why film council meetings

7/29/2019 Why film council meetings

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Involve more people

Although all council meetings

are public, Richmondshire

Council is not unusual in

having very few members of

the public attending meetings.

There can be many reasons for

this - people unaware of when

meetings are

held, reluctance

to set out on dark

icy nights,

childcare issues,

shiftworking

needs to name

just a few.

Using technology to provide

what is effectively an on

demand service people can

choose to view where and

when they want has beenshown to increase the

number of people

attending.

Transparency

As has been shown with the

filming of parliament,

having cameras in the room

where important decisionsare made provides a new

level of transparency, its hard

to imagine a time when we

wouldnt expect to see that

happening.

Immediacy

Reporting from council

meetings by traditional means

such as newspapers typically

takes many hours, if not days,

for decisions to be relayed to

the people they effect.

Modern communications

means this important news can

now be relayed instantly via

electronic means.

Benefits of allowing the cameras in

Why film council meetings?

MARCH 2013 BRIEFING NOTE FOR RICHMONDSHIRE COUNCILLORS WWW.RICHMOND.N0TICE.COM

A free, open,independent publicspace for Richmondresidents

Richmond Noticeboard founder Sarah Hartley started the site as a community initiative and contributes as a volunteer.A qualified and experienced multimedia journalist, she is the MD of Talk About Local a company which helps peoplefind a voice online using digital tools. Full profile available here: uk.linkedin.com/in/sarahhartley

"Openingthedoortonewmediacostsnothingandwillhelpimprovepublicscrutiny"CommunitysecretaryEricPicklesFeb2011.
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarahhartley/http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarahhartley/


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Positive experience fromelsewhere

The way people consume information is changing. Some

councils have spent hundreds and thousands of pounds on

streaming which no-one watches so when members of the

community came forward and offered, rather than find

reasons we couldnt, we saw it as a great opportunity Nigel

Newman, head of communications at Telford and Wrekin.

Addressing risk

Carmarthenshire council was

was forced to reconsider its

policies after a high profile and

deeply embarrassing incident

which led to the arrest of ablogger attempting to film a

meeting without permission

was widely reported in the

national media - forever to be

associated with the hashtag

#daftarrest .

Last month,

the council

decided to go

ahead withlive streaming

of meetings

and the

footage will also be available to

view on the council website

after the meetings.

Councillors caught out

What happens if a councillor

says something they laterregret? Well this is a matter for

the politicians but would be the

same for any councillor who

spoke out inside the chamber

and was minuted, albeit that

filming means it is more likely

to be heard externally.

Equipment

Although the mobile kit we use

(see technology) is new and

reliable, failure in public

broadband service or 3rd party

delivery services is possible.

Continuity

Because the filming will rely on

volunteer effort, coverage will

be taking place when possible

so there cant be a guaranteed

continuity of service. Best

endeavours.

Telford Wrekin

Only just started allowing theirlocal bloggers to do this.

On the first occasion the

meeting was streamed live

using an iPhone, on the second

occasion this month they used

several laptops to direct a multi

view version.

The council used its own

comms department, websiteand Twitter to promote the

filming before

the day.

They had about

200 watching

live and there

was an

additional 90 in

the three days

after the

meeting.

More on that here: http://

talkaboutlocal.org.uk/

hyperlocal-innovation-google-

hangout-for-council-reporting

Bury Council

Took the decision to fund

streaming - 1,200 a year from

a local business and started in

December.

There is a real disconnectbetween the people we

represent

and the

councillors.

Its about

leaving the

dinosaur age

and coming

into the

digital age

CouncillorTamoor

Tariq.

The Richmond

Noticeboard has

about 2,000 pages

viewed a month

and 300 Twitterfollowers


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How the filming willhappen

Each month, the number ofvisitors and other analytics are

publicly shared on thenoticeboard.

Headline figures for February:*1,677 page views

*interview with the mayor themost viewed post

*most users found thenoticeboard via Google

*iPhones remain the mostpopular mobile device usedto access the Noticeboard

Technology

The filming will take placeusing an ipad, small tripodto ensure steady cameraposition and microphone.

The exact position can bedecided in conjunctionwith yourselves but itcould be easily

accommodated within thepress bench area of thechamber.

The filming will bestreamed live using the 3rdparty service Bambuser. Itwill be continuous andunedited. The footage is

archived.

See examples of filmingusing the same methodarchived by John Pophamat the recentCommsCamp event for

local government officers

here: http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_)

Legals

All the content on the

Richmond Noticeboard isoffered under a freeCreative Commonslicence and can thereforebe shared by the councilsown website or othermedia such as TheDarlington and StocktonTimes under the

conditions laid out.

More information on thathere: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

Richmond Noticeboard

One of the recent items posted on the noticeboardshared an interview and pictures from theInternational Womens Day celebrations in town.

A free, open, independent, public space created by local

residents for local residents.

The Richmond Noticeboard is non-commercial, has no political agenda

and is an entirely volunteer created community space online. The website

and twitter stream were started by local resident Sarah Hartley in 2012

and uses free digital tools to connect people in the town online or via

mobile devices. Anyone is able to post news, events or offers.The

site is monitored for unlawful, offensive or spam material which would be

removed. Some of the content is posted automatically via public RSS

feeds - such as the councils planning applications - the remainder isposted by contributors. See the profiles of the contributors under people

who run this board at www.richmond.n0tice.com.
http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_http://johnpopham.tumblr.com/post/44210024082/archived-live-streams-from-commscamp-13#_=_

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