[nfb-talk] streaming the convention, being informed
James Aldrich
jkaldrich at qwest.net
Fri Jul 20 11:47:15 CDT 2007
Hello all,
I respectfully disagree! I think a way could be found to stream and archive
conventions. I will agree that personalle was short for this year's ACB
stream and they weren't able to cover as many of their events as they have
in the past. I of course didn't really listen all that much if at all. It
is neat to actually go on their site and listen to various items of interest
they may have. It really is all about media, everybody is going on line!
I'm not saying we should have a radio station of our own but we certainly
should have a site where audio content from the past and present can be had
and it could be easily streamed or downloaded. More and more devices are
coming on the market which can record audio material. If you had a large
enough SD card, you could record an event with a Braillenote or Voicenote,
perhaps a Braille Sense or Pacmate. That Olympus recorder might do a
respectable job! Things are getting to the point where we the individual
could dust off those old records and send material to the historical site.
Being able to digitize stuff is becoming easier to do these days. I'm
starting to get to the point where I may experiment with recording more
audio. The question is what will the media hold! People will remain
involved if they are connected to the organization in some way. One can
talk about the NFB budget but I know what my personal budget looks like at
times and I simply cannot go to convention every year, but if I had some
kind of on line connection to it, I could at least hear various sessions of
the convention at my convenience whether it is happening at the time or
whether it is archived. Having to set part of our budget aside for having
some kind of on line presence may be a necessary evil but I think these days
the organization which has the best on line presence or should I say the
most convenient to use on line presence will probably have more connected
members to the organization. We certainly budgeted for producing countless
talking book records and cassette tapes of our literature and events so why
should we regard streaming or archiving any differently! If I can connect
to a site with a palm sized device and listen to an NFB live stream or a
stream of something archived or I can download for myself the material I
wish to hear, I'd say we would have it much better than we did in the record
and cassette days. No doubt the day is fast approaching when we can
download our talking books from Nls and these will be audio files. I don't
feel we should be timid about an on line presence! We weren't timid about
talking book records and cassettes so why should we treat digital technology
differently? It certainly is a gamble but I think we would reach more
people that might be missed or not inspired unless audio could be found or
heard. I certainly took enough of those old talking book records back home
again in a suitcase and passed some of these on but how much nicer it would
be to tell someone to go to a particular site where they could click on the
same material and hear it! Like it or not, this is the way things are
going! I applaud the efforts of state organizations to stream conventions.
The more states which do so, the more expertise we would have on hand for
streaming national conventions and the same expertise could be used to see
to it that archives are available and up to date etc. If I were listening
to a live stream of the convention and I had strong feelings about a given
issue, I could contact my delegate through Email or by phone and let him or
her know about my feelings concerning the matter at hand. It is no
different than listening to or watching a sporting event! Even Congress can
be heard these days thanks to C-span and satellite radio. Perhaps one can
listen on line as well. You can say what you will! This needs to be done!
Jim Aldrich
----- Original Message -----
From: "Powers, Terry (NIH/OD/DEAS) [E]" <powerst at dcpcepn.nci.nih.gov>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 6:26 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] streaming the convention, being informed
Hi Mike and others;
Very well said, Mike. We record the banquet address and presidential
address, this way people can collect the tapes or read them from our web
site as many times as they like. If I understand streaming right, how
could someone listen to more than one meeting at a time if it is
broadcast only once. We have the same problem when we go to convention,
desiding what meetings we want to go to. Can something that is streamed
also be arcived? If not, then streaming would be a waste. Even if it
could be arcived, like Mike said, we need to look at the cost and
prioritize. We need to deside, what is more important, to get our blind
children a good education, Braille, mobility and text books or to
satisfy the adults and give them streaming. This education of our
children is the foundation of them being able to get jobs as an adult.
We also need to consider all the adults that need training, books and
more to work out in the environment of today. We want to get rid of
that only 10% of the blind work. The NFB cares, does the ACB?
Terry Powers
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Freeman [mailto:k7uij at panix.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 12:27 PM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] streaming the convention, being informed
With respect, I disagree. I guess I'm one of the few relatively
"tech-savvy" persons who sees little benefit in streaming the
convention. For the purposes you outline below, Alan, having the various
sessions recorded and then put on a server would do equally well.
Frankly, like Steve, I get the distinct impression that (whether they
will admit it to themselves or not) many favor streaming of conventions
because it's the current thing-to-do, i.e., that it makes us "up with
the times". Ken's infelicitous reference to the 21st century smacks of
this reasoning. I remain unconvinced.
While many justify streaming of convention plenary sessions and the
presentations of various divisions and groups on the basis that those
who cannot or will not attend convention could benefit from them, that's
precisely the point: one gets far more from a convention by
participating directly than by participating vicariously. The question
then becomes whether *hearing* a convention whets one's appetite to
attend or whether one stays content just to listen. If we're honest with
ourselves, we must admit that the jury is still out on this question. I
personally think that listening to a convention stream has little to do
with persuading listeners to attend conventions. It is the influence of
one's friends and fellow NFB members that persuade one to attend one's
first convention. Once one has been to a convention, one is either
hooked or not. If the former, then streaming is superfluous. If the
latter, then no amount of streaming will affect the outcome.
The question then becomes whether it's worth it to pay the costs to
stream. I think not. I'd rather see my money put into defending
discrimination cases, developing new capabilities for the KNFB Reader or
developing an accessible insulin pump.
Please do not misunderstand me: I have no objection to putting up
sessions or convention items on the web as has been done with the
Presidential Report and Banquet Address -- indeed, I shall be glad to
listen to them again. But I see no reason to spend the time, effort and
money to stream conventions material.
To me, just saying that because ACB does it, NFB should doesn't wash. WE
often scoff at ACB imitating us; ACB members would have an equal right
to scoff at NFB's imitating them.
Finally, while I think it would be invaluable to ensure that all
convention material is recorded (including the sessions of the various
seminars and divisions), I don't think it's worth training a large cadre
of tech-savvy NFB members to do the work; I'd rather have their minds on
the material at hand.
Will I permanently oppose streaming of our state convention? I don't
know. But streaming is very low on the totem pole of priority at this
point.
Mike Freeman, President
NFB of Washington
----- Original Message -----
From: Alan Wheeler
To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 5:56 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] streaming the convention, being informed
I agree. If more of the meetings are streamed, people who find agenda
conflicts, such as I did, could get all the info they want and not
have to
miss it.
-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On
Behalf Of Hope Hein
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 4:02 PM
To: nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] streaming the convention, being informed
Hi Peter!
There are many advantages to streaming. I wanted to attend several
meetings
that were going on simultainiously and could not be in two places at
the
same time. There is so much to learn. If the meetings could be
streamed one
could attend one meeting and listen to another later.
Another advantage is that one could listen to the meetings anytime
they
needed to get information on a topic. This will be helpful for NFB
members
such as ourselves and also to non NFB members or agencies. The NFB is
such a
great resource.
Hope
-----Original Message-----
.From: "Peter Donahue"<pdonahue1 at sbcglobal.net>
.Sent: 7/13/07 12:00:04 PM
.To: "NFB Talk Mailing List"<nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
.Subject: [nfb-talk] streaming the convention, being informed .
.Good afternoon Alicia and everyone,
.
. The skies aren't as black as you may believe. While Ken's
approach with
.Dr. Maurer is something those who conducted this year's Advocacy
Seminar
.would strongly discourage others have discussed the matter with Dr.
Maurer
.and have had a far different response. One person I talked to at the
.national convention indicated that Dr. Maurer was open to exploring
the
.matter further, but felt he needed additional information. There will
be a
.webmasters seminar in Baltimore this fall. If the opportunity
presents
.itself some of us will discuss the matter with Dr. Maurer further in
a more
.productive manner than that of Kens.
.
. One national board member told me that we wanted to see how
successful
.streaming state conventions would be before streaming national events
to
.allow our members to gain the necessary experience required to manage
live
.streams and to evaluate its usefulness as an outreach tool for
spreading
our .message via the Internet. Since we were discussing
convention-related
.matters during this year's national convention I hoped that the
question of
.whether or not to stream the national convention could have been
discussed
.and voted on and settled for once and for all. Then perhaps too it's
.probably a blessing in disguise that it wasn't brought up given the
amount
.of misinformation and false assumptions among NFB members concerning
live
.streaming and its perceived negative effect on convention attendance,
the
.cost of doing so, etc. Any decision concerning live streaming of any
NFB
.event should be made based on factual information and not old fashion
.voodoo.
.
. I'm wishing I remembered to bring this up during our Webmasters
meeting,
.but I feel that writing a series of articles for The Braille Monitor
.concerning the work of our Webmasters Group, and for that matter the
new
NFB .Living History Group, how different Web technologies can be used
to
spread .our message in cyberspace, and what is required to use these
technologies .effectively should be undertaken to better inform our
members
of these .technologies and how they work.
.
. There are many folks in the NFB who do not know the power of
having a
.Web presence let alone streaming. Perhaps our Webmasters and members
of the
.Living History Group can work on a series of such articles to better
inform
.our members as to what Internet resources are available for spreading
our
.message, and what is needed to use them to our best benefit. Before
any
.decisions can be made as to which Web resource can best do the job
being
.informed is the most important consideration before choosing any such
.resource to share the good news of the federation and that includes
.streaming.
.
.Peter Donahue
.
.
.----- Original Message -----
.From: "Alicia Richards" <alicia716 at msn.com>
.To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
.Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 7:06 AM
.Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] streaming the convention; no chance now .
.
.Hi, listers. Ray, I applaud you for writing your message, and saying
some
.things that really needed to be said. Approaching someone who is, in
a
.sense, your boss with an argumentative tone is never a good idea.
Not that
.one can't disagree with an authority figure, but as you rightly
pointed
out, .it must be done in a particular manner.
.
.However, I imagine that Dr. Maurer also knows that each member of the
NFB
is .different, and expresses him or herself differently. So, while
Ken
.approached him the wrong way, another member might discuss the issue
in a
.rational manner, devoid of attacks. I'd like to think that Dr.
Maurer
would .listen and consider other members remarks and persuasions in
favor of
.streaming convention, without holding Ken's manners, (or lack
thereof),
.against them.
.
.So, while the argument in favor of streaming convention may have been
.damaged, I hope it's not lost for good. If it is, then that is even
more
of .a reflection on Dr. Maurer than Ken.
.
.Alicia
.
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.
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