Over at Locally Grown, you can read Griff Wigley’s Twitterage of Monday’s Council meeting. I cannot imagine a less engaging, less interesting method of getting info about Council discussions and action. This is not Anne Treneman’s Parliamentary Sketches (obviously far exceeding the 140 Twitter character allowance) for the London Times or even live-blogging British football.
Small town, Big picture
Betsey Buckheit
Betsey, as I wrote in a follow-up comment:
So I won’t likely be replicating what I did on Monday for another Council meeting.
But I think there’s another aspect to ‘live blogging’ and its variants that might be valuable for a council meeting and similar: it’s another way to draw people into the content of the meeting. See the live-blogging that the Uptake is doing on the Franken-Coleman saga.
I’m wondering if it might serve some of the same purpose as having a TV reporter on the 10 pm news standing outside a council meeting giving a two minute summary plus some ten second clips of a few big arguments. There’s very little content but it gives people a quick whack about an important issue and one then hopes that it’ll inspire more to follow up and go deeper. And with live-blogging done via CoverItLive, people can actually engage in discussion while it’s happening.
Thanks, Griff. I’m also thinking about the distinction between reporting what happens and providing commentary and analysis. I don’t think Council action lends itself well to mere play by play reporting – maybe a little critical commentary about the discussion might be of more interest and/or use (more biased, certainly). I guess if I was not a Council member and wanted to know what the Council does, I should watch it on NTV (or streamed live or dead in the near future?) if I can’t attend in person. Otherwise, give me some juicy analysis and start a good argument about what the Council is up to.
Agreed. Which is why I’m excited to try using the CoverItLive service during a Council meeting.
Can you help get a $50 wi-fi router installed in the council chambers for public use? If the library can do it, it should be a piece ‘o cake for the council!