Article by WashingtonStateWire. Published on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 EST.
TVW Scout Not Ready For Prime Time
There is what looks like a great new feature from our friends over at TVW. Since it does not work yet, I can only say it looks like it will match their video and audio archive with bill numbers and even keywords, package it up, and send it to you. Many less-than-ambitious lobbyists will be able to create the perception to their clients that they are actually at the hearings even though they sitting in their offices, glued to informative blogs (WSW.com), leg.wa.gov and TVW, creating incredible reports while their opponents count votes.
I’ve tried “Scout” for a few days. After waiting for my “scout” to recognize me as an “agent” by scanning my “targets” there is still no “distribution”. The folks at TVW were kind enough to return calls today and tell me they are not quite ready.
In an era of high demand, participatory audiences, and peak expectation of TVW’s otherwise seamless, mindless, hyper easy, user friendly site, this tardiness begs the question: Should they have gone alpha before the perfected the beta?
The world probably does not care. What they are going to offer is so cool.
Sign in, create and “agent” (that’s you) and take it for a test run at the tutorial site here: http://scout.tvw.org/inner-page
BTW, what’s with all the CIA/NSA jargon? I hope the next mark is an asset we can all use. It’s hell being RED.
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