Friday, April 8, 2011

Participate at City Hall, via YouTube

What if you want to participate at City Hall but you can't physically make it to the open meeting? Is it really government of and for the people if only a select few can literally have their voices heard?

Reset SF is hoping to answer these problems with a bold new initiative to allow citizens to submit YouTube videos to city hall hearings in SF.



Through this initiative they want every San Francisco Board and Commission meeting to respect YouTube video submissions on the same level as in-person public testimony. Our government operates based on the input from the citizenry - and with the current requirement of in-person testimony, there's a limit, about 1,000 people, who can actually lobby at city hall and have their voice heard.

The issues discussed at Board of Supervisor meetings effect all San Franciscans. But too often job, school or family responsibilities take precedence, and spending a day at city hall to testify just isn’t realistic.

Reset San Francisco’s proposal is to allow citizens to provide two minute or shorter YouTube clips to be presented at Board of Supervisor meetings. Using free and simple technology to open up local government, and eliminating the in-person testimony requirement, Reset SF hopes that a greater number of San Franciscans would make their voices heard in Board and Commission meetings.

Ultimately, this would allow more citizens to be engaged with their local politics, which will hopefully mean a more efficient and responsive city government.

4 comments:

Bernadette said...

I first saw this on Reset SF and think that Phil Ting's idea to use YouTube to encourage and facilitate civic involvement for all citizens, especially those who either are at work/school during board and commission meetings or simply do not have the means to transport themselves to those meeting, is wonderful! In fact, there is a petition (http://www.resetsanfrancisco.org/petition/san-francisco-youtube-video-testimonials) to really put this out there in legislation and make it real!

George Vontzos said...

Gongrtulations you give voice to the people from all over the world! (www.miression.gr)

Unknown said...

You tube,the bess

Rob said...

Check out our YouTube discussion forum at http://icuebed.com/forums/. Register an account and get stuck in with our other members! We want to see your favourite YouTube videos! Don't forget, the link is http://icuebed.com/forums/ . See you there!

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