, fun, and exhilarating; anyone who's done this kind of work knows that it's often exhausting, frustrating, and stressful.

That's because to do educational research well, you have to care, and you have to care deeply. And this means facing some difficult realities: That the institution of education is deeply flawed in some important and fundamental ways; that educational innovations are often stymied by policy issues and bureaucratic red tape; that most of the time, educational research--even at its most valuable--has a minimal impact on education as a whole.

Before coming to CMS and NML, I was a youth media educator in several schools in New York City. Before that, I worked with an awesome organization called Listen Up!. They've been working to network and strengthen the youth media field for around 10 years now. One of their newest contributions to the field is the Very Important Producer Online Film Festival. Unlike a traditional film festival, everything takes place online and the majority of the awards are judged by the viewers. It is a great example of the participatory culture we champion here at NML. Below is an interview with the Creative Director, Austin Haeberle, about what VIP2008 is and what makes it unique from other film festivals.