We have the petition in hand. Come by Sweet Cakes tomorrow morning between 8 and 10 AM to get your coffee and sign the petition. If you can't make it then, send me an email, andrew@andrewgilmartin.com and we will coordinate a time and place for you to support this effort.
Sign the petition to establish an automatic open records committee
|
We have the petition in hand. Come by Sweet Cakes tomorrow morning between 8 and 10 AM to get your coffee and sign the petition. If you can't make it then, send me an email, andrew@andrewgilmartin.com and we will coordinate a time and place for you to support this effort.
The municipal ombudsman
|
I wonder if any municipality has an ombudsman. How is this person (or group) selected? What is the legal relationship between the ombudsman and the municipality's elected representatives?
What happens when there is no paper-of-record
|
"The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves, nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816. ME 14:384
I have recently been thinking about what would happen if there was no newspaper of record? What if the only local publication that vaguely qualified was the weekly shopper? Would that become the newspaper of record? This would be absurd.
So what have towns done when this happens? I suspect they have used a regional newspaper, such as RI's Providence Journal. The question then becomes, what happens when, as might well soon happen with the Providence Journal, the regional newspaper goes out of business?
Without objective, neutral, and investigative reporting we would be a much sorrier society. Graft and corruption might not be the inevitable end but without the visibility into the activities of governance and administration that newspapers provide how would we know?
I am sure other towns and districts have faced this predicament. What was their solution. If you know please add a comment here.
Request for a legal opinion on sub-section 4222.C
|
I have decided to ask the Attorney General for an opinion on sub-section 4222.C of the new budget process. Here is my letter to Laura Marasco, Special Assistant Attorney General, at the Open Government unit:
From: Andrew Gilmartin <andrew@andrewgilmartin.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:28 AM
Subject: South Kingstown's new budget process
To: "Laura Marasco, Special Assistant Attorney General" <lmarasco@riag.ri.gov>
I am hoping you might be able to help me or direct me to the appropriate office within the Attorney General's offices. The Town of South Kingstown recently adopted a revision to its town charter replacing the Financial Town Meeting with a new petitioning process. This is documented in [1]. I am now engaged in using this new process to have a Committee formed to make recommends for, what I am calling, Automatic Open Records. See [2] and, more broadly, [3].
When I read sub-section 4222.C in [1] I understood this to address the needs of citizen-lead budgeted initiatives. Yesterday when I applied for the official forms for a petition I found that the Town Administration's interpretation of this sub-section was quite different. Their reading is that I may request funding but not specify now that funding is to be used. This seems absurd to me. However, I am not familiar with the established legal perspective of this kind of budget process.
Would the Attorney General be able to offer and opinion in this matter? If so, I how do I begin the process of getting this opinion?
Yours truly,
Andrew Gilmartin
[1] http://www.southkingstownri.com/upload/TSK_tenative_budget.pdf
[2] http://southkingstownrinow.blogspot.com/2009/03/petition-to-establish-automatic-open.html
[3] http://southkingstownrinow.blogspot.com/
From: Andrew Gilmartin <andrew@andrewgilmartin.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:28 AM
Subject: South Kingstown's new budget process
To: "Laura Marasco, Special Assistant Attorney General" <lmarasco@riag.ri.gov>
I am hoping you might be able to help me or direct me to the appropriate office within the Attorney General's offices. The Town of South Kingstown recently adopted a revision to its town charter replacing the Financial Town Meeting with a new petitioning process. This is documented in [1]. I am now engaged in using this new process to have a Committee formed to make recommends for, what I am calling, Automatic Open Records. See [2] and, more broadly, [3].
When I read sub-section 4222.C in [1] I understood this to address the needs of citizen-lead budgeted initiatives. Yesterday when I applied for the official forms for a petition I found that the Town Administration's interpretation of this sub-section was quite different. Their reading is that I may request funding but not specify now that funding is to be used. This seems absurd to me. However, I am not familiar with the established legal perspective of this kind of budget process.
Would the Attorney General be able to offer and opinion in this matter? If so, I how do I begin the process of getting this opinion?
Yours truly,
Andrew Gilmartin
[1] http://www.southkingstownri.com/upload/TSK_tenative_budget.pdf
[2] http://southkingstownrinow.blogspot.com/2009/03/petition-to-establish-automatic-open.html
[3] http://southkingstownrinow.blogspot.com/
Waiting for the petition to be officiated
|
I dropped off, to the Town Clerk's office, the original text of the petition and the paired down text concerned with just the funding:
New Line Item: Automatic Open Records CommitteeIt needs to be reviewed and a financial code associated with the new line item before I get the official petition. I was told that it shouldn't take more than a day to complete this work.
Funding: $1000.00
Purpose of: Supporting the Committee's activities.
Letter to the Town Council, 30 March 2009
|
Here is my letter to the Town Council requesting the review and recommendations Committee to be formed. To support this cause, please send your own letter to the council referencing mine. Thank you.
An unhappy resolution to the petition issue
|
Colleen Camp called me about the petition issue. The opinion of the Town Administration's office is that my petition is actually two requests. The first request is for a Committee to be formed with a specific charge. The second request is to increase the municipal budget by $1000. They are separate requests and are processed separately. The request for money is via the petition. The request for the committee is via a letter to the Town Council. There is no way to legally link the two.
The Town Council can follow the spirit of the new budget process and honor the goal of the two requests. Or they can check the goal by either not forming the Committee or not funding the Committee.
I will send the letter to the Town Council requesting the Committee and get the partition for the Town Clerk. Luckily, I am not restricted in advocating why I want to spend $1000.
The Town Council can follow the spirit of the new budget process and honor the goal of the two requests. Or they can check the goal by either not forming the Committee or not funding the Committee.
I will send the letter to the Town Council requesting the Committee and get the partition for the Town Clerk. Luckily, I am not restricted in advocating why I want to spend $1000.
First steps in having an official petition
|
This morning I went to the Town Clerk's office to have the petition placed on the official documents for petitions. I was initially told by Susan Flynn (unsure) that the petition could only be used for changes to line items, that the Clerk's office would reword the petition's text, that the text would have to fit the 2/5 of a page of space allocated for it, and that this needed to be done in the Clerk's office. Needless to say, this was unacceptable. So I took the empty official documents upstairs to Stephen Alfred's, Town Manager's office. There was much concern in the Clerk's office that I should take the empty, unsigned documents upstairs!
I explained my predicament to Colleen Camp, Executive Assistant to the Town Manager, and she spoke with the Clerk's office.
According to the Clerk's office, the petition can only be used to allocate a dollar amount to a line item or to a new line item. The actual use of the money can not be specified and, perhaps, more to the point, restricted. The analogy I used with Colleen was that if you wanted to increase the budget by $500 to cut down a specific tree you could only increase the tree warden's budget and not direct which tree was to be cut. If the is how the new budget processes is to be interpreted then there is no means for effective citizen-lead budgeted initiatives.
Colleen is going to bring this situation to Steve's attention. I expect to hear from his office later today.
I explained my predicament to Colleen Camp, Executive Assistant to the Town Manager, and she spoke with the Clerk's office.
According to the Clerk's office, the petition can only be used to allocate a dollar amount to a line item or to a new line item. The actual use of the money can not be specified and, perhaps, more to the point, restricted. The analogy I used with Colleen was that if you wanted to increase the budget by $500 to cut down a specific tree you could only increase the tree warden's budget and not direct which tree was to be cut. If the is how the new budget processes is to be interpreted then there is no means for effective citizen-lead budgeted initiatives.
Colleen is going to bring this situation to Steve's attention. I expect to hear from his office later today.
Community informatics
|
A friend sent me this link to the, relatively new, academic discipline of Community informatics. The Wikipedia article states:
I knew of some work being done in Second Life but it seemed a little distant for practical use within the context of RI's open records and, especially, RI's open meeting's rules. However, we all need to be open to new means of achieving the ends of awareness and participation.
"Community informatics (CI), also known as community networking, electronic community networking, community-based technologies or community technology refers to an emerging set of principles and practices concerned with the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for the personal, social, cultural or economic development of and within communities. CI as an academic discipline (and as a practice) is often located within Information Systems presented however, in conjunction with community development and other social academic and practice areas. It can be considered as a cross or interdisciplinary approach utilising ICTs for different forms of community action in the real as well as, increasingly, within the virtual spheres."
I knew of some work being done in Second Life but it seemed a little distant for practical use within the context of RI's open records and, especially, RI's open meeting's rules. However, we all need to be open to new means of achieving the ends of awareness and participation.
Putting very big images online
|
Today I wanted to take the USGS 7.5 Minute Series map of the Kingston, RI quadrangle images and allow the user to pan and zoom on the web. Within a few minutes I discovered Microsoft's Image Composite Editor, Photozoom, and Seadragon. These tools worked quickly, without error, and at almost no effort on my part. This is very impressive.
Note: When zooming it can take several seconds for the images to update. I believe this is the result of the volume of activity on the server.
Note: When zooming it can take several seconds for the images to update. I believe this is the result of the volume of activity on the server.
How can the government make data more accessible?
|
O'Reilly Radar has the interesting article Transforming the Relationship Between Citizens and Government: Making Content Findable Online. In it, Vanessa Fox writes that 70% of citizens expect that their government has the data online but that the data is often unavailable due to it being unreachable by the internet search's engines -- Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft's Live, etc. -- and other categorization tools. She goes on to tell of efforts to address this by both past and current federal offices and administrations. Well worth reading.
Petition to establish an automatic open records committee
|
Update: This is an update of the original petition wording. The petition has far less unnecessary words. There has been discussion that my milestone dates were too aggressive for a government body. I have thus replaced the end date with a preliminary findings date early in the new year.
The following is thefirst second draft of a petition to establish a committee to bring about automatic open records to South Kingstown. Please review and send changes to andrew@andrewgilmartin.com
This petition requests the Town Council of South Kingstown to assemble a Committee to review and make recommendations regarding the normative use of online (internet) tools by municipal departments, their staff and their contractors, for the purpose of disclosing records and supporting materials (including, but not limited to, documents, drawings, diagrams, blueprints, models, audio recordings, video recordings, and maps) automatically and immediately online, without cost, for public use. The Committee's recommendations will identify activities of governance and administration, as well as the records associated with them.
The Committee's recommendations must conform to Rhode Island's Access to Public Records Act (APRA).
The Committee will establish requirements and practical guidance based on, but not limited to, reviewing existing departmental processes and tools and reviewing best practices by other organizations both public and private.
The Committee may be composed of members coming from, but not limited to, the public, municipal government, municipal boards, and school administration. The Committee will have no less than 5 members and no more than 7.
The Committee will be formed no later than June 1, 2009 and it will report its preliminary findings no later than February 1, 2009. There will be a joint public meeting between the Town Council and the Committee to present the Committee's preliminary findings soon thereafter.
The Town Council will allocate $1000 to the Committee for the purposes of holding meetings, gathering information, and other normal administrative activities associated with a committee such as, but not limited to, advertising, record keeping, photocopying, travel expense reimbursements, and speaker renumeration.
END
Revision 2 | 27 March 2009.
The following is the
This petition requests the Town Council of South Kingstown to assemble a Committee to review and make recommendations regarding the normative use of online (internet) tools by municipal departments, their staff and their contractors, for the purpose of disclosing records and supporting materials (including, but not limited to, documents, drawings, diagrams, blueprints, models, audio recordings, video recordings, and maps) automatically and immediately online, without cost, for public use. The Committee's recommendations will identify activities of governance and administration, as well as the records associated with them.
The Committee's recommendations must conform to Rhode Island's Access to Public Records Act (APRA).
The Committee will establish requirements and practical guidance based on, but not limited to, reviewing existing departmental processes and tools and reviewing best practices by other organizations both public and private.
The Committee may be composed of members coming from, but not limited to, the public, municipal government, municipal boards, and school administration. The Committee will have no less than 5 members and no more than 7.
The Committee will be formed no later than June 1, 2009 and it will report its preliminary findings no later than February 1, 2009. There will be a joint public meeting between the Town Council and the Committee to present the Committee's preliminary findings soon thereafter.
The Town Council will allocate $1000 to the Committee for the purposes of holding meetings, gathering information, and other normal administrative activities associated with a committee such as, but not limited to, advertising, record keeping, photocopying, travel expense reimbursements, and speaker renumeration.
END
Revision 2 | 27 March 2009.
Budget hearing and meetings page updated
|
The budget hearings and meetings page has been updated to include the March 3, 4, 5, 12, and 16 hearings and meetings.
How to use Archive.org for hosting municipal video and audio
|
I have been using Internet Archive to host the video and audio of the town budget hearings. This is a free service and the only one that I know of that does not limit the size of the upload or how much is uploaded over a specific time period. It is also a little rough for the uploader to use.
The tool ccPublisher is a good tool to uploading content to the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, for long duration uploads, as is common with large video files, I have not found it reliable. For short duration uploads it works very well. I am sure it will get better over time but for now I have been using the following process.
This following process is both long in number of steps and long in duration. However, the amount of your actual time is very little -- around 15 to 25 minutes.
1. Prepare content
Place all the files you want to transfer into the same directory. Make sure the file names have the correct format -- MP4 for video and MP3 for audio are widely usable -- and have names that, when sorted by name, order the files in the correct sequence. The files uploaded in this example are called
Create an account for yourself.
On the home page follow the "contributions" link (to http://www.archive.org/contribute.php)
On the "Contribution Center" page follow the "Create and upload a new movie, audio recording, live concert recording, or book." (link to http://www.archive.org/create/)
On the "Create Item" page follow the "files over 500 MB" link (to http://www.archive.org/create.php?ftp=1)
On this page enter the identifier for the uploaded content in the "Enter a name for your item (no spaces please!):" and then press "Create Item". The identifier requested is used to name and group all of the uploaded content. For example, if you have one video and one audio file they will be collectively be named with the identifier. This identifier is public and must be globally unique: Use something that is globally meaningful such as 1) to always including the location "SK_RI_USA", 2) always include the date in YYYY_MM_DD format (eg 2009_01_31), and 3) include a very short description (eg "TOWN_COUNCIL_MEETING", "PLANING_BOARD_MEETING", "BUDGET_HEARING", etc). Mixed letter case and numbers can be used in the identifier.
If all goes well you will then be presented with
checking for item identifier availability...
Identifier is free. Setting up FTP upload directory for you...
And then the page "Your item is now checked out and ready for FTP". This page contains two suggestions of how to upload the content. The following method describes using the "ftp" command line utility available on all operating systems. The ftp utility is ancient (in computing terms) but is also very reliable. I did use a few Microsoft Windows ftp clients but all failed to be reliable enough (even ones that I use often in my professional life!). If you have not used FTP before try to have have someone work with you the first time you use it.
The "Using an FTP Client" directions tell you what host to connect to and how to login in. However, once logged in it would be useful it they also told you to 1) place the file transfer in binary mode and 2) tell ftp to not prompt for confirmation. The following is log of upload the three video and three audio files associates with Budget Hearing #4.
3. Upload content
Connect to the FTP server from your computer. Make sure to start the ftp command from the directory containing your files.
ftp ia331416.us.archive.org
Connected to ia331416.us.archive.org.
220-Welcome to Pure-FTPd.
220-You are user number 8 of 500 allowed.
220 You will be disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Enter your archive.org account name -- which is usually your email address.
Name (ia331416.us.archive.org:ajg): NAME@ADDRESS.DOMAIN
Enter the account name's associated password.
331 User NAME@ADDRESS.DOMAIN OK. Password required
Password: **************
230-User NAME@ADDRESS.DOMAIN has group access to: 5000
230-This server supports FXP transfers
230 OK. Current restricted directory is /
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
Set the file transfer mode as binary.
bin
200 TYPE is now 8-bit binary
Turn off the tool's prompts. Doing this will allow you to transfer multiple files without needing to confirm each one.
prompt
Interactive mode off.
Change directories to the one to hold the transferred files. The name of this directory will have been given in archive.org's ftp instructions.
cd SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4
250 OK. Current directory is /SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4
Transfer the files.
mput *
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp3 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp3
200 PORT command successful
150 Connecting to port 52602
226-File successfully transferred
226 1544.853 seconds (measured here), 33.45 Kbytes per second
52908408 bytes sent in 1536.93 secs (33.6 kB/s)
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4
[...]
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp3
[...]
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp4
[...]
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-03.mp3
[...]
Confirm that that are all there and have the right sizes.
ls
200 PORT command successful
150 Connecting to port 49219
-rw-rw---- 1 2001 5003 175 Mar 22 18:43 CLICK_HERE_WHEN_DONE.htm
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 52908408 Mar 22 19:12 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp3
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 357488815 Mar 22 22:07 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 2062890 Mar 23 09:38 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp3
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 11799828 Mar 23 10:29 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp4
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 7758106 Mar 23 09:52 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-03.mp3
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 52444588 Mar 23 11:49 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-03.mp4
-rw-rw---- 1 2001 5003 198 Mar 22 18:43 SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4_reviews.xml
Done.
exit
If any of the above steps should fail to complete you can start again any number of times within a 48 hour period. If you have successfully transferred more than one large file, you can avoid re-transferring it by using the "put" command instead of the "mput" command. This command requires that you name the file to transfer. You can also not use the "prompt" command and so you will be asked which files to transfer with a simple "yes" or "no".
The video files are large and so their upload will use most of your available upload bandwidth and so it is best to perform this hours long activity over night.
4. Providing meta-data
Once the upload is complete you follow the link in step 4 of the "Using an FTP Client" directions. If you are concerned with loosing this web page then save the page to your local disk. Following the link (to http://www.archive.org/checkin/SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4) will lead to the page
Not ready yet. Waiting 10 seconds for checkin...
Not ready yet. Waiting 10 seconds for checkin...
Not ready yet. Waiting 10 seconds for checkin...
You may now see your updated item at: http://www.archive.org/details/SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4
At this point your audio and video content has been accepted buy it needs some legal and descriptive meta-data. The page at http://www.archive.org/details/SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4 will ask you for this.
The defaults at this page are generally acceptable. So, for the video accept that they are "Open Source Movies".
The next page is "Metadata editor for SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4". The only two meta-data that I have been adding is the title and the license.
Entering the titles is done at the "title" field.
South Kingstown, RI, USA Town Council Budget Hearing #4
Entering the license is done at the "licenseurl" field. I have been using the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
licenseurl: Choose license
In the pop up window select "No" for both "Allow commercial uses of your work?" and "Allow modifications of your work?". Now click "Select License" and then the link at "You may now proceed"
You are done setting meta-data. There are other meta-data areas that could be used for, for example, agenda and minutes.
To complete the process press the "Submit" button.
After a few minutes you should be able to refresh your SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4 details page and see your changes. If you continue to see the "???" form then archive.org has not finished processing the meta-data.
Initially, the details page will only have the audio ready for streaming.Within a few hours the video will also available for streaming.
5. Finishing up
At that point is is worth making a web page on your web site that embeds the video and video. It is also very helpful if you include a link to an RSS 2.0 feed suitable for use with iTunes. You will have to manually create this file or use one of the commercial packages that aid in this file's creation and, sometimes, hosting. (I think the costs associated with these tools are too high.)
I will update this page with corrections and more detail as time and feedback permits. Archive.org does allow you to do test submissions. Try one yourself to confirm that the process is only long and not complicated.
Revision: 1.1
The tool ccPublisher is a good tool to uploading content to the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, for long duration uploads, as is common with large video files, I have not found it reliable. For short duration uploads it works very well. I am sure it will get better over time but for now I have been using the following process.
This following process is both long in number of steps and long in duration. However, the amount of your actual time is very little -- around 15 to 25 minutes.
1. Prepare content
Place all the files you want to transfer into the same directory. Make sure the file names have the correct format -- MP4 for video and MP3 for audio are widely usable -- and have names that, when sorted by name, order the files in the correct sequence. The files uploaded in this example are called
DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp3These names are the names given the AoA tools I used to transfer the files from DVD to my computer. The names of these files are not significant to archive.org. If they are going to be significant to your users than a common practice is to name the files will a leading two digit numeric prefix, for example
DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4
DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp3
DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp4
DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-03.mp3
DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-03.mp4
01_SK_RI_USA_TC_BUDGET_HEARING_4_AUDIO.mp3Connect to http://archive.org/.
01_SK_RI_USA_TC_BUDGET_HEARING_4_VIDEO.mp4
02_SK_RI_USA_TC_BUDGET_HEARING_4_AUDIO.mp3
02_SK_RI_USA_TC_BUDGET_HEARING_4_VIDEO.mp4
03_SK_RI_USA_TC_BUDGET_HEARING_4_AUDIO.mp3
03_SK_RI_USA_TC_BUDGET_HEARING_4_VIDEO.mp4
2. Upload request
Create an account for yourself.
On the home page follow the "contributions" link (to http://www.archive.org/contribute.php)
On the "Contribution Center" page follow the "Create and upload a new movie, audio recording, live concert recording, or book." (link to http://www.archive.org/create/)
On the "Create Item" page follow the "files over 500 MB" link (to http://www.archive.org/create.php?ftp=1)
On this page enter the identifier for the uploaded content in the "Enter a name for your item (no spaces please!):" and then press "Create Item". The identifier requested is used to name and group all of the uploaded content. For example, if you have one video and one audio file they will be collectively be named with the identifier. This identifier is public and must be globally unique: Use something that is globally meaningful such as 1) to always including the location "SK_RI_USA", 2) always include the date in YYYY_MM_DD format (eg 2009_01_31), and 3) include a very short description (eg "TOWN_COUNCIL_MEETING", "PLANING_BOARD_MEETING", "BUDGET_HEARING", etc). Mixed letter case and numbers can be used in the identifier.
If all goes well you will then be presented with
checking for item identifier availability...
Identifier is free. Setting up FTP upload directory for you...
And then the page "Your item is now checked out and ready for FTP". This page contains two suggestions of how to upload the content. The following method describes using the "ftp" command line utility available on all operating systems. The ftp utility is ancient (in computing terms) but is also very reliable. I did use a few Microsoft Windows ftp clients but all failed to be reliable enough (even ones that I use often in my professional life!). If you have not used FTP before try to have have someone work with you the first time you use it.
The "Using an FTP Client" directions tell you what host to connect to and how to login in. However, once logged in it would be useful it they also told you to 1) place the file transfer in binary mode and 2) tell ftp to not prompt for confirmation. The following is log of upload the three video and three audio files associates with Budget Hearing #4.
3. Upload content
Connect to the FTP server from your computer. Make sure to start the ftp command from the directory containing your files.
ftp ia331416.us.archive.org
Connected to ia331416.us.archive.org.
220-Welcome to Pure-FTPd.
220-You are user number 8 of 500 allowed.
220 You will be disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Enter your archive.org account name -- which is usually your email address.
Name (ia331416.us.archive.org:ajg): NAME@ADDRESS.DOMAIN
Enter the account name's associated password.
331 User NAME@ADDRESS.DOMAIN OK. Password required
Password: **************
230-User NAME@ADDRESS.DOMAIN has group access to: 5000
230-This server supports FXP transfers
230 OK. Current restricted directory is /
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
Set the file transfer mode as binary.
bin
200 TYPE is now 8-bit binary
Turn off the tool's prompts. Doing this will allow you to transfer multiple files without needing to confirm each one.
prompt
Interactive mode off.
Change directories to the one to hold the transferred files. The name of this directory will have been given in archive.org's ftp instructions.
cd SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4
250 OK. Current directory is /SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4
Transfer the files.
mput *
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp3 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp3
200 PORT command successful
150 Connecting to port 52602
226-File successfully transferred
226 1544.853 seconds (measured here), 33.45 Kbytes per second
52908408 bytes sent in 1536.93 secs (33.6 kB/s)
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4
[...]
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp3
[...]
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp4
[...]
local: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4 remote: DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-03.mp3
[...]
Confirm that that are all there and have the right sizes.
ls
200 PORT command successful
150 Connecting to port 49219
-rw-rw---- 1 2001 5003 175 Mar 22 18:43 CLICK_HERE_WHEN_DONE.htm
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 52908408 Mar 22 19:12 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp3
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 357488815 Mar 22 22:07 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-01.mp4
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 2062890 Mar 23 09:38 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp3
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 11799828 Mar 23 10:29 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-02.mp4
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 7758106 Mar 23 09:52 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-03.mp3
--w--w---- 1 2001 5000 52444588 Mar 23 11:49 DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER-03.mp4
-rw-rw---- 1 2001 5003 198 Mar 22 18:43 SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4_reviews.xml
Done.
exit
If any of the above steps should fail to complete you can start again any number of times within a 48 hour period. If you have successfully transferred more than one large file, you can avoid re-transferring it by using the "put" command instead of the "mput" command. This command requires that you name the file to transfer. You can also not use the "prompt" command and so you will be asked which files to transfer with a simple "yes" or "no".
The video files are large and so their upload will use most of your available upload bandwidth and so it is best to perform this hours long activity over night.
4. Providing meta-data
Once the upload is complete you follow the link in step 4 of the "Using an FTP Client" directions. If you are concerned with loosing this web page then save the page to your local disk. Following the link (to http://www.archive.org/checkin/SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4) will lead to the page
Not ready yet. Waiting 10 seconds for checkin...
Not ready yet. Waiting 10 seconds for checkin...
Not ready yet. Waiting 10 seconds for checkin...
You may now see your updated item at: http://www.archive.org/details/SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4
At this point your audio and video content has been accepted buy it needs some legal and descriptive meta-data. The page at http://www.archive.org/details/SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4 will ask you for this.
The defaults at this page are generally acceptable. So, for the video accept that they are "Open Source Movies".
The next page is "Metadata editor for SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4". The only two meta-data that I have been adding is the title and the license.
Entering the titles is done at the "title" field.
South Kingstown, RI, USA Town Council Budget Hearing #4
Entering the license is done at the "licenseurl" field. I have been using the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
licenseurl: Choose license
In the pop up window select "No" for both "Allow commercial uses of your work?" and "Allow modifications of your work?". Now click "Select License" and then the link at "You may now proceed"
You are done setting meta-data. There are other meta-data areas that could be used for, for example, agenda and minutes.
To complete the process press the "Submit" button.
After a few minutes you should be able to refresh your SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4 details page and see your changes. If you continue to see the "???" form then archive.org has not finished processing the meta-data.
Initially, the details page will only have the audio ready for streaming.Within a few hours the video will also available for streaming.
5. Finishing up
At that point is is worth making a web page on your web site that embeds the video and video. It is also very helpful if you include a link to an RSS 2.0 feed suitable for use with iTunes. You will have to manually create this file or use one of the commercial packages that aid in this file's creation and, sometimes, hosting. (I think the costs associated with these tools are too high.)
I will update this page with corrections and more detail as time and feedback permits. Archive.org does allow you to do test submissions. Try one yourself to confirm that the process is only long and not complicated.
Revision: 1.1
South Kingstown Budget Hearing #4 online
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The South Kingstown Budget Hearing #4 -- the missing one -- has been uploaded and will soon be available for use. The original video recording of the hearing had no audio. (The reason for this error is not known.) However, the Town Clerk's transcription tapes did have the audio. The Town Administrator's office transferred the transcription tape's audio to the video. There is poor synchronization between the two but, at the very least, we now have both the audio and the video record of the hearing available online. I want to thank the administration for doing this for us.
Later today I will update the budget hearings page on this site and the iTunes podcast feed. In the meantime, you can get the video and audio at at http://www.archive.org/details/SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4.
The video and audio is split into three parts. I do not know why. I will ask for an explanation the next time I contact the Town Administrator's office.
Later today I will update the budget hearings page on this site and the iTunes podcast feed. In the meantime, you can get the video and audio at at http://www.archive.org/details/SK_RI_USA_2009_03_12_BUDGET_HEARING_4.
The video and audio is split into three parts. I do not know why. I will ask for an explanation the next time I contact the Town Administrator's office.
How much money do does the Town spend on communications and on participation?
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There is so much interest and action being taken to opening government. It is becoming difficult to keep current. I don't object to this at all as it clearly indicates the need for a different kind transparency in our governance. The old systems, put in place in a far different time than our own, need to be replaced. Now is a good time. As South Kingstown's town manager has said "recessions provide opportunities for re-evaluating services and the cost of services."
How much money do does the Town spend on communications and on participation? How effective is communications and participation? A commercial business would want to see a steady increase in brand awareness and consumer preference with each dollar spent. What are the evaluation criteria for towns? I dare say that towns and schools don't have any. If it is people at meetings then we have something near three ten thousands of a percent participation (0.0003%). That is, of the 21,000 registered voters in South Kingstown about 5 will attend a public meeting.
How much money do does the Town spend on communications and on participation? How effective is communications and participation? A commercial business would want to see a steady increase in brand awareness and consumer preference with each dollar spent. What are the evaluation criteria for towns? I dare say that towns and schools don't have any. If it is people at meetings then we have something near three ten thousands of a percent participation (0.0003%). That is, of the 21,000 registered voters in South Kingstown about 5 will attend a public meeting.
Audio missing for budget hearing #4
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The Town Administration office telephoned me this afternoon to inform me that the DVD recording of last night's budget hearing between the Town Council and the School Committee has no audio! It makes no sense to upload the video without the audio. The audio, is after all, the most substantive aspect of the recording.
I am deeply disappointed with this situation. I had company at the house last night and so had to miss the hearing. I had been satisfied, however, that I would be able to listen to it this weekend. I suspect others had expected this also.
I am deeply disappointed with this situation. I had company at the house last night and so had to miss the hearing. I had been satisfied, however, that I would be able to listen to it this weekend. I suspect others had expected this also.
Imagine a 311 application for the iPhone
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The New York Times has the forward thinking article Imagine a 311 Application for the iPhone. 311 has become a great way for cities and, someday, towns to help citizens and provide information. For more information about 311 services see American City & County's HELP! 311 Centers, 911 Relief.
Existing South Kingstown online information sources
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I have been gathering a list of online South Kingstown information sources. I have been using the tools at Friend Feed to create a stream (aka feed) of this information. You can view the stream at http://friendfeed.com/southkingstownri. If you use an RSS reader you can subscribe to the feed from there too.
If you know of additional information sources you would like to have added to the feed notify me by adding a comment to this posting with the source's name and URL.
If you know of additional information sources you would like to have added to the feed notify me by adding a comment to this posting with the source's name and URL.
Town of South Kingstown's budget hearings and meetings
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Here are the links to Town of South Kingstown's budget hearings.
To listen to the hearings on your iPod or other MP3 player you can download the audio using the podcast at http://andrewgilmartin.com/share/sk-rss.xml. See iTunes and the budget hearings.
Note: This posting replaces the previous postings about the hearings' availability.
video audio
video audio
video audio
This hearing is split over three files.
video 1 of 3
video 2 of 3
video 3 of 3
audio 1 of 3
audio 2 of 3
audio 3 of 3
video audio
To listen to the hearings on your iPod or other MP3 player you can download the audio using the podcast at http://andrewgilmartin.com/share/sk-rss.xml. See iTunes and the budget hearings.
Note: This posting replaces the previous postings about the hearings' availability.
Budget Hearing #1, 3 March 2009
video audio
Budget Hearing #2, 4 March 2009
video audio
Budget Hearing #3, 5 March 2009
video audio
Budget Hearing #4, 12 March 2009
This hearing is split over three files.
video 1 of 3
video 2 of 3
video 3 of 3
audio 1 of 3
audio 2 of 3
audio 3 of 3
Town Council meeting adopting the budget, 16 March 2009
video audio
iTunes and the budget hearings
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Use the http://andrewgilmartin.com/share/sk-rss.xml URL with iTunes to subscribe to a feed that contains the three budget hearings's audio. Since the URL is not part of the iTunes store, you will need to use the iTunes Subscribe to Postcast... menu item under the Advanced menu to add the feed.
Cancellation of tonight's administrative budget hearing
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Due to the weather conditions, tonight's start of the budget hearings has been rescheduled to start on Tuesday and continue on Wednesday and Thursday. The new calendar is
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