Project Closure: 1st Exp. Re-streaming YouTube Live with Polis Integration

[NewJerseyStyle]

Project Closure: Re-streaming YouTube Live with Polis Integration

Project Deliverables:

• Re-streaming Platform: Successfully implemented a platform for re-streaming YouTube live city council meetings.
• Polis Integration: Integrated the Polis system to display real-time opinion data alongside the live stream.
• User Engagement Experiment: Conducted an experiment to assess the impact of Polis integration on user engagement in council meetings.

Lessons Learned:

• Topic Selection Challenges: Determining relevant topics for Polis discussion during the meeting proved difficult when it is a general meeting with >20 topics.
• Engagement and Context: The council meeting's pace and lack of context for viewers joining mid-stream led to disengagement.
• Targeted Approach: The project's effectiveness could be enhanced by focusing on specific council meetings with narrow agendas to avoid Topic Selection Challenges.
• Asynchronous Participation: Closing the Polis conversation after the meeting limited the opportunity for asynchronous participation and discussion.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• User Engagement:
  • Pre-Meeting Topic Suggestion: Leverage a dedicated social media account (e.g., X/Instagram) to engage users before the meeting and solicit topic suggestions for Polis discussion.
  • Dynamic Topic Display: Implement a procedure to switch Polis conversation that is showing in the live stream according to the topic discussed in the council instead of a single polis conversation.
• Engagement and Context:
  • Live Narrator: Employ a live narrator for the Polis platform to provide summaries, highlight key points, and guide viewers through the discussion.
  • Interactive Elements: Incorporate interactive elements into the live stream e.g. auto meme display when a given keyword is mentioned in live stream.
  • Pre-Meeting Summary: Offer a pre-meeting summary of the agenda and key topics to user group.
• Targeted Approach:
  • Targeted Promotion: Promote the re-streaming initiative to specific communities and individuals interested in relevant topics.
  • Council Collaboration: Collaborate with council members to identify Polis topics that helps council members in their decision making and make impact of Polis usage.
• Asynchronous Participation:
  • Extended Conversation: Keep the Polis conversation open for a set period after the meeting concludes to enable asynchronous participation.
  • Post-Meeting Analysis: Provide a post-meeting analysis on the Polis platform, summarizing key insights and highlighting interesting trends.

Conclusion:

While the initial experiment yielded valuable insights, the project's full potential for increasing user engagement in city council meetings and promoting the adoption of the Polis solution remains to be realized. By addressing the identified challenges and implementing the proposed improvements, the project can evolve into a more effective and impactful tool for civic engagement.