When a public hearing ain't so public

[Guest guest]

If you want to watch the upcoming Lyme hearing, pay close attention:

(from www.lymepolicywonk.org)

The IDSA settlement agreement calls for an open public

meeting which must be aired live over the internet. I have serious

concerns about the restrictions the IDSA is imposing on people who want

to watch the hearings and am discussing these with the Connecticut

Attorney General’s office, but meanwhile I want to provide you with

information so that if you want to watch you are prepared.

The thought of the live on the internet was simply that people would click a url

and be able to watch. The IDSA has placed a number of barriers to access:

People are required to have two pieces of software in order to access the

hearing, Windows Media Player and Microsoft Silverlight. While some people may

have this software on their systems, others will need to download it.

You-niversity, which is the service providing the webcast, has a test you can

run to see if your computer can view the site. In order to run the test, you

must provide a name and email. You can run this test today and should do this

to make sure you will not have any problems.

http://www.idsociety.org/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=14974

Apple computers may not have Windows Media Player installed and Microsoft

Silverlight is a relatively new software program. Technical

support at You-niversity told me that their webcasts do not work with

Microsoft Chrome browser, but will work with Firefox and Safari.

You-niversity.com websites says that it does not work with Apple, but a friend

went through the process and got it working. If you have technical problems,

they can call their support number (1-877-867-7300) and wait for a call back.

Mine took ½ hour to call back..Do not put this step off. You do not want to be

calling the day of the hearing when the phone banks may be overloaded.

People must register for the event. This requires disclosure of private

information. I assume this will be a name and email, but it could be more. I

was told by you-niversity technical support that registration it is not

“required†by their system, but IDSA is requiring it.

The registration period is 20 minutes before the event and begins at 7:40 am

EST. From response to my survey, I would say we may have 3,500 people or more

trying to register for this event. I do not know whether their system can

handle this volume of people in that time frame, but I have serious concerns.