Information Services Advisory Board

MINUTES - DRAFT

January 4, 2007, 5:30 p.m.

Town Hall Campus

Council Large Conference Room #10035

316 N. Academy Street, Cary, North Carolina

www.townofcary.org

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 5:35 p.m.

Present

Terra Brown-Shelton, Lee Douglas, Mark Evangelista, John Fitzpatrick, Tangie Hofer, John Nolander, Council Liaison Julie Robison (6:09 p.m.) and Staff Liaisons Susan Moran and Teri Peralta

Absent

Donna Bravo, Dayna Guzik, Frank DeVita, Nazi Kite

Approval of Minutes

Ms. Hofer moved to approve the minutes from the December 7, 2006 meeting.  Mr. Nolander provided the second and the minutes were approved unanimously.

Old/New Business

Streaming Video

Guest Speaker:  Bill Stice, Technology Services Director

Mr. Evangelista thanked Mr. Stice for agreeing to speak on the topic of streaming video and asked Ms. Moran for some introductory remarks.  Ms. Moran noted that Mrs. Robison had asked that the board revisit the topic, explaining that the topic has been brought to full council in the past but at that time council did not move forward with it.  She then introduced Mr. Stice who gave some background on the subject and offered to answer any questions board members might have.

Mr. Stice began by stating that there are two types of video on the Web, video that can be downloaded and played at any time and live streaming video which streams directly off cameras and to the Web site.  He explained that streaming video can also be in a file format that has been captured and saved and discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.  He noted there are significant differences in costs and quality depending on the options chosen.

Mr. Stice continued by stating that if it were decided that live streaming was preferred, his recommendation would be to save the video and make it available in either streaming video or downloadable video, which would vary in cost and process.  He mentioned that he had spoken with several towns and many are using off-the-shelf products, noting that Granicus is especially popular because it hosts all the video, provides the hardware and software to convert everything to streaming mode and they also make indexing very easy.

Mr. Stice explained that Granicus had been looked at in November 2005 and a quote was brought to council at the 2005 council retreat. He commented that council did not go forward with it at that time and he has not been asked to look at it again. At the time Granicus used population as a basis for their charges, but Mr. Stice was unsure if that were still the case.

It was asked why council was not interested at the time and Ms. Moran replied that cost was a large factor.  She observed that council wants to be sure citizens have access to information and felt that what was in place (audio files) was sufficient.

Mrs. Robison joined the meeting (6:09 p.m.) and Mr. Nolander asked if she remembered why the council did not show an interest in streaming video when she brought it to them in 2004.  She replied that it was too costly for something that was considered an extra at the time.  Ms. Moran added that the Town’s financial status was different then.  Mr. Nolander asked if she felt it was a good time to look at it again and she replied that as technology improves and becomes more financially relevant the Town should continually explore these tools as they become available.

The question of need was discussed and Mr. Stice offered to check with other resources for viewership and other statistics and bring his findings back to the board.

Ms. Moran reiterated the process for bringing their suggestions to council.  Mr. Evangelista moved the discussion on to the next item on the agenda.

Old/New Business

Foreign Language

Mr. Evangelista asked if anyone had any more information they would like to discuss on the topic of foreign language communications within the Town of Cary.  No one had anything to add at this time, but all agreed there they would like to see it on the agenda for the upcoming year.

Comments

a. Statement of Findings

The Board felt there was enough interest to investigate video streaming further and Mr. Stice agreed to do more research on the subject an bring his findings back to the board.  It was also agreed that there was benefit in discussing opportunities for foreign communications at future meetings.

b. Citizen Comments

Ms. Hofer mentioned that her neighbor noticed the color of the public hearing boards has changed and wondered why.  Ms. Moran remarked that the public felt the green signs faded into green background so when the time came to have them reprinted they were asked to change the color.  She explained that the Town has graphics standards they must adhere to and blue seemed to be the most visible of the choices which also included gold, black and white.

Ms. Brown-Shelton noted that one of her neighbors observed that with growth of Cary and the changes coming to the downtown area she hoped a boys and girls club for low income families could be considered.  She indicated that she would also love to see something like that in the future.  She mentioned that she spoke with Jennifer Robinson at the School of Government graduation who steered her toward Mr. Capps, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Raleigh.

Mr. Stice took a moment to thank Mrs. Robison for sitting on the Technology of Local Government’s Future Conference.  He expressed appreciation for her participation and let her know that there was a great deal of good feedback.

c. Member Comments

Mr. Fitzpatrick commented that Amtrak has added a platform in Cary for Florida-bound trains.

Mrs. Robison thanked the board for their participation.

Administrative

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 6 p.m. in the Council Large Conference Room #10035, 316 North Academy Street, Cary, N.C.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 7:07 p.m.