Others can do it, why not Richardson?
Fort Worth Star-Telegram congratulates the Fort Worth school board on plans to stream its monthly meetings on its Web site, for live or delayed viewing. Hooray! It's about time. As the fictitious taxpayers in the Star-Telegram editorial say:
Taxpayer 1: Starting Tuesday night, we'll be able to watch streaming video of school board meetings online. You can watch live or later.When will Richardson join FWISD in the 21st century? The Richardson ISD does not provide streaming video over the Internet for its board meetings and, as far as I know, has no plans to do so. The Richardson City Council does not provide streaming video over the Internet of its city council meetings, and, as far as I know, has no plans to do so. Only promises that grow ever older. Video streaming of council meetings was a hot topic during the recent council election campaign, with all candidates telling voters they support it. Yet now, 45 days after the election, tonight's council meeting won't be available online, either live or in archive format. What gives, Richardson?Taxpayer 2: Oh, joy. I can't wait. Scintillating on cable and computer.
Taxpayer 1: No, seriously, this is an exciting move into the 21st century.
Taxpayer 2: And it's only 2009.
18 comments:
I am not necessarily concerned that we're not streaming at the 45 day mark.
But it would be a sign of good faith if COR were at least making video/audio now. That way the sessions could be put online whenever the technical/procedural/funding/[insert objection here] ducks are in a row.
Well, if you attended the goal's session last night, you could tell Gary Slagel wasn't too excited about streaming video/webcast proposal. Over the objections of several councilmen, he stated that it, along with other items like expanded agendas, needed to be a part of a "phased in" plan - Huh? What is so difficult about this? Also, I know that this is a shocker, but he was not too excited about a "code of ethics" either!
Thanks for the comments. bloggermouse, I'd be patient if we had some progress towards video streaming. So far, I see nothing. Likewise to "Anonymous" at 6/23/2009 10:20 AM, a "phased in" plan might satisfy me, but so far I don't see any plan, phased in or not.
I intend to keep the counter running on the "Ed Cognoski" home page until the council members act to fulfill what I consider to be an implicit promise in their campaign statements to give residents some kind of televised or online coverage of council meetings.
distortions and lies. At a neighborhood association presidents meeting Gary Slagel said something like "Bill Keffler might not like this but..." and then he described how meetings could be put on the web. So there you have Slagel openly digging at Keffler. Where is that on everyone's whining blogs?
People need to stop getting their panties in a wad. They haven't even had a budget cycle with the new council. No doubt you will see some kind webcasting after they are far enough down the road to know what the budget situation is.
We might as well read: "They didn't do it quick enough to satisfy my tin foil hat conspiracies! They are evil!" Give it a rest already...
Ed says, "So far, I see nothing." Yeah. You are too lazy to show up at council meetings apparently.
Ed, get real and stop being part of the problem. The fact is that this will get done in one way or another at the rate it gets done whether you like it or not. If they have to gut a sidewalk or bridge repair money to pay for people and their microwave oven-instant mentalities to satisfy you, then I'll take the sidewalk and bridge repair first thank you very much.
You'll get your little web council meetings. Even so, Richardson's real issues have nothing to do with council meetings on the web or the age of council members.
"Anonymous" at 6/24/2009 10:50 AM", thanks for the feedback. Help me out here. Specifically, what "distortions and lies" are you referring to? Was it something I said?
I agree with you that Webcasting council meetings is far down the list of problems facing Richardson. And I agree that we'll see some kind of Webcasting sooner or later. But it's such a simple thing to do that it ought to be done sooner rather than later. No gutting of bridge repair budgets is necessary. Talk like yours, if repeated by someone on the council, would make me suspect that the council won't be living up to this promise at all. Silence from the council on the subject is not good, but it's better than talk like yours.
By the way, was criticizing me for not showing up at council meetings in person deliberately meant to be ironic? After all, with streaming video, that wouldn't be such a problem, would it?
When I said "distortions and lies" I was being a bit facetious. I was really meaning the old "Gary Slagel doesn't want web casts and he kicks puppies" line.
Well folks you will get web, podcasts, or something while Slagel is mayor.
"Talk like yours, if repeated by someone on the council, would make me suspect that the council won't be living up to this promise at all. Silence from the council on the subject is not good, but it's better than talk like yours."
There is not silence. They HAVE been discussing it.
Will they do it? Almost definitely. Will they do it on your timetable? Well apparently they haven't so they are baaaaaaaaad.
Ed -- here is the clue phone -- this is a new council. They havent finished goals and initiatives yet. The council isn't going to run out to Best Buy and buy a web cam on a council credit card. The city manager will present them with a list of options based on council guidance presumably. According to published agendas they havent discussed it as a topic of its own. They have worked on the goals and initiatives. so you simply can't expect it to be done yet.
"was criticizing me for not showing up at council meetings in person deliberately meant to be ironic?"
No. You claim to know what is going on, you spend effort writing about it, yet you don't show up and you get the facts wrong.
"Anonymous" at 6/24/2009 3:04 PM, you say council members have been talking about streaming video for council meetings. Is there any public record of that? Agendas, actions, minutes, anything? You say I get facts wrong. I am always willing to print corrections, if presented with evidence of error.
You imply that this is a new council and therefore we shouldn't expect anything yet. Yet, on May 28, the new council authorized the city manager to execute an agreement to extend the city's contract with the company operating the city's red light cameras. The council can act quickly if it wants to.
You say "the council isn't going to run out to Best Buy and buy a web cam." The city already has an award-winning video production department, CITV. If you look at its recent work, you'll find a video of the League of Women Voters' city council forum from 4/24/2009. CITV didn't need to wait for the council to finish its goals and initiatives before producing that excellent service to the residents of Richardson. I suspect the reasons CITV doesn't videotape the council meetings are neither technical nor economic. But I do agree that we'll get streaming video eventually, but not because of anything I've heard from you.
As much as I hate to get in the middle of this, and as little as I care for Anonymous #2's tone of voice, in fact, Ed, he has a point.
I do go to every Council meeting, and the Council has discussed webcasting Council meetings more than once, as recently as in this Monday's (6/22/09) City Council workshop. I am pretty sure that this specific subject came up at the two previous Council workshops where they discussed their goals for 2009-2011 (on 6/1/09 and 6/15/09).
In fact, during these three sessions on goals, the Council unanimously added an entire new category of goals called "Governance", in which there is a specific goal of "[evaluating] the use of various media forms to expand community access to meetings that fall under the Open Meetings Act." And as vague as that sounds, they specifically and repeatedly talked about webcasting in one form or another.
In fact, at the last meeting, Amir Omar discovered that he had a built-in camera on his laptop and was joking to other Council members about doing a "guerilla webcast" of the meeting ;-)
I think that one of the hold-ups - besides the obvious desire of the Council to do their goal setting first before anything else - is that City staff assumed that the Council wouldn't want some cheap and cheesy solution. I routinely deliver professional instruction via the Internet (www.acadami.org), and I can tell you that just setting up a webcam in a room, far enough back to get all 7 Council members in it, won't provide a picture of hardly any value, because of the distance and the relatively poor resolution (compared to television). Furthermore, half the time you won't even know what they're talking about because they're referencing Powerpoint slides up on the screen. Can you put the Powerpoints online too in realtime? Sure you can - but that is a lot more complicated that just setting up a webcam and microphone.
My feeling is that in the short run, the public would get just as much value from just an audio feed, rather than having a video feed in which you can't see very much. This would be like the broadcasts of the Dallas Council meetings on WRR (do they still do that?) - I used to listen to that on a regular basis.
Of course, that brings up its own problem...the current sound system in the Richardson Room picks up transmission signals from cell phones and Blackberries - I suspect that this would obscure the voices for people listening on the Internet (I can hear them speaking over the noise because I am in the same room)...so maybe we need a better sound system...and so someone is going to have to think about this problem, spec out a solution, and pay for it...you see the issue...
Anyway, I hope that we can keep the conversation civil...
Bill
William J. 'Bill' McCalpin, thank you for reporting what's said at council meetings for those of us who aren't present. I now have hearsay from two people and still no video, audio, or transcript of any of this talk. Pardon me if I suspect the council prefers it this way.
A cheesy audio feed would be better than what we have now, which is nothing. And Amir Omar's web cam would be better yet. And a CITV production similar to what they did for the League of Women Voters forum in April would be better yet. By all means put a task force together to figure out the best way to provide continuous improvement from any of these starts, but don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. And CITV's already proven capability is pretty d*mn good.
Ah, Ed, I would hope that you might consider my comments somewhat higher than the level of "hearsay". You know why.
As for the audio feed, I don't know if anyone has seriously considered that, mainly because everyone is fixated on webcasting. What they're not fixated on is "solving the problem of more communication in any form to the public". But it's no surprise why...because the City government receives so much grief from certain "people" (not you) about things that they are totally innocent of, they assume that if they don't do a perfect job, that instead of "thank yous", they'll get a lot of "you screwed this up". And honestly, I can't blame them, given the amount of false and slanderous...stuff..thrown at them.
I'll mention this to the Council members I know as well as several senior City staffers, but since I know some of them read your blog, I expect they'll already know your thoughts ;-)
And, Ed, we don't have "nothing" today...citizens who belong to neighborhood associations and other interest groups should ask their elected leadership why there aren't neighborhood representatives at the Council meetings today...communication IS a two-way street...
Bill
William J. 'Bill' McCalpin, I'm sorry you considered my use of the word "hearsay" as derogatory. It was not meant as such.
hear⋅say /ˈhɪərˌseɪ/
–noun
1. unverified, unofficial information gained or acquired from another and not part of one's direct knowledge
"I now have hearsay from two people and still no video, audio, or transcript of any of this talk. Pardon me if I suspect the council prefers it this way."
You can always show up. You can also ask if your HOA rep shows up and if he/she shows up to the monthly president's meeting where more information is given than council meetings.
William is right. It's a two way street. Audio is available in tape form in the library. You can also make open records requests which would tell you if drafts of goals have certain items on them. I assume that is where William is quoting from. That things said were "hearsay" is completely your doing because you have the means to verify them.
The information is available but criticism comes because its not convenient enough. You've given us no reason to believe you have taken ANY effort on this yet you complain that something hasn't occurred on your timetable. Does the city council and staff even know that Ed Cognoski expects web broadcasts in 45 days and if not what do you expect?
"Anonymous" at 6/26/2009 8:56 AM said, "The information is available but criticism comes because its not convenient enough."
Yes. That's the source of my criticism.
Ed, it would be hearsay if you repeated my statements to someone else, but it is not hearsay when I tell it to you. It is information from a qualified witness, i.e., 'evidence'.
And I know you know that 'hearsay' has a negative connotation...just ask the next 10 people you meet if they would rather have the facts or hearsay...;-)
Bill
William J. 'Bill' McCalpin, you're right about "hearsay." See the blog item I just posted on the word.
Thanks, Ed, and keep up the good work!
P.S. You did change your tag line, didn't you? ;-)
Bill
Re: Tag line
Yep, I changed it again. Like I said in another comment thread, I realized there's no place on the blog where I explain it's an opinion blog, not a news blog. Nor any place where I point out that I don't take myself too seriously. Done and done.
All...please note that this evening's (6/29) Council workshop has two agenda items of interest to you:
• Webcasting of City Council Meetings
• City Council Meeting Agendas and On-Line Postings
The workshop is (1) open to the public, (2) in the Richardson Room at City Hall, and (3) starts at 6 p.m. See Workshop Agenda for the agenda.
NOTE - if you want to speak to the Council this evening, you must be there just before 6 p.m. and get a sign-in card from the City Secretary, Pam Schmidt. The 'Visitors' section is the first item of business on the agenda (so don't come late). Note that generally you will have up to 5 minutes to speak. Also note that the Council is limited by State law how much it can respond to your questions, but you will have least had your say.
Bill
P.S. See you there, Ed!
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