Monday, October 01, 2007

Town meeting video on the web... on the rise!

Forget public television access. The way to go may be Internet video. Some watchdog residents are taking their political videos to a new arena — one where the public can view them on demand. Video-hosting Web sites have long been popular outlets for videos made by teenagers, and more recently of footage of politicians nationally. But increasingly, residents in smaller towns have been using the Web as another avenue to air videos of town meetings, debates and other issue-oriented programming. (WRA, by Jodie Mozdzer)

The article offers three towns as examples: Cheshire, Seymour and Washington. (Note: the online article is abbreviated.)

Anyway, I think it's fantastic that Cheshire is moving forward with this. And with the WRAs front page story, I hope other towns take notice and also consider making it happen.

And for anyone who still questions the power of the internet... do you know why I was contacted about this article? Well... the reporter, Jodie Mozdzer, found me at TWL while she was googling around online. Ain't the internet great?! But I can't end this post without saying thanks to both Craig Houghton and Cindy Kleist for having "moved the ball down the field" on this.

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course, the lion's share of that thanks should all head your way, Tim.

Do you happen to have the unabbreviated version to scan and post? I made a late night stop to grab a copy, but the one place I visited happened to be out.

-csh
CTP video catalog of Cheshire Town Council meetings

Anonymous said...

You “video experts” might want to read this:

Oct 2, 7:46 AM (ET)

By GREG BLUESTEIN
ATLANTA (AP) - Online videos aren't just for bloopers and rants - some might also be conduits for malicious code that can infect your computer.

As anti-spam technology improves, hackers are finding new vehicles to deliver their malicious code. And some could be embedded in online video players, according to a report on Internet threats released Tuesday by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center as it holds its annual summit.

The summit is gathering more than 300 scholars and security experts to discuss emerging threats for 2008 - and their countermeasures.

Among their biggest foes are the ever-changing vehicles that hackers use to deliver "malware," which can silently install viruses, probe for confidential info or even hijack a computer.

"Just as we see an evolution in messaging, we also see an evolution in threats," said Chris Rouland, the chief technology officer for IBM Corp.'s Internet Security Systems unit and a member of the group that helped draft the report. "As companies have gotten better blocking e-mails, we see people move to more creative techniques."

With computer users getting wiser to e-mail scams, malicious hackers are looking for sneakier ways to spread the codes. Over the past few years, hackers have moved from sending their spam in text-based messages to more devious means, embedding them in images or disguised as Portable Document Format, or PDF, files.

"The next logical step seems to be the media players," Rouland said.
One worm discovered in November 2006 launches a corrupt Web site without prompting after a user opens a media file in a player. Another program silently installs spyware when a video file is opened. Attackers have also tried to spread fake video links via postings on YouTube.
That reflects the lowered guard many computer users would have on such popular forums.
"People are accustomed to not clicking on messages from banks, but they all want to see videos from YouTube," Rouland said.
Another soft spot involves social networking sites, blogs and wikis. These community-focused sites, which are driving the next generation of Web applications, are also becoming one of the juiciest targets for malicious hackers.
Computers surfing the sites silently communicate with a Web application in the background, but hackers sometimes secretly embed malicious code when they edit the open sites, and a Web browser will unknowingly execute the code. These chinks in the armor could let hackers steal private data, hijack Web transactions or spy on users.

Tim White said...

good point... you have to be wary of all sorts of stuff on the web. So this isn't all that surprising to hear.

Anonymous said...

Let's all unplug our computers and attend meetings. You will have to watch out for other viruses. Wash your hands after meetings.

Anonymous said...

Shall we all go back to paper? Let's all be cautious but not be fearful.