NYC Council Webcasting Hearing 10/29/08

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - Council Member Gale A. Brewer (D-Manhattan), Chair of the NYC Council Technology in Government Committee held a hearing regarding Introduction 533-A which amends the City Charter to require that all public meetings be webcast.




Council Member Brewer has been examining the benefits of webcasting since 2006, but efforts to require the City to move forward with webcasting of public meetings gathered new attention after former Governor Spitzer issued his Executive Order 3 in 2007, 'Promotion of Public Access to Government Decisionmaking.' The Executive Order requires all state agencies and authorities to webcast their public meetings.

Nearly six years ago, the Council developed a pilot program to stream and archive stated Council meetings with the goal of creating a more open, efficient, and effective government. Currently, one can only view Council proceedings through NYC-TVs Channel 74 (Council 51). While Channel 74 covers certain City Council hearings and meetings, it does not offer the flexibility and accessibility that web enabled on demand video would provide.

Intro 533-A has been revisited to analyze the benefits of webcasting and archiving Council meetings in order for New York City residents and all other interested parties to watch the proceedings. Intro 533-A requires all New York City Council committee hearings, stated meetings, and public meetings of city agencies and their committees to be broadcast digitally on the web. Furthermore, the broadcasts shall be archived and made accessible to the public on the citys website for not less than one year from the date of the original broadcast.


Witnesses (w/timecodes)


00:04:18 Paul Cosgrave - Comissioner, DoITT
00:20:10 Christopher Long - DoITT
00:32:18 Robert Feldman - Total Webcasting
00:05:12 Chris Rynders - Granicus Inc.
01:16:19 Susan Lerner - Common Cause / NY
01:21:19 Rachael Fauss - Citizen's Union
01:24:51 Joshua Breitbart - People's Production House
01:32:29 Joly MacFie - ISOC-NY
01:36:16 Kayza Kleinman - Jewish Community Council for Coney Island

PUNKCAST1470 - download available at http://punkcast.com/1470

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News & Politics

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• gale
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• myc
• council
• public
• hearing
• webcasting