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TMCNet: Council offers public Web access

[October 30, 2009]

Council offers public Web access

Oct 29, 2009 (Superior Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Superior City Council makes a worldly debut Tuesday night.

For the first time, the council meeting goes out live on the World Wide Web.

"We saw a pretty incredible demonstration about what other communities are doing with live web streaming," said Mayor Dave Ross.

For people without cable TV, the only way to watch a council meeting was to head to Government Center or pick up a copy of the video at the library after the meeting is over.

Now, anyone with access to an Internet-enabled computer will have access to council meetings over the Web without the expense of cable.

"We're going to go live with this new technology at the Nov. 3 council meeting, said Parks and Recreation Administrator Mary Morgan.

Already, both council meetings held this month are in the new video archive.

"It's just another avenue to try to get the information out to the public," said Dan Shea, who heads the city's information services department. "You can only watch it on TV if you have Charter. If you have say Dish or no cable at all, you can't get it. It's a Charter function." As a franchising authority, the city exercised its right to require Charter Communications to provide public, education and government channels. No similar right, granted by the Federal Communications Commission, exists with local television or satellite TV. Cable customers support the public broadcast option with franchise fees.

Unlike traditional broadcast media that's gone once the broadcast is over, Ross said the city's ability to archive the video and make it available to the public over the Internet has distinct advantages in a culture that is growing more comfortable with using computers.

"It's never lost," the mayor said. "I kind of liken it to a newspaper. Once you have your newspaper, you have the privilege to read that paper at your convenience." The same holds true for the city's archived council video.

"We can bring our city council meetings to people after the fact in video format, and they can click on companion agenda and seek the exact video piece for the item of interest for them," Morgan said.

By clicking on the archived agenda displayed with the video, people can skip to a portion of the meeting of interest to them without sitting through the entire meeting.

To view Tuesday's council meeting live at 6:30 p.m., go to www.ci.superior.wi.us/video, or click on "Council Videos" on the city's home page. Scroll down the video page to find archived video and use the search feature to find topics of interest that have come before the council.

"This area of how people access information is changing, rapidly and dramatically," Ross said. "... I guess we're just keeping up with the trend of our culture right now." To see more of the Superior Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.superiortelegram.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, Superior Telegram, Wis.

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