Expanding Participation in Democracy

The Need

Decisions about schools, housing, and public spending often unfold in hours of local government meetings. With limited local reporting capacity, many residents have little regular coverage of what officials are discussing or how neighbors are affected.

Our Mission

We're on a mission to expand thoughtful and consistent participation in democracy, starting with local government. We envision a nation where residents are well-informed about their local governments, the issues that matter in their community, and the views of diverse stakeholders. We believe that everyone should know their local elected leaders, their positions, and how they govern.

Our Approach

We work with journalists and civic creators to help residents understand local government through voices they know and trust. In Backstage, searchable transcripts and moment-by-moment summaries make the full meeting record easier to review. People use their knowledge of the communities they serve to find newsworthy moments and decide what matters.

Civic creators and journalists can turn unaltered source video into short social clips or longer highlight reels, much like sports highlights. Reporters can also use the meeting library without making videos. Our public site features highlight reels; the full annotated meeting library is available through Backstage access.

By sharing tools and processing each meeting once, we build a common archive that reduces duplicated work and supports reporting across jurisdictions, without each newsroom needing to build and maintain the same technology.

Journalists and civic creators bring different perspectives and reach different audiences. We want to help more community members share meeting video on their own channels and through local media.

Our Organization

SeeGov is a nonprofit founded in September 2023 by Alex Rosen, our Executive Director. Like public media, we combine ongoing philanthropy and earned revenue. Paid newsroom plans help sustain the service. Donations and grants keep access free for residents and hyperlocal newsrooms with limited funds, and support busy journalists and civic creators in sharing meeting video.

With continued support, we can bring this approach to more communities, sustain meeting processing and publisher support, and help more residents share what matters to them. Support our work or explore our newsroom plans.

Read about Knight Foundation's support and a local reporter's experience finding stories with SeeGov.

FAQs

How are highlights created?

Explore the tools on our Newsrooms & Civic Creators Page or Contact Us for a live demo and discussion.

How is SeeGov built for local government?

SeeGov is built for local government coverage. We collect recordings from many different government video systems, identify agenda items from transcripts, record votes, and use local officials' names to support accurate speaker identification.

Why video highlights?

Summaries and transcripts are useful for finding information. Video adds the chance to see and hear officials and neighbors in their own words, including the questions, exchanges, and personal experiences behind a decision.

We want residents to recognize their local elected leaders, see them as people, and see peers taking part in public discussions. Highlights can help make local government more familiar and accessible. Our goal is to encourage thoughtful participation, including among people who have not felt connected to local government.

Why use AI?

AI makes long meetings easier to review with searchable transcripts and moment-by-moment summaries of what happened throughout each meeting. Journalists and civic creators bring local knowledge and editorial judgment to finding stories. We applaud efforts like the Documenters Network, which engages community members in attending and documenting meetings, and hope our tools can support people doing this work.

Won't AI make things up?

AI can make mistakes in summaries or speaker identification. The searchable transcript and meeting recording are available for a closer look when needed.

Highlight reels use unaltered source video. Human journalists and civic creators choose the excerpts and context they publish.

What about using YouTube chapters?

Some governments add chapters to their meeting videos on YouTube. These help viewers who are looking to see what happened on specific agenda items. But they don't help those who want a quick overview of important discussions and actions.

The chapters we've seen are based on agenda items. The agenda items that are most interesting or important often have an hour or more of discussion. This shows up as a single chapter, which isn't helpful for people with limited time.

Why a nonprofit?

Many communities need more local coverage than their newsrooms can afford to provide. Being a nonprofit keeps our focus on helping residents understand and participate in local government, including where resources for reporting are scarce.

Paid plans and ongoing donations and grants work together to sustain SeeGov. Philanthropy keeps access free for residents and supports free newsroom access through our Community plan and Civic Partner Program. It also helps us encourage busy reporters and civic creators to share meeting video by offering discounts when they publish highlights. Support our work to help keep this service broadly available.