Our public hearings on the city budget this year were all live, with viewer calls and e-mails taken during the first hour, prior to testimony from those present. Viewer input can be solicited through links to web sites. Testimony can be received through e-mail, not just during a meeting but at any time. Response forms can be set up to solicit citizen input. We recently surveyed those who accessed our TVSea web site on what they liked and didn't like about our channel.
Video streaming is another effective way to reach a wider audience.
Those who are interested can access the meeting at times compatible with their own schedule. And they can be encouraged to respond via e-mail to issues that concern them. We are now developing plans to link various community centers with direct fiber feeds to our control room. This would allow us to not only create more community-based programming easier, but also could be the mechanism for interactive electronic town meetings. Cities with effective I-Nets are probably already doing this.