seattle’s democracy portal

To inform and engage citizens in the governmental, civic, and cultural affairs

of Seattle through compelling use of television, Internet, and other media.

Seattle’s Democracy Portal

Rona Zevin, Director, Office of Electronic Communications July, 2005

Policies and Advice

• Cover all meetings, not selective• Gavel to gavel• Don’t take reaction shots• Accuracy, objectivity, balance• Don’t show or use candidates for election, except in the

normal course of their official duties.

• Officials can benefit from media training (don’t eat during meetings)

Live Video Streaming• Stream live TV

channel signal• Stream “Council Live”• Pet Cam

Average Monthly live stream plays

2002 Average 4,043

2004 Average 20,146

Streaming live is easy and cheap; it is very useful for employees and for people who want to watch during a high visibility or issue very important to them.

Creates the possibility of live interactive meetings taking testimony via e-mail and phone

Indexed Videos

Indexing videos is essential to make them useful. Only a few people will watch a whole meeting, either live or on-demand.

Used to be very expensive; now we do it simply by marking time codes on the video as we tape the meeting.

Archived Videos

• Having videos available on demand is much more useful as it enables people to watch at their convenience.

• Most requested videos are NOT meetings, they are programs about neighborhoods, hot civic issues, or coverage of interesting speakers and forums.

• Seattle has1,423 active videos in the archive now.

• About 10,000 videos are viewed per month in 2005.

Enhanced Meeting Coverage

Enhanced coverage means adding text, video and reference material and web links to items discussed during the meeting.

This enables the serious viewer to get contextual and detailed information on the topic, and enables the casual viewer to quickly pick up on what is being discussed.

Future

• Expanded enhanced meetings

• Use interactive tools to enable two way conversations. (Student Voices project)

• Interactive meetings that can occur among several different locations.

• Getting more briefing and decision documents on the web.

References

General website: www.seattlechannel.org

Policies: www.seattlechannel.org/aboutus/policy.htm

Technical: nate.eckstine@seattle.gov

Channel general manager: gary.gibson@seattle.govMe: rona.zevin@seattle.govDirector, Office of Electronic CommunicationsCity of Seattle