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City of Torrance Announces Top Ranking for Government Webcasts

March 17, 2009

City of Torrance Announces Top Ranking for Government Webcasts

Achievement Signifies Success in Government Transparency

Torrance, Calif., March 17, 2009 – The City of Torrance announced today that it has climbed to the top of a national ranking of government webcasts due to its leading performance in recording, producing, and distributing streaming media content online with technology provided by Granicus, Inc. In December 1997, Torrance became the first local government in the nation to stream its channel live on the web.  In April 2005, Torrance expanded the online service using the Granicus system.

“We are pleased to be recognized for our innovation in webcasting. It attests to our continued efforts in fostering government transparency and encouraging citizen involvement through effective means of distributing information such as publishing media content online,” says Mayor Frank Scotto.

The City of Torrance ranks fifth for achieving the most total archived webcasts, positioning itself in the top ten of a national media ranking, a list that aggregates and tracks webcasting data from over 500 government agencies. Torrance has set a record for archived content with total of 2,094 government webcasts archived to date and averaged 1,976 video hits per month over the past year.

“I am very impressed with the work that the City of Torrance has done to increase government transparency,” says Tom Spengler, co-founder and CEO of Granicus, Inc. “The quantity, depth, and accessibility of streaming media content on its website truly displays its leadership in creating an environment in which citizens feel more connected to their government. We look forward to working with the City of Torrance to put even more public meetings, hearings, and other content online.”

Granicus has become the nation’s leading government system for distributing public meetings and other vital public information online. Today, over 500 public agencies belong to this network. As a result, the company has launched a statistics page that captures live metrics covering five major areas: total archived webcasts, most webcasts created, most live webcast viewers, most archived webcast viewers, and most popular webcasts.

The statistics page is an integral part of Granicus’ Drive to a Million initiative. The statics captured here display the leading contributors in the company’s effort to bring one million public meetings online in support of the new administration’s goal of creating an unprecedented level of openness in government. Granicus hopes more government agencies will join the cause by putting more meetings online. The company also hopes more and more citizens will use this service to improve their participation and collaboration with their local, state, and national government agencies. 

About Granicus
Founded in 1999, San Francisco-based Granicus, Inc. helps government agencies build stronger connections with their citizens. Public agencies trust our webcasting solutions to enable vital improvements to public access, staff efficiency, and government accountability. In addition, the combination of webcasting with public meeting management technology into a single workflow decreases administrative costs and simplifies public recordkeeping tasks. Visit www.granicus.com for more details.

 

 

Michael D. Smith