THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a move that was touted as a big step towards achieving total transparency in governance, activity at Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s office was webcast live from here on Friday, but audio was muted. It is a 24/7 video stream, according to the Centre For Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), which handles the webcast that is available on the site, www.keralacm.gov.in.On Day 1, the response was overwhelming, with over 56,000 hits till 3 pm. But after the initial curiosity is over, why would anybody be interested in watching what is essentially a silent movie was not clear. Besides, there was no clarity on how a muted audio would help promote transparency.“The voices are disabled, as the government is yet to decide on whether to stream it live. A dedicated server has been set up for the new venture, and six employees manage the website which needs to be updated frequently. We have a person monitoring the website from the Chief Minister’s Office. It does not need attention round-the-clock, but it will be frequently monitored for any technical glitches,” said Ganapathy Gopinathan, head of the web services division of the C-DIT.Sometimes there would be discussions which demand a degree of confidentiality, top government sources said.Though the visuals are streamed in Flash through YouTube or any such service, the live visuals of the office cannot be downloaded or recorded. “The webcast can only be recorded at our end, but it is not being done now. It has been programmed so that it can be done in the multi-bit rate at 700 kilo bits per second, which means that the visuals would be of high-definition, though we are now limited to 200 kilo bits per second,” said Ranjith, who is monitoring the webcasting process.
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