Tuesday, May 31, 2005 12:23 PM
Ernest Miller wonders why Congress is not podcasting? It certainly is a legitimate question.
Think about the huge volume of content, written and spoken, that is generated in the U.S. Congress each and every week. Then think about the process the average citizen needs to go through to get access to this mostly public information. Finally, think about the simple, inexpensive (and, in some case, free) software that is available to package this content up for easy dissemination.
I realize we are talking about the government here, so everything moves at a snail's pace. But, still, think about how simple it would be to get started. Ask a staffer to cut and paste the text from every official document, meeting, hearing, etcetera, into an RSS-enabled blawg. Done. Mission accomplished. We are not talking about rocket science here. And, while staffer number one is cutting-and-pasting away, get another to set up the equipment necessary to podcast every speech and committee hearing and likewise tie this into RSS-enabled blawg. It is not that hard, and it would cost very little.
Of course, it will happen...with government it is always more a question of when. Let's just hope the "when" is a date much sooner than later.