Most of you have been following what Kate Boyd has been trying to do as far as creating a way to make available to the public audio and video of Toledo Public School Board meetings as well as other government functions.
Yesterday the Toledo Blade had a piece on this article. Here is the first paragraph of the Toledo Blade article:
Two people, including one who ran unsuccessfully last year for the Toledo Board of Education, have been asking the district for almost two weeks to broadcast its meetings live on the Internet.
Today in the Toledo Free Press, they have an article, the first paragraph of that one is:
A proposal to broadcast Toledo Public Schools Board of Education meetings live over the internet has board members at odds as to whether the idea is one of immediate importance.
I recommend that you read both, if anything this one situation points out why it is important that we have the different news sources in this area.
I also found this statement by Steven Steel, as quoted in the Toledo Blade interesting:
"I think it's fine. I am concerned about security issues," he said. "We have public meetings that are free and open, we have audiotapes available, and we have minutes to all the meetings, so it's not a priority to me."
That was news to me about the audiotapes. So I stopped over and visited the Board of Education webpage. Sure they do have the minutes, but the last minutes that are listed are from April 26th. This is June 14th...No mention anywhere of audiotapes or how one goes about getting audiotapes. When reading the minutes from the last full Board Meeting transcribed which is April 25th, comments are not listed. Citizens who comment are listed by name only, what they have to say is not written down, nor is discussion by Board Members.
So while I would love to know the mystery procedure in how one goes about getting these audiotapes since I can't find anything mentioned about them, I can't comment on how easy that would be for parents to be able to have access to. Do they mail them to you? Could they offer those online as a podcast? Are they complete recordings of these meetings in full? None of that is clear...
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6 comments:
Thanks, there is probably a way to take tapes and convert them to upload them but depending on how long they take to send them to you? Could be the same situation as their transcripts. Finding out what happened months later isn't really helpful. Which is why what you are doing is awesome.
:-)
You have to buy them? Wow now that's not quite the way Steve Steel made it seem is it? The whole beauty of the way you are doing this is people who can't get to their facility during the day can still be fully informed. There's a whole world of third and second shift people out there who get left out of most of this on top of working parents who have day jobs.
Transparency. Lisa, you are one demanding person! Boards of Education are typically years behind the students which they purport to serve when it comes to technology. Additionally, a one hour visit of one of their meetings compared to a one hour visit to a classroom would clearly demonstrate more of a disconnect. Board meetings are dull, totally verbal, devoid of visuals, often without a lesson plan, monotinous, and sleep-inducing.
Yes, LD, I can be pretty demanding I'm sure my husband would even agree with that (lol).
Kate is right though, technology has come so far and I'd like to see this area take advantage of that. Jack Ford's last article in the Sojourner's Truth where he talked about E-goverment...it's possible...people like Kate shouldn't have to be the ones doing this, our government should want us to have all of the information we can in the most high tech fashion. Imagine that as a selling point as to why this area is the place for the jobs of the future...Yet until that day happens? I'm glad there are those out there like Mark Bula, and Kate and the others who have supported the concept of making transparency and ease obtaining information happen.
:-)
"Apparently I am still living in a dream world, because his [Steve Steel]actions certainly don't point to that rationale."
Do- Don't lose sight of the fact that Mr. Steel is a politician.
Lisa,
"I think it's fine. I am concerned about security issues," he said. "We have public meetings that are free and open, we have audiotapes available, and we have minutes to all the meetings, so it's not a priority to me." --Steven Steel
What "security issues" would Mr. Steel be concerned about, having the entire audio of the TPS meetings made public, so that "we the sheeple" can fully grasp what king of dolts we have been electing?
As for the minutes:
The official minutes of meetings are (almost always) "sanitized" and reduced to just the facts. Ant discussion (and yes, the dissent) is surely left out of any “official record/transcript.”
Q. Was any representation of the tapes made that would lead one to believe that they were, in fact, complete and unedited?
Call me paranoid, but I wonder. . .
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