I’m going to call my first attempt at livestreaming a flop: A disaster: A good idea whose time has not yet come.
Livestreaming has been in the news quite a bit lately, from the House Democrats’ sit-in to the Minnesota police shooting of Philando Castile. In the first example, on June 22, 2016, House of Representative Democrats staged a sit-in to force a vote on gun control. CSPAN would normally have broadcast it, but — CSPAN directives are given by House staffers: that is, the controlling Republican majority. They ordered the cameras turned off. Democrats responded by livestreaming video through Periscope while posting updates through Facebook. In the second example, Philando Castile, an unarmed black man, was shot dead at a traffic stop. His girlfriend had the livestream video running the whole time, from the confrontation to his death. The video added additional evidence to U.S. outrage over black deaths at the hands of law enforcement and sparked yet more protests and calls for action.
My own experience pales in comparison.
First, I thought I’d shoot the opening before the start of the ESSA Town Hall meeting at Kalani. That left me walking with the phone in front of me, talking to myself. I grabbed a quick glimpse of a what was still a nearly empty school cafeteria. Then, I moved to a corner of the courtyard to continue to talk to myself. No one. No one joined the stream. . .then one. . .he/she said “Hi.” This was my highlight. I was about to reply. Then the phone rang. It was my husband. I purposely hung up on him, not knowing if this was being caught live. He called again. I answered. “Yes.” He said, “I’m at Costco. Need anything?” To this day, I have not yet reviewed what was captured on the livestream. I guess the world can know we have stocked up on milk.
Next, on to the live notetaking during the meeting. I would call that a measured success. I rigged up a clipboard with a makeshift phone holder, connected a bluetooth keyboard and typed as the meeting went on. I’d say they’re among the better notes I’ve taken and best of all, they’re done and posted all in one step. You can review the first draft at EastOahu96825.com/gpublic, where I keep all of the Google Drive public documents related to this site. The [direct link] is here. I’ll use those notes to write a short review of the meeting soon.
I had promised a follow-up livestream through Periscope, but alas, I had problems connecting at the coffee shop my friend and I stopped at. Truthfully, I was pretty much done with the humbling experience of livestreaming, at least for now.
