Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
City Administrator Brent Trout advocated to the City Council yesterday the spending of thousands of dollars on “hardware and software” so City Hall can upload videos of their meetings to the internet.
This software, called “Open Platform,” would cost the City $2,625 up front and then $249 per month to use. The software allows a “stream” of video to be viewable on a web page and at the same time creates an archive of the meeting.
First Ward Councilman John Lee wasn’t sold on Trout’s idea, stating that a well-known and popular service called Youtube can host and play any video the City uploads at zero cost. He said it is so easy to use that his student use it. Other cities have a “branded Youtube channel,” Lee said. “No upfront cost.”
Third Ward Councilwoman Jean Marinos only showed concern about the cost of the program rising over time. Trout said the contract with the company he wants to work with, called Granicus, was year to year and the City could get out easily.
Councilman Scott Tornquist was worried about who would see the council videos and who could download them. “Can anybody then download a council meeting from the website?” Tornquist asked. “So we really don’t have any control anymore basically where a council meeting might end up on the internet?”
Apparently Mr. Tornquist is not aware that NorthIowaToday.com shoots video of nearly every council meeting and then uploads them to Youtube, for everyone in the world to watch or download if they so choose.
Trout said that City Hall staff don’t have the time to use Youtube and that bandwidth would be an issue, stating it would “take hours” to upload a video. In actuality, when a video is ready to upload, Youtube allows you to basically click a link that says “upload” and then walk away until the video is done uploading. Clear Lake currently uploads its council meeting videos to Youtube. You can see their last meeting here. Trout said city staff did research on “other cities” that are using Youtube… but never mentioned Clear Lake.
Watch video of discussion:
httpv://youtu.be/eN81Bz2U_8o
Curios as to how matt marquardt is always bashing the council for spending money outside the community and looking to outsource jobs does the same thing himself. His phone answering service of 515.897.1144 is a company based in des moines. Matt seems hipocritical to me you say keep your money in the community but you spend else where and support jobs when you could be spending it locally. I would love to here this response but I am sure you will delete this blog as soon as you read it.
Curious how you think you have any inkling of how I run my business or NIT. I happen to use Magic Jack for my office phone. The closest area code to 641 they offer is 515. Next time you want to take a shot at me, be my guest, but try growing a pair and using your real name and getting some real ammo. Pretty feeble attempt there.
Anonymous I won’t go into the details of how easy it is for a local cell phone company to assign a 515 area code to a local phone, but I will ask if you have ever contacted Matt with a news tip or question? I have. One time was very early in the morning. I have never had an “answering service” receive my call, only Matt, who was very polite & professional & thanked me for my call. I will be sure to contact him again in the future for anything I believe to be newsworthy.
The entire 26 minutes of meeting talking about how to record and broadcast meeting.Get to the real issue’s these people just don’t get it.John Lee is at least trying.
and these guys are leader material?
Youtube Priceless.How do these people meet always in the daytime,don’t they work.I know Eric has all kinds of time,because he is a stay at home Dad and people gave Max slack for that.
use youtube and upload the videos and you can also have a live stream on youtube
U-Tube is more cost effective. It is that simple. Why pay taxpayers dollars for something that is basically FREE??
Sounds like the concrete painting scam. Matt was onto them that time too. No one at city hall wants to work least of all the higher ups. They want to pay someone to do everything! We need Max back there to call them out.
I’m confused. What hardware is needed to upload a video to youtube? After you shoot a video using a camera, you just need a computer with internet? Couldn’t they upload the videos at night, to save the bandwidth, if that is really even an issue? Does youtube work differently in government buildings, or is everything just less efficient there?
Appreciate the videos here. Been watching them for like 2 years. Hard to believe Tornquist doesnt even realize they are already on youtoob.
You would think Kuhn would be all over this issue but he was silent as a church mouse again on the whole youtube concept I guess he is just a big spending Democrat. Lee totally out-researched the whole councl on this and Tornqeust was out to lunch and so naive. At same time im not surprised most of the council bought this load of bullshit from trout and bookmeyer, everyone knows trout only does what bookmeyre says so you know the idea came from him and then trout sells it to the council. Problem is trout couldnt sell lottery ticket in a trailer park.
Obviously yes Kuhn is a “big-spending democrat” but that’s about it. He’s not much of a democrat in any other way besides talking big for labor but when the chips are down just watch the mayor will bully him into a yes vote. Already bookmier has trout back on the case to sell out sanitation and fire all those guys but where is kuhn? Why doesnt he go into trouts office and tell himt o back off? Is bookmeier the only one allowed in trouts office? When will kuhn realize that trout works for HIM not the MAYOR?
Ole Scotty, always wants to be in control. He seems to want to limit who can see his videos and meetings. What a control freak. So much anger inside him. So much contempt for the public. And Trout, wow, is he off inleft field or what. This is a great example of WASTE in city goverment. Thank you NIT for once again bringing the whole story AND a video, on YOUTUBE!!
Simple solution that saves the city $5k/yr.
http://www.Ustream.tv
Stream live then it automatically records for playback after the meeting. I wouldn’t even use YouTube. Too many steps to record, upload it, etc. This way its all done right away for you.
It makes me wonder if there is a rebate somebody wants to pocket if they buy form the overpriced company……..
Depending on the camera, you can upload it without conversion or added steps. And honestly the time factor is next to nothing. I shot some of the lightning tonight (did a poor job, but oh well), and uploaded it to YouTube in less than ten minutes.
I found it amazing Councilman Tornquist even asked that question. It makes no sense. Was he not listening to the subject matter as it was presented? Did he not read the Council notes?
Next, Council notes and Packets. Someone in the City is typing them, no? How come they cannot convert those files to PDF with the touch of one button? ( I use Open Office, which has that capability). Once you get a PDF or Word format, it can be posted into a place where everyone can access it.
This is 2012, and this aint rocket science.
Again, Councilman Tornquist asks questions about the use of an Ipad. Here is a supposed buinessman, asking about ethics of using company equipment. I cannot believe he went into that line of discussion.
Bottom line, we have this group of people talking about technology as if it was brand new and unheard of. None of them, or at least all but one have a clue about what they are talking about. And these are professionals?
Most people reading this are more in-tune with technology and how to apply it. Most of us watch YouTube as almost second nature. Yet the way they talk, this is new uncharted territory.
In the mean time, we have more important, more pressing issues in our community. Where was the conversation about that?