The Affordable Housing Committee in my town has proposed to conduct a public forum on creating more housing choices by broadcasting the meeting live on community access television so that residents can dial in and participate during the meeting with comments and suggestions, even if they cannot attend in person. Does anyone know if any other town/city has used community access TV to conduct live dial in public hearings? If so, how did it work? Any tips (other than a fast finger for the disconnect or a time-delay for the riper of vocabulary)?
Please share widely!
not “civil” engagement, but what the L people, has anyone ever done this before in Massachusetts? Good idea, bad idea, susceptible of repetition? Not even the people who disagree with me are weighing in. Where are you Laurel, Cos, AmberPaw, anyone??
We do BROADCAST them, but they are not interactive.
I’ve never heard of it being tried before, although I’ve seen plenty of interactive webcasts done by organizations and companies. no reason it couldn’t work as well as any call-in radio show. will there be a “producer” screening calls and taking down basic caller info?
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regarding “civil” vs “civic” – you can edit your post by clicking on the title, then clicking on “edit post” at the top of the page. the text boxes are at the bottom of the page.
OMG, this is TWO posts that Laurel didn’t disagree with me on. Which means either Laurel’s becoming more conservative or, egads, please no!!
say it ain’t so. it can’t be that /gasp/ there are issues unite across ideological boundaries?! no, no, it’s better to go with the safe conclusion that you’ve become a progressive atheist lesbian feminist humanitarian peacenick tree-huggin civil rights champion. whew! that was close, huh? đŸ˜€
p.s. but don’t worry, i don’t wear birkenstocks, so you’re not a total gonner – yet.
But thanks Laurel. I was hoping you’d say that–there’s so much that can unite Americans across the political spectrum that it’d be great to remember that from time to time. Peace out (or something like that, no?)
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First, where have YOU been? If you look at my posts the last month, NO comments from Amicus! But, seriously, I am all for FULL cable coverage of ALL Beacon Hill hearings and ALL legislative sessions. The idea of creating interactive open access is democracy and technology happily wed – my town which uses the representative town meeting system does, I think, have town meeting on cable, but not interactive.
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My suggestion: YOU let US know how it works…
That’s a deal. I’ll post back after April 25 to let you know how an interactive call-in public forum on live community access TV works in real life. In the meantime, I’ll try to do my part for civic engagement in the Commonwealth. Stay tuned. No one else has done this kind of a public forum in Massachusetts yet I guess, so I’ll let you know how it goes.