Flip Reporters

Wow. I’m used to getting drop ins at my office to talk about local government. It comes with the territory and I enjoy it even if at times I have other tasks I really ought to be working on. I should be used to it. I’ve been writing about local government in one medium or another for more than 30 years.

Many times my office drop ins are of the “what’s new” and “have you heard” variety. Sometimes its of the “we really need to address this” but “my name can’t be associated” variety. And, at least within certain circles, I’ve lived with being unpopular. I get those visitors, too.

So after Ed Pevonka dropped in my office and told me he was going to send me a check for $120 because that was the same amount he was paying for a newspaper subscription and he felt like DeKalb County Online was providing more of the information he felt was worth paying for, well, I could only say, “wow.”

When Pevo’s check came a day later I couldn’t just say “wow” anymore. Thanks was not enough either. It took me a couple of days but I figured out what I should do with contributions like Ed’s. I’m going to hire independent webcam reporters.

The City of DeKalb is the only local governmental unit that broadcasts its city council meetings live on TV. There’s beau coop governmental units throughout DeKalb County meeting about every day of the work week. That’s a lot of meetings to cover.

Most meetings are over within two hours. We try to keep track of agenda items of the surrounds so that not every news item happening in DeKalb County is news to us. So I think we have an organizational structure to assign meetings to those willing to spend a couple of hours for $20.

The technology for providing video reports quickly and easily is here. We use a $100 Flip video camera to cover news and meetings now. It has a USB plugin and software interface for uploading the video directly from the camera to YouTube, among others. It’s easy, otherwise I couldn’t/wouldn’t do it.

We are working out the details of the program and should be able to go live with it August 1, 2009. If you know of thoughtful college student, retiree or anyone else who might be interested have them send me a message.

And most of all, thanks Ed Pevonka, for providing me with the impetus to do a better job of light shining. Pevo is now an Honorary Editor for the DeKalb County Online family of websites. There are openings available for those who think it worthy.