Funferal

Webcasting of public meetings

From the e-government bulletin:

Trials of a system allowing remote participation in council and community meetings using webcasting and email are to begin in Britain, Ireland, Slovakia and Spain by September 2005 as a test bed for possible wider European rollout.
Members of the ‘eParticipate’ (http://www.eparticipate.org/) initiative are developing tailored versions of an existing system developed by the British firm Public-i (http://www.public-i.info), including language translation.
“The eParticipate project focuses on the need for clear communication as a foundation for e-participation,” said John O’Flaherty, eParticipate project manager and managing director of Irish project co-ordinator Microelectronics Application Centre Ltd (MAC – http://www.mac.ie).
Users will also be able to access webcast past meetings from an archive and go directly to specific items under discussion or decided at a meeting.
Trials will begin at Fingal County Council in Ireland; Getafe council in Madrid, Spain; Vrútky City Hall in Slovakia; and Waverley council in the UK.
Part-funding for the eParticipate project comes from the Trans-European Network (eTEN – http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/eten/) fund, which aims to deploy and encourage take-up of electronic public services across Europe. The overall budget for eParticipate is 1.4 million Euros.