In the last few years, video has become a major component of the Internet. Nowadays you can upload video to YouTube directly from your cell phone; you can broadcast yourself live using services like Ustream (like we did for Arkansas very first live, online townhall about health care last August); you can even watch the Olympics online. More people expect to be able to watch a video of the news online—not just read about it—and in keeping with that trend, the Arkansas House of Representatives has begun streaming some of its meetings live online.
Now, my staff and I had discussed the possibility of streaming some committee meetings using a webcam and a netbook. Our thoughts were that if an important bill came up in committee, we would want you to be able to witness the debate as it unfolded; we thought we might test some of that technology if any major legislation came up this session, but it looks like the House of Representatives may have beat us to it.
http://www.arkansashouse.org has information about the Arkansas House of Representatives and the current fiscal session. On the right-hand side of the screen, they sometimes list items that are “Happening Now,” and sometimes those items have a little, yellow “Live” icon next to them, indicating that you can watch them live on arkansashouse.org.
They don’t stop there, however. The House has also started keeping copies of some of their meetings online. You can watch video from different days of the session just by going to http://www.arkansashouse.org/house-media/videos and clicking on one of the videos listed there.
Right now, the only videos I’ve seen available online are from meetings of the Rules Committee, the lottery’s legislative oversight committee, and the House in its chambers. I will be very interested to see, however, if they begin adding more committees to the list of legislative committees that are broadcasted live on the Internet.
One thing is for sure: Streaming video adds a new dynamic to the legislature. In the past, the only way voters could see the workings of committee meetings was to attend the meeting; now anyone in Arkansas who has access to a computer has access to the legislature. Will this change the way lawmakers act during meetings? Only time will tell. In the meantime, if you would like to watch the Arkansas Hose in action, all you have to do is go to http://www.arkansashouse.org/house-media/videos.
