Bringing Community Meetings to the (Online) Masses

In North Baltimore, some of the most important decisions that affect individuals aren't made by a city employee, a City Council member or even the mayor.

Often the decisions that most influence residents' lives are made by the community groups that represent their neighborhoods.

"I don't think people realize how many decisions that affect them are made at community meetings," Hampden Community Council member George Peters said.

Peters wanted to find away to make what is happening at community council meetings more accessible. So he decided to start filming the meetings and placing them on his YouTube account.

Of the community groups covered by North Baltimore Patch, the Hampden Community Council is the only one posting videos of its meetings online.

The idea stemmed from conversations he had with staff from Baltimore City Council President Bernard "Jack" Young's office.

At the time, Young was trying to televise more board and commission hearings on the city's cable television station. Peters told the staff that having more meetings televised was a good step, but the accessibility of the Internet made it ideal for people to review videos.

Placing videos on the Internet allows residents that can't attend a meeting to view it at their leisure instead of waiting for it to be scheduled on television.

According to the view counter on the YouTube channel, the videos of January and February's meetings had been viewed 159 times by Tuesday afternoon.

Peters is working on several ideas he hopes will result in more people watching the videos. Currently the videos aren't available on the community council's website. He hopes placing them there will draw more traffic.

He also said he believes he could boost viewership by adding features such as an index of meeting topics that would allow a viewer to jump to specific issues in the video.

He is also employing the low tech, word-of-mouth technique to let residents know about the online videos.

"Just spread the word, because I think it's important that people know it's available," Peters said.

Peters isn't laboring under the delusion that the videos will attract the same viewership of, say, the "Homeless Guy with the Golden Voice." However, he said he would be happy if as many as 500 residents were watching each month.

"I don't expect all 6,500 people in Hampden, or whatever it is, to watch the video," he said.