Peter Chun

Last week, the City Council revealed its new website after months of delay. But while most agree that it is a good step, the site has received mixed reviews from people dealing with the intersection of technology and government.

The Councils’ new site is meant to be more stable than the old site, which was notorious for crashing. It offers more details on committee hearings, including direct links and briefings. An RSS subscription is now available for the committee’s calendars, and there are plans to add RSS features throughout the site in the future. Council members also have the ability to update their own pages as they see fit, and can add such features as voting records, calendars and press releases if they choose. The Council’s communications office is training staffers and even Council members on how to do so.

Cathilea Robinett, the executive director of the Center for Digital Government, said the new web site is very sophisticated for a council site. “This is an excellent use of technology with several innovative features. Congratulations to the New York City Council for a citizen-centric and citizen-friendly site.” The center publishes a yearly survey ranking American cities on their use of technology to reach out to constituents. (New York City has not been in the top ten large cities since 2002, when it ranked fourth.)

Councilmember Gale Brewer, chair of the Technology in Government Committee, was happy about the new site as well. She says that it is now much easier to find legislation, and finds the additional information available for committee hearings useful. But her enthusiasm was tempered by what the site didn’t have.
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NY-based KickApps is announcing this morning a new partnership with Advertising.com to monetize video content built on the KickApps social networking platform. Social networks using KickApps can select advertisements as either pre- or post-roll messages. I assume this means videos that use the KickApps video player.

Revenue share percentages were not disclosed. I like this deal because it helps small publishers to earn more and provide better ads than with smaller advertising networks. In fact, most of the smaller ad networks can't even support video ads.

Since their $11 million funding round in August, KickApps has continued to make press-worthy announcements.

Pat O’Gorman, an award winning television industry veteran, has joined New York City online media company For Your Imagination and will help develop their online web video programming and serve as a senior advisor.

Currently working as a media consultant for Beauchamp Communications, O’Gorman boasts an impressive resume with more than four decades of experience in the television industry.  Alongside Reese Schonfeld, she co-founded CNN in 1979 and served as an executive producer of both The Book Channel from 1984-86 and The Food Network from 1992-99.  Additionally, she received four Peabody awards for her work as a documentary film editor at CBS.

“We’re thrilled to add Pat to the For Your Imagination team,” said For Your Imagination’s CEO, Paul Kontonis.  “Her unrivaled experience in the television industry will be immeasurably helpful in allowing us to continue to create outstanding online television shows and branded content.”

Biography
Pat O’Gorman is an award winning television producer and director with over 40 years experience. Presently, she works as television network and media consultant for Beauchamp Communications. Pat was the executive producer for the Television Food Network (1992-99) and the Book Channel (1984-1986). She has worked as an editor on "60 Minutes," CBS’ "Who’s Who," "Crime Watch Tonight" and as an editor and producer for Woman’s Magazine. In 1979, Pat started CNN with Reese Schonfeld, and developed a program for "Video Journalists"   to teach all aspects of Journalism and TV News. In addition to her plentiful professional experience, Pat has received 4 Peabody Awards for her work as a documentary film editor at CBS. Pat has collaborated on many projects; "Cambodia", a documentary reported by Ed Bradley and "Assassination MLK", reported by Dan Rather, are two of her finest.