I was away from my home the other day and wanted to tune into the streaming video of the Raleigh City Council meeting using my smartphone. Lo and behold, the proprietary Microsoft Silverlight video format that the Granicus service uses to stream Raleigh’s government channel does not have a player for my Android phone. I’d be surprised if a client exists for iPhone, either, for that matter. It seemed I would need to be glued to my desk if I wanted to keep up with Raleigh politics.
Being a geek of local politics as well as a geek in general, I have a hard time accepting no for an answer! I have known for a while that the open-source video player mplayer can play the streams. So, using the skills I’ve learned through setting up an online radio station, I set up an audio-only stream of Raleigh Television Network’s Channel 11. Now I can listen in to whatever’s being broadcast on RTN 11 no matter where I happen to be. Cool!
Like my online radio station, this is just in the testing stage so I’m not ready to open it up to others just yet. I will likely need an outside hosting provider for the streaming service, too, like perhaps UNC’s ibiblio. It shouldn’t be too hard to make those changes and let others stay connected to city government no matter where they are.
Wake County has a shooting range subsidized by taxpayers. Perhaps the county or the city might find subsidized hackerspaces to be of value? Surely such places are the earliest incubators where great local startups can discover new products & services to nurture.