The Philippine Online Chronicles

Part II: The myriad ways to stream

How would like to watch our lawmakers write the law?

As a recap, Senator Kiko Pangilinan authored Senate Resolution 53, which is aptly titled, "Resolution calling for the live streaming of Senate proceedings in the plenary as well as hearings and meetings of the Senate Committees to provide accurate information in real time to the public."

In "Think Pinoy Big Brother, but politics (part 1)," we talked about the technology aspect. What tools will most likely be needed to execute something like this: to stream.

A. The Senate Streams

Now that the Technology is out of the way, there are different ways to go about Streaming off the Senate ground or even the Batasaan Pambansa.

As the technology is cheap, anybody even with relative experience can execute this. The Senate themselves could create a mechanism by which they would stream themselves, for example. A Senate Social Media Bureau could be setup, rewire the existing microphones and speakers, and have their own mini Internet streaming solution.

The positive side of this is that the Senate controls everything. They keep their own archives. They publish their own stream.

This is the do-It-yourself era and the relative cheapness of technology makes likewise relatively easy to do.

The one stumbling block of course would be those pesky bidding laws that would most certainly jack up the price exponentially. Remember in Part 1, we only accounted for the basic hardware. We didn't account for warranty issues, we didn't account for labor cost and most certainly there is no accounting for Internet or server costs or a few other detail.

If the Senate did execute something like this then they would need to demand from multiple Internet Service Providers near industrial strength Broadband. The ISPs can't go down. There will be multiple lines--- each service provider backup the other. These would be dedicated Internet streams that is most definitely apart from the Senate's office internet line.

Essentially, the senate would be creating their own broadcast studio along with the bells and whistles that go with it. As we explained it can be done relatively cheap, or more professionally done. While certainly, the way we bloggers do it is the cheapest, there needs to be an almost professional level to this setup. Not only must the senate stream, but definitely the news channels would ask for copies or have their own tap into the stream.

B. NBN Streams

There's a reason why government has its own Communications Department and why it has infrastructure such as a Television station and printing press. Government needs to send the message out.

There is something sexy in the do-it-yourself get down on the trenches dirty if the Senate sets itself a broadcast studio. But what if NBN does it? NBN owns the infrastructure to stream it out. They have the engineers to run the infrastructure.

They already have the expertise to set it up, the downside is, there is also a reason why much of Media ought to be separate from the state. What happens when there is a controversy? The Aquino Government so far is relatively benign, but would we trust them not to be tempted to suddenly cut the signal or to give us a digest and remove the salient parts?

Another thing--- the government is already hard-pressed for cash. Setting up a Social Media broadcasting division, while may not be that expensive, could be in the bottom of the priority list. Which is understandable. The point is--- the senate could probably fair better if they did it themselves rather than count on the National Government to do everything. The point is, if someone could do this and just take the load off government, wouldn't that be better?

C. C-SPAN

In the United States there is a cable channel called CSPAN. This is a non-profit channel that is owned and operated by the Cable Industry. It covers the legislature as they are in action. The channel takes no commercial, except for the programs airing in that channel.

What if the Television stations got together, formed a non-profit television channel for the sole purpose of providing pool videos of Senate and House proceedings? Every station part of the setup could simply tap the feed. They can also choose to put the feed up as an embeddable format.

The public gets its unfettered access. Private enterprise steps in to do something they're really experts on and simply deliver live stream.

D. Could bloggers do it?

Cover the senate and the house? The technology is relatively cheap that bloggers could do it. Bloggers have been doing it. In the recent election live streaming political interviews have been done-- using consumer grade cameras and upstream. In fact, a 2MB connection was possible. It is quick. It is dirty but it gets the job done.

The pro side is that this is something sexy to do.

The con side is that advertising could be a problem. How do you make it economically worthwhile? Sure there could be advertising around, but how do you distance yourself from the hand that feed you?

The technology is relatively cheap to accomplish, but there needs to be a consistent revenue stream to pay for the engineers running the setup.

E. Do-It-Yourself

Without a doubt that a nation such as ours is strapped for cash, and there are many more pressing concerns that no one government could address. What government has is access to cash, and could quite possibly be the biggest investor in the Philippines. What the private sector has is expertise and mobility.

The very nature of the public sector precludes efficiency and quickness. To setup something like a streaming office would take many more pesos than if the cost was driven by a private enterprise run like a startup.

So what if there was a way for bloggers for example to do something like this for the state?

F. Mini-State of the Internet in the Philippines (2010)

In recent months there have been numerous data point establishing the terrible State of the Internet in the Philippines (2010). Pulse Asia for example noted that the Internet was at the bottom pile of news sources.

The fact that most people tap into the Internet through Internet Cafes is a reason. They would be spending more time reaching out to their loved ones abroad, or running through some photos on Facebook than watching the news via their Internet time at a Cafe.

The expensive and terrible condition of the network in the Philippines--- mobile or otherwise is a major stumbling block as well. Anybody willing to invest thousands of dollars in this endeavor will be throwing it away.

That said, an opportunity exist here. Lawmakers should bring Congress to the 21st Century. There is a need though only a few million people would have access to a live stream of Congress, it is something that needs to get done. In an age of Transparency and Accountability, having unfettered access in big brother like fashion as lawmakers conduct themselves gives voters insight on who is doing their job and what the issues of the day was.

If congress didn't work on the budget for example, we would know why, on the fly and in real time.

When congress does decide to publish their proceedings in live stream, perhaps they can see how broadband really is. How Broadband and the Economy works. Why measuring broadband's economic impact matters. In the end, maybe lawmakers could see building broadband: strategies and policies for the developing world. And equally, how in the Philippines we must have Reflections on Openness.

To be concluded in Part Three (for publishing on August 21, 2010)…

Senate Session Hall, some rights reserved.