OntheWilderSide

NYS MANDATORY TECHNOLOGY STANDARD S07-001  Webcasting Open Meetings  Publication Date:  April 11, 2007 
 megan LEVINEdirector,
new york state office for technology

 
Reference:                            S07-001Technology Category:                  Internet Standards Title:   Webcasting Standards (pertaining to the implementation of Executive Order 3)    Replaces & Supersedes: n/a Authority: Executive Law §206-a   Executive Order 3  Publication Date:  April 11, 2007 Standard Effective Date: April 11, 2007
Review Date:                                April 11, 2008 Purpose

The purpose of this mandatory technology standard is to provide minimum standards for state agencies and public authorities for the webcasting of open meetings pursuant to Executive Order 3(www.state.ny.us/governor/executive_orders/exeorders/3.html). Scope

 
The following mandatory standard applies to all webcast open meetings by state agencies and public authorities in response to Executive Order 3.  For purposes of this best practice guideline the definition of state agency and public authorities is as defined in Executive Order 3, as follows: “Agency” shall mean any state agency, department, office, board, commission or other instrumentality of the State, other than a public authority.“Public authority” shall mean a public authority or public benefit corporation created by or existing under any State law, at least one of whose members is appointed by the Governor (including any subsidiaries of such public authority or public benefit corporation), other than an interstate or international authority or public benefit corporation.Centralized contract information for webcasting is addressed in Purchasing Memorandum CL-686 issued by the Office of General Services (www.ogs.state.ny.us/purchase/spg/pdfdocs/CL686.pdf). Best practice guidelines for Webcasting Open Meetings (G07-002), particularly for the production component of webcasting, are available at: www.oft.state.ny.us/policy/G07-002/index.htm).   

Mandatory Technology Standard

1.            Real-time.  All agencies and public authorities that currently have access to broadband service enabling real-time (live) webcasting must provide real-time webcasting to the public.  2.  On-demand.  All agencies and public authorities must make webcasts available to the public on-demand no later than two business days following the occurrence of the respective meeting. 

3.  Accessibility.  All webcasts must have synchronized captioning (text transcript that is coordinated in time with the audio and video tracks).  Synchronized captioning must be available for on-demand webcasts no later than seven days following the meeting.  Those agencies and public authorities webcasting in real-time may provide synchronized captioning in real-time or in on-demand webcasts no later than seven days following the meeting. 4.  Time period of availability.  All webcasts must be available on-demand for a minimum of thirty days.  Each agency shall retain a copy of each of its webcasts for a minimum of four months.  After the first thirty days, retention can be in off-line storage (such as DVD, disk, etc.).  This standard in not intended to modify any existing agency or public authority record retention schedules. Efforts will be undertaken with State Archives to develop a General Retention and Disposition Schedule for New York State Government Records to obviate the need for each agency and public authority to develop separate schedules.  Agencies and public authorities may choose to adopt a retention schedule for a period longer than the General Retention and Disposition Schedule. 

5.  Users.  The streaming (distribution) services selected must accommodate dial-up users as well as broadband users and must support multiple software clients (Real Player, Windows Media Player, etc).  Compliance Schedule

Per Executive Order 3.   Definitions 
A complete listing of defined terms for NYS Information Technology Policies, Standards, and Best Practice Guidelines is available in the “NYS Information Technology Policies, Standards, and Best Practice Guidelines Glossary” (http://www.oft.state.ny.us/policy/glossary.htm).  Contact Information

Questions concerning this standard may be directed to the

New York
State Office for Technology, Strategic and Executive Services (SES) Bureau, (518) 473-0234, attn:  e-Commerce/e-Government Team or nyecom@oft.state.ny.us

Filed under: Action Alert!, grassroots democracy, New York State Politics