We've been listening to Town Meetings on the computer for some time. We started watching meetings when the video was implemented in early 2008.
For those of us who can not attend the meetings, especially the Town Council, this feature offered by the town is a real plus. If you haven't tried it, tonight might be a good time to do so. The Council meeting starts at 7:00 PM. (Agenda is noted on "Upcoming Events" on the left column.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oro Valley Residents Logging On to Town Meetings
New video system allows in-home viewing of Council sessions
ORO VALLEY, ARIZ (Aug. 6 2008) - After the January 2008 implementation of Granicus
video streaming technology, the Town of Oro Valley is now seeing a record number of viewers
log on to watch Town Council and other public meetings from the comfort of their own homes.
Prior to January, meetings were available online live or could be accessed from archives but
only in audio format. At that time, an average of 300 people logged on to listen to the live audio
stream of any given meeting. With the addition of video streaming, the Town of Oro Valley is
now recording an average of around 700 live viewings of any given meeting.
"It's part of a new Town communications plan that aims to provide the public with greater
access to the government process," said Oro Valley Communications Administrator Mary Davis.
"Not everyone is going to be able to make it to the Council meetings, so this is an effort to bring
that information to them. It's great to see that people are responding so well."
Video options are only available for regular Town Council meetings at this time, and only
meetings held in Council Chambers can be seen or heard. Archives of all meetings are available
online as well. For more information or to view streaming video of Oro Valley public meetings,
visit www.orovalleyaz.gov.
Contact: Mary K. Davis
Communications Administrator
E-mail: mdavis@orovalleyaz.gov
(520) 229-4712
If you want to reply to sender please send to : aasper@orovalleyaz.gov
2 comments:
Now if they could only figure out how to make it work for Mac users. I can watch the live video without any problems, however, if I try to watch a video from a prior meeting, it forces me to watch the entire meeting. Prior to purchasing the Mac, I could choose the topic(s) I wanted to watch and didn't have to sit through the entire meeting just to find out what transpired during the last item on the agenda.
Other than that, I think this is a great option.
As I mentioned in one of my blocasts, kudos to Oro Valley. Nice job all around.
And Cowgirl, I got a Macbook Pro. Video streaming works fine, as you note. Problem is: the prior meeting "bookmarks" don't work.
Its not a Mac problem.
Its a Windows Media Player problem.
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