Grex has always prided itself on being as open as feasible.  Anyone who 
could physically get to a meeting was welcome to attend.  
Teleconferencing was possible but limited to remote board members out of 
necessity. I'm proposing we use technology to open our meetings by 
simulcating and video/audio recording them so that folks could watch and 
listen to them, live, with the ability to participate, again, real time, 
via chat.  Or catch them later as their schedule allows.

If people were camera shy they could sit where the camera wouldn't catch 
them.  Or video could simply stare at a sign stating "Grex Board 
Meeting" and the date.  I'm not all that enamored with the video thing - 
it's cosmetic and sounds like work.  But the audio feed and ability to 
be live with chat?  Lovin' it.  It seems to be a nice fit for our open 
meetings philosophy and the fact we want our governance to be 
transparent.  

There will be a learning curve where we will all have to remember it is, 
indeed, an open meeting, and not let the conversation meander where it 
shouldn't.  But that's true, recorded or not.

I'd be happy to help with the broadcast & recording process at meetings 
I could attend.  I won't be in town for the Feb 7th. meeting.

So, how do you feel about opening up our board meetings in this fashion?

24 responses total.

totally like the idea. nothing wrong with a little meandering (good 
entertainment value).

I totally like the idea too! 

  
audio id JustFine (tm) ... rocognize that the .mp3 is 1/10th the size
of the vidleo file.  
  
if we can get staff/board approval i can chmod back to 644 for the intersted.
  

I think AV would be good, but just audio is acceptable.  I like the live
stream idea, and don't really understand why posting the audio is
controversial.

The board could be dealing with confidential information.
Say, a staff report on a persistent vandal.   Or information offered
in confidence about one of Grex's suppliers. 
 
It would also mean that everything said in a board meeting would 
have to be spoken with slander/libel suits in mind.   For example,
if a staff person said, "Crap, Ratface took us down again, and here's
how he did it this time," do we want the staff person worried about a 
lawsuit from Ratface?

In that case, the Board should go into executive session and turn off
the microphones.  Assuming, that is, that you can predict in advance
that you'll be talking about Ratface (or other users or members).  From
what I've seen, that isn't all that likely as it's fairly natural to
slip into a conversation about something like that without much thought
for the audio.  Having the meeting recorded every time will take some
getting used to, I expect.

I don't know, from the board meetings I attended when I was on the board
of Arbornet, we always had closed sessions with board/staff to discuss
issues like that.  I'd think Grex would do something similar, though
perhaps it's more difficult at Zingerman's.

Re #5: What about editing it out? You'd need to maintain a text file 
along with the video, noting the point where the edit was made and what 
was said :) Like so:

Time 00:32:00
Note: X called Y Ratface was edited out
----------

perfectly legal.

ffmpeg -i input.avi -vcodec copy -ss 00:20:00 -t 00:00:50 test1.avi -ss 
00:30:00 -t 00:00:50 test2.avi

-ss start copy at 20 minutes -t for 50 seconds

You get the added benefit of conversion so you can rip it to a lower 
bit-rate or dump only the audio out and stuff like that. With a fast 
processor, it shouldn't take very long.

To avoid questions about the editing, it's better to not make such
statements in the first place.

What a novel idea....

I'm in favour of both audio and video.  The Board has gone into
executive session before, and probably will need to again.  Make a
motion and if it passes kick everyone out and turn off the microphones.

I'm also in favour of publishing the record of the most recent Board
meeting.  I know that some who weren't there have heard it, so everyone
else should get the same opportunity.

re #5 krj you are stating concerns that are not viable.  Board 
meetings take place irregularly and when they do, the members should 
be responsible for what they say anyway.  A board meeting is not a 
private bull session, it is public meeting.  Open to the public.  
Therefore nothing said at a board meeting should be of a nature that 
it can't be said in public anyway.  If you wanted to have 'closed' 
board meetings at a different time, where only board members are 
allowed to attend, you could do that.

But as these board meetings are in fact open to the public, there 
should be no issue with regard to simulcasting/recording.  

I agree with resp:12.  We would have been doing it along if the
technology had existed in 1991 when Grex started up.

The fact that Cyberspace's board meetings are public does not mean they should
be broadcast freely and openly on the web.

The reasons should be obvious (if only because Grex doesn't want to further
alienate the few volunteers it has), but public at some sandwich shop does
not mean the same thing as broadcast for everyone to see, and for good reason.

Why shouldn't the board meetings be public on the web? The board might get
more serious about the business of the organization.

resp:15: Please elaborate on the obvious reasons, because I'm not seeing
them.  What are the good reasons?  I might agree with limiting the
viewing to people who have accounts on grex and authenticate to get the
file, but beyond that I can't find the logic to suggest there are good
reasons to disallow this.

I don't even see why access should be limited to folks with Grex
accounts.  How could that even be enforced?  You never know who's
looking over someone's shoulder.

Grex Board meetings have always been open to the public,
not requiring a Grex account for admission.  In early times, for
practical reasons, this meant attendance was limited to folks who
could physically haul their bodies to the meeting site, but with
current technology, that restriction seems a bit artificial.

resp:18: I meant only people with a grex account could download or view
the meeting (they'd have to authenticate to the webserver to access the
file).  Obviously there is nothing preventing someone from sitting in an
office and letting everyone watch.  For the record, I'm not suggesting
that be done, just saying that if someone objects to it being totally
free for anyone to just hit the website and download, it could be
protected in that way and at least require authentication first.

All these discussions of what the board *could* be doing are irrelevant.
The fact is that Grex isn't doing those things and hasn't been for years.
Just broadcast the meetings.

The next BOD meeting is scheduled for March 7th.  I believe I can attend 
and would be happy to bring along what is needed to simulcast the meeting 
as well as make an audio file of it for those who'd like to listen to it 
later on their own schedule.

These are open meetings.  Is there support for going this route and 
including everyone who is interested in being part of the process?

  
audio, yes.
  

post the feed ,bitches

  
kma
  

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