Will we ever get PodCasts of our City Council meetings?

Donald Farris · Post by **Donald Farris** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 6:59 pm

Hi,
I know it can be done. I know it. It easier now than ever. Why then can't we get to listen to the entire Council meetings from those clue links on the home page?

Don't get me wrong, I love reading Mr. Austin's review of the meetings and I certainly want them to continue. But, now and then it would be nice to easily get the detail. I know many people are unable to attend but would still like to listen to the entire meeting.

DougHuntingdon · Post by **DougHuntingdon** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:24 pm

Don, I wouldn't hold your breath. Maybe the podcasts will come about the same time we get citywide wifi. Oh well, at least we got Lightspeed.

In the past, I have heard arguments that it would cost too much money to host and stream the video. They would have to hire an extra i.t. guy or pay a service. However, cities like Long Beach have put theirs on Google video for a long time. Google, youtube, etc. do not charge the uploader for hosting or the user for streaming. In fact, youtube is developing a model whereby they will share ad revenues with video posters.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=l ... ty+council

Doug

Donald Farris · Post by **Donald Farris** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:36 pm

Hi,
I would love to see the video of Council meetings. But, I'm not asking for that. I've lowered my dreams to that of audio only. Audio could be easily done.

dl meckes · Post by **dl meckes** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:43 pm

Don-

As far as I know, there is no-one available to turn the audio into podcasts.

If you want the job, I think it's open. :wink:

Donald Farris · Post by **Donald Farris** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:46 pm

Hi,
Are you telling me that if I give you an MP3 file if the Council meeting the Observer would post it and make it available to all?

DougHuntingdon · Post by **DougHuntingdon** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 8:16 pm

just please don't make available in apple-only or itunes-only format!

dl meckes · Post by **dl meckes** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 8:26 pm

Pretty much.

We have a scripted process whereby all you have to do is upload the file.

Donald Farris · Post by **Donald Farris** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Hi,
Sign me up.

I'll request copies of the Council meetings for Dec, Jan and Feb. tomorrow. Please e-mail me the procedure and we will have this rolling by the end of the week (hopefully).

I'll provide unedited MP3 files of Council meetings as provided by the City Council Office.
Thanks,

dl meckes · Post by **dl meckes** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 8:58 pm

iTunes will be having a problem with Vista for a while, but an mp3 is an mp3 is an mp3.

Jim O'Bryan · Post by **Jim O'Bryan** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:54 pm

Don

We have just finished digitizing all council meetings going back to July.

The problem is the amount of space.

We are negotiation for other servers just for mp3, wav and real formats.

We have some other audio and video surprises to be launched.

Andrew Stoltz is heading up this project.

.

DougHuntingdon · Post by **DougHuntingdon** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:20 pm

Why do you need space? Can't you put it on youtube or something? youradio? edonkey? emule? some mp3 sharing site (legal kind)? wikiupload.com?

How much space do you need?

I am not pretending to be an expert. Jim please do not get offended.

Doug

Disclaimer: I do not necessarily endorse any of the above sites...just throwing them out there.

Jim O'Bryan · Post by **Jim O'Bryan** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:34 pm

DougHuntingdon wrote:Why do you need space? Can't you put it on youtube or something? youradio? edonkey? emule? some mp3 sharing site (legal kind)? wikiupload.com?

How much space do you need?

Doug

You have to understand that not all is at it seems here. While the Deck is based on open source, with heavy modifications for our VMR by DL Meckes, the rest of the site is very much proprietary software, being designed for some very special projects in the near future.

As such we prefer to maintain our content, while making it available to others. One part is Broadcast quality video over the internet.

While we have tried to get a radio license I think we will go live on the net first.

Think of You-Tube on steroids.

Why follow, when you can do better.

I think 2007 will be pretty cool.

.

Donald Farris · Post by **Donald Farris** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:37 pm

Hi,
Well, then you don't need me to get these audio files for you? Or do you?

While some of those formats are large, my experience has been that a Council meeting in MP3 format is not that big. So, just forget the other formats for now.

Jim O'Bryan · Post by **Jim O'Bryan** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:44 pm

Donald Farris wrote:Hi,
Well, then you don't need me to get these audio files for you? Or do you?

While some of those formats are large, my experience has been that a Council meeting in MP3 format is not that big. So, just forget the other formats for now.

Don

I am sure Andy will jump in at some point. but even on pretty low quality and after he cleaned up and removed the hiss. I think we are at about 600mb a meeting. At this point we realized two problems. 1) Size of 5 years of council meetings, school board meetings, and other civic meetings. 2) Time bank and cataloging. For the files to be really useful they have to be searchable. This means the best way to do it is through a series keywords, such as topic, #, vote, category, council vote, etc.

Anything worth doing is worth doing better than half assed.

All help is appreciated.

You know that.

.

Donald Farris · Post by **Donald Farris** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:01 pm

Hi,
I like an iterative approach. Deliver what you can now and then improve upon it. I'm just afraid we will always be working on a better solution yet never having anything.

But I do believe in the Golden rule. - The man with the Gold rules.