« Granicus Moves to HTML5 with its New Streaming Architecture »

As web content giants—Google, YouTube, Apple, and Facebook—shift to HTML5 to ride the next wave of growth in the mobile industry, Granicus is following suit to ensure government content is not left behind. We’re making mobile devices a top priority this year—especially as device sales are expected to surge in 2011, according to research released by Gartner in January.

Reaching mobile devices is an increasingly critical component of open government strategies for all levels of government; Granicus is committed to helping our customers make their content as open, useful, and accessible as possible.

Our new streaming architecture will bring us even closer to achieving this goal. Today’s announcement, Granicus Expands its Cloud Platform for Government with a New Streaming Media Architecture, points to the new direction we’re heading with online video. Now, governments can rely on Granicus to reach a wider audience over leading mobile devices with on-demand video.

Working with some of our successful pilot clients for this project, including the Virginia General Assembly, the City and County of Denver, the Colorado General Assembly, and the City and County of San Francisco's cable channel SFGTV, we’re watching open government unfold like never before across major platforms—both phones and tablets using Android, iOS, and Blackberry OS.

HTML5 Leads Granicus into its Next Phase of Video Innovation  

So far in 2011, HTML5 is proving to be one of the most desired platforms for developers and end-users. Facebook CTO, Bret Taylor, even stated at a recent Social Apps InFocus conference, that HTML5 is the “future platform” that they will be investing in throughout 2011.

For Granicus, HTML5 is going to be the powerhouse for our next round of innovation with on-demand video. We’re strengthening our video platform to be the single connecting point for government video across all major content syndication paths online and on mobile devices—APIs, RSS, mobile devices, social media, and even other video devices like Apple TV, Google TV, and more. Stay tuned for many more updates on this topic over the coming months!

Granicus’ Video Enhancements Maximize Open Government

As the way people consume content changes, government needs to change with it to stay relevant. Granicus is advancing its streaming architecture and cloud platform to ensure government data is accessible to citizens, developers, and global audiences. Our new streaming formats, unique video features, and powerful syndication tools make Granicus the most desired choice for government transparency and accessibility.

Our work with the Virginia General Assembly is a good example of this. Recently, the Virginia House and Senate started leveraging our new streaming architecture to deliver Senate and House legislative sessions on-demand to mobile devices. Already, they have attracted over 13,490 viewers since they started on January 12, 2011.

To deliver an even more transparent and educational experience for end-viewers, we also integrated our video player with their bill tracking system. This allows the House and Senate to deliver real-time bill updates through a single video player. As a result, constituents can watch sessions and track legislation on the floor with greater ease.

Just like Virginia General Assembly, we're seeing governments across the country need to be able to engage citizens with more than just video. By integrating video with other content assets, like bill tracking, Granicus is starting to help governments deliver audiences a more rich and engaging experience. This is all made possible through APIs and our flexible technology environment.

In a recent interview we had with Alex Howard from O’Reilly Radar, I discussed some of the differentiators of our cloud platform. APIs are going to be a key area for open government. Granicus is excited to be working with groups like the Sunlight Foundation and Code for America to make local, state, and federal meeting data even more open and accessible to development groups.

Without open and collaborative standards and tools, open government will never reach its full potential.

Next steps:

• Read more about streaming to mobile devices: Granicus Mobile Streaming
• Register for our upcoming webinar: Stream video to mobile devices in Flash & HTML5