I was at City Council last Thursday where Bud Freel brought up an ordnanceordinance (pdf) that would allow the City to sign a contract with a firm that would take he video recorded by WITN of Council Meetings and live stream them over the internet. The intention is to expand the live streaming to other Council Committee meetings and the other programming on WITN. The meetings (at least) would also be available on demand — so you could catch up with the City Council meetings at your own convenience. Especially after you read about a dustup in Council the day after.
The contract is with a firm from Texas called Swagit Productions and would cost 18K per year, in addition to a one time $10,500 initial fee. I don’t have any idea how reasonable this cost is, but I am definitely glad that they are taking this step towards making these meetings and other content more readily available to citizens.
Too bad that the NCCo County Council is hiding behind their lame excuse that bloggers will be mean to them if they put their meetings up on line. Time to step up, NCCo!