Testimony on webcasting

Written by Joshua Breitbart Wednesday, 25 March 2009 16:31

Written Testimony of Joshua Breitbart, Policy Director, People's Production House, before the New York City Council Committee on Technology in Government on the topic of "Requiring that all public meetings be webcast (Prop. Int. No. 533-A)”

October 29, 2008 – Good morning. My name is Joshua Breitbart. I am the Policy Director of People's Production House. People's Production House provides young people, immigrants, and low-wage workers with a comprehensive education for the information age, combining media production, media literacy and media policy. We work in public schools and with community organizations in all five boroughs. We also support policies that increase opportunities for members of the public to participate in local journalism.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about this important, forward-thinking amendment to the city charter. This proposal embodies the highest ideals of technology in government and People's Production House believes it would bring numerous benefits to our city.

Webcasting and video-archiving public meetings of our local government is a great example of the democratizing power of the Internet. We often hear about this power, but we sometimes forget that the Internet is nothing without the content and applications that we choose to put on it.

Webcasting public meetings will increase engagement in our local government, leading to stronger policies that reflect a broader range of views. Archiving the videos is especially important to facilitate participation among those who are at work or school during the day when nearly all public hearings are scheduled.

This will strengthen your relationships with your constituents. Users with broadband connections have grown accustomed to watching videos online. This measure will allow them to see for themselves the work you are doing on their behalf. Video records come alive in a way that a transcript simply does not.

Providing in-home or in-office access to public meetings of our government has the potential to improve local journalism, since reporters can more readily see the event for themselves rather than relying on post-event press releases.

While my organization supports good government measures and policies to improve local journalism, we are primarily concerned with the digital divide in New York City. This divide is pronounced. While 56 percent of Manhattan households have a broadband connection, only 39 percent of Bronx households do.¹ 54 percent of moderate and high-income households in New York City have high-speed Internet access at home, but only 26 percent of low-income households do.²

We believe this measure contributes to the closing of the digital divide in New York City by making the Internet a more valuable service for New Yorkers. Nearly all of people in New York who do not have broadband Internet access at home could purchase it, but have so far decided not to.

As John Horrigan of the Pew Internet & American Life Project has written, "Pew Internet Project research makes it clear that non-users don't yet see the benefits of home high-speed access. To reach the underserved, policymakers might consider more aggressive and targeted outreach efforts that educate hard-to-reach populations about the benefits of online connectivity."³

While City Council hearings may never get the same audience as otters holding hands (about 12 million views at last count), this measure sends a message to all New Yorkers that there is important, relevant content for you online. This measure makes the Internet more valuable to New Yorkers, which is an incentive for them to invest in a broadband connection.

However, as the democratizing power of the Internet goes up, those without access to the Internet fall further behind. With passage of this measure, watching webcasts of government meetings joins the list of civic activities, like researching candidates or publishing one's political viewpoints, that people on the wrong side of the digital divide are shut out from. So this measure places a further burden on the City Council to support other measures to get New Yorkers online.

Measures such as this one mean little if the Council takes positions, as it did last week with the white spaces resolution, that seek to limit the opportunities for New Yorkers to access the Internet. In order to realize the full value of the investment in our democracy that this charter amendment represents, the Council  should move quickly to finalize the work of the Broadband Advisory Committee and the EDC's draft Broadband Needs Assessment Study and enact their recommendations.

The Mayor and City Council should take full advantage of the Technology Education Fund included in the Verizon franchise. While the amount of $4 million over seven years is paltry compared to the need, those dollars should be put to use soon and used to leverage private donations to help public school students, low income families, immigrants, and seniors get online.

On behalf of People's Production House, I look forward to working with you on this ongoing effort. Thank you.

1. Scarborough Market Research, 2006-2007.
2. New York City Broadband Needs Assessment Study (Discussion Draft, September 6, 2007).
3. John B. Horrigan, Pew Internet & American Life Project, "Why it will Be Hard to Close the Broadband Divide," August 1, 2007.