The Commonwealth Club
What They Do:
The Commonwealth Club, headquartered in San Jose and San Francisco, California, seeks "to be the leading national forum open to all for the impartial discussion of public issues important to the membership, community and nation." The group, funded through membership fees and donations, boasts an extraordinary list of speakers and events, most of which is made available through audio and video recordings.
How The Commonwealth Club could "Be Extraordinary!"
The Commonwealth Club hosts an impressive array of important newsmakers, politicians, analysts, and business leaders for discussions in-person with its members. However, given its goal of being a national leader in connecting these important people with all Americans, The Commonwealth Club could utilize The Extraordinaries to overcome Geographic barriers and make their content readily accessible to the entire world.
Taking advantage of the ability to watch video and listen to audio through the Extraordinaries' mobile phone application, volunteers could take the time to make this media more available to the public. At a basic level, volunteers could provide tags for the content -- so that those looking to listen to or watch these important speakers have a sense of what messages contained in the media are. More ambitiously, the content could also be transcribed, so that in addition to an audio feed, searchable text from these speeches could be made available to the public -- benefitting journalists, policy-makers, and informed citizens not just in the Bay Area, but throughout the world.
Want to Learn More?
http://www.commonwealthclub.org
What do you think?
Do you see a natural partnership between the Commonwealth Club and The Extraordinaries? How could volunteers make their content more accessible to the world? We'd love to hear your thoughts in our comments section.
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Alex Budak is a recent graduate of UCLA and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Public Policy at Georgetown University , with a focus on Technology and Social Entrepreneurship. He is joining The Extraordinaries this summer as a Research Fellow.
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