Published: July 08, 2007 07:45 am      

DODD: Must-see Web action in Jeffersonville

I cannot remember how many times I have been sitting around my computer thinking there’s just nothing worth watching on the Internet. Over and over I have often said to myself, “Lindon, if only there were a live Jeffersonville City Council meeting on, I would be riveted to my computer screen!” Finally, my computer-age dreams have come true.

How many times have I tried to sit through one of those City Council meetings on the Jeff High local access cable channel with both eyes completely open. Sure, it’s must see TV, but knowing it’s pre-recorded just doesn’t have the same impact for me. I need to know it’s live and that anything can happen. Knowing any second some precedent setting city ordinance could be proposed out of left field and knock me out of my Lazy-Boy recliner causing me to spill my sugar-free Crystal Light drink into my chip and dip bowl will add a new dimension to what will be the very definition of reality cybervision.

The really wonderful thing about it is that it only costs local taxpayers a mere $36,000 for these future Internet superstars to provide those viewers who cannot get enough live politics on the cable news channels 24/7. I wonder just what the profile of the average viewer for these live net casts.

First of all, the targeted viewer would have to be a real politico junkie, the kind that is among the 28-percent who votes in primary elections. Secondly, the targeted audience would probably be a loner type, one with no family, friends, hobby or anything remotely resembling a personal life. I can almost picture them sitting in a room full of Star Trek memorabilia, mostly opened at one time with a real bad re-wrapping to make it look like it’s in the original un-opened packaging to enhance its eBay resale value.

The City Council viewer would probably: live at home in his/her parent’s basement, have never spoken to a member of the opposite gender, currently in counseling for stalker activities, wears an ACLU fan club T-shirt, and would have dropped out of high school prior to graduation in order to become proficient on computer games and is most likely a registered Independent or a member of the Green Party.

As far as the age demographic, I would have to guestimate the potential live Internet viewer of the Jeffersonville City Council meeting as falling somewhere between 80 and 120 years of age — which ironically is the largest living group of Americans who have no idea how to even turn on a computer. You talk about your small potential targeted audience!

At least the timing is perfect for the new Jeffersonville City Council meetings to be broadcast on a lice Webcast- what with all the new Iphones being the newest electronic gadgetry craze. Wouldn’t it be great if John Perkins and Barbara Wilson were to become the new superstars among the generation X-er’s with their every local legislative proposal being broadcast worldwide over YouTube with such catchy cyber titles as “City officials split on subdivision” or “New traffic signal gets the green light?”

Hey, it’s the 2000’s and the Jeffersonville City Council does not want to be left behind. It’s the early technical savvy bird that gets the cyber worm. Sure some will jest and poke fun of a group that is on the leading edge of the way small town politics will be available for the masses to view in the future, but that is the way with all visionaries throughout history.

For all of those who will not think this a wise use of your taxes, I say, WWJD (what would Jerry (Springer) do). When people know they are being broadcast live the action is sure to be elevated to a new level. A podcast viewer will never know what is coming until it hits them right between the eyes.

I, for one, salute the forward thinking attitude of the locally elected officials who refuse to be left behind in this brave new Internet world. We need to back the new venture with fully integrated support. As the old song goes, “video killed the radio star.” Live cyber broadcasts will now make the Channel 24 video-taped broadcast as antiquated as the buggy whip and the old computer vacuum tube. It’s hip, it’s now, and it’s coming soon live to your computer screen. Political bloggers are camping out in front of their computers weeks in advance anticipating the initial live broadcast.

Lindon Dodd is an Otisco resident and can be reached at lindondodd@hotmail.com. His column appears on Sunday.