info tech

Talked all day about digital television, broadband access and public access channels. My first thoughts to bring back to the city...
We should have an RSS feed for our homepage. Chris adds news release type info, listings about the rec guide, and it'd be cool to have that link. We could have a link for email sign-ups there, too.
When we finally do web streaming of our meetings, it might be interesting to partner with the high school. I know we'll end up doing the cheaper version this year at old city hall, where staff will need to do the actual videotaping. Why not ask VISCOM at Kamiak if they want to volunteer occasionally to run the camera? Maybe they could get extra credit, it would free up our staff, and it would be fun to include them. I wouldn't want to depend on volunteer staffing of the camera, but seems like a way to create a small opportunity/connection.

Digital television talk made me excited to potentially get rid of cable. I know, I know, I'm totally addicted to DVR-- but not necessarily my cable system. If the digital signal means you're getting additional channels (multicasting, where one channel transmits channel 7, but also 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, etc), and if I can figure out either AppleTV or some other way to get specific shows, maybe it could work. I guess I knew, but didn't think about, how the digital converter box will turn the over the air signal into a channel just as clear as any cable box will. AppleTv is $229 or $329. As long as I could download all the foodnetwork and TLC shows, and Home and Garden, and some car racing for Jeff.... Well, maybe I'm not quite ready.

So, for the city-- I need to work on an article for the newsletter about the key message being that you don't need to buy a new tv, you just need a converter, that the digital signal is broadcast now, and that it might be a way to cut out the cable bill. It's timely enough.

PEG channels, I'm mostly pinning my hopes on the new city hall and expanding our usage then. Our current-- non-existent-- offerings are quite pitiful. The stupid thing is that by the time we get a public access channel it'll be outmoded and dead. We'll have been relegated to channel 900 something and we may as well just YouTube everything.