Posts in Public Sector Webcasting Community

Posts Navigation

Later 20 posts
Earlier 20 posts

Useful Links

Meeting on Demand, Laws requiring digital recording From: Steven Clift Date: Oct 09 18:11 UTC Short link

Long time, no postings. So here goes ...

1. Do any governments provide video-on-demand access to recent public
meeting via the same infrastructure cable uses for access via set-top
boxes? If yes, how did you get it to happen. If no, why not?

2. What do you think of changing open meeting laws to require some
form of digital recording of all/major public meetings? Do any of you
already have such legal requirements?

4. Which local government is model for enhancing the webcast
experience with real-time access to documents being discussed etc.

5. Are any of using or considering services like Mogulus or UStream?

This input might end up somewhere really important, but I can't say where yet.


Cheers,
Steven Clift

a recent event that might interest you From: wodeenya Date: Sep 21 00:43 UTC Short link

I agree with what you have said.
 I'm a crazy game player and i have played various kinds of games. My favorite
if wow and rs. Sometimes I need gold to buy more equipment in the game, then I
tried to find some websites to buy the gold. And then to my surprise the
website whick I found is that good and considerate. It is dgamesky I strongly
recommend it to you. This is not an ad. You can have a look at it. Then you can
choose to believe me or not. Hope we can all enjoy our games.

New York Webcasting Executive Order From: Steven Clift Date: 2007 Mar 01 17:08 UTC Short link

Any comments?

Steven Clift
http://dowire.org

From:
http://tinyurl.com/27q85o

New York to Require Agencies to Webcast Meetings
February 27, 2007 News Release
New York State Gov. Eliot Spitzer's Executive Order Number Three
requires that each state agency and public authority shall, by March
1, "Submit to the secretary to the governor a plan that: (a)
identifies all meetings of such agency or authority that are subject
to the Open Meetings Law; and (b) specifies a timetable for ensuring
that all such meetings are broadcast on the Internet." The order
contains provisions for exemption, but other than that: "All agency
and authority meetings that are subject to the Open Meetings Law
shall be broadcast on the Internet commencing no later than July 1,
2007. Every agency and public authority shall submit a report to the
secretary to the governor by December 31, 2007, setting forth the
number of meetings webcast during the prior year, together with a
summary of any comments received from the public regarding the
webcasting, and any recommendations for changes or improvements to
the program."

The Executive Order itself:
http://www.ny.gov/governor/executive_orders/exeorders/3.html

 EXECUTIVE ORDER

No 3: PROMOTION OF PUBLIC ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT DECISIONMAKING

WHEREAS, it is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society
that the public business be performed in an open and public manner;
and

WHEREAS, the citizens of this State be fully aware of and able to
observe the performances of public officials and attend and listen to
the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public
policy; and

WHEREAS, the people must be able to remain informed if they are to
retain control over those who are their public servants; and

WHEREAS, the Open Meetings Law requires every meeting of a public
body shall be open to the general public; and

WHEREAS, the majority of New Yorkers are unable to attend such
meetings; and

WHEREAS advances in technology allow for the broadcast of meetings on
the Internet through the use of webcasting;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Eliot Spitzer, Governor of the State of New York,
by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the
laws of the State of New York, do hereby order as follows:

1.   Definitions

"Agency" shall mean any state agency, department, office, board,
commission or other instrumentality of the State, other than a public
authority.

"Public authority" shall mean a public authority or public benefit
corporation created by or existing under any State law, at least one
of whose members is appointed by the Governor (including any
subsidiaries of such public authority or public benefit corporation),
other than an interstate or international authority or public benefit
corporation.

2.   Requirement to Broadcast Public Meetings

By March 1, 2007, every agency and public authority shall submit to
the Secretary to the Governor a plan that:  (a) identifies all
meetings of such agency or authority that are subject to the Open
Meetings Law; and (b) specifies a timetable for ensuring that all
such meetings are broadcast on the Internet.  Such plan may identify
circumstances in which such webcasting is either impractical or
inappropriate, and may seek approval for exemption from the
requirement for webcasting.  Except in those circumstances where an
exemption is granted, all agency and authority meetings that are
subject to the Open Meetings Law shall be broadcast on the Internet
commencing no later than July 1, 2007.  Every agency and public
authority shall submit a report to the Secretary to the Governor by
December 31, 2007, setting forth the number of meetings webcast
during the prior year, together with a summary of any comments
received from the public regarding the webcasting, and any
recommendations for changes or improvements to the program.

G I V E N under my hand and the Privy Seal of the State in the City
of Albany this first day of January in the year two thousand seven.

Eliot Spitzer, Governor

Richard Baum, Secretary to the Governor
^               ^               ^                ^
Steven L. Clift    -   -  -  W: http://publicus.net
Minneapolis    -   -   -  -   E: <email obscured>
Minnesota  -   -   -   -   -   - T: +1.612.822.8667
USA    -   -   -   -     Skype/MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift

Join Democracies Online: http://dowire.org
Start an Issues Forum: http://e-democracy.org/if

a recent event that might interest you From: J.H. Snider Date: 2006 Oct 14 18:38 UTC Short link

This week I spoke at the National Association of Legislative Information
Technology (NALIT), a division of the National Conference of State
Legislatures.  For those who don't know, NALIT members are responsible
for legislative record keeping and public meeting webcasting.  My topic
was the "PR vs. Democratic Accountability Models of Legislative
Webcasting."   Since the late 1990s NCSL has included my papers on
legislative TV on its Legislatures Live
<http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2003/more_resources.htm>  website.
A compiled list of my related writings on this subject can be found at
jhsnider.net/LegislativeTV.



My summary of the meeting is that legislative TV has continued to make
substantial progress in recent years, with Washington State's TVW
continuing to lead the way.  New efforts are underway to index
legislative webcasts to improve searching.   With archival costs at 34
kbps almost negligible, the decision to archive is less and less driven
by costs.  For example, the Texas legislature was able to archive the
entire session, more than 1600 hours of webcasting, on a 80 gigabyte
hard drive.

SoonR invitation From: Steven Clift Date: 2006 Oct 14 11:44 UTC Short link

Did you mean to send this to the entire group?  It really isn't on topic.

Steven Clift
http://dowire.org

SoonR invitation From: Joginder Singh Date: 2006 Oct 14 07:32 UTC Short link

Come join my SoonR network and make free international calls from your
cell phone. The download is free and you can earn $10 for trying it
out (it will help me earn $10, too!).

Here is the link to download:



http://share.soonr.com/r/5b149150aca610299bf8

Migrating WIndows Media Publishing Points From: Steven Smith Date: 2006 Jun 26 18:57 UTC Short link

Many thanks Andy

Steve

Migrating WIndows Media Publishing Points From: Andy Lewis Date: 2006 Jun 26 15:15 UTC Short link

ServerNamespace.xml is the file you are after (c:\windows\system32\windows
media\server\). Make sure your WMServer Service is stopped before making a
copy otherwise it won't work. There may be some settings you will need to
tweak manually, like if your partitions are setup differently on your new
server and your old server used to log to a different drive.

I haven't done it this way, so can't assure you it will work 100% reliably.
We generate ours programmatically across our servers using the WMServer SDK
to assure this is done correctly and to exactly our specs.

Hope this helps

Andy


Andy Lewis
Media On Demand
www.mediaondemand.net




|>-----Original Message-----
|>From: Steven Smith [mailto:steve.smith@moh.gov.on.ca]
|>Sent: 26 June 2006 15:46
|>To: WebcastCo
|>Subject: [WebcastCo] Migrating WIndows Media Publishing Points
|>
|>
|>
|>I'm upgrading our media streaming server and I have 400 publishing points
|>I need to move over.  Are there any tools to do this?  Is there a data
|>file I can just move over?
|>
|>Any help much appreciated.
|>
|>Steven Smith
|>
|>Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
|>Member profile for Steven:
|>http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/stevensmith
|>
|>
|>-----------------------------------------
|>
|>Group home for Public Sector Webcasting Community:
|>http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/webcasting-community
|>
|>Replies go to members of Public Sector Webcasting Community with all posts
|>on this topic here:
|>http://groups.dowire.org/topic/118192
|>
|>For digest version or to leave Public Sector Webcasting Community,
|>email <email obscured>
|>with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*.
|>
|>Public Sector Webcasting Community is hosted by Democracies Online -
|>http://dowire.org.

Migrating WIndows Media Publishing Points From: Steven Smith Date: 2006 Jun 26 14:45 UTC Short link

I'm upgrading our media streaming server and I have 400 publishing points I
need to move over.  Are there any tools to do this?  Is there a data file I can
just move over?

Any help much appreciated.

Steven Smith

Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

Webcast guide From: Fraser Henderson Date: 2006 Apr 10 09:58 UTC Short link

Somehow the webcasting guide URL got changed in my last email.  Sorry
folks!

The correct URL is www.webcastguide.co.uk
<http://www.webcastguide.co.uk/>  ; we have no affiliation with
Westminster Digital.

Regards


Fraser Henderson (01724) 275035

Senior Project Officer

Centre of excellence in Local e-Democracy
Normanby Gateway
Lysaghts Way
Normanby Enterprise Park
Scunthorpe
North Lincs
DN15 9YG

www.e-democracy.gov.uk

CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE
This communication contains information which is confidential and may
also be privileged. It is for the exclusive use of the intended
recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient please note that any
distribution, copying or use of this communication or the information in
it is strictly prohibited. If you received this communication in error,
please notify us by e-mail or by telephone (01724 275005) and then
delete the e-mail and any copies of it.
The contents of this email do not necessarily reflect the opinions or
views of the e-Democracy centre. Although precautions are taken the
originator cannot take responsibility for the safety of any attachments
with regard to virus like activity.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This E Mail, with attachments if any, is confidential and is intended solely
for the use of the individual or organisation to whom it is addressed. If you
are not the intended recipient, or have received it in error, please notify the
originator immediately and delete it from your system.  You should not use,
copy, alter or disclose the contents of this message. All information contained
in or opinions expressed in this E Mail is that or are those of the author and
are expressly not that or those of NorthLincsNet who will not accept any
liability for or arising in any way from the contents thereof. NorthLincsNet
accepts no responsibility for loss or damage howsoever arising from the E
Mail's use,including from a Virus.

New webcasting website From: Dave Jones Date: 2006 Apr 09 19:19 UTC Short link

Folks - I am pleased to announce a new webcasting-guide website at
www.webcast-guide.co.uk

  The intention is that the site is for UK Local Authorities but there are some
good 'resources' nevertheless.

[Webcasting Community] RSS, Podcasting and iTunes From: Michael Clark Date: 2005 Nov 22 13:12 UTC Short link

Professionally, The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee
http://www.netcaucus.org is repackaging its videos from panel and
speaker events by posting the audio in a podcast. It has been very
successful. We have tripled our bandwidth usage some months, and it
only takes us an extra 10 minutes or so to prepare the RSS and MP3.

Personally, the podcast system works really well. On my wife's web
site http://www.showbizradio.net we are able to very easily make MP3s
available through her online radio station, and off of the web site.
If you have audio available from any source that can be digitized
easily, there really is not much of an excuse to not create a
podcast. Adoption rates may be low, but it will increase.

I believe the bit rate we use is 32Kb, but I'll need to check to make
sure. iTunes has its own specification, which gives you extra fields
for embedding information about the podcast that the iTunes Music
Store will render. http://phobos.apple.com/static/iTunesRSS.html

So far, I haven't heard of any complaints about or problems with the
MP3s. I have had one comment that we should use an Ogg Vorbis audio
format, but the adoption rate for our target audience for Ogg is low.
Creating a podcast will take some time up front to get your head
wrapped around the issues, but if you've successfully done video
webcasting, the audio is easier. The most difficult part is getting
clean audio to make available. Mike

[Webcasting Community] RSS, Podcasting and iTunes From: Pablo Gonzalez Date: 2005 Nov 21 23:41 UTC Short link

Granicus has been implementing RSS feeds for awhile now. To view a few
samples see

http://sanjose.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

We are currently in the process of implementing Podcasting, which will
play in iTunes. Podcasting to come out in 2006.

RSS, Podcasting and iTunes From: Steven Clift Date: 2005 Nov 21 14:17 UTC Short link

Does anyone here automatically generate "what's new" RSS feeds from
their webcast archives?

If so, have you embedded MP3 audio links in those feeds? (What
podcast is technically.) At what bitrate? Any user feedback so far?

Finally, what about being iTunes (or other media players) friendly?
Any experience?

Cheers,
Steven Clift
^               ^               ^                ^
Steven L. Clift    -   -  -  W: http://publicus.net
Minneapolis    -   -   -  -   E: <email obscured>
Minnesota  -   -   -   -   -   - T: +1.612.822.8667
USA    -   -   -   -     Skype/MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift

Join Democracies Online: http://dowire.org
Start an Issues Forum: http://e-democracy.org/if

Democaster - Phase 2 - Request for Server Advice From: Steven Clift Date: 2005 Nov 21 14:13 UTC Short link

The UK Local e-Democracy National Project has commissioned a modest
effort to turn the Democaster "prototype" into a product for use by
at least five producers by March 2006.

In short, Democaster is designed as an open source oriented, low
cost, audio webcasting with webcam images service for community
groups and smaller government organisations like Parish Councils.
Democaster is for public meetings, conferences and other non-music
public events. Imagine doubling! attendance at a meeting from five
citizens in the room at a meeting with another five listeners. (Low,
low cost helps justify the basic yet fundamental democratic benefit.)

First up is a set of platform tweaks for user and producer usability
and setting up a dedicated server.

I am looking for some advice on what kind of off-the-shelf server(s)
you'd recommend.  Server specs, memory, reliable hard drives, back-up
ideas - all for under $3000 US. Think Redhat Linux for the server,
Icecast2 for streaming, and original programming for the scheduling
and archiving CMS.

We don't imagine high capacity use based on the type of webcaster
this service is designed for - imagine up to 15 producers, 100 hours
of archived content at 32kbps max for both live/on-demand streaming
and on-demand downloading, some jpegs (not video), RSS feeds/Podcasts
of recent webcasts, and live events with up to 50 simultaneous
listeners on the server at any one time.

One load issue is that we automatically convert Ogg encoded live
webcasts to MP3 for on-demand access (and may add real-time
conversion) and vice versa. (We are using Ogg based on the mission of
the project - be as non-proprietary as possible. I'd rather have
producers install Oddcast (a Winamp plug-in) without having to deal
with MP3 license issues and third party download sites for the LAME
encoder ... then convert for broad access on the server.)  So we
might use two servers working together.

What are your thoughts?


Cheers,

Steven Clift
Democaster Lead

P.S. I'll be coming back to you for more advice.  The more questions
you can help me answer, the more resources we will have available for
programming.

[Webcasting Community] Indexing webcasts From: Duncan Burbidge Date: 2005 Sep 29 08:23 UTC Short link

In the UK and Spain, we've developed a tool for the user to do their own
indexing of webcasts.  Chapters can be inserted or the reference points made
as slides.

An example of an implementation in flash (for the Spanish Cepade University)
can be seen here:  http://streamspain.streamuk.com

And a demonstration account for the indexing tool can be seen here:
http://cms.streamuk.com username: demo password:  demo

Regards

Duncan

==========================================
Duncan Burbidge

Stream UK Media Services Limited
522 Highgate Studios
53-79 Highgate Road
London NW5 1TL

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7387 6090
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7419 1819


This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain
privileged, proprietary, or otherwise private information. If you have
received it in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the
original. Any other use of the email by you is prohibited.




----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Clift" <clift@publicus.net>
To: "Webcasting Community" <webcasting-community@forums.dowire.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 8:17 PM
Subject: [Webcasting Community] Indexing webcasts


>
>
> Could folks share specific links to methods for indexing webcasts so
citizens can "fast forward" click to specific moments in the video/audio?
>
> Rona mention Seattle's software at the International Symposium on Local
E-Democracy http://dowire.org/localedem and I'd like to get more details on
that into our archive.
>
> Cheers,
> Steven Clift
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Replies to this message go to everyone in
> Webcasting Community.
>
> Info about Webcasting Community:
> http://forums.dowire.org/webcasting/groups/webcasting-community
>
> Full text of this topic:
> http://forums.dowire.org/topic/74927
>
> Info about Steven:
> http://forums.dowire.org/webcasting/contacts/stevenclift
>
> To leave Webcasting Community,
> email <email obscured>
> with "unsubscribe" as the subject.
>
> Webcasting Community is provided by http://dowire.org.
>


-----------------------------------------
Replies to this message go to everyone in
Webcasting Community.

Info about Webcasting Community:
http://forums.dowire.org/webcasting/groups/webcasting-community

Full text of this topic:
http://forums.dowire.org/topic/75300

Info about Keith:
http://forums.dowire.org/webcasting/contacts/keithyoung

To leave Webcasting Community,
email <email obscured>
with "unsubscribe" as the subject.

Webcasting Community is provided by http://dowire.org.

[Webcasting Community] Indexing webcasts From: Keith Young Date: 2005 Sep 29 07:44 UTC Short link

In the UK the Public-i system automates the insertion of the indexing at any
stage of a change in agenda item or speaker name. An example can be seen at:

http://www.devoncc.ukcouncil.net/site/player/compact.php?a=2892&t=&m=rm#the_data_area

[Webcasting Community] Indexing webcasts From: Rona Zevin Date: 2005 Sep 28 22:07 UTC Short link

I'll have one of the technical people draft something up that describes
how we do it (for non-techies).

>>> <email obscured> 9/28/2005 12:17:16 PM >>>


Could folks share specific links to methods for indexing webcasts so
citizens can "fast forward" click to specific moments in the
video/audio?

Rona mention Seattle's software at the International Symposium on Local
E-Democracy http://dowire.org/localedem and I'd like to get more details
on that into our archive.

Cheers,
Steven Clift

Democaster From: Steven Clift Date: 2005 Sep 28 19:36 UTC Short link

While final word has note arrived yet, the UK Local e-Democracy National
Project is going to move http://Democaster.org from a prototype to a product.
With this open source-based audio with images approach we are shifting its user
focus to the broader community rather than a sharper focus on local governments
only.

Anyway, as we work on the tool in the next few months, it would be great to
have some of you help test it further and provide input.  Stay tuned.

Cheers,
Steven Clift

P.S. We used the tool to webcast the symposium.  Because archving of live
webcasts are automatic, we do have some dead space on the front end of the
webcasts due to an open channel before the start of sessions:
http://www.dowire.org/wiki/Symposium_webcast
A post-event download, edit, and replace audio option is under consideration.

[Webcasting Community] Indexing webcasts From: Pablo Gonzalez Date: 2005 Sep 28 19:23 UTC Short link

Examples of indexing webcasts can be seem at Granicus in their clients
area http://www.granicus.com/clients

Click on a government link and navigate to the archived videos. There
you can search for a video or click the first one you see. The Indexing
is on the left hand pull-down. Indexed links (On Some Cities) are also
located within the agenda/minutes document viewed on the right hand
window.

Other samples and be seen at SCAN NATOA in the webstreamers area
http://www.scannatoa.org/webstreamers.html

☺