Bill Dunn's bill to use chat rooms to offer "sunshined" discussion between officials covered by the Open Meetings Act is moving forward. [1]
However, it's always good to think out the details. What specifics should this bill include?
- Archive of all conversations for elected term + 1 year (e.g., 9 years for Knox County Commissioners)
- All posts must be keyword searchable, with complex queries allowed (e.g., show all posts by Commissioner X, with keyword "TIF" and keyword "Halls" in the same post)
If we choose to allow public comments, I would recommend a blog engine like Scoop, that allows registered users to build rating points based on comments other users find useful or, on the other side, lose points by 'trolling.' Other users can then filter comments from users below a certain rating value (it's not censorship, since it's the choice of each individual user to set the viewing threshold).
I would also suggest how KNS uses "suggest removal" to allow a county administrator to remove potentially libelous posts.
Other thoughts?