OVERVIEW
Strengthens democracy by making it easier to get information on local government- Enables better decision making by creating a centralized repository of policy discussions
- Empowers journalists by making local government news more accessible and searchable
BACKGROUND
Minutes was born out of a desire for more efficient and effective ways to sift through the mountains of information from local government meetings. With seed funding from the Google News Initiative, Minutes launched as a prototype service within the Michigan Radio newsroom, Michigan's largest NPR news station. Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say local government is important or interesting to follow, but less than a third say that it's easy to stay informed. Minutes fills this need by generating timely transcripts of local government meetings and storing them in a centralized database where they can be easily searched by citizens or journalists. The Minutes database already includes transcripts from more than 4,000 meetings and can scale quickly to include tens of thousands more.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Learn more about Minutes at https://www.searchminutes.com.
We offer two license tiers:
Basic - Annual subscription for one user account & up to 60 meetings in aggregate
Premium - Annual subscription for three user accounts & up to 120 meetings in aggregate
Please contact ashwathi@umich.edu for questions or custom needs.