Post · bonfire.cafe

Still have some features to add and code to relink to github but excited to share this guide to finding, watching, transcribing, and ripping #legislative hearings and other federal, state and municipal proceedings. We saw how committed they were in 2025 to avoiding #transparency and this feels like something we can do to give them a run for it. All hands in 2026, chat.

#Legislation #Blog #PublicHealth #ffmpeg

https://jessk.org/blog/streamripping-democracy

Jessica Kant

Streamripping democracy: archiving legislative hearings — Jessica Kant

While people scrambled to the livestreams and, whenever possible, posted updates as they happened, the sheer size and scale of the project was too much for any one person. Even the most well-resourced groups felt a strain this year trying to keep up with the pace. One of the side effects of this has

#legislative #legislation #transparency #publichealth #blog #ffmpeg

Jessica Kant

@jessdkant@tech.lgbt · 4 months ago

Repo created: https://github.com/jessicakay/glossy

GitHub

GitHub - jessicakay/glossy

Contribute to jessicakay/glossy development by creating an account on GitHub.

Jessica Kant

@jessdkant@tech.lgbt · 4 months ago

well that escalated. <3

extracts transcripts from Sliq platform closed captions for legislative hearings #bash

bash code showing streamripper transcript ripping function in github

Jessica Kant

@jessdkant@tech.lgbt · 4 months ago

Starting to merge all code examples from "streaming tips" into simple #ffmpeg wrapper in #bash.

https://jessk.org/blog/streamripping-democracy

Jessica Kant

Streamripping democracy: archiving legislative hearings — Jessica Kant

Jessica Kant

@jessdkant@tech.lgbt · 3 months ago

Now added: convert subtitles to JSON

screenshot of JSON data of legislative hearing sorted by minute and hour

Jessica Kant

@jessdkant@tech.lgbt · 3 months ago

A huge driver of this project is how much I (used to) spend on otter subscriptions to transcribe hearings I couldn't stomach sitting through. This is better, it's free, and it gives me something to do with my brain while the world is on fire.

It currently requires a separate indexer to build a cache out of thousands of WebVTT files into an index, but I finally did it. A tool to search inside every hearing in an entire state across the past 8 years for specific #legislation.
#RStats #Bash
https://github.com/jessicakay/glossy/blob/main/coming%20soon/transcript_multitool.sh

rstats output: "# Groups: date, committee [233]
date day month year committee text mentions
<chr> <int> <int> <int> <chr> <chr> <int>
1 11/01/2018 11 1 2018 Selcmtewomen_high TRANSGENDER WORKPLACE RIGHTS 1
2 24/01/2018 24 1 2018 JointRules TRANSGENDER PERSON. 2
3 24/01/2018 24 1 2018 JointRules THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE. TRANSGENDER 2
4 20/02/2018 20 2 2018 Floor_high LESBIAN GAY BISEXUAL TRANSGENDER 1
5 26/02/2018 26 2 2018 JtRulesSubcmte TRANSGENDER I'M NOT FOR ME OR 2
6 26/02/2018 26 2 2018 JtRulesSubcmte TRANSGENDER WHATEVER AFFILIATION 2
7 15/03/2018 15 3 2018 BudgetSubcmte4_new_high BISEXUAL TRANSGENDER AND QUEER 1
8 21/03/2018 21 3 2018 Floor_high TRANSGENDER. BROTHERS AND 2
9 21/03/2018 21 3 2018 Floor_high TRANSGENDER WOMEN OF COLOR IN 2
10 10/04/2018 10 4 2018 GO_high CALIFORNIA'S WOMEN TRANSGENDER 1
# ℹ 862 more rows" — rstats output: "# Groups: date, committee [233] date day month year committee text mentions <chr> <int> <int> <int> <chr> <chr> <int> 1 11/01/2018 11 1 2018 Selcmtewomen_high TRANSGENDER WORKPLACE RIGHTS 1 2 24/01/2018 24 1 2018 JointRules TRANSGENDER PERSON. 2 3 24/01/2018 24 1 2018 JointRules THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE. TRANSGENDER 2 4 20/02/2018 20 2 2018 Floor_high LESBIAN GAY BISEXUAL TRANSGENDER 1 5 26/02/2018 26 2 2018 JtRulesSubcmte TRANSGENDER I'M NOT FOR ME OR 2 6 26/02/2018 26 2 2018 JtRulesSubcmte TRANSGENDER WHATEVER AFFILIATION 2 7 15/03/2018 15 3 2018 BudgetSubcmte4_new_high BISEXUAL TRANSGENDER AND QUEER 1 8 21/03/2018 21 3 2018 Floor_high TRANSGENDER. BROTHERS AND 2 9 21/03/2018 21 3 2018 Floor_high TRANSGENDER WOMEN OF COLOR IN 2 10 10/04/2018 10 4 2018 GO_high CALIFORNIA'S WOMEN TRANSGENDER 1 # ℹ 862 more rows"

GitHub

glossy/coming soon/transcript_multitool.sh at main · jessicakay/glossy

Contribute to jessicakay/glossy development by creating an account on GitHub.