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Advocacy through Information Dissemination: CCTV Streaming Democracy (NPT Case Study)
Introduction
Since 1984, CCTV has worked in Burlington, Vermont to promote democracy, alternatives to mainstream media and economic opportunity for our fellow citizens. CCTV operates Channel 17/ Town Meeting TV (a government access cable channel), Northern Image Production (digital video production and duplication services) and CyberSkills/Vermont (computer awareness, access and training in Burlington's Old North End). We are founding members of the Vermont Access Network. “Streaming Democracy” was CCTV's attempt to use Internet-based streaming technologies and electronic collaboration tools to increase Vermont citizen access to civic information and centers of political decision-making.
Background
Intent on fulfilling their missions in the Information Age, Vermont nonprofit organizations have identified the effective use of media and information technology as one of the primary challenges they face. Through assessment and first-hand experience with technology deployment, it has become apparent that most Vermont nonprofits find it difficult to reconcile the possibilities of communications and information management tools with their limited resources (dollars, equipment and staff).
CCTV has developed a number of projects to demonstrate what we mean by public access in the Information Age. These initiatives (government access cable tv, community technology center and training, streaming civic content on the Internet) have enabled CCTV to serve our mission in Vermont, become proficient in video and computer technology and training, develop technology planning and management strategies, and stand out as a leader in public access advocacy in Vermont.
“Streaming Democracy” was a a one-year demonstration of electronic methods of distributing gavel-to-gavel municipal and legislative coverage to Vermont households, while expanding public meetings to include citizens who cannot be physically present to participate. The learning curve for each of our projects has varied. The development of public access channels in the mid 1980’s and the activation of Channel 17 in 1990, enabled CCTV to grow incrementally. The Old North End Community/Technology Center was started in 1995 with major funding in a relatively time frame. This initiative added several new staff members and introduced a new culture to the organization. We found this more difficult to manage, and have only recently incorporated the Tech Center into CCTV’s overall operations. There are many lessons in each of these projects, and they have informed our work with “Streaming Democracy”.
CCTV is a sixteen year old, Vermont based, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing public access to the means of media production and distribution. In order to influence public policy in Vermont’s regulatory and legislative arenas, we have developed a number of projects that demonstrate the importance of public access. These include Channel 17/Town Meeting TV (the state’s only government access cable TV channel) and the Old North End Community/ Technology Center (a neighborhood center for access, awareness and computer skills).
Our latest initiative “Streaming Democracy”, funded in part by OMB Watch, is designed to show how civic information can be distributed to citizens of Vermont’s rural and urban communities. The project underscores the importance of expanding digital access to all citizens of our state and we have pointed to it during the course of our negotiations with the state’s largest cable operator.
CCTV’s intent is to show Vermont regulators that all telecommunications companies must provide access to the means of voice, data, and video production and distribution. “Streaming Democracy” is an example of the convergence of the cable and telephone business. It is also a concrete example of why cable operators should fund analog video and internet applications as part of their public service obligations.
As a result of CCTV’s advocacy work in the most recent cable franchise re-negotiations, Adelphia Cable was ordered to provide up to 10% of their bandwidth for public access purposes as well as funds for digital production and editing equipment.
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CCTV Project Budget 2000-2001
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Level of Innovation
CCTV produces and distributes grass roots video programs on cable television in Vermont’s largest county and throughout Vermont. In an effort to broaden the audience for programs of statewide interest, and move into the rural communities not likely to have access to cable television, we selected Internet based video streaming as a distribution strategy worth testing. In an effort to move viewers into civic action, it was (and is) our intent to add interactive tools to www.streaming.cctv.org once resources are available for project management and technical support.
In order to implement our vision and work with a modest budget, we chose to digitize the Vermont Governor’s weekly press conferences, which are currently video-taped by CCTV and distributed via “snail” mail to 15 public access channels across Vermont. To prepare them for viewing on the internet, we now produce these weekly events with digital production and editing equipment, compress them into digital video files, send them upstream to a server that hosts video content and make the finished program available by way of www.cctv.org which links directly to www.streaming.cctv.org. As a result of this process, we also have added samples of CCTV’s programs to www.cctv.org. Due to limited resources, we were not able to incorporate interactive tools (such as chat rooms, bulleting boards or video conferencing) these tools into the pilot program as planned.
Measures of Success
In both theory and practice, “Streaming Democracy” provides a concrete example of how all Vermont telecommunications providers can use the public rights of way to serve the public interest. The project strengthens our advocacy position with Vermont regulators and legislators as we now move forward to update the state’s cable statutes.
With modest start-up funds, we have been able to incorporate “Streaming Democracy” into CCTV’s current operations. We have been able to use this project as a way to bring the staff members from both Channel 17 and the Tech Center together and as a bridge to unify projects within the organization.
National research shows that most nonprofits are hesitant to invest in technology and are unaware of the broad impact electronic tools can have on their work. The primary barrier continues to be the on-going cost of equipment, training and technical support. The first step is to raise awareness about how organizations can benefit from an investment in assessment, planning, equipment and training. The greatest impact will come if technological capacity is developed in conjunction with organizational development and strategic planning efforts—enabling NPO’s to re-think the way they do business and prepare for the constant cycles of change that confront them in the Information Age.
Since we first wrote the proposal for “Streaming Democracy” (April 1998), streaming technology has become easier to use, and so, is more commonly utilized by Internet audiences. Newer computers are able to handle the streaming software and “playback” with less user frustration. As a result of these factors, combined with our extensive research and development, we are able to offer internet users two “speeds” at which to view the Vermont Governor’s press conferences. Users with typical dial up speeds (56k) or high-speed cable modems are able to view these programs with relative ease and functionality.
Lessons Learned
The primary obstacles we faced were: lack of experience with streaming technologies, lack of high-speed data access, lack of equipment and lack of software. We were able to obtain the equipment (a computer dedicated to compression and transmission) by upgrading an outdated office computer with capital funds for our government access tv channel. The authoring software was affordable and available from Real Networks. We were eventually able to obtain access to Adelphia Cable’s high speed Internet access service for free as part of the franchise settlement that took more than two years to negotiate. We were extremely fortunate to supplement our engineer’s technical knowledge with the expertise of a key volunteer (a founding member of Real Networks). His streaming experience combined with our engineer’s video knowledge led to a fruitful partnership and a relatively speedy resolution of technical questions related to compression and transmission speeds. With persistence, we were also able to resolve issues of software compatibility between our host server and the newest version of Real Networks software.
It was CCTV’s intent to mount a pilot project and determine what resources were required to turn cable tv content into “streaming” formats available to Internet audiences. We expected that we would learn a great deal about the technical and labor requirements for this undertaking. We did not expect the implementation would take as long as it did (15 months). We did not expect the research and technical support to take 170 hours. Most of this time was spent testing compression and transmission speeds. We also did not expect it to take six months to acquire a donated high-speed connection from our local cable company. We were fortunate to establish a relationship with Matt Holland, our resident streaming expert, who assisted our Tech Support staff in the research and development of this project. Adelphia Cable finally provided the high-speed internet connection necessary for uploading our digital files to the host server. The OMB grant provided the resources necessary to complete the start up phase of “Streaming Democracy”. CCTV is now able to convert cable tv access programs for internet audiences for a reasonable cost (i.e. server space) on a regular basis.
Next Steps
Given the lessons of the past 16 years, we will now concentrate on reliable delivery of the Vermont Governor’s press conferences in its streaming format for the next quarter. We will work on linking with relevant organizations such as the Rutland Herald/ Times Argus, which will tie the press conferences directly to their news stories and archives. We will also begin the process of teaching our Vermont peers in the public access tv field how to set up streaming channels of local content. As we monitor growing interest in CCTV’s streaming content, we will expand our offerings to include local events such as mayoral press conferences, city council meetings, speakers and live programs.
It is worthwhile to point out that CCTV is joining with five organizations CyberSkills/Vermont, the Vermont Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations (VANPO), TEAMing for TECHnology (Team TECH), Vermont Telecom Assistance Center (VTAC) and the Center for Rural Studies, to raise nonprofit awareness of media and technology, assess nonprofit needs, customize training programs, assist with planning efforts and increase the resources available to non-profits as they build their capacity to serve their constituents and operate effectively. Our goal is to pilot “CyberSkills for Vermont Nonprofits” between June 2001 and May 2002. In September 2002 we aim institutionalize this model as the “Vermont Institute for Non-Profit Media and Technology”.
[This is one of five nonprofit project evaluations supported in part through OMB Watch's Nonprofits' Policy and Technology (NPT) 1999 Nonprofit Technology Pilot Projects for effective use of technology in public policy activities.]