2010-02-06
Administrative Notes for Those of You Who Care
Hey folks, we had another record traffic date thanks to Dr. Ron Paul's tin foil hat society, and it couldn't have come at a more exciting time for KTracy.com. There are three things coming to this website that we would like to share with our beloved readers. For the unbeloved readers, you can read it if you've got nothing else to do. :)
LIVE VIDEO:
This week, we tried live streaming video for the first time using Qik. While the technology worked as advertised, there were significant hardware and logistics issues that made this feature virtually impossible to use in it's current state. Qik functions by allowing us to create a streaming video from our cell phones and sending that to Qik, which streams the data with about a 3 second delay. There were two major problems. First, the process of streaming video over the internet while simultaneously taking and saving the video ends up draining the battery of a cell phone shockingly quick (perhaps this is why it's called 'Qik'). More significantly, however, Qik creates a new embedded player for every live stream you host. This means that in order for the stream to be embedded on a website, you need to be both holding a cell phone steady and working on a computer copying code, navigating two websites, and publishing a new post simultaneously. As far as we could tell, there was no way to embed a stream prior to the start of the streaming video.
Next week, we hope to experiment a bit with another service called USTREAM. I've already got the app on my iPhone and I may give it a go tonight if Travis or another staff member is willing to sit at home and watch an ogre (me) at a bowling ally. USTREAM's main advantage is that it works with telephones, webcams, and many professional video cameras with USB connections. This means battery life does not have to be an issue.
I want to give a special thanks to Danny Higgins of the Indiana Fair Tax for hanging in there and helping us figure out exactly what was going on for users while Travis and I were testing Qik.
CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE:
Our fingers are crossed that we'll have two finalized questionnaires for candidates by the end of the week. There are two versions of the KTracy.com questionnaire; one for Federal Candidates (US Congress) and one for Statewide Candidates (Governors, Lt. Governors, and State Legislatures). We did this because the responsibilities of the Federal Government and the State Governments are so drastically different. Additionally, state governments all have their unique setups, laws, and problems. This means that the questions had to be worded much differently.
As of the draft we have right now, each questionnaire has 12 open-ended questions that can be answered with as little as a sentence or two or as much as the person filling it out wants to put in there. The questions are worded in a completely non-partisan way (thus, an "unborn child" is a "fetus") and we have gone out of our way not to ask pointed questions that suggest there is a response we are looking for (thus, there is no direct mention of the Fair Tax).
The completed questionnaires will make their way to all contributing staff members and we'll discuss the responses. If we're all in agreement that one candidate is clearly the best and is definitely deserving, then KTracy.com will offer an official endorsement of that candidate. Note that there are several staff members who will have a say in this matter, thus I don't expect, nor want to be giving out a ton of endorsements. We're going to find the cream of the crop in 2010.
The 2010 KTracy.com Candidate Questionnaire will be available to the public, however we're not going to publish candidate responses without their expressed permission and our expressed desire (there would be too many otherwise and we aren't looking for typical talking points that would otherwise be used for the public). Additionally, we're not going to require that the questionnaire be filled out by the candidate him or herself. Rather, we will simply require that a paid campaign official fill it out. This is because some races are more active than others and we recognize just how valuable the candidate's time is.
MY NAME ON THE BALLOT?:
If you follow me on Facebook, you'll know I've been told to consider running for County Council. I announced a few weeks ago that I wouldn't be running for US Congress due to other obligations, but a campaign for County Council would be significantly less demanding than a Congressional run, possibly allowing me to fulfill my obligations to my education and family while simultaneously giving me a chance to campaign and represent a part of my state that I absolutely adore.
I have several more days before the filing deadline to make up my mind. With that said, friends and family have been overwhelmingly supportive and, so far at least, the County Republican Party seems to be giving me a green light if I'm up for it.
If I decide to run, this blog will NOT be used as a campaign tool for myself. I promise that I won't make those of you in Iowa, Virginia, Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Texas, Idaho, Ohio, Michigan, and the other 40 states that aren't Indiana deal my thoughts on with zoning issues, regionalism, local roads, and other such matters that I know you don't care about.
This is, and always will be, a NATIONAL blog. If that ever changes, it will be because we've made it an INTERNATIONAL blog... which is possible considering the rapid growing European (UK, Germany, France, and Russia in particular) and Australian readership.
