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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 13 September 2007

Council meetings like this one, could be downloaded onto your mp3 player

Get the Town Hall in your pocket

IPODS are designed to be a hip music gadget for music lovers – but all that might be about to change.
Camden Council wants the Mp3 generation to stop the music and tune into council meetings instead.
In a national first, the Town Hall is to release ‘podcast’ videos of its most thrilling – and not so thrilling – meetings.
Footage will be taken directly from cameras dotted around the main council chamber and released as video files, downloadable from the internet.
Subscribers to the free service will be able to replay their favourite moments over and over again through their iPods or other compatible Mp3 players.
Podcasts are usually more popular among radio stations than local authorities and are usually the territory of disc jokeys than ward councillors but the council is billing the new service as ‘takeaway council meetings’ and is adamant that the service could prove popular among residents who are too busy to attend the Town Hall.
With as straight a face as he could muster, Councillor Keith Moffitt has even suggested that people might want to take his speeches on holiday with them. He said: “Whether you're in Hampstead travelling on the bus or lying on a sun lounger in Spain you can now watch Council meetings despite not being in the council chamber. Camden’s always looking for new and innovative ways to involve our residents and we hope this will appeal to busy people on the move but who still want to be apart of local democracy.”
Cllr Moffitt added: “I’m always surprised by how many people come up to me and say that they have used the webcasts. In some cases, it has settled an argument because it is an absolute record of what was said. I don’t think it will be an expensive add-on and we will monitor how often it is used.”
Camden already offers live webcasts of meetings but by turning them into podcasts hopes more people will watch the footage.
Labour’s deputy leader Councillor Theo Blackwell said: “If people are going to play council meetings over and over again then Keith Moffitt is going to have to work on his speeches.”

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