The Albemarle County School Board is now providing the audio of their meetings as MP3s. The audio up there now seems to be limited to the Thursday-night board discussion about student conduct policies, a prelude to the plan of having an actual podcast of all meetings’ audio beginning in a few months. I’ll be happy to see that next step. Why can’t Charlottesville be this innovative? (Via Brian Wheeler)
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Charlottesville is not innovated. I been able to watch city council meetings, school board meetings, and zoning meetings on cable for years.
Albemarle is behind in terms brodcasting meetings. I would guess that Brian wheeler is the sole reason those meetings are being podcast. Albemarle is not as open because of the cable contract which should be different when we get Comcast.
Sorry I meant to say that Albemarle county is not that innovative.
And yet here they are, innovating. :)
I’d say classifying this as “innovative” might be a bit of a stretch. “Keeping pace” would be more accurate and that’s at least better than falling behind.
In my mind, there are four issues with citizen participation in public meetings:
meetings are at specific times
they are held at specific places
you have to be there to comment on an issue being discussed
you end up sitting through parts of the meeting that are not of interest to get to the parts that are.
Posting an MP3 of entire meetings would only addresses 1 & 2. It time shifts the meeting and allows you to listen where ever you want (provided you have the appropriate gear). It doesn’t address 3 & 4 and, to me, those are the most important. Splitting the audio up based on agenda item and allowing comment would be a move in the right direction. Implementing some form of audio search would be pretty darn innovative.
Governments need to move beyond being satisfied that information is simply available and get to a point where it is available, easily accessible, and useful. Citizens would then be more engaged and public participation more productive.
I think that citizen media can address the fourth concern. I fully intend to excerpt relevant bits of audio from school board meetings for use on cvillenews.com. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brian Wheeler did the same for his blog, or if citizens groups did likewise.
It’d be best for the school board to slice and dice this stuff for us, definitely, but providing the raw material at least allows us to do it ourselves, and that’s a much lower bar. I take what I can get. :)