U.S. House of Representatives unveils HouseLive.gov -searchable / downloadable video webcast system

The U.S. House of Representatives has unveiled searchable / downloadable video webcast system HouseLive.gov. Here is Speaker Pelosi’s announcement.

This service is from Granicus, who already do a similar thing for Los Angeles and San Francisco’s City Councils, amongst others. It’s a proven system. You can see them here pitching NYC. The search facility is great, allowing viewers to jump directly to the point in any video where a certain phrase is mentioned. That, combined with the fact they also offer downloads puts them way ahead of anything in central government – including the FCC!

The only possible criticism is that it is based on proprietary software, with Microsoft’s Silverlight plug-in doing the streaming, and iPod-ready mp4 and mp3 for downloads.